These are the 5 phone features I think are overrated

Android Authority

5 days ago

Joe Maring / Android Authority
Flagship smartphones are the best that a manufacturer has to offer, with these devices including premium hardware and innovative features. While some brands seem to be resting on their laurels, others continue to provide consumers with inventive updates that draw more loyal fans.
But not all features are created equal — and some are definitely more about selling products than providing a good user experience. Having spent years testing out different devices from a variety of brands, I've decided that the following features are mostly overrated…
What flagship smartphone feature do you think is the most overrated?
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100MP+ camera lenses.
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Generative AI features.
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More than 12GB of RAM.
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8K video recording.
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4K displays.
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Other (specify in the comments).
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1. 100MP+ lenses
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
I used to make the mistake of thinking that a higher resolution usually resulted in a better camera experience. However, the era of smartphone cameras featuring 100MP or higher resolution lenses (including some camera lenses with 200MP) and my experience using them has thoroughly debunked this notion.
While some of the best camera phones feature these high resolution lenses, there's a lot more that determines a photo's quality than simply the raw megapixel value. HDR support, light sensitivity, optical zoom, and sensor size all contribute to the quality of a photo. Then there's the post-processing that smartphones apply to these images.
There's a lot more that determines a photo's quality than simply the raw megapixel value.
I've found that high resolution lenses have improved over the years, but many companies slap these onto their flagship smartphones as a marketing gimmick. My own S23 Ultra features a 200MP lens — and I rarely ever switch to this resolution.
This is mainly due to the trade-offs that come with these lenses. For example, when I switch to the 200MP lens on my smartphone, I can no longer zoom into the subject. You could argue that a higher resolution lens allows you to crop to zoom into the subject of the photo. But I've often found strange artifacts in the image when cropping to zoom. I also find that images I take with high resolution lenses are less saturated and lack as much contrast, leading to a duller photo overall.
The reality is that most of us use the default shooting mode on our smartphones. So I'd take a capable 50MP lens with a good sensor and zoom capabilities over the super high resolution lenses that I seldom use on smartphones. It's one of the reasons the Samsung S25 Edge is unappealing for me — limited to only two lenses, Samsung opted for a 200MP lens and a 12MP lens. There is also no telephoto camera.
2. Generative AI
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
AI is essential when it comes to smartphone features — algorithms power image processing, hardware optimization, and other important software features. But the recent wave of generative AI features are mostly unhelpful in my opinion and I've rarely come across people who use them.
As a result, I mostly avoid generative AI features on my smartphone. The features are usually unhelpful at best and inaccurate at worst.
There was the occasional instance where I was excited to try out a generative AI feature. For example, I looked forward to trying out Samsung AI's Interpreter. But the tool proved underwhelming due to its limited support for languages I use. When I tried to see if it could correctly detect what I was saying in Mandarin by using simple phrases, the translations were inaccurate.
Generative AI also comes with privacy trade-offs, but some models allow you to use on-device AI. Though you should note that by opting for this privacy setting, you actually lose out on other AI features. For example, Samsung doesn't allow me to use the AI feature that summarizes transcripts from voice recordings without turning off the option to only process data on my device.
3. More than 12GB of RAM
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Many brands have started to push past 12GB of RAM, with many flagships now including 16GB or even 24GB of RAM.
For me, 12GB has been a good balance for me when it comes to most tasks such as gaming and multi-tasking. In fact, I'd argue that for most people, 8GB of RAM is more than enough and that 12GB is mostly for those doing performance-heavy tasks such as video editing. Past this amount, it feels like brands are just increasing RAM for the sake of it. Other times, brands inflate their actual RAM allocation by counting virtual RAM as part of it.
12GB has been a good balance when it comes to most tasks such as gaming and multi-tasking.
The exception is when the device is being used for many generative AI tasks. But since I don't use generative AI on my phone, I find more than 12GB of RAM to be a bit of an overkill. It's one overrated feature that is mostly implemented for another overrated feature.
If you enjoy using the latest AI features, you should make sure your next smartphone has a lot of RAM. However, there's no guarantee that your current smartphone will receive AI features in post-release updates, even if it has enough RAM and a good processor. After all, One UI 7 is missing many features for Galaxy S23 owners.
4. 8K video recording
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
8K video recording has been around for some time on flagship smartphones, but it's one of those features that I've rarely seen people use due to its drawbacks. Smartphones that offer 8K video recording usually cap the video's framerate at 30fps, which drastically reduces the quality of the viewing experience.
There's also the fact that most of us use displays that don't support an 8K resolution — reducing the overall appetite for this type of content. That said, there may be benefits to downsampling an 8K video to 4K, but that is a niche use case and most people who are very serious about video quality would likely opt for a standalone camera rather than their smartphone.
I don't even really use 4K video recording on my smartphones.
I don't even really use 4K video recording on my smartphones, even though they both support up to 60fps. This is mostly to save space, as I don't want a simple video of my cat taking up hundreds of megabytes or several gigabytes on my phone.
What I would like to see when it comes to video recording on my next flagship smartphone is the ability to shoot video in challenging lighting environments, as this is an area where my videos always fall short.
5. 4K screens
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
I don't even bother with a 4K screen for my PC or my laptop, so 4K on a smartphone screen is definitely overkill in my opinion. However, this hasn't stopped some manufacturers creating smartphones with this resolution.
With most flagship smartphone displays measuring between 6 and 6.9-inches, there isn't much room to let a 4K resolution screen show its sharpness in all its glory. While my S23 Ultra supports a 1440p resolution, I actually use it set to 1080p to increase battery life.
This isn't a common flagship feature, but it is one that has appeared over the years — specifically on Sony phones like the Sony Xperia 1 V. But it seems like even Sony has realized that this isn't the hardware specification most flagship users are looking for, with the newer Sony Xperia 1 VI and Xperia 1 VII both including lower resolution displays.
I'd much rather that smartphone manufacturers improve displays through HDR support, higher refresh rates, and improved pixel density. Though, with foldable smartphones, especially trifold smartphones, featuring bigger displays; we may see a return to more companies opting for higher resolutions.
While I'm sure some people will disagree that a certain feature I find overrated is essential to them, I'd rather have brands focus on real improvements over marketing gimmicks. One area I would like to see some significant improvement in is durability, especially with displays being so expensive to replace nowadays.
Many brands could also improve their battery technology and longevity. In fact, I'd love to see faster charging on Samsung's high-end phones.