Key Takeaways
- Greater platform diversity and modularity could drive real innovation, especially outside the premium flagship segment.
- Smartphone innovation in 2026 should prioritize usability over gimmicks, with a renewed focus on repairability, battery life, and practical hardware features.
- Longer software support and OS choice remain unmet consumer demands, especially for midrange and affordable devices.
- Battery capacities have stagnated or declined, despite advances in chip efficiency and charging speeds.
- Repair restrictions and sealed designs limit device longevity, increasing electronic waste and ownership costs.
- Legacy features such as expandable storage and physical ports still matter to power users and emerging markets.
- Hardware performance is no longer the primary bottleneck, as most modern smartphones already exceed everyday usage needs.
- Manufacturers continue to prioritize design trends over durability, sacrificing resilience for thinner profiles.
Here in TechPipino, we’re all about the fresh, the industry shakers, the innovators, and those who aren’t afraid to dive deep into the barren lands of experimentation. It’s been five long years since LG Mobile, the masters of this very thing we’re discussing right now, left the building without any signs of ever coming back.
Still, the smartphone world continues to move forward. Some brands like Apple and Samsung preferred to do things the same way while ‘polishing’ their features in every iteration, while some companies decided to go way overboard with their design choices (we see you, Nothing Phone 3). However, as soon as the dust settles, many features will exist in one device, only to be replaced by the next in a year or so. We aren’t saying that it is a bad thing, but there’s a clear line between gimmick and function.
In this article, we list 10 features that should stick around for a long time, potentially becoming an industry standard that every company should follow. We discuss aspects from the hardware side down to the software section. Accessories and other miscellaneous items will also be covered. These features may be non-existent, appear to some degree, or be a mix of both. Sit back and pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage as we explain why these 10 features should be the norm from 2026 onwards.
10. User-replaceable back covers
Image: CMF by Nothing
Yes, we know that iPhones popularized the unibody design since their first-generation release way back in 2007. The Androids of the world back then were stuck with removable back covers to access the equally replaceable batteries, but eventually caved in with releases from HTC and Samsung’s S6 lineup. It was the hip thing to do at the time, and we can’t blame them for doing so. Look at their sleek, svelte glass sandwich construction; it’s definitely a beauty.
Fast forward to today, the trend of having a replaceable back cover is slowly gaining traction, thanks to smartphones such as the CMF Phone lineup from Nothing, HMD Skyline from HMD Global, and the ever-so-elusive Fairphones—all of which have easy-to-replace covers. If you have a ₱80,000 flagship or above and you broke its back, chances are you’ll pay a premium to get it replaced from the official service centers or get a Class A grade one installed by your local technician in Greenhills or somewhere similar.
User-replaceable backs should be the norm that all manufacturers should follow, and that we also believe is a real ‘baby step’ demand, because an entire replaceable part is the stuff of nightmares for them. Don’t get us wrong, the technology isn’t quite there to make something slim and IP68-rated, but if there’s demand for it, there’s a way.
9. Replaceable batteries
Image: Fairphone
Again with the replaceable theme here: battery replacement is very tedious for a regular consumer, and even repairmen also dread it. Depending on the manufacturer, removing a battery is as easy as hooking up a positive and negative charge to a cylindrical cell, like the newer iPhones, or it can involve spending a long time prying it out with some alcohol, a specialized tool, and a hefty amount of elbow grease.
Some companies, like Fairphone, have managed to achieve this without sacrificing much in terms of capacity, and we would be thrilled if even budget or mid-range phones adopted similar designs to improve the overall user experience. But for now, we’ll be content with the small wins from Fairphones and rugged phones in the market.
8. High-capacity batteries
Image: HONOR
Now you’re seeing a pattern here: we love our replaceable batteries, but we also love big batteries in our smartphones. With the current trend of smartphones reaching 7,000mAh to a whopping 10,000mAh capacity, thanks to the Silicon-Carbon tech that can cram a lot more juice while still retaining a thin size, this is a no-brainer.
Apple and Samsung, however, are still sticking to their guns, rarely passing 5,000mAh to their flagship lineups. We wish to see even bigger power landing in the mid-range and budget segments as well. So far, this is the most achievable feature that manufacturers will fulfill on our list.
7. Actual great macro cameras
Image: Nubia International
Now hear us out: macro cameras can be good when done right, as evident to flagships and mid-rangers. But the trend of sticking a barely usable macro (and depth) shooter to many cheaper devices is only there so it creates an illusion of having ‘more’ needs to stop. We understand the peer pressure of only having one camera on the back can be embarrassing in certain situations. Would you rather live a lie or have a single yet great camera? The budget iPhones had done it to perfection without one, but again, having a single shooter on an iPhone is never embarrassing.
Hear ye, brands, include an actual macro shooter or just exclude it entirely; that way, you could pour the budget even more into developing the main camera.
6. Affordable flip and folding phones
Image: Y! Mobile Japan
Half-a-decade later, the flippy and foldy tech had reached maturity, and we can’t wait for it to reach Budget Land. Nubia Flip, ZTE Libero Flip, TECNO’s Phantom V Flip 2, and even Motorola’s RAZR lineup have some juicy, affordable models for price-conscious people to enjoy. But we felt that it was more of a market test than a full-on attempt to create an actual one for its intended audience. As of this year, there are no midrange folds to see in the wild.
As the Beach Boys had sung, wouldn’t it be nice to take this flip and fold tech to a price point that people would be happy to spend to? Only time will tell.
5. Headphone jack and SD card slots
Image: SONY Singapore
This argument is always brought back to life with such lists as this. “If you can spend a couple of thousand bucks for a phone, then you’ll be able to buy wireless earbuds for a bit more cash as well,” or “just upgrade to a higher storage model, SD card storage is slower than what’s inside your phone,” they’ve said.
Here at TechPipino, analog is still king. Maybe you won’t need it today, but will you wait till that day comes? Sony and their Xperia lineup aren’t shying away from including a 3.5mm jack and SD card slots in their flagships, so is the elusive Aquos R lineup from Sharp. It didn’t diminish their phone’s prestige and premiumness after all. While Huawei ditched the headphone jacks on their flagships, there’s still an option to upgrade your storage via their own Nano Memory. It is proprietary, but it’s better than nothing.
We all know that upselling is the major reason why these two features faded away from the flagships, but we wish to see the day that this becomes essential again.
4. A proper beefy small phone
Image: Clicks
With the recent announcement of the Clicks Communicator, there comes a time when small phones are the norm and are sought after. But of course, bigger is better because of human psychology. Apple tried it with their Mini and SE lineups, but it sold less than their regular offerings. Sony ceased to do more of their Compact lineup. Asus is now shriveling in the dirt after cancelling their small Zenfone series. Now, small phones only exist in niche brands like Unihertz, Bluefox, and other obscure manufacturers with varying levels of sketchiness.
Now, there’s a growing trend of 6.1 to 6.3-inch phones dubbed as ‘mini’, like the vivo X200 Pro mini, but that isn’t exactly small at all. Imagine in 10 years, 10-inch phones will be the standard issue ones, and 6.8-inchers are considered ‘small.’ Bigger isn’t always better, and we wish that really small flagship phones would appear this year, creating a small beam of hope for fans of that form factor.
3. Longer software updates
Image: Channelnews.au
More and more manufacturers are promising five to seven years of updates for their flagships, midrangers, and even budget models from Samsung. Even though we aren’t sure about whether the hardware will still hold up, it’s better than nothing at all.
Same as with budget models, it won’t hurt to offer even a year longer support, even if it’s just for security patches, which Motorola masterfully approaches with its sub-₱10,000 or ₱20,000 offerings, making them the cream of the crop in this category (even though they usually fail before in delivering those promises). It will all depend on the users if they’ll use it until the updates dry up or buy a new one every couple of years. The important fact is that more phones with longer support result in less accumulation of e-waste.
2. Unlockable bootloaders
Image: fity.club
There was a time when people could flash their old device with a new custom ROM and breathe new life into it. While it still exists now, more and more brands are locking their bootloader access, making it hard for modders to customize their smartphones or resurrect an old one to experience extended use. With the recent rise of DRAM prices, AI fiasco, and overall ballooning smartphone prices, we can’t help but think green and use our old phones, but with new and updated software.
We will not hope for Apple to do this thing, and we understand the manufacturer’s reasons for security and privacy to justify these actions, but we hope that the bootloader will be opened again for most brands so people can enjoy their phones a little longer, way past their intended usage cycle.
1. A real third operating system
Image: Weibo
Many had tried, but most failed. Symbian, Windows Phone, Blackberry OS, and more—yet iOS and Android stood the test of time. With the ever increasing restrictive policies implemented on these two OS titans, we can’t help but wonder: what if there’s a third competitor?
Huawei’s HarmonyOS is a real underdog story. Stemming from the Google ban in 2019, Huawei was quick to develop a new OS based on Android but without the Google Messaging Services needed. People struggled to find ways to use their devices, the loyal ones even on the verge of switching. It was a rough time. But now, they’re ready to break free from Android with HarmonyOS NEXT; the question is whether it will be a success worldwide is up for debate.
It was a long time before someone like Huawei, a company that can go head-to-head with Android and iOS, was still a mess and a struggle, but if someone can achieve success with it, it’s them. Other OS such as Sailfish OS, Ubuntu Touch, and Graphene OS are also nice contenders, but nowhere near as influential and has big of a potential as HarmonyOS promises. We’ll see if that comes to fruition this year.
Final words
We aren’t hoping that everything on this list will be achieved in this year or a few years down the line. We expect that some of it will not be realized at all. However, in the spirit of a new year, hope is a powerful thing, but action is even more. Do you have any more things to include? Suggestions or a different take? Let us know, and thanks for taking the time to read our article.
