Sorry for being a man. Smartphone innovation has stagnated in favor of artificial intelligence adoption. Samsung, Google, and Apple are making AI the main marketing goal of every flagship phone by 2024. It’s not about svelte hardware or the smartphone’s ability to serve as a solid everyday computer device. It’s about preparing users for the onslaught of AI that will inevitably force them to update their phones to avoid being siloed.

This year has been marred by gimmicky feature add-ons and the rationalization that you need a new smartphone to keep up with what’s coming if you want to be on the same page as everyone else. Design-wise, making a set of phones that don’t move the needle. the Galaxy S24 Ultra looks like Galaxy S23 Ultra but with many square edges. by Apple iPhone 16 Pro doesn’t look too different from iPhone 15 Pro—You can’t even talk to them except behind the scenes. As for Google Pixel 9 Proit has a modified camera bar at the back. However, now it’s like the iPhone from the front, and everything about the Pixel line is Gemini ahead of anything else.

I lost the idea of ​​the AI ​​timing properly, even when I tried to open an app to get work done or get lost in scrolling doom. But what is the cost of prioritizing AI improvements above all else? Can smartphones stay thin if power consumption is the priority? Shouldn’t they make concessions for bigger batteries and more components as AI becomes the main draw? All these questions are floating as we exit the year 2025.

The Meteoric Rise of AI

Samsung kicked off 2024 right out of the gate with Galaxy AI. It already does some of what Google’s Gemini said it would do, except this time, it also has an amazing new feature to debut alongside: Circle to Searchwhich turned out to be the best thing to happen to Android this year, even before Android 15 arrived developer preview. Samsung and Google joined forces for the Galaxy S24 launch event to continue messaging, saying that Android will be a container for everything that’s happening with AI behind the scenes.

Followed by Google, which filled the year many Pixel Drops which enables features like Circle to Search, Call Screen, and, most recently, Gemini extensions. When its developer conference rolled around in the spring, it was clear that the trajectory of the Android platform was primarily AI. Android is no longer the main event; rather, it is focused on explaining how Gemini will improve the user experience. The most significant indication of this for me was when I booted up the Gemini beta and set it as the default assistant on my phone. It broke some of my Google Assistant-enabled hardware, like the Roav Bolt, which I use to control my phone hands-free while driving. Fortunately, whatever Google has been doing in the background since then fixed it, although I had to wait half a year for Gemini to fully launch. It’s a scary reminder of what happens when the company behind your smartphone platform suddenly takes a left turn into something new.

Some of us hope that Apple will be the one to move forward with AI. Usually, Apple will take what Google is doing and “neg” it, then explain how it can’t be done because it would harm the integrity of its product. But Cupertino surprised us Apple Intelligence at WWDC, announcing that it is adding AI to its platforms and doing it in the most Apple way: completely rebranding what others are doing and presenting it as a trend aka new technology, although it is still needed. some help from ChatGPT to handle more sophisticated commands. At least the company is keeping an attitude about it. As a result of the name “Apple Intelligence,” the style guide requires that I always spell it out when referring to it, which helps me avoid overusing “AI.” It is not ARTIFICIALLY intelligence; this is the wisdom of Apple.

The Cost of Image Creation

Now, it’s months after all the new smartphones debuted for the latest generation. We’re stuck with tons of premium devices from Samsung, Google, and Apple, all focused on selling us this new way of predictive computing. Each platform also has an image rendering app for creating images: Image Playground on iOS and Pixel Studio on Pixel devices. Thank you, I believebut this is not what people think of when they ask for help with photos. However, I wish there were better lenses added to the back of these devices since they cost upwards of a mid-tier digital camera. I’m even willing to shy away from the thinness, knowing that the hardware will have to be thicker if I want a bigger screen. Instead, I got a generative AI suite that made my photos look like a Hallmark movie poster.

I’m not saying that cameras haven’t improved on Samsung, Google, and Apple devices. That happens every year with every new smartphone; everyone gets a small better. But this time, the trio seems to be completely relying on the AI ​​that does the magic to make the photo. The entire Pixel camera system is based on the premise that AI can automatically do what you’re trying to do in an editing suite. Apple uses algorithms to ensure that any time you press the new Camera Control button on the iPhone 16, the photo will not be blurred.

Here’s the Catch-22 of creating a phone image in this AI-forward era. While AI and algorithms help with battery management, such as reducing background processes and automatically optimizing settings based on what’s happening on the screen, creating images within apps uses the same resources, even if pulled from the cloud. A smartphone also needs a lot of memory to perform these tasks. That’s why we now see phones bundled with 16GB of RAM as standard, including Pixel 9 Pro. All the extra hardware to power AI will eventually increase the cost of manufacturing. We’ve already seen higher price tags on iPhones and Android devices. It’s not just the economy.

That’s not to say that next year’s phones will be bulbous and cumbersome. Most likely they will still come with the same tempered glass chassis that they came with this year. They all have large, bright displays with high refresh rates and saturated colors. They still fit in men’s pockets. They may even be thinner than next year, at least according to the rumors about iPhone 17 and the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It even said something Samsung foldables can be bigger to cater to different people. What will be interesting to see is how each manufacturer handles the demands of balancing what the industry says is important for competition and what consumers want for utility. It’s not worth AI if it means hot smartphones coming out in the middle of the day.