Metalenses are a relatively fringe optical technology — at least, they were. Until now, it has been largely pursued by startups and scientists but that is changing as Canon has jumped into the fray and not only makes them but also produces the equipment necessary to manufacture them.

  • JehovahJoe@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The goal of a metalens would be to, eventually, wholly eliminate the smartphone camera bump.

    They’ll do anything to avoid giving us a slightly thicker battery…

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        Reviewers then write “it’s got great battery life, but it’s so bulky” and take a star off. It’s possible nobody actually cares, or that most people think extra battery life is worth the bulkiness. But that’s what reviewers will write, and it will affect sales.

        See also: laptop bezels. Reviewers say you’re supposed to want the thinnest one possible. Problem is, web cams tend to be better if they can be bigger, and there isn’t enough room in those thin bezels for a good one. Thus, your laptop web cam looks substantially worse than your smartphone.

        Reviewers need to think harder about what they emphasize.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          It’s so weird what reviewers will focus on. The tiny bezel thing is terrible, for phones and laptops.

          I need to be able to hold my phone - without bezels I’m constantly touching the wrong part of the screen.

          And you already covered the laptop webcam. OK, fine, make the side and bottom bezels smaller, but leave the top one for… Wifi antennas and webcam?

      • pahlimur@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        My previous phone was a motoG power and though it was bulky and a bit laggy the battery life was amazing. It’s I think 3 years old now and I still use it in airplane mode for reasons. The battery lasts 3 weeks when I don’t touch it. Compare that the s22 I’m typing this on which barely lasts 1 day in standby with batter saver enabled. I hate this phone after having that sweet multi day battery life.

        • MonkderZweite@feddit.ch
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          1 year ago

          Ok, to be honest, Samsung software was crap and is still crap. They only fixed the lagginess with more cpu/gpu power, leading to shorter battery life.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yep, battery size and life was increasing nicely… Once it got to 1 day for the “average” user (i.e. People who barely use them) manufacturers said “good enough”.

          I charge 2-3 times a day… Though I don’t let it get below 30%, mostly in case I need to suddenly walk out the door.

          And I can’t even buy an external battery phone case these days, like I used to.

          • pahlimur@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah I’m old enough to have started with candy bar phones. Battery life has been creeping back below 1 day for a while. That motoG power would play music on Bluetooth all day if I started at 10% battery. It could also sit at 1% battery for hours if I didn’t touch it. Getting this new flagship phone is making me realize I value battery life way more than I realized.

            Biggest issue with the older motoG was the camera sucked. I think the new version fixed that so I’ll probably go back to it.

    • Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Fuck smartphones, I wanna finally have glasses that are thin, light, and without distortions, reflections, or chromatic aberration