Phone Models Which Are (and Were) Genuine Leaps Forward

[Sim8]

Everything I know about the WebOS and the Palm Pre launched I learned from here:

https://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3062611/palm-webos-hp-inside-story-pre-postmortem

Thanks for the link, @Ry - excellent insight. Just 31 months.

Cheers for your posts and contributions, @tony bag o donuts, @Tsepz_GP, @Morty2264, and @Laura Knotek.

 

[LeoRex]

To me, the Nexus line wasn't really a leap forward at anything. On price, Google's deep pockets - or reluctance to have a large profit margin - played into how they were priced.

Well, the Nexus line carried the clean OS banner through a maelstrom period where OEM builds of Android were complete dumpster fires. All of them were nightmarish abominations of poorly implemented and developed features crossthreaded on top of an operating system that had not really matured yet. It was never really about price, the Nexus 5 really skewed things there.. LG leveraged off the shelf components to help keep costs down.

Speaking of... I'm going to throw the Nexus 5 into the list here. That phone say at a junction point and I consider it to be the first 'modern' generation phone. Android left it's adolescence with the release of KitKat, and Qualcomm had recently introduced the Snapdragon 800. The Nexus 5 combined these two to give us really the first Android phone with a fast, fluid and rock steady user experience. I remember the first time I powered mine up and started using it... It was like feasting on a perfectly cooked rib eye after a life of eating overcooked cube steak.

It also introduced the world to HDR+, which is still head and shoulders above everyone when it comes to image processing.

It wasn't perfect of course (wish it had the extra 900 mAh and 5mp that it's cousin the G2 had), but it illustrated for the first time that the platform had come into it's own and the fruitphone no longer had a monopoly on flagship user experience.

 

[Ry]

Well, the Nexus line carried the clean OS banner through a maelstrom period where OEM builds of Android were complete dumpster fires. All of them were nightmarish abominations of poorly implemented and developed features crossthreaded on top of an operating system that had not really matured yet. It was never really about price, the Nexus 5 really skewed things there.. LG leveraged off the shelf components to help keep costs down.

For me - Nexus One was already the clean OS guideline. And the devices I used in that time period weren't really in that dumpster fire. The Motorola DROID was essentially a Nexus from the experience perspective in everything but name and the Motorola DROID BIONIC had Blur but Verizon Motorolas (or Verizon DROIDs) didn't really have the dumpter fire that was MotoBLUR on other devices.

Speaking of... I'm going to throw the Nexus 5 into the list here. That phone say at a junction point and I consider it to be the first 'modern' generation phone. Android left it's adolescence with the release of KitKat, and Qualcomm had recently introduced the Snapdragon 800. The Nexus 5 combined these two to give us really the first Android phone with a fast, fluid and rock steady user experience. I remember the first time I powered mine up and started using it... It was like feasting on a perfectly cooked rib eye after a life of eating overcooked cube steak.

It also introduced the world to HDR+, which is still head and shoulders above everyone when it comes to image processing.

It wasn't perfect of course (wish it had the extra 900 mAh and 5mp that it's cousin the G2 had), but it illustrated for the first time that the platform had come into it's own and the fruitphone no longer had a monopoly on flagship user experience.

I don't really remember the Nexus 5 being a top camera phone in that era though. iPhone 5S, Galaxy S4, LG G2 were in the conversation.

 

[tube517]

My biased opinion:

HTC EVO 4G - Big Screen, first 4g phone (Yes, Wimax) but it was the first. And that kickstand!

Samsung Galaxy Note - Big Screen, Stylus. Phablet.


These 2 phones, which I both owned, made the big screen fashionable.

 

[LeoRex]

I don't really remember the Nexus 5 being a top camera phone in that era though. iPhone 5S, Galaxy S4, LG G2 were in the conversation.

It came out of the gate a mess.. lots of exposure issues and whatnot... Took a few months before it could take a decent pic. What I'm actually referring to is the launch of the Google Camera in late winter, with the introduction of HDR+, a Nexus 5 exclusive feature.. it was slow, very power hungry, but I saw the potential... Here are pics I took with HDR+ on a Nexus 5 back in 2013..

These blew my mind... HDR+ was difficult to use because of its speed at the time, but if you had the right shot...

 

[Ry]

It came out of the gate a mess.. lots of exposure issues and whatnot... Took a few months before it could take a decent pic. What I'm actually referring to is the launch of the Google Camera in late winter, with the introduction of HDR+, a Nexus 5 exclusive feature.. it was slow, very power hungry, but I saw the potential...

These blew my mind... HDR+ was difficult to use because of its speed at the time, but if you had the right shot...

For me, I think it should be launch feature if this is about "devices" being a leap forward. Even still though, with HDR+, I can't recall the Nexus 5 being in the camera conversation with the iPhone/Samsungs/LGs of that generation.

 

[LeoRex]

For me, I think it should be launch feature if this is about "devices" being a leap forward. Even still though, with HDR+, I can't recall the Nexus 5 being in the camera conversation with the iPhone/Samsungs/LGs of that generation.

It wasn't... But 5 years ago it introduced true multiframe computational photography, which was a massive leap forward. Other OEMs are only now starting to incorporate it.

 

[Ry]

Re-thinking. There's a major and minor.

[minor] HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1 - only relevant because it was "first".

[major] Motorola DROID - the first true/real iPhone competitor in the Android space. Verizon and Motorola's marketing push put Android on the map.

[minor] HTC Thunderbolt - the first 4G LTE Android smartphone.

[major] Samsung Note - for setting the stage for "phablets" and screen size that are normal today.

[major] Samsung Galaxy S III - for carrying design across all carriers (Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch).

[minor] Samsung Galaxy Note Edge - debated whether or not it should be Galaxy Note Edge or Galaxy Round but since the "Edge"-style is what's being used today, I went with Note Edge.

[minor] Motorola Moto X for introducing features (at the OEM-level) that everyone ended up copying (AOD) or Google threw into Android (Smart Lock/Trusted Devices).

[major] Motorola Moto G because it showed that the low-end doesn't have to suck.

[major] Google Pixel for the leap in camera quality and first Google-branded smartphone.

 

[Morty2264]

Re-thinking. There's a major and minor.

[minor] HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1 - only relevant because it was "first".

[major] Motorola DROID - the first true/real iPhone competitor in the Android space. Verizon and Motorola's marketing push put Android on the map.

[minor] HTC Thunderbolt - the first 4G LTE Android smartphone.

[major] Samsung Note - for setting the stage for "phablets" and screen size that are normal today.

[major] Samsung Galaxy S III - for carrying design across all carriers (Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch).

[minor] Samsung Galaxy Note Edge - debated whether or not it should be Galaxy Note Edge or Galaxy Round but since the "Edge"-style is what's being used today, I went with Note Edge.

[minor] Motorola Moto X for introducing features (at the OEM-level) that everyone ended up copying (AOD) or Google threw into Android (Smart Lock/Trusted Devices).

[major] Motorola Moto G because it showed that the low-end doesn't have to suck.

[major] Google Pixel for the leap in camera quality and first Google-branded smartphone.

I can definitely get behind these choices.

 

[the_boon]

BlackBerry Priv

Full 16:9 AMOLED (from Samsung) with slide-out keyboard

 

[the_boon]

Meh. All glass slabs that look very similar and do pretty much the same things

 

[Morty2264]

It came out of the gate a mess.. lots of exposure issues and whatnot... Took a few months before it could take a decent pic. What I'm actually referring to is the launch of the Google Camera in late winter, with the introduction of HDR+, a Nexus 5 exclusive feature.. it was slow, very power hungry, but I saw the potential... Here are pics I took with HDR+ on a Nexus 5 back in 2013..

//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180611/a4b7b53c542422f8dbc08e2e6097c258.jpg//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180611/2a697d3fd4565b8e2e1d95af3d310dac.jpg//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180611/16ea59e846787858856794a3e15406c4.jpg//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180611/e0255ed216151fd892b4792382065047.jpg

These blew my mind... HDR+ was difficult to use because of its speed at the time, but if you had the right shot...

OH MY GOODNESS those are amazing! I had a Nexus 5 but I don't think I ever used HDR+... What gorgeous photos, especially for its time! Just goes to show how awesome the Nexus 5 truly was.

 

[LeoRex]

OH MY GOODNESS those are amazing! I had a Nexus 5 but I don't think I ever used HDR+... What gorgeous photos, especially for its time! Just goes to show how awesome the Nexus 5 truly was.

Well, it was new. Not many people knew what it was, what it did, it why it was a little bit slow. I'm an obsessive tech geek, and I have a background in astrophysics (HDR+ comes from techniques used in telescopes) so as soon as I saw that, it got my attention.

But it was pretty slow, and used a surprising amount of power early on. When you could use it, it took incredible pictures. Without it, the camera wasn't all that great.

HDR+'s introduction is still the most significant moment in mobile photography.

 

[Morty2264]

Well, it was new. Not many people knew what it was, what it did, it why it was a little bit slow. I'm an obsessive tech geek, and I have a background in astrophysics (HDR+ comes from techniques used in telescopes) so as soon as I saw that, it got my attention.

But it was pretty slow, and used a surprising amount of power early on. When you could use it, it took incredible pictures. Without it, the camera wasn't all that great.

HDR+'s introduction is still the most significant moment in mobile photography.

Oh okay. Perhaps I just never knew to look for it. I wasn't as geeky with smartphones then as I am now. But I wish I could dig up my Nexus 5 and use the HDR Enhanced mode! I think it's broken somewhere (thanks to my brother, whom I love dearly but who is clumsier than I am with his phones).