The top smartphone tech innovations of 2016

2016 has come and gone, and with it comes a lot of smartphone firsts. Whether it's something added, improved or removed, smartphones have increasingly become feature-packed in terms of both hardware and software. As CES 2017 starts, let's review the features smartphones brought to our hands in the past year.

AI virtual assistants
These software-based assistants learn your activities and preferences and based on those information, provides useful information as soon as you call them up, or they may suggest alternatives to your daily regimen, should you find the time to take a break from everyday life.

A good example here is Google Assistant. Available device-wide on their Google Pixel smartphones (and in a limited "preview" capability on their Allo app), Assistant will respond to human-like speech patterns.

I've actually tried this on Allo and it's pretty surprising how it's almost human-like in it's ability to understand conversational speech. In contrast, whenever you ask Google Now or even Siri two things in succession, even though they're related, you'd always need to provide specifics like: "Set a reminder for 10PM, dinner date" and "Good restaurants in Pasig". If you try to actually converse with them, sometimes they'll just get confused, churning out scripted excuses or simply doing a web search

Modular add-ons
We thought that with the announced limitations and later, death of Project Ara, modular smartphones were dead in the water as well, But they managed to find ways to survive, and we ended up with the LG G5 and Friends, as well as the Moto Z with Mods.

They didn't quite capture idea of Ara (having completely modular parts and the ability to directly upgrade hardware), but they came pretty close: Friends and Mods both enhanced the capabilities of the smartphones they support, and did it in a pretty straightforward way. The Friends would either connect to the G5 wirelessly or have to be inserted at the bottom of the phone (replacing the battery and part of the chassis in the process), while the Mods would just snap magnetically to the back of the Moto Z series smartphones (I think this is the better approach).

Of course, the limitations of these is the actual add-on availability itself. While heavily advertised, some, if not most of, the add-ons were not available outside of the city centers. It limited the choices of the end users and some even claim that this is what caused the slump of sales of the G5. I'll reserve my judgement on that one but hopefully if another modular smartphone series comes to our shores, the accessories come with it full force as well.

Dual rear cameras
Okay, this one is not strictly 2016; it actually began way back in 2011 with the hyped up "3D stereoscopic imaging" capabilities of the LG Optimus 3D and HTC Evo 3D. But then all the 3D hype went away and so these were forgotten. HTC tried again with the M8 on 2014, this time aiming for refocusing, and better bokeh/depth of field, but the feature ended up looking more like a gimmick due to the quality of the Ultrapixel sensor they used.

Fast forward to 2016 and we have the LG, Huawei and Apple all came up with different implementations of the dual-camera feature: LG opting for "superwide" images, Huawei choosing better contrast and monochrome, and Apple going for a 23mm zoom lens for their secondary cameras. Other smartphone manufacturers are sure to come up with implementations of their own, as these dual-camera smartphones seem to be doing well this time around

Invisible antenna lines

We all know why these antenna lines are necessary on any metal unibody smartphone: signal cannot pass through metal and thus need plastic, horizontal bands on the back of the device to compensate. Well, at least they were necessary.

Over time smartphone manufacturers thought these lines got in the way of the design process, and looked for ways to "hide" them. The LG G5 came close: it managed to hide away it's antenna lines, but in doing so it still made part of the chassis plastic, and the build isn't exactly unibody.

ASUS came up with the solution: with their so-called "ureMetal" proprietary technology, they managed to hide the antenna bands within the metal itself, resulting in sleek, full metal bodies for the ZenFone 3 Ultra and Deluxe. Now that the technology has a working proof of concept, maybe we'll start seeing less of these antenna lines in the future

Dedicated selfie cameras

The Philippines can be considered the selfie capital of the world. That is why smartphones like the ZenFone Selfie sold really well in the Philippine market, with its 13MP front-facing camera and dual-tone flash. This 2016, the game has been amped up, and while there seems to be no sign of a Selfie successor in sight, OPPO and Vivo came in and cashed into the selfie-loving masses with 16MP and 20MP front camera sensors. In a trend that's sure continue well until 2017, as more and more people become wary of front camera quality, I'd say the competition is just about to heat up

Vulkan 1.0
What would smartphones be without mobile gamers, right? Our bunch demand the toughest, meanest smartphones that can deliver the best performance for our buck. We witnessed as mobile games turned from 2D, 3D, HD, and eventually console-level graphics with today's top games.

But no one ever thought we'd get to PC-level until Vulkan 1.0 was announced for mobile last February 2016. Now we have games running on the latest Unreal Engine 4 and Unity, giving us the graphics that was once only for PC games on our smartphone.

As of now, only HIT, Vain Glory Beta, Olympus Rising, and Need for Speed: No Limits are the mainstream Android games that have Vulkan support, but I urge you to check those games out: your minds will get blown by the graphics. Just a fair warning though: if your smartphone doesn't support Vulkan 1.0-level graphics you may have a hard time with the framerates at the highest graphics setting.

Say goodbye to the headphone jack (hopefully not too soon!)
Remember at the "removed" part at the beginning? Well, I guess you already figured out what the iPhone 7 removed: the good 'ole trusty 3.5mm headphone jack. I don't really know why, maybe just to sell us their adapters if we lose the one provided in the box, but other manufacturers seem to be following suit.

I guess we'll have to settle for either USB type-C, Lightning or wireless rechargeable headphones in the future. Or hear some interference along with the audio if we use it with a 3.5mm jack+charging cable combo adapter. Oh, my inner audiophile is crying

Iris scanner
Oh the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. How short you've lived, and how fiery you died. Probably the biggest loss in the smartphone industry this 2016, the Note 7 had a feature first seen on a smartphone: an iris scanner. Yup, along with your fingerprint, you use your eyes as your "passcode" to access the device.

We'd love to see more of this tech in the future, not only because we've only seen so much of it due to the Note 7's early demise, but because it's legitimately cool and reminds you of old spy movies

Huge batteries and efficient processors

2016 is probably the year smartphone manufacturers came to their senses and finally realized that along with all the great features they've been adding, they are neglecting the part that powers it all: the battery. This year we've seen all kinds of "powerbank smartphones" such as ASUS' ZenFone Max series (4100~5000mAh) and the ZenFone 3 Ultra (4600mAh), Samsung's Galaxy A9 and A9 Pro (4000mAh and 5000mAh), Mi's Redmi Note 3 (4000mAh), Lenovo Vibe P1 (5000mAh), etc.

Also, this year marked the introduction of the extremely power-efficient Snapdragon 62 for the mid-range smartphone segment. Manufactured using a 14nm FinFET process, this chipset has proven to be so power-efficient that it can make a smartphone with a "measly" 2650mAh battery (hi, ZenFone 3 5.2) last for 12 hours in a standardized benchmark test, competing with smartphones running on 4000mAh with a similarly powered, yet older, chipsets

Tango and augmented reality
Chances are, if you're a smartphone enthusiast, you've heard of Project Tango, and no it's not a type of dance. This gives the smartphone motion tracking, area learning and depth perception features.

Sounds boring? Well here's the fun part: Tango allows for unique user experiences such as indoor location tracking (let's say, a mall's store locator app that can point you to the right direction using a live feed from your smartphone cameras), 3D mapping (create a virtual 3D environment of your surroundings), physical space measurement (no need for meter sticks!), environmental recognition (a traffic app that warns you of any possible dangers, for example), and of course, augmented reality.

We got a taste of augmented reality with the hit game Pokemon GO this 2016. It's basically introducing a virtual platform into the real world, using the smartphone's cameras and sensors as a sort of "lens" into this augmentation of virtual objects and reality

Virtual reality (Daydream)
We've had virtual reality before, in fact we've even purchased VR headsets to take advantage of virtual environments and demos on our smartphones. So what's new with Daydream?

Think of it as an Oculus or Vive for your smartphone: Daydream-supported smartphones like the Pixel and ASUS' very own ZenFone 3 Deluxe will have the capability to operate the Daydream View headset. This works in tandem with a controller that tracks your movements using a variety of sensors to ensure that virtual reality actually becomes interactive, not just a roller-coaster or horror demo on the Play Store.

In fact, there are already a bunch of games that have Daydream support, including a fan-favorite: Need For Speed: No Limits.

There you have it, the best technology that hit our trusty smartphone devices last year. Which one would you like to see on the new ZenFones about to be announced on CES 2017?

Dual Rear Cameras, huge batteries and efficient processor.

i wish ASUS could also add up a water resistant feature soon..

Water Resistant!!!! and maybe shock resistant also =P

totally agree with water resistand and shockproof