What’s new in 2014 - a year of technology

What’s new in 2014...

Have we reached the point of diminishing returns?

With 2013 now behind us, I want to look back upon the past year and analyse the technology we saw, as well as speculate upon what we are likely to see this year. I think 2013 was a relatively disappointing year for mobile phones, however 2014 looks more promising.

Displays of 2013

For many, 2013 will be known as ‘the year of 1080p screens’, as almost every flagship model incorporated these high resolution displays at the cost of battery life and overall fluidity. This meant that overall performance seemed stagnated in general operations, with the HTC One X rarely under performing to the HTC One, except in gaming performance. 

However, the benefits of a 1080p screen as compared to a lower resolution are noticeable to most and definitely offer an improved experience, resulting in less eyestrain and the ability to browse the web more elegantly. Of course, not every 1080p screen is equal. We saw improvements in colour reproduction, brightness and touch sensitivity in 2013, as well as advancements in technologies like AMOLED. With Apple retaining it’s sub-720p display on the iPhone 5S, many agreed that this was subpar and that this will need to be improved upon in 2014, else market share will suffer. The Xperia Z was widely criticised for its poor viewing angles, resulting in poor sales despite otherwise quality hardware. This shows the great importance of a quality screen in the current market. Display size in 2013 saw a huge increase from previous years. In 2010 for instance, the display of the iPhone 4 at 3.5 inches was considered large. By 2011, the Galaxy S2 had upped this to a 4.2” screen, and in 2012 the Galaxy S3 was released with an even larger 4.8” screen. 2013 can be known as the ‘phablet year’, with a large number of phones released with a screen size larger than 5 inches. This is a musim on the rise and I believe that in 2014, any screen with a size less than 5” will be regarded as ‘small’.

Displays of 2014

In 2014, many smartphones are rumoured to be incorporating WQHD screens, with a resolution of 2560 x 1440. This is a resolution higher than most laptops on the market and seems to be overkill for a screen so small. The benefits of 1080p were visible, but with another resolution jump, the impacts on performance and battery life don't seem justified. A 1080p screen seems pin sharp and any higher may truly be more pixels than the eye can distinguish. This year in the television industry, there will be a major focus on OLED displays, due to their superior black levels, brighter whites and fast refresh rates. However, in the mobile industry I believe that LCD will still dominate, due to a cheaper cost and advancing technologies allowing for higher resolutions on a thinner screen. Only Samsung and Nokia are currently utilising OLED screens and while they are praised for their colour saturation and black levels, many argue that the colour is not reproduced accurately and that the Pentile matrix of Samsung’s latest screens means that they are not at true 1080p. OLED displays also commonly have a tint, resulting in darker, less pure whites. The S4 for instance has a clear blue/green tint when compared to the HTC One which uses an LCD. To conclude, I believe that in 2014, 1080p will be the standard resolution for most phones, with a few rising to 2560 x 1440. The benefits of this are yet to be determined. Screen sizes in 2014 will be 5” or above for flagship devices, with the Galaxy Note series increasing to around 5.9”.

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Processors of 2013

Qualcomm dominated 2013 with their Snapdragon range. In fact, every Android flagship of 2013 used a variant of a Snapdragon processor, with the exception of the 8-Core Exynos processor used in certain non-European models of the Galaxy S4. The first 64 bit mobile processor came in 2013 with the launch of the Apple A7. This offers certain improvements, such as a 25% performance increase just for apps that are compiled in 64bit, as well as being able to handle more RAM for the future. Processors have reached the stage where most activities on a device are fluid and apps launch very quickly. The GPU on a SoC matters more, as this determines gaming quality and can affect the FPS of general device navigation and scrolling. The Snapdragon 800 and Apple A7 are very fast CPUs. An interesting point is that while all Android flagships used a quad core CPU in 2013, Apple only used a dual core. The dual core A7 even outperforms the quad core Snapdragon 800. This is due to the ARMv8 internals of the chip. Every processor currently used in Android devices is ARMv7 or less. ARMv8 offers a number of improvements including 64 bit support, faster handling of encryption and an increased number of registers.

Processors of 2014

Currently, the Snapdragon 805 is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2014. This is known to have a maximum clock speed of 2.5GHz and an Adreno 420 GPU. However, it is still based on ARMv7, meaning it is 32 bit. This means that Qualcomm is actively slowing down the development of ARMv8, even with ARMv7 currently at the end of its cycle. I expect to see an ARMv8 processor from Qualcomm towards the end of 2014. Processors will remain at quad-core for the most part and I expect Apple to keep its dual core set up which has proven itself as a great performer.

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