When it comes to smartphones, the last couple of years have felt stagnant, regardless of who you get your handsets from. With all the time we were confined to our homes, there was no need to have the latest and greatest as the world slowed down to a relative crawl. Upgraded specs and a better camera seemed tertiary compared to everything else.
Then, as we started immunizing and returning to the grind, having a capable smartphone became important again. I even felt inspired to upgrade this year, simply because I felt like “If I’m going back out into the world again, I better have a phone that takes pictures I don’t need to edit every time I want to share them.”
2022 wasn’t the year to convince people who previously weren’t ready to upgrade to move on to the cool new thing, but it was a great year to upgrade if you were already inclined to do so. The iPhone 14 Pro, for instance, didn’t just tread water and instead shined a light on where Apple’s heading, and it managed to be first to the table on features like satellite connectivity and fully adopting the eSIM protocol. And while Google’s Pixel 7 Pro is still reigning with its picture-taking capabilities, Samsung’s foldables are making every other Android phone seem dull by comparison.
2022 tried to be an exciting year, and for the most part, it kept us entertained enough to look forward to what’s on the horizon. Next year’s smartphone forecast seems too tempting not to upgrade. But before considering what’s ahead, we must first step back and see how far we’ve come.