In the beginning there was the iPhone. Then came a bunch of phones that tried to be just like it. Then those phones tried to be different, but in variously off-putting ways. At this week's Mobile World Congress, though, smartphones have begun to find the balance between boring and bizarre.
It's hard to be a premium smartphone manufacturer outside of Cupertino. The iPhone dominates the high end, with no signs of slowing dominance, while affordable competitors increasingly own the non-Apple market.
And while gimmicks like LG's curved phones, or Samsung's incessant software tweaks, haven't provided much of a lift, the latest flagships from those companies (and HP!) are signs that there's still plenty of innovation left for smartphones, in ways that that are actually useful.
"It's very hard to go out there with another me-too type product," says Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen. "It's not sufficient to play that one-up game. It's not just about bigger, faster stronger. You have to be different, interesting, valuable to consumers."
And that's exactly what they've done.
The most important smartphone at MWC isn't just a phone. The LG G5 comprises the handset itself, but also a series of swappable add-ons, called Friends, that range from a camera grip with bonus battery power to an audiophile boost. (LG also introduced a laser robot ball that doesn't have much bearing here, but the more laser robot balls the better).
It's a terrifically clever way to avoid the common smartphone pitfalls of either trying to be everything to everyone, or making specialized devices---how many selfie smartphones do we really need?---that don't have much hope outside of their niche.
"LG appears to be trying to straddle two worlds: on the one hand, sticking with the single flagship model, and on the other hand still providing a number of different options for people with specialized interests," says Jan Dawson, president of Jackdaw Research.
It's also practical. There's an obvious utility to being able to improve your smartphone in ways that you care about. If that seems like a simple directive, remember that LG is the company responsible for the LG G Flex, a banana-shaped smartphone whose curve had zero appeal, and the V10, by most accounts a solid device overstuffed with unnecessary gimmicks, like a second display.
Planning for the G5 started about a year and a half ago, says LG spokesman Frank Lee, and represents the culmination of some corporate introspection. "We had to be honest with ourselves. People really weren't as excited as they once were when it comes to smartphones, because we haven't really given them something to be excited about."
Thankfully, that excitement derives not from frippery or tricks, but from addressing the core pain points of smartphones today. "We decided that one of our strengths was practical innovation, bringing solutions that first meet the needs that your neighbor has, that you and I have," says Lee. "We were champing at the bit to go a little crazy, to push the boundaries with some of these companion devices... But for the first step, let's focus on what people are already doing with smartphones and then build from there."
Most of all, LG has managed to do it without just cloning the iPhone. That's a more important disclaimer than you might think, especially after watching previously innovative Android manufacturers like HTC abandon any pretense of not just being a knockoff. LG's offering a new path forward for smartphones, one that consumers may actually want to walk down. And even if people don't want the add-ons, the base model looks plenty good in its own right. That's the beauty of it.
"It's a risky strategy, and I'm guessing they'll sell very few of the Friends accessories, but it's an interesting attempt to provide people with options," without the confusion of selling several different smartphones at once, says Dawson. And even if it doesn't work in the market, at least it's something different.
LG's also not the only manufacturer at MWC with modules on the mind. HP's Elite x3 smartphone doesn't deconstruct the handset itself, but it does want to push the boundaries of what a pocketable device can do. In its case, as a Windows Phone, it tries to deliver on the promise of Continuum, Microsoft's effort to let one device serve as a phone, a laptop, and whatever else you might need.
It does so both with beefy specs, but also with accessories that empower the Elite x3 beyond standard phone calls and apps. The Desk Dock hooks it up to a monitor, while the Mobile Extender is a display, keyboard, and battery combination—basically a laptop body with brains provided by the Elite x3. Since Windows 10 phones can't run full desktop apps, they'll run cloud-based virtual apps instead for enterprise duty.
That's less flashy than LG's consumer-focused mix-em-up machines. That doesn't make it less innovative, or potentially appealing. "What is very unique is [HP's] approach to modularity where they're extending the phone to be a light desktop or notebook," says Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights & Strategy, who could see such devices making up as much as 10 percent of the enterprise market in the next five years.
LG, and to an extent, HP, have realized that new on its own doesn't get you very far. Useful, though, could make all the difference in the world.
As the flagship device of what's already the most popular smartphone manufacturer in the world; the Galaxy S7 hardly needs that sort of wholesale reinvention. Samsung's approach, though, is no less welcome.
With the S7, Samsung has also focused on practical improvements, rather than the flashy gimmicks that defined its software layer for so long. The S7 restores the waterproofing and expandable storage that were gone from the S6. It amps up the battery capacity while slimming down the build. And it introduces a phase-detection autofocus system that's worth of a DSLR. The camera even downgrades the number of megapixels versus the S6, from 16 to 12, prioritizing larger sensors instead.
Even more encouraging? One software enhancement that is present focuses on accentuating last year's hardware gimmick, the sloped sides of the Edge line. There's an open API now, meaning third-party developers can pile on genuine functionality.
The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge take what were already among the very best Android phones and improves them in ways that are tangibly beneficial real-world smartphone users. Again, that seems like a strange thing to single out for praise, but in the world of Android phones that's been a disappointingly rare thing.
"In general, it feels like we've been through an interesting few years with regard to Android smartphones," says Dawson. "A couple of years ago, they abandoned the gimmicky software stuff that wasn't selling, but arguably went too far in leaving their devices without much to differentiate them, and they're now differentiating in more meaningful, useful ways."
It's increasingly hard to compete in an iPhone-dominated world. Finding the right balance between boring and bloated is a great place to start.
