When it comes to buying a new phone, there are many factors to be considered. Some consumers want a phone with great camera features, a high-performing device for gaming, aesthetic looks, or simply just want a simple phone that functions well. But which of these are the most important?
With this, we decided to ask our readers on our Facebook post here about their top 5 features to look for in a new phone before making a purchase decision. This survey isn't much but after going through all the comments, we have collected the data and separated them into three categories, starting with...
The Most Wanted (Battery, Display, Chipset and Camera)
In this category, we came up with the top 4 features that most consumers (according to you) want the most. To no one's surprise, battery life easily took the first spot with 21 points, followed by display and chipset performance which are tied at 18 points. For third place, camera specifications are also important for our dear readers.
Not surprised by the results
From the comments, having a great battery life performance is a no-brainer. As most employees have returned to their offices, having a phone with a good battery is essential for navigating via Waze or Google Maps, listening to songs or watching videos while commuting on a train, calling clients or simply doing quick work on their phones throughout the day. Some readers said the battery pack must have at least 4,000mAh and above with fast charging speed (at least 45W and above).
Performance is equally as important (mostly related to a chipset or GPU) for doing work or playing mobile games. On the display side, what we gathered from various inputs is having an AMOLED panel, a fast refresh rate, and colour accuracy are the most important aspects. Compared to the past few years, it seems more users have begun to adopt better display technologies for their personal usage.
Of course, most consumers want a good set of cameras too. In this era of sharing everything good and bad on our social media platforms with our friends and family, life events and more, having a good camera is one of the must-have features. One of the readers also said that the primary camera must be at least 48MP and above to be considered good enough.
Fairly Important (Software Support, Design and others)
We expected the design to be a bit higher, to be honest
Next, let's take a look at the fairly important features of a new phone. Software support takes 5th place with 13 points which includes a good operating system and security patches. Many also voiced out that the software update must be able to go on for three years minimum which, unfortunately, most Android brands can't seem to offer unless you're using Samsung, Google Pixel, OPPO or OnePlus phones.
We also took note that a few of our readers still prefer having other features from the past. For instance, an infrared connector, a 3.5mm audio jack port, an extra SIM and microSD card slots. Unfortunately, these features are slowly fading out over time. At the moment, only entry-level and budget-friendly devices generally have them.
More brands are also offering wireless earbuds as replacements for the missing audio jack, along with phasing out 64GB /128GB storage as an excuse to not include a microSD card slot, as well as introducing eSIMs. In addition, brands are also making more rugged phones to protect the phone from being damaged (whether it's water, dust or drop resistance). It's a good thing that many brands still offer extra or extended protection warranties during their launches.
Design is the last one in this category and it doesn't seem to gain much interest from most of our readers. Surprisingly, none of them mentioned colour options but they said as long as the new phone looks "futuristic" or "unique" compared to another phone, it's all good. This can be a strong titanium body frame that the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, iPhone 15 Pro models and above have, stainless steel ones or other flagships with a strong glass back panel. Some also prefer having flat displays as opposed to curved ones.
The Least Prioritized (Gimmick features, Connectivity, Speakers, UI and...AI?)
The Connectivity, Speakers and UI are at the top centre of the pie chart lol
Last but not least, we have come to the corner of the "unwanted" features. Just joking, these features are still and will always be part of a new phone experience but regardless, out of the over 50+ comments, only three said innovative or gimmick features would catch their attention. A few months ago, we did a special article about "Smartphones Are Boring Now" and by looking at these numbers, I think it's safe to say that the smartphone brands knew exactly what they were doing.
Gone are the days of new phones with innovative pop-up, under-display or sliding hidden cameras. This happened when Apple introduced the notch on the iPhone X series and ever since then, Android brands tried to find ways to have a fully-fledged display without any front camera cutouts. Too bad at the end of the day, I guess most consumers just aren't interested so nearly every brand is copying each other. Oh well, at least we still have foldable and flipping phones.
Only a handful of readers said speaker quality, connectivity (like 5G, NFC, etc) and user interface (UI) are still important. Now, we aren't saying that you should disregard these features when considering a new phone purchase, it's just that they don't really come up on top of the priority list. I will say this, though - perhaps the biggest "loser" of them isn't even on this list, and it is none other than Artificial Intelligence. You know, the AI thing that brands have been trying to hype throughout this year.
At least I can still use AI to generate an image lol
Honestly, I expected a couple of our readers to list AI since it has been marketed so heavily in 2024. But nothing, nada, none at all. Why is that? We can only take some wild guesses as maybe some of the AI features introduced have yet to make a life-changing impact on how we use our phones. Or perhaps on paper, the functions sound useful but turn out to be gimmicky when it comes to practical usage. Whatever the case is, maybe the advancement of AI just isn't there yet to make any noticeable difference.
Honourable mentions - After-sales Service and Price
There are other honourable mentions that our dear readers said too. These two aren't really phone features but we thought it's worth mentioning here which are after-sales service and the price tag. Having a good after-sales service is a nice bonus just in case your new phone encounters an issue (#touchwood). That said, this depends on the store's location and who is handling it because there are some good and bad customer services out there.
Malaysians are also very sensitive to prices in these tough economic times. It doesn't matter if it's a new device, a subscription model or even that roti canai that you love at your favourite mamak store, it's safe to say that we just want the best bang for the buck purchase for our wallet. As long as the phone features hold up to our expectations, then we can say the purchase is value for money.
Conclusion - Battery life is king
Image generated by Copilot
So, that's pretty much it for our mini survey of what Malaysians really want in a new phone. Battery life takes the first place as the most important phone feature, which makes sense because we use it as our daily drivers, while not caring much about 5G and UI (or rather AI since it didn't make it to the list).
We would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to all the readers who contributed their input to this list, we could have never written this without your participation! But what do you think? If you have any add-ons you want to tell us, you can visit our Facebook post here again to leave your comments. Until then, stay tuned for more special tech articles at TechNave.com.
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