The general idea we’ve always accepted behind all digital devices is that, with time, they’ll grow faster. This was true for computers, tablets, smartphones, and anything else that includes some kind of data-processing ability.
So ingrained has progress become in our minds that we never step back and wonder how necessary it might be, and if there could be a logical endpoint.
There are a few angles to approach this question from, where the answer can vary wildly depending on use case and future developments. With that in mind, let’s start with what the average users might need and expect.
The Average User
Any upper-tier smartphone of the last few years is, technically, capable of everything most users want or need from their systems.
For the longest time, smartphones were playing catch-up, trying to deliver instant and streamlined access to apps and features. They once struggled, they once lagged, but how often do you see this as the case today?
The average smartphone user turns to their mobile for social media, video, communication, and light entertainment.
Interactive entertainment might be considered the most cutting-edge of these examples, so for this, consider a use like playing on online bingo sites.
Despite the newest features, visuals, and user experiences, titles like Luck It Up! and Mystic Mines run perfectly well on even older and less powerful smartphones.
Like many uses, this is a case where smartphones have long moved beyond what is required to deliver the best possible experience.
Bingo won’t get better by placing higher demands on smartphones, and neither will social media or settling in to watch a movie stream. More power offers nothing here, so extra speed equates to little more than wasted potential and higher prices.
Workstation Potential
The only real visible caveat to not needing increased speed comes from the (current) minority of users who turn to their phones as some kind of work device.
This could be for movie editing and rendering for social media (though this is still much easier on a computer or in the cloud), or more often, with folding phones.
Folding phones are the biggest question mark here, as we’re still not sure where they’ll land as serious work systems in the future. Traditional folding phones and the new generation of trifold phones could prove effective as work stations.
This would be especially so when docked and paired with keyboard/mouse setups, essentially rendering them as laptops with a smaller form factor.
Should they prove themselves in work uses, it’s likely that a workstation skew of smartphones could keep chasing increasing speeds to keep up with the requirements of processor-heavy tasks.
They would still be inferior to larger and faster laptops and desktops, but they might still represent a better fit for some.
Unknowable Futures
The final truth that needs to be acknowledged is that future developments in smartphone tech cannot be fully predicted.
While it’s easy to map out past trajectory, and understand that software like AI is largely overhyped, what’s around the corner a decade or two from now is much harder to predict.
To answer the question based on the information we have right now drives us to at least some basic conclusions.
Firstly, for most users, smartphones won’t need to become faster to deliver everything users currently need.
Secondly, phone developers will keep pushing faster phones as a way to maintain profit. Where the line is drawn for a new purchase, that’s up to you.