The smartphone market has reached a certain maturity. An observation that sometimes leads us to complain about the lack of innovations offered by brands from one year to the next. However, this does not prevent them from releasing new products, which sometimes look deceptively similar to previous models. Will this year be the year of big changes? We present to you four trends that, in our opinion, will make the smartphone market in 2023.
The smartphone market is far from experiencing its most prosperous period. According to counterpoint figures, it would have reached its peak in 2017 with 1.6 billion smartphones shipped. Each year has since been worse than the previous one, with the exception of 2021 which benefited from a rebound effect after the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, 1.2 billion smartphones were shipped, far from historic records.
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Ecological awareness and economic tensions are leading consumers to renew their phones less. To convince them, manufacturers must innovate by offering differentiating products and features that significantly improve the user experience. The other voice for brands is one of streamlining and status quo. A risky choice in a market where competition is fierce.
Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Google, Honor, OnePlus, Sony, Realme, Nothing, Poco, Redmi, Motorola, etc. What do they have to offer us in 2023?
Compact smartphones are dead, long live folding smartphones!
It did not escape you, the compact smartphone is an endangered species. It is very difficult today to find a phone with a screen of less than six inches and manipulable with one hand. The reason is quite simple: they don’t sell enough. Apple has already thrown in the towel after the iPhone 13 mini, leaving the iPhone SE 2022 as the only representative of the brand’s small phones.
This year, only Asus ventured to release a compact format with the ZenFone 9. For the rest, the smallest phones you will find are 6.1 inches like the Google Pixel 6a or the Galaxy S22. If you want a smartphone that fits easily in your pocket, there is now another, more expensive solution: folding.
Samsung’s success in the folding smartphone segment has given the competition ideas. For the moment very elitist, the Galazy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4 are presented as a technological demonstration. Samsung sees it as the future of smartphones, and does not seem to be the only one. Indeed, many Chinese brands have invested in this market in 2022… only in China. But 2023 will mark the arrival of the Chinese ogres internationally, to shake up the hegemony of the Korean giant.
The Vivo X Fold+, Honor Magic Vs, Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 and other Oppo Find N2 are all names with which you will have to familiarize yourself and which will bring healthy competition in 2023. Enough to lower prices in the years to come of this format which is still too elitist to be widely adopted.
The “flagship killers”, the return of revenge
In 2014, the OnePlus One launched the concept of “flagship killer”. That year, no smartphone was sold for more than 1000 euros. That of OnePlus was offered at less than 300 euros, against almost 700 euros for the Samsung Galaxy S5, released the same year. Another era. Today, the price of certain telephones has literally exploded, along with the margins of the manufacturers who sell them.
In 2023, the models that come closest to this “flagship killer” spirit are undoubtedly the best smartphones offered at less than 500 euros. Take a top-of-the-range phone, strip it of a few refinements like wireless charging, a telephoto camera module or even a waterproof certification, and you have a product with unbeatable value for money.
In this category, we can cite for example the Google Pixel 6a, the Nothing Phone (1) or the Oppo Reno 8. What do these smartphones have in common? Offer “what is needed, where it is needed”. Understand by this that they are convincing enough to meet the needs of 99% of users who use their smartphones for web browsing, social networks and video streaming.
With the exception of Apple, which concentrates its efforts on high-end models, the other Android brands all have at least one reference in the mid-range, which concentrates a good part of their sales each year. A very competitive price segment therefore, on which good references should still arrive in 2023.
Ultra-fast charging, but not for everyone
“Fast charge” is a designation that is unfortunately not framed by any rules. Thus, all brands will tell you that their smartphone takes advantage of this technology. In fact, there are several quick recharges. Some manufacturers have decided to stop racing for speed and prefer to be cautious about the safety and longevity of their devices.
In this category, we can put Apple, Samsung and Google. According to the tests of our 01Lab, the Galaxy S22 Ultra recharges in 1 h 04 (45W), the iPhone 14 Pro in 1 h 29 (27W) and the Google Pixel 7 Pro in 1 h 40 (23W). Figures which are obviously to be correlated with the size of the batteries which directly impacts these results.
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The second category is that of Chinese brands which have been offering quite impressive charging speeds for some time now thanks to chargers of 80W, 120W, and up to 160W for the OnePlus 10T. Enough to find 100% battery in less than 25 minutes for certain models.
In 2023, Chinese manufacturers should set foot on the ground with smartphones capable of recharging in just 9 minutes thanks to a fast charge of 240W. You read correctly. To achieve this, smartphones are equipped with two batteries which are charged in parallel in order to distribute the charging power and thus limit the heating of the device. As for the longevity of these batteries, we still lack perspective…
Smartphones that zoom hard
The most affordable smartphones have long been able to take decent photos, in good light conditions, with their main (wide-angle) camera module. Brands therefore do not hesitate to add other modules to offer more versatility, especially on entry-level smartphones.
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Unfortunately, the quality is not always there. We still too often find an unconvincing ultra-wide-angle module and an anecdotal macro module, not to say useless. Telephoto modules for zooming without loss of quality are reserved for high-end models. A selling point that often gives the name “Pro” or “Ultra” to the most expensive smartphones.
At this little game, Samsung hit hard at the start of 2022 by offering an x10 optical zoom to its Galaxy S22 Ultra. For its part, the Pixel 7 Pro is content with an x5 optical zoom, but compensates for this “weakness” with impressive software processing which allows you to obtain quality x10 photos. But the smartphone that has innovated the most on this point in 2022 is the Sony Xperia 1 IV, which is the first smartphone equipped with a “real” optical zoom.
Indeed, Sony offers a camera unit capable of navigating between a x3.5 zoom and a x5.2 zoom without loss of quality. A new and really appreciable 85-125 mm equivalent, but which offers a still mixed quality, the fault of a still too small sensor.
This technology is nonetheless promising and opens the door to future smartphones that can be equipped with a single periscopic camera module, capable of replacing the multiple fixed focal lengths found on our phones today. 2023 should therefore also be “the year of zoom” on high-end smartphones.
