Smartphones evolve fast — and new technologies also see very quick adoption by consumers. As we head into a spate of new launches, here's a sneak peek into the technology we’ll see this year.

Li-Fi: Li-Fi is the term used for the next generation of wireless data transfer technology — it claims a transfer speed that is 100 times faster than existing WiFi. A prototype smartphone using this technology was shown off as early as CES 2014 and we expect smartphones with support for this new standard of wireless data to start arriving sometime in 2016.

VoLTE: VoLTE or Voice over LTE technology enables voice delivered over LTE data instead of the usual (slower) network. This means that if both your phone and network support VoLTE, you will get a better voice call experience with minimal call drops and improved clarity.

IRIS Scanners: Fingerprint sensors are catching up now on smartphones, but iris scanning is a technology we are looking forward to. Iris scanning scans your eyes for biometric recognition to provide additional security without having to touch anything.



Dual Cameras: There have been a few devices with dual camera setups launched in the past couple of years. It seems that given the limited space, adding more cameras is the easiest way to improve image quality on smartphones.



Dual Displays: Why would anyone need dual displays on a phone? There is a growing trend towards larger displays and it’s not hard to see why: you can fit in a lot more into one screen. The second screen can do all sorts of useful things: notifications, extra controls, tickers, email briefs. We can expect more such innovations this year.



No Headphone Jacks: There’s one thing that’s remained constant in phones since time immemorial: the 3.5mm audio jack. The USB C port or the Lightning port could replace the primitive audio jack

32GB Base Storage: With higher resolution cameras, millions of apps to choose from and now even 4K video, we heard of some users who exhausted their phone memory within the space of one month! We’ve been seeing 32GB base storage variants in more and more phones and hopefully, this should be the new standard.

4K screens: 2k screens are now available on a lot of smartphones but 4k resolution has only been attempted by Sony on the Z5 Premium. The advantage of 4k displays will really be felt in virtual reality (VR). Since VR is expected to catch on faster, so will flagship phones with 4k displays.



Contactless Charging: Although, wireless charging has been around for quite a while, it hasn’t really caught on. However, contactless charging seems to be a game changer. Just Imagine, your phone started charging as soon as you entered your house or office, never have to plug in or place a phone again on the charger.



Pressure-Sensitive Displays: Aren’t all phone touch-screens pressure sensitive? Well, not really — we’re talking about the ability to detect varying levels of pressure. This is one innovation that all other smartphone makers are probably interested in and we’ll see some version of this make its way to us in 2016.

Source: Times of India