Why hasn’t anyone made the perfect smartphone?

As a tech writer, I’ve been asked one too many times on what the perfect or best smartphone is. The thing is, there’s still no perfect smartphone that fits all the needs of each and every user, and in this article, we give you a few reasons why.

The perfect smartphone depends on the user

First and foremost, there is no perfect smartphone since every user has different needs. Some like their smartphone big, some like it compact, some prefer really slim ones, while others don’t care if it’s as thick as a brick as long as it’s packed with a big battery.

Just like what they say – to each his own. That reason alone makes it impossible for manufacturers to create the perfect device that would cater to everyone’s needs right off the bat.

Manufacturers combine good and standard components to maintain a price that “still makes sense”

Imagine if all the good components were packed into one smartphone — you have a pixel-packed Quad HD display, ground-breaking front and rear cameras, a sexy metal chassis with an overlay of glass sheets, days worth of battery life, bells and whistles like top of the line security features, and everything else you want in a smartphone. That would sum up to carry quite a price tag. In fact, it would be so expensive that it won’t be a reasonable offering to the public anymore.

Just like the pricey Vertu phones that bank on having premium grade materials like expensive rocks and leather, it’s insanely expensive (more than Php1M in price) that only very few could afford them. Still, with that price, it is far from being a “perfect smartphone”.

If there was a concept close to this, it would be Google’s Project Ara that, just recently, has been reported to be cancelled and making it a Project Nada. It’s basically a modular smartphone envisioned so that users could personally build, so to speak, and get the hardware they want/need like the amount of RAM, speed of processor, with unique modules like solar-powered batteries, and so on.

Current technology still doesn’t allow it

To make the perfect smartphone, it should not have trade-offs of sort and a good example of this would be the battery. Think about it: Most of us would want a battery that would last days on a single charge and at the same time, we want it to be thin and light. This, right now, is something that you can’t easily achieve since with our current technology, bigger battery means bulkier and heavier packs.

“Okay, so there’s no perfect smartphone yet. What’s the next best thing for me?”

This question almost always follows after the explanation above. This, unfortunately, has no definite answer as well. Personally, I would answer the question with another question: What do you want to do with the phone?  

The best smartphone for a person right now is something that is geared towards the user’s interest. For example, do you watch a lot of video content on your phone? Get a smartphone with a spacious screen and has decent resolution. Maybe go for the ones with dual front-facing speakers. Love taking selfies? There are those that have a more powerful front camera than its rear shooter. Want a simple and straightforward phone but is reliable? There’s one just like that as well.

Our point in this article is, there is no phone that we could say is the best in the market right now. A lot of users thought that the recently-launched Galaxy Note7 was almost perfect, but unfortunately had some troubles with its battery. The phone is indeed impressive, but it just proves to show that wanting a “perfect” smartphone, right now, is not at all easy to manufacture.

Do you have a smartphone that you would like to think is perfect? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. The comments section awaits.