There's still time to grab an Apple AirPods deal for just under £125 in January sales

The final few weeks of 2019 proved fruitful for Apple AirPod deal hunters, and these excellent prices are sticking around for the January sales. Currys and Laptops Direct currently have the best prices going on the normal 2019 AirPods as well as the version that includes a wireless charging case for extra convenience. You can pick up a standard set for as low as £124 this week - an excellent price for Apple's premium earbuds. 

During Black Friday, we saw AirPods sell out at their discounted rate across the board, so these could sell out fast. Likewise, the more expensive wireless charging version of the 2019 AirPods are back down to £159 at Currys, which is pretty much the sale price we saw previously. 

With these true wireless earbuds, you can enjoy up to 20 hours of battery life and three hours of talk time with a single charge. Its H1 Chip allows for quicker pairing and connectivity with no issues, plus you can ask Siri questions as you go, totally hands-free. 

(Not in the UK? Scroll down for the best AirPod prices in your region.)

UK Apple AirPod deals

If you'd rather wait in the event of a January Sales price cut, keep an eye on our Apple AirPods deals hub for updated prices on the earbuds. Need AirPods deals where you are? No problem. Our price comparison chart below can help.

• The best January sales

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The cheapest Dyson sales, offers and deals for vacuum cleaners for January 2020

Dyson vacuum cleaners have become some of the most highly-sought after items in the home thanks to their excellent build quality, suction power and eye-catching design. So where are the cheapest Dyson sales happening right now?

We've got you covered as we've just updated our guide to the best Dyson vacuum cleaner deals with our price comparison technology searching through the best retailers for the best prices. With some of the older Dyson's being put out to pasture now, we've highlighted the most recent models, along with some of the older ones we still think are worth a look when the price is right.

• After the best robot vacuum cleaner? See our definitive guide

Dyson's cordless vacuum cleaners with a pole attachment are the most popular options nowadays, so that's what we've covered first. And while all of the V-series models we've mention can also be used in handheld mode by removing the pole, there is a bespoke handheld Dyson called the V7 Trigger we've highlighted too. After that, you'll find our picks of the best remaining traditional upright Dysons if you prefer the raw power and always-ready options provided by being able to plug-in directly to the mains at home. 

Dyson isn't stopping with just vacuum cleaners too, the company has also made one of the world's top rated hair dryers too. Take a look at the latest Dyson hair dryer prices too if you don't believe us.

If you're after the very best cordless vacuum cleaner on the market, the Dyson V11 Absolute can't be beaten as the UK company has somehow made the V series' Air Watts (AW) suction even higher than the V10s. There's even a fancy LCD display, because apparently Dyson is getting too fancy for mere coloured lights.

This improved tech makes it the most expensive Dyson on the market though and it's a bit heavier than the older model and takes longer to charge too. But if you're after that top-level performance on carpets and hard surfaces, this is the one for you. If you're willing to compromise though, you could save a lot of money by checking out the V10 or older models available as those prices are likely to keep dropping now.

The Dyson V11 Animal has probably caught your eye today as it's a fair whack cheaper than the V11 Absolute. Let's find out why.

The V11 Animal is just as powerful, but doesn't come with a soft roller cleaner head, which is excellent on hard surfaces as it's able to pick up fine dust that the regular roller version might miss. Otherwise, the UK attachments are the same as those found on the V11 Absolute. So if you're not too bothered about the diminished (but still pretty great) performance on hard surfaces as you need the vacuum for carpets more anyways, you may as well save the cash by opting for the V11 Animal.

This was the top end cordless Dyson until the V11 came along, but given the massive difference in price, this might be the most sensible option for most buyers. Compared to the V8 (there was no V9, number fans) it has improved suction, better battery and a larger dirt bin. The V10 marks the first time we had a genuine alternative to a corded vacuum cleaner. In the box you'll find a direct drive cleaner head, soft roller cleaner head, docking station and a charger. The Absolute also comes with a selection of quick-release items like the combination tool, mini motorhead tool, mini soft dusting brush and the crevice tool.

Only available in the UK. For the extra cost at launch (£50 more) it could be said you didn't really get enough to justify the extra cost of the V10 Total Clean over the Absolute. Since then though, prices have naturally dropped and you might be able to get the Total Clean for a price closer to the Absolute's if the extras appeal to you. 

Extra attachments aside, the V10 Total Clean is the same excellent cordless vacuum cleaner as the Absolute. You'll still find a direct drive cleaner head, soft roller cleaner head, docking station and a charger in the box. The quick-release attachments are different though. Here you're getting a mattress tool, an up-top adaptor (for on top of cupboards etc), an extension hose, combination tool, mini motorhead tool, mini soft dusting brush and the crevice tool.

It's all in the name here, the Dyson V10 Animal is specially designed to suck up all those annoying pet hairs from your carpets and furniture. Where other vacuums often seem to just push the hair in deeper, the V10 Animal really dives in to get them out. Tools included with the V10 Animal include a combination tool, crevice tool, mini motorised tool and a soft dusting brush.

What you don't get in the V10 Animal package (hence the cheaper price) is the soft roller brush which is especially good on hard surfaces as it provides more complete coverage and gathers finer dust and dirt particles that the regular roller might not pick up. So if you have more hard floors than carpets at home, you may want to take a look at the Absolute models instead.

Just a few short years ago, the V8 was the ultimate version of Dyson's cordless rechargeable vacuum cleaners. If you get lucky, you might find them with a big discount compared to the V10, but we often find the prices a bit close for our liking. If that's the case when you're taking a look, we'd opt for the extra power on the V10 instead. The Absolute model comes with a soft roller head (great for hard floors) in addition to the regular one.

Like the V8 Absolute above, we're finding prices aren't really dropping low enough on the V8 Animal compared to its newer V10 counterpart to justify opting for the older version. When prices are this close we'd prefer the significantly better suction on the V10 Animal instead.

If prices do drop to an appropriate level the V8 cordless vacuum cleaner is a lightweight vacuum cleaner that's still very capable despite its lower power. The main difference between this and the Absolute above is the lack of a soft brush roller head, which is great for picking up finer dirt on hard surfaces. If you're using this more for carpets though, then you might as well save the money with the cheaper V8 Animal version.

The Dyson V7 Trigger wipes the floor with handheld vacuum cleaners as you know them. You know which ones, those weedy little things that look more like an anteater's nose than a vacuum cleaner and barely make hair balls wobble never mind removed. So if you're ready for a whopping 100 Air Watts of suction, check out the V7 Trigger.

These are best suited for getting to those hard to reach places like doorframes as well as cleaning up dust from hard surfaces of removing pet hair from the sofa. If your home doesn't have any carpets, this is a very viable option instead and can be easily stored in smaller places regular vacuum cleaner wouldn't fit. Naturally, all of the cordless vacuums mentioned earlier on this page allow you to remove the tube for a handheld mode too, although they're significantly more expensive than these Dyson V7 Trigger prices.

As you've seen with the other Dyson vacuum cleaners on this page, they're far from cheap. For the most part at least, as the Dyson Light Ball is less than half the price of the newest cordless vacuum cleaners.

Sure you've got a power cord on it and upright vacuums aren't ideal on the stairs, but if you want a powerful cleaner with the Dyson name on it, the highly manoeuvrable Light Ball comes highly recommended thanks to it's 90W of suction power that can handle carpets and hard surfaces alike.

It has a larger storage bin than the cordless Dysons too so you certainly won't need to empty it anywhere near as often. While not as powerful as some of the more expensive upright Dysons we feel this one offers the best value for money given the sharp price increase on the others.

Looking for something lightweight but not bothered about going cordless yet? The Dyson Small Ball is one of the lightest upright vacuum cleaners in Dyson's range at 5.5Kg and has a collapsible handle allowing you to store it in smaller spaces than most uprights. The Small Ball is also available in an 'Animal' variant that comes with a turbine tool for getting stubborn pet hair off the furniture.

So you're after the beast huh? The 120AW suction power rating should pick up anything you and the kids can throw on the carpet. Hell, those carpet tacks better look out! With a 2.18 litre storage bin you'll be hoovering for ages before needing to empty it out and the 15m reach should let you get around most of the house without having to swap plugs.

• Want to see what the best vacuum cleaner is right now? Check out: Best vacuum cleaners: from cordless Dyson to robot Roomba

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The MacBook Pro could get a HomePod-style audio upgrade

Apple only just pushed out a new MacBook Pro, but it's continuing to work on future models – and the next update could include some rather clever audio upgrades, based on a recently filed Apple patent.

The patent details an acoustic setup not unlike the one found on the Apple HomePod: it would be able to adjust the output from a MacBook Pro's on-board speakers to make it sound like it was coming from somewhere else.

These sort of "virtual acoustics" can enhance the experience of watching movies and sports games by creating a more immersive feel. It's not quite like being in the action, but it's getting there.

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The system would apparently use algorithms to work out how to manipulate sounds based on the position of the person listening, the various surfaces in the room, and so on.

Headphones or speakers

Similar effects could be achieved even if the listener was wearing headphones, the patent says, based on tweaks made to the audio signals being sent to the left and the right ears.

"Audio signal processing for virtual acoustics can greatly enhance a movie, a sports event, a videogame or other screen viewing experience, adding to the feeling of 'being there'," explains the patent.

While the patent focuses mostly on audio produced by loudspeakers on a laptop, this technology might not be used exclusively in future MacBook Pros – it might also come to the cheaper MacBook Air and various other Apple products.

In fact, as with any patent, it might not appear in any devices at all, at least not anytime soon. Patents do give us an idea of what companies are exploring, but there's no guarantee we'll ever see a finished product with the same tech included.

• Apple could be about to launch a Product Red Apple Watch

Via AppleInsider

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TechRadar India Awards 2019: The Winners

We have often talked about how great a market India is for tech products, especially smartphones. Every brand is trying to bring the latest innovations to lower prices, and It has made India one of the most lucrative market for any brand.

TechRadar India team feels privileged to be able to witness this shift from the front seat and share our thoughts about these products as they enter the market.

The Indian smartphone scene needs little introduction, and most of you would know how competitive and exciting the market has become. After having gone through dozens of them, we thought it would only be fair if we could somehow give the due recognition and acknowledge the teams behind these products.

Smartphones had a great run in 2019. We got our first wave of foldable smartphones giving us a glimpse at the future; cameras grew in terms of number as well as abilities, fast charging became common across all price segments, USB Type-C became standard in a way it was destined to. Manufacturers finally started understanding the importance of great software experience.

Of course, some devices did a better job than others, but overall, the segment moved in the right direction.

We also tried to implement a new methodology that would make these awards even more objective and foolproof. It started with scoring every aspect of every product we tested this year on specific parameters that mattered the most. The overall best scoring devices made it to the final round, where they were compared with each other, with inputs from our experts.

For each category, we had an expert help us decide the final winner, which were selected for their extensive knowledge for the particular category. For the first edition, we have a total of ten categories:

• Popular Choice Award
• Best Gaming Smartphone 
• Best Budget Smartphone
• Best Camera Smartphone
• Most Innovative Product
• Best Value for Money Smartphone
• Best Designed Product
• Best Brand Experience
• Best Smartphone
• Expert Choice Award

Let’s start with the Popular choice awards. This year, many names created a ripple in the smartphone industry. In simple words, these are the phones that earned a special place among you guys. 

We teamed up with Ashwin Sundar, host of the Technology Jock YouTube channel, who gave us insights as to which smartphones got a great response and created a fan following of sorts. These finalists were then open to public voting, where our readers voted for their favorite smartphone of the year. The final winner was calculated based on a combination of the public votes and the jury.

Winner, Popular Choice Award 2019: Realme XT

“Honestly, I was not surprised. Realme’s X series had been truly game-changing in 2019. With the XT, you get a great Snapdragon chip, a Super AMOLED display, quad-cameras, including a 64MP sensor for just Rs 16,000, a combination that is hard to find in this price segment.”

Moving on to the best gaming smartphone of the year. Not only did we see the mobile gaming boom in the country, but we think that this segment, as a whole, improved the most in 2019. Last year, one could’ve dismissed them calling a gimmick or a niche, but this year, they looked refined, made strides in the user experience, and became more suitable as a daily driver.

After discussions with YouTuber Dhananjay Bhosale, we narrowed down the finalists to the ASUS ROG Phone 2, the OnePlus 7T, and the Nubia Red Magic 3S. Dhananjay, tell us who the MVP is!

The final contenders included the ASUS ROG Phone II, the OnePlus 7T, and the Red Magic 3S by Nubia. Dhananjay helped us figure out the MVP of this round.

Winner, Best Gaming Smartphone of 2019: ASUS ROG Phone II

“A 120Hz screen on a huge screen, two USB Type-C ports, a headphone jack, 6,000mAh battery, great accessory support for Rs 38,000 is killer—the best pair of stereo speakers and thermal performance of any gaming smartphone of 2019.”

Another segment that matured a lot was the budget segment. The race saw many elements from the premium mid-range trickle down to the sub-Rs 20,000 segments. In fact, we’d go as far as saying that India is probably the best market for those looking for budget smartphones.

While there were two obvious champion brands in this round, 2019 saw many manufacturers take the budget segment more seriously in hopes of grabbing a piece of the pie.

Our top 3 picks for the best budget smartphone of the year are Redmi Note 8 Pro, the Realme XT and the Nokia 7.2. Abhishek Bhatnagar, from Gadgets to Use, is here to help us decide the winner.

Winner, Best Budget Smartphone of 2019: Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro

“The winner is the Redmi Note 8 Pro for a great processor, a great display, a big battery, and everything else you’d expect from a budget smartphone, inching out the Realme XT.”

This year, we saw most manufacturers move to multiple camera lenses on their smartphones. Apple even added a secondary camera on its most affordable iPhone. Ultrawide sensors became the norm, with many flagships also adding a telephoto lens for an extended focal range. 

Our finalists all had a very different approach with the combination of their cameras: the iPhone 11 Pro completed the focal range trifecta beautifully, while the Huawei P30 Pro took it to the extreme by fitting a periscopic telephoto camera which could shoot at a crazy 50x zoom, and the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ sticking to the standards while adding a slew of AR features. Ershad Kaleebullah from Mr. Phone helped us figure out which was the Best Camera Smartphone of the year!

Winner, Best Camera Smartphone of 2019: Huawei P30 Pro

“The reason why the Huawei P30 Pro was chosen as the best camera smartphone was for its zooming and low light capabilities, giving you a lot of versatility which very few other smartphones can match.”

Alright, let’s spice things up a bit and move beyond smartphones. One of the reasons why we all love technology is the constant pace of innovation and crazy ideas we get to see. Some of these innovations change the way we use products, while others are just plain enjoyable. 

For us, the best innovations of the year were the Samsung Galaxy Fold, Bose Frames, GoPro Max, Huawei P30 Pro’s periscopic camera, and ECG on the Apple Watch.

Winner, Most Innovative Product of 2019: Samsung Galaxy Fold

"The Galaxy Fold takes this one, for its futuristic approach to design, and almost successful implementation of what looks to be the next big revolution in smartphones."

Another reason why we're highlighting these innovative features is to see them eventually trickle down to affordable segments, which is a crucial part of our next category - the Best Value For Money smartphone of 2019.

Our top 3 picks were the Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro, the OnePlus 7T, and the iPhone 11, all of them champions at their respective price points.

Tushar Mehta from XDA Developers joined us to decide which smartphone is truly a daily driver material. 

Winner, Best Value for Money Smartphone of 2019: OnePlus 7T

“The OnePlus 7T built upon the brand’s legacy of never settling for anything but undiluted performance. It allures you with its tempting looks, the fluid 90Hz display and unrivaled performance in the Android cadre thanks to the Snapdragon 855+.”

Another prevalent trend for the year was an increased focus on product design. Consumers in India have also started considering the looks, especially in the premium segment... Obviously, who doesn't like something that looks as good as it works?

Nominees included the Dyson V11 Absolute Pro, Samsung Galaxy Fold, Oxygen OS, GoPro HERO8, the Sigma FP, and the Vivo NEX3. 

Winner, Best Designed Product of 2019: Dyson V11 Absolute Pro 

Who would’ve thought that a vacuum cleaner would take this crown?

This year we also saw brands strengthen their post-purchase services such as offline availability, product life, after-sales support, and regular updates. So with the Brand Experience award, we're acknowledging the most reliable brand of 2019.

This was an open category where readers could vote for their favorite tech brand of the year, which gave them the best experience from start to end. We had industry veteran Abhishek Baxi join us and explain how the winner claimed the spot and share insights around the topic.

Winner, Best Brand Experience: OnePlus India

Alright, now let’s get to the hottest award of them all, the prestigious Best Smartphone of the year 2019. The no-holds-barred, best of the best smartphone that landed in India. 

While choosing the best smartphone, our main intention was to filter out the all-rounder that’s capable of doing anything you throw at it and gives the best possible results. We ignored the price for this one as we’re looking at the ultimate best that money can buy. 

A lot of you might have guessed who the winner will be, but we had Raju PP from TechPP to make things official for this category and explain why there was a clear champion smartphone.

Winner, Best Smartphone of 2019: Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max

"Apple has completely nailed it with the iPhone 11 series; the iPhone 11 Pro Max, in particular, has an amazing battery, possibly the best set of cameras with no one else coming close for video recording, and iOS 13 is well optimized and feature-rich."

Needless to say, there were many other gadgets that we and our jury tried this year and will remember for a long time. So, for our last category, we let the jury members talk about their favorite tech of the year that they really loved.

Winners, Expert Choice Awards 2019:

Abhishek Baxi: Google Nest Hub

Abhishek Bhatnagar: Foldable displays

Ashwin Sundar: Night Mode on smartphone cameras

Dhananjay Bhosale: AMD Ryzen 3000 series chipsets

Ershad Kaleebullah: Mi Smart Water Purifier

Raju PP: Dyson V11 Absolute Pro

Tushar Mehta: Periscopic camera on the Huawei P30 Pro

Aakash Jhaveri: Ather S450

Siddharth Chauhan: ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo

Sudhanshu Singh: Bose Soundbar 700

That's all for the first edition of TechRadar India Awards. Big thanks to our jury members, readers, and partners for making this possible. We will be back in 2020, with a bigger ceremony and more categories beyond smartphones.

Season's greetings and a Happy New Year!

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This Instax Mini 9 and film deal is a great combo in the January sales

If you're looking for a way to document the fun you'll be having in January (to offset the impending blues) then an instant camera is a fun way to do so.

The Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 dropped down to its best ever price for Boxing Day and has remained there into the January sales - and you can save on the price of a mini film pack too - with the combo costing just £84.98 at Amazon. Not in the UK? Check out the prices on the Instax Mini 9 where you down below.

The Instax Mini 9 tops our list of the best instant cameras, with praise heaped up on its simple controls, which makes it appropriate for beginner photographers of all ages. You've also got a nice variety of colours to choose from with this classic camera.

The Instax Mini 9 has a mirror on the front so it can take selfies, and it comes with a 10-shot mini film pack, so you don't have to spend any extra to get started and take photos. The camera is the same price as it was during Black Friday 2019, which marked its lowest price drop on Amazon to date. 

The additional mini film pack, too, is at its best price. That'll let you take 50 additional shots, which gives the budding photographer in your life plenty of flexibility.

There's a close-up lens attachment if you need to zoom in to take a photo, too. This isn't the most feature-rich instant camera available, of course, but that's not really the point. If you want to start a new hobby in 2020 without dropping too much money, consider picking up the Instax Mini 9 at this impulse-level price.

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A Product Red edition Apple Watch might be on the way soon

Apple could be on the verge of launching a Product Red edition of its Apple Watch, to go with the Product Red iPhones and iPods that it has previously sold.

The charity editions of these devices raise money for the Product Red charity tackling AIDs in Africa, but until now there's never been a Product Red Apple Watch – only Product Red Apple Watch bands.

Details of this potentially upcoming device were spotted in an Apple database by WatchGeneration, with a new reference number separate from the existing models, before they were swiftly removed.

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Make of that what you will, but it wouldn't be a huge surprise if a Product Red Apple Watch was on the way, considering Apple's previous partnerships with the charity.

Who watches the watch makers?

The Apple Watch 5 was only launched in September, so it's a bit early for an entire refresh, but Apple might release a new Product Red model sometime in the first few months of 2020 just to keep interest ticking over until September 2020.

It seems that any Product Red Apple Watch would be priced at the lower end of the range, using an aluminum casing and matching the color of the Product Red iPod Touch.

The cheapest Apple Watch Series 5 can be yours for $399 / £399 / AU$649, so expect any Product Red edition to be somewhere close to that. Of course for now this is just speculation until Apple says something officially.

We're still a long way off from the Apple Watch Series 6, but from what we've heard so far, it could come with a new microLED display technology, longer battery life, better water resistance, and more reliable connectivity. Who knows, it might even come in red.

• Xiaomi has a new smartwatch to show you as well

Via Pocket-lint

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Currys sale: up to 40% off TVs, laptops and more in the January sales 2020

The Currys January sale is live - and there are deals by the shed-load. Whether you're after discounts on laptops, TVs, headphones, games consoles, smart home products or appliances, Currys' sale has lots to offer, with up to 40% off thousands of products.

Although this is the 'January sale', the Currys sale has technically been live since before Christmas. But there are lots of fresh price cuts for the new year, and tonnes of deals to be had - you'll find the best ones here on this page. (Alternatively, if you want access to all the best savings around right now, you'll find all the best January sales listed elsewhere on the site.)

• Browse all of today's Currys sale deals

We've seen some prices fall to Black Friday levels. However, there are a few other key reasons to shop at Currys in the January sales too. For one, they do in-store delivery, which is a useful option if you're travelling around the country - although, as we found on Christmas day when trying to purchase a TV, it's not always possible to get what you want delivered in-store.

Like most retailers, Currys also has a price match guarantee (scroll down this page for more on that). Read on for our pick of best deals in Currys' January sale...

Currys January sale: quick links

• Currys TV deals - up to £900 off TVs
• Currys game consoles - £25 off bundles
• Currys small appliance deals - half price mixers, microwaves and more
• Currys large appliance deals - discounts on washing machines and hobs
• Currys multi-room speakers - up to a third off
• Currys Bluetooth speakers - half price speakers
• Currys Hi-Fi systems - save up to £70

Today's best deals in the Currys January sale

Currys January sales you missed

Currys had some fantastic cheap smart speaker deals, which have sadly now expired – you can still buy many of the products below at a discount, though they won't be as cheap as they were previously.

Looking for more? Scroll down for the best smart speaker prices in your region. 

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Whether it's Christmas, Black Friday, or the January sales, online retailers are always looking to undercut each other on price. That's good news for consumers, but it does mean you have to spend time searching around the web to make sure you're paying as little as possible for a particular gadget.

Enter Currys Price Match Promise. As the name suggests, Currys will match the price of a product if you can find it cheaper elsewhere – there are a few terms and conditions to make a note of, but that's the gist.

It means that if you see the same product available for less at any other retailer – either online or in store – Currys will match that price if you shop with it instead. The company will even match any discount codes that are being offered, so you don't need to pay a penny more than you have to.

There are a few terms and conditions to bear in mind, as we've mentioned: the competing offer must be from a UK retailer, and the items must be identical, right down to the model number (it's always worth double-checking). Also, delivery and installation charges, product protection services and other add-ons aren't included, so factor those out when comparing prices.

Read more: How to use the Currys Price Match Promise

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What could your future smartphone look like in 2030?

It’s the end of the decade, and you’re seeing plenty of retrospectives rounding up the last ten years of smartphones, and tech in general – but what about the future, and the tech advances it might bring? How could smartphones change in the next ten years?

We’ve looked at a few trends of the 2010s, and in particular 2019, and guessed at where these trends could go by the year 2030. We’ve looked at everything from foldable phones to USB ports and 6G.

It’s worth pointing out that this speculation could end up being totally, totally off, as guessing tends to be, so come 2030 the smartphone industry could be totally different to how we suggest here.

Foldable phones in the future

The foldable Samsung Galaxy Fold

Foldable phones really entered the public eye in 2019, with multiple devices like the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Motorola Razr 2019 launched (although the latter wasn’t available to buy during the year), and they’re only going to get more popular as more devices are released.

So, by 2029, could we all own foldable phones? Well, that depends on how phone companies navigate the next few years. At the moment, foldable phones are largely considered interesting gimmicks, but ones that most people (other than tech fans) wouldn’t consider buying as their next phone.

This is because of how pricey they are, and also because software hasn’t been developed that really makes the most of the form factor.

So if the next few years brings foldable phones that are affordable and, more importantly, vital for certain functions, people will leap on board. Ten years is a long time, and it’s highly likely that foldable phones will become affordable and useful pretty soon, but that depends on how willing people are to ditch the tried and trusted form factor of ‘normal’ phones.

Will 5G and 6G be popular?

The 5G LG V50 ThinQ

5G is already out and about in several countries, although at the close of 2019 it still remains to be seen how long it will take for people to get on board with the tech. Its added speed doesn’t mean much for people in high-speed areas, where 4G is already faster than most people need, and no apps have been launched that really make the most of the high-speed connection.

But in the coming years, companies will launch more 5G phones and fewer 4G phones, following the pattern of every new generation of connectivity, to the point where it’s ‘normal’ to buy a 5G phone, just as you’d buy a 4G phone now. 

That’s less because people need a high-speed phone, and more just because most of the devices on shelves will be 5G, with few (or no) 4G options

Towards the end of the decade, we could even see mentions of 6G (Donald Trump has already been demanding it), but we’ll have to see how much people take to 5G, and if we really need even faster connections, before knowing for sure.

The future of front-facing cameras

The Samsung Galaxy A80 with a pop-up array 

One of biggest differentiating features between different smartphones nowadays is the front-facing camera – does your phone have a big notch like an iPhone, a teardrop notch like plenty of phones use, a punch-hole cut-out like many Samsung phones, a pop-up like several companies have embraced, or something else entirely?

Well, it’s possible that future phones will have none of the above – the front-facing cameras could actually be under the display. Oppo has shown off this tech already, and it’s likely other companies are working on it too. This method removes the front snapper from view, so it won’t take up screen space but also won’t take up lots of internal space either (like pop-ups do).

So what about the camera itself? Towards the end of 2019, we've seen a few smartphones use two front-facers, one to take a picture and a secondary snapper for depth sensing, for more accurate background blur.

In the next few years, and especially into 2030, we’d expect this trend to get more established – selfies are one of the main types of picture you’ll take on your phone after all. Phones could even introduce an ultra-wide front-facing camera for group selfies, with a depth sensor or software that can create background blur for a whole group.

Goodbye ports

An Oppo prototype with no ports

Many phones are dropping the 3.5mm headphone jack already, and those things will be ancient history by 2030 – it would be a surprise if many phones even in 2020 kept the port. As more users flock towards wireless headphones over wired ones, the amount of phone users who need to physically plug their headphones into their smartphone will reduce, and in ten years, after years of advances in Bluetooth technology, we’d be surprised if many people use wired headphones at all.

More uncertain is the presence of a USB port to plug your phone into a computer or charger. We’ve already seen a few prototype phones without this port, as handsets can rely on wireless charging to power up and Wi-Fi, mobile data or NFC options to send information and files to a computer.

It’s likely as wireless chargers get more popular and, more importantly, faster at powering up your device, people will rely less on physical wires, making a port more and more redundant. In that way, it echoes the use of wireless headphones, and in 2030 portless smartphones could be the new normal.

More rear cameras?

The Nokia 9 PureView with five rear cameras

While you may think the future will bring you phones with plenty of smartphone cameras, far more so than now, that might not end up being the case: there are only so many different kinds of lens, so we’ll soon reach a point where adding more lenses adds nothing new.

No, in fact, the real change will likely be megapixel count – at the end of 2019 the highest resolution in a smartphone is 108MP in the Xiaomi Mi Note 10, but it looks like a number of phones in 2020 are gearing up to match that. In ten years, though, that number could be through the roof.

Well, at least five times nearer the roof. Scientists have estimated that the human eye sees roughly 576MP, but that’s assuming perfect vision with an image right by your face, so if you’re looking at a phone at arm’s length and don’t have flawless vision, that number is higher than you’ll ever need.

So people don’t need cameras with incredibly high megapixel counts, and it would be a surprise if phone companies decided to even reach 576MP. Saying that, advances in megapixel count will almost certainly be more pronounced in 2030 than the number of rear cameras.

• These are the best smartphones in 2019, not 2030

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