Styling vs design in phones

[belodion]

In the 1950's, cars were given fins and chromium-plated ornaments of one sort or another. They looked good, but served no useful purpose - in fact, were dangerous and wasteful by modern standards. I'm inclined to think that the current trend in phones for curved displays and low bezels are comparable....good to look at - until tastes change at least - but of little or no practical value.
Am I alone in this?

 

[Golfdriver97]

I agree on the bezel part. I'd like to have something there to help actually hold my phone.

 

[Aquila]

Definitely not alone. My take is that the "edge" display is wasteful and destructive to quality of life with the device. The bezels on the other hand, serve three purposes: protecting/hiding components, providing structural support for the display and giving you a place to put your hands that isn't the display. Reducing them, to a point, is fine... but only so long as doing so does not reduce the utility of those three purposes.

It seems the vast majority of users don't care about bezels. But reviewers still do. Reviewers are calling almost all displays that aren't 18:9 or some variation thereof with tiny bezels "ancient" and other terms that indicate that you can only be "modern" by adopting the new aspect ratio and tiny bezel fad. It's completely untrue and somewhat silly behavior for them to engage in, but just like what happened with journalism: most reviewers are out to generate clicks, not to provide high quality analysis of the merits and shortcomings of various components and devices, etc.

Now that anandtech has stopped reviewing phones apparently, there are very few trustworthy comprehensive device reviews. What we're instead getting are subjective reviews, "I like this, I don't like that" instead of "this is objectively better because measurements indicate..." See where I'm going? That means the value of most reviews is close to nil, with the exception being if you find a reviewer who consistently likes the same things you like and doesn't like the same things you don't like... then you could use their preferences towards a review unit as an indicator of whether or not you may enjoy the device.

Even my favorite subjective review team will consistently say, "A is more accurate but B is better because I like it more" (obviously I'm paraphrasing) and they'll do that for both cameras and displays. They're inherently wrong on the "B is better" statement, even if they actually do prefer it. So trusting their opinion on that matter means intentionally believing something known to be untrue. Yesterday within the forums someone said something to the effect of, "if A is more accurate, then why does (reviewer name) say it's trash?" Well, obviously that reviewer doesn't know what he's talking about, didn't research prior to commenting and can't be considered an authority on what's actually better or worse. They CAN be an authority on what they prefer, but that doesn't mean much.

 

[Golfdriver97]

just like what happened with journalism: most reviewers are out to generate clicks, not to provide high quality analysis of the merits and shortcomings of various components and devices, etc.

Accuracy and factual reporting died a long time ago. I am to the point where any 'article' that i find is considered opinion until I find a few other sites that agree. And even then, I am still skeptical.

 

[Aquila]

Accuracy and factual reporting died a long time ago. I am to the point where any 'article' that i find is considered opinion until I find a few other sites that agree. And even then, I am still skeptical.

Right, that few other sites thing ... we have to be careful that they're not all quoting each other. Example, the Snapdragon 836. One site made up a rumor and the entire tech blogosphere picked it up and re-reported it. Most were kind enough to cite where they got the information (the original source that made it up), but not all do that. Just having 30 articles that agree doesn't mean anything if it's all based on one person making up one thing.

 

[Golfdriver97]

we have to be careful that they're not all quoting each other.

Very true.

 

[anon(10092459)]

Agreed! Almost everything has turned into an opinion piece instead of factual review of a product.

I think OP is spot on, function has taken a backseat to form in too many cases for the sake of style.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Agreed! Almost everything has turned into an opinion piece instead of factual review of a product.

I think OP is spot on, function has taken a backseat to form in too many cases for the sake of style.

Sometimes the backseat is in a different car....lol

 

[Aquila]

Sometimes the backseat is in a different car....lol

lol, exactly.

 

[Morty2264]

I agree, OP. Curved glass is not really my friend. My Honor 8 is slightly curved but that was not a reason why I bought it. Curved glass means difficulty in finding a good screen protector to go with it. Bezel-less or low-bezel phones don't really interest me. I like a little lip or a big lip for my fingers to grasp. I'm clumsy enough tripping over the inside of my leg (it happened at a work function tonight - no joke!) or the floor - I don't need to be adding a bezel-less phone to my clumsy agenda.

The smartphone world and any other people-based company that cares about what their customers/consumers want will continuously cater to what's "in." I'm sure in the next few years, tastes will change. Who knows what the future has in store for us, tech-wise.

 

[Aquila]

I agree, OP. Curved glass is not really my friend. My Honor 8 is slightly curved but that was not a reason why I bought it. Curved glass means difficulty in finding a good screen protector to go with it. Bezel-less or low-bezel phones don't really interest me. I like a little kid or a big lip for my fingers to grasp. I'm clumsy enough tripping over the inside of my leg (it happened at a work function tonight - no joke!) or the floor - I don't need to be adding a bezel-less phone to my clumsy agenda.

The smartphone world and any other people-based company that cares about what their customers/consumers want will continuously cater to what's "in." I'm sure in the next few years, tastes will change. Who knows what the future has in store for us, tech-wise.

Well said

 

[anon(5384869)]

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, an argument could be made that the reason for the many opinion-heavy reviews we see is driven by the diversity of Android, and that it's not about being the best phone at everything; it's about being the best phone for a variety of consumers. Need a phone with plenty of battery life, go with phone A. Need a phone that can take a fall more than once, go with B. Hell, even if you live in a worl where you need to make a statement, and need a slick phone, we've even got a phone for that!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that since no one phone will suit every consumer's needs, it doesn't surprise me that the review, and more largely the journalism market has followed the trend to subjectivize their writing.

All of this is beside the OP's original point, but I thought it might be a good one to make...

 

[anon(5384869)]

More to the original point, this discussion seems eerily similar to the discussion a year or two ago about phone's thinness...

 

[belodion]

^ I don't recall that one, but yes, I don't like thin. A thicker phone would mean more battery, which is good; and a larger camera sensor producing higher quality photos, which also seems a good idea. But no, thin it is.

 

[Inders99]

Much of phone design is marketing driven first, function last. These companies need to sell phones to survive, if they released the same looking phone year after year they'd go out of business so they create gimmicks like curved screens and tiny bezels then tout their advantages and people buy them.

I'll take the slightly thicker phone with a bigger battery, a flat screen you can actually use a tempered glass protector, slightly larger bezels hold the phone and utilize a better case.

 

[PAC757]

Much of phone design is marketing driven first, function last. These companies need to sell phones to survive, if they released the same looking phone year after year they'd go out of business so they create gimmicks like curved screens and tiny bezels then tout their advantages and people buy them.

I'll take the slightly thicker phone with a bigger battery, a flat screen you can actually use a tempered glass protector, slightly larger bezels hold the phone and utilize a better case.

This ^ I really do not like this new trend in the phones coming out this year, little to no bezels, those tall skinny odd ratio screens and really what would it hurt to add a few millimeters to a phone to put a slightly larger battery in them now that removalable batteries are a thing of the past, with the LG V20 probably being the last phone with a removalable battery. I'll be keeping my V20 and spare batteries till the phone is completely dead.

 

[codescape]

I like the trend of getting rid of the buttons - saving more space for the screen. Though, I'm not sure about the "Edge" and rounded corners. I feel that rounded corners are quite useless, but, they might save the phone if you drop it (anyone tested yet? )

 

[belodion]

^ I expect that many people have, unintentionally.

 

[Morty2264]

Well said

Thank you!

 

[anon(5384869)]

^ I don't recall that one, but yes, I don't like thin. A thicker phone would mean more battery, which is good; and a larger camera sensor producing higher quality photos, which also seems a good idea. But no, thin it is.

100% agree! I am perfectly happy with my Pixel XL, or Droid Phone before it that had a bit of heft. I was never anxious if a quick game on the crapper or catching up on the book of Faces over lunch would mean I was scrambling for a cable before dinner.