If there’s one thing that helps refresh my smartphone excitement meter every year, it’s a new system on a chip (SoC). As the brain of your smartphone, new SoC features can revolutionize the way you use your handset, from the introduction of multiple cameras and machine learning smarts to 5G networking and better gaming frame rates. Plus much more, of course.
However, many promised SoC features — even those that are now several years old — are yet to make their way to consumer handsets. There are a few reasons for this, such as manufacturer priorities and the need for wider market adoption, but either way, recent smartphone chipsets have seldom lived up to their full potential. This is obviously something to consider when mulling over a potential purchase and when following chipset hype more generally.