2018 went by pretty quickly, and we’ve seen some interesting tech trends unfold throughout the year. Display notches on smartphones really exploded, AMD continued its momentum – especially in the CPU market – and Fortnite’s massive popularity took the limelight away from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in the battle royale genre.
Moving into 2019, we’re positive we will see even more interesting tech trends emerge, and here are some we’re particularly excited about.
Creative Solutions to the Display Notch
Display notches became a huge thing in 2018, and almost every major smartphone maker introduced a notch of some kind on their devices. Interestingly, some manufacturers did manage to remove the notch with creative solutions like a sliding mechanism and “hole-punch” design.
Chances are, we’ll see more implementations like this throughout the year, especially with the hole-punch design approach. Maybe we’ll even see more ingenious designs, and who knows – perhaps more manufacturers will be able to eliminate the smartphone chin like Apple.
New Smartphone Form Factor
Now, “new” isn’t the most apt description here, but it’s certainly a new take on an “old” design. That’s right, we’re talking about foldable smartphones, which will very likely see the light of day this year.
Perhaps the most high profile foldable smartphone unveiled – well, sort of – thus far is the prototype from Samsung. Sporting the Korean company’s new Infinity Flex Display, the phone can fold open to reveal a larger, tablet-sized display.
It’s a technological marvel, that’s for sure, but whether or not the foldable display will serve any meaningful functionality still remains to be seen. At the end of the day, it’s up to phone makers to make the best out of the new technology.
5G Is Becoming a Reality
The hardware to enable 5G technology is here, and it’s only a matter of time before network operators start pushing for the new standard. It’s very likely 5G connectivity will be implemented globally in one form or another this year, but whether or not this will happen in Malaysia is an entirely different question.
Of course, it’s always possible 5G connectivity will be a reality even in Malaysia in 2019. If there’s any telco in this country that can accomplish this, it will definitely stand out from the rest.
More Exciting GPU Market
There are two big names in the GPU market: Nvidia, and AMD. In 2018, it was mostly Nvidia’s year with its range of RTX series graphics cards. AMD, on the other hand, only released a couple of “new” GPUs, which were mostly just revisions of its existing products.
For 2019, however, it should be an exciting year for PC hardware enthusiasts. After all, this is the year AMD will finally release its 7nm graphics cards for the consumer market, along with its 7nm Zen 2 processors. How soon will we hear about AMD’s plan for the year? Perhaps as early as next week at CES 2019.
That being said, it’s unlikely that AMD will reveal its highly anticipated Navi GPUs at the trade show next week; that will probably happen much later into the year. Nonetheless, 2019 will be an exciting year for the GPU market.
Gaming Console Hardware Revisions
It’s a little bit early to say for sure, but there is a chance we will see some notable hardware revisions with gaming consoles in 2019. We probably won’t see any big changes with the PlayStation and Xbox ecosystems, but there is one console that will possibly get a hardware revision: the Nintendo Switch.
Released back in 2017, the Switch is still a relatively new portable console, but rumours are suggesting that Nintendo will revise the hardware of the system sometime this year – one of the biggest upgrades the Switch will supposedly get is a better (and generally more desirable) OLED display. Compared to the current Switch’s LCD display, this hardware upgrade alone may be enough for consumers to get the new version. An OLED panel will be able to deliver better power efficiency, image quality, and superior black levels.
But it’s still largely a mystery when – or if – Nintendo will release a new version of the Switch, though many are convinced it will happen sometime this year. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of hardware updates (aside from the display) the new Switch will bring to the table.
Without a doubt 2019 will be another exciting year for the tech industry in various fields. On top of that, with CES 2019 just around the corner, we won’t have to wait long to see what the year has in store for us too.