With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 earlier this year and the iPhone X about a month ago, it seems like the smartphone has finally broken out of its stagnant phase, at least in terms of cutting edge design.

Smartphones have truly become the ultimate piece of technology today that allows us to do virtually anything, right from the comfort of a small device in our hands. Since its inception, the smartphone has gone through many refinements and iterations to become what it is today.

However, for the last three to four years, it appeared as though the tech companies that manufacture these devices simply ran out of ideas as we kept seeing the same designs every year. Yes, they still got more powerful with better cameras and other incremental features but all that stuff is now “boring” to the average consumer.

That’s because smartphones are powerful enough today to handle most things and the incremental updates with speed and other features are not that noticeable anymore. Consumers want to be wowed and “all screen” phones are doing exactly that. In the future, this trend could evolve into a completely all glass phone.

An All Glass Phone

I personally believe that technology should be refined as much as possible to the point that it simply cannot be simplified any further. This is especially true of consumer tech as this benefits both the consumers and the manufacturers.

Since smartphones were first introduced, they have been refined continuously each year, whether it be in form or functionality (including UI). The latest refinements come in the form of a bezel less, all screen design which does away with buttons in the front of your phone.

This type of design really looks cool as you now have a complete view of the content without anything hindering it. Imagine what an all glass phone would look like, where the entire phone is just a piece of rectangular glass, similar to what Tony Stark uses in the Iron man movies.

I believe that it would be the ultimate simplification of the smartphone design and something that can certainly be one of the avenues that tech companies could pursue in the future.

Is Such A Device Possible?

A smartphone is made up of various components that come together to make it work. There is the screen, the battery, the logic board, cameras and other sensors and components.

To make a transparent phone, you need transparent components. The screen can be made transparent as has been shown by various prototypes and even finished products like transparent TVs.

Even transparent lithium ion batteries have been in development for several years now which would be perfect for such a device. The main hindrance here seems to be the logic board which houses the processor, the memory and other chips and components and of course the cameras and various other sensors.

I think, to make such a device possible, they would have to fit all these opaque parts into the chin of the device much like what we have in today’s phones. There would need to be an incredible amount of miniaturisation done in order to achieve such a feat. Only time will tell if such an engineering feat is possible.

Are They Practical Though?

So, we have talked about how cool a piece of glass for a phone would be and what would need to be achieved to get it done. But we also need to ask ourselves the most basic question…. why?

There needs to be a purpose for everything right? Even if something exists just for fun. I think all glass phones would be kind of a novelty as they would be super aesthetically pleasing but beyond that, I don’t think they would serve much function. In fact, questions about privacy could arise as people could see what you’re doing on your phone.

Yes, there are applications around augmented reality but that would be it. Or at least that’s what I think. Many people would rather see foldable phones that unfolded into larger, tablet-sized screens so that one device could serve the purpose of a phone, a phablet and a tablet!

From a technological point of view, they would be much easier to make as Samsung is said to be actively developing such a phone and Apple is said to be considering it as well. Personally, I would still prefer the all glass phone. I am a sucker for cool design!

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