Smartphones that were far ahead of their competition
1. iPhone (First generation) — No doubt, the first iPhone is the smartphone which shaped the future of the smartphones. Back then (2007) other smartphones were featured phones with internet surfing capabilities or that’s how they looked compared to the 1st-gen iPhone. When so called Keypad smartphones were the bestsellers in the market this smartphone disrupted that market.
2. HTC Evo 3D — This smartphone was launched in 2011. This smartphone started the trend of dual cameras but they failed to impress people. This smartphone can capture 3D images and 3D videos. The first dual camera smartphone which most people liked is iPhone 7 which was released in 2017. So HTC was far ahead of it’s time.
Sample 3D image -
Sample 3D video — https://youtu.be/3r4TLkRejS8
3. Nokia 808 PureView — The Nokia 808 PureView is the best camera phone at that time (2014). It sports a 1/1.2″camera sensor which was the largest sensor ever used in a phone. Even in 2020, this phone’s camera sensor is larger than the present flagships — Samsung S20 Ultra, Motorola Edge+, etc.
4. Panasonic Lumix CM1 — This camera.
This smartphone was released in 2014. It doesn’t look like a smartphone at all though it is a smartphone. It features a 20MP camera which is decent in the present standards but the sensor used is very unusual at that time. Even the flagship smartphones in the present isn’t close to the sensor size used in this smartphone.
5. Nokia 1020 — This smartphone was launched in 2014 with a whooping 41MP camera and one of the largest sensors (1/1.5") at that time. Nokia had a good relationship with cameras and this was yet another one.
Nokia 1020 was the smartphone with highest resolution camera till last year when Huawei view 20 was launched with 48MP resolution. Though most smartphones have higher resolution than Nokia 1020 but still their sensor size is far way down.
6. Sharp Aquos Crystal — In the era of huge bezel displays this smartphone hit their gut with the beauty display. Similar to others even this smartphone made no great impression in the market. This smartphone was unlike any other one and no one would believe this smartphone was launched in 2014.
6. Essential phone — Essential phone PH-1 was launched in 2017. It is the first smartphone that features a notch display. No smartphone was close to this concept, all other smartphones were stuck at 16:9 displays but still this smartphone failed to impress people.
Later year Apple launched iPhone X with a huge notch and everyone copied the same. In late 2019 smartphone displays became so small that it exactly looked like the first Essential phone.
