At the end of 2014 Apple got to launch new iPhones per usual schedule, adding a number of features that Android counterparts have had for a while. Those features were generally considered as advantages of Android crowd over “one size fits all” approach that iPhone had. Still, every single Android phone manufacturer had to know that sooner or later party would be over, and Apple would launch a phone that has the “missing” features. Key new additions to the 2014 iPhone lineup feature set which closed the gap in areas where Android was ahead were:

Bigger screen! Android makers figured out long ago that bigger screens sell better than smaller, even though they may be less convenient. Apple stuck with 3.5 inch for the longest, then 4" for two generations, and finally they entered close to 5" area and a (sigh) phablet segment. Having a bigger screen iPhone was absolutely huge for sales and a feature that potentially converted many Android faithfuls who appreciate the display size.

Multiple sizes! Apple is often conservative with different form options, and their reasoning is sound — they should know what works best, not ask customers to make the choice and regret it afterwards. But in 2014 we got to choose between a larger iPhone and a huge one with Plus moniker. This was another obvious play that Apple could and eventually would make, considering the success of large Android phones.

NFC! Again something found in Android phones for years, but it’s easy to understand why Apple didn’t put it before. There were concerns about hardware, security and so on, but most important of all is that it was only in 2014 when we got a service that could actually use NFC properly and that had a good chance of wide adoption.

1080p display! Apple for a while had most PPI on a screen, but Android crowd figured out long ago that higher densities really looked better, caught up with Apple, and then went into uncharted territories with 1440p and similar displays, offering densities even over 500 pixels per inch. iPhone 6 Plus caught up and got to around 400 PPI resolution. By the way, this 1080p resolution almost looks like something that could be related to TV, right?

Now to get to the point; this post exists mainly because I’m very surprised with how exactly underwhelming the entire lineup of Android flagship models has been this year. In the past each one of the best models that Samsung, LG, Sony and others had to offer had at least one great feature, better than what Apple put in current iPhone at the time. Not saying that the overall product was better, but usually there was at least something like a larger screen, more PPI, NFC or something.

All Android vendors by now know very well where they can excel over Apple, where the weak points are, but their top of the line offerings are simply not good enough this year considering the competition. They are far from bad, of course whichever you choose it gets you a first class PC in your pocket, but considering the leap that iPhone did, Android counterparts should have done more. First I’ll try to explain what I see as key weaknesses on model-per-model basis for flagships, and then what to do to get it right.

Samsung

Simply put, the Galaxy S6 is a strategic mistake. Samsung decided to fight Apple where Cupertino company is the strongest, while abandoning a few of their big competitive advantages. They got rid of expandable storage, removable battery and water protection, and tried compete with an iPhone-like design. They certainly succeeded with getting rid of formerly advertised features, but design of the phone is not comparable to what Apple usually comes out with. People who used to choose Galaxy S line over iPhone did it despite the design, and because Galaxy had other important features that iPhone did not. Now Samsung is asking for opposite, to pick them because of design and despite missing features. Wonder how that worked?

The other S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, exists because of following:

It’s more expensive than S6, and gives the illusion of choice so potential customers get to pick between S6 and Edge, not S6 and LG or some other model. Small chance of increased average selling price. Samsung has this neat curved screen technology, doesn’t know yet exactly what it’s best used for, so they didn’t go all-in with it. Samsung couldn’t get enough quantities of that display to have a single S6 model this year, the one with curved screen.

Galaxy Note line, coming around 6 months after the S line, is targeting power Android users who tolerate the disadvantages of huge size in order to get all the features that Samsung can think of: pressure sensitive stylus, split screen multitasking, obscene amounts of memory, insane resolution, removable storage, huge and removable battery, and so on. Like S6, this year Note 5 loses key features in order to get a nicer design. And it’s not going to be sold in Europe. And there’s an “Edge Plus” model, which will be made available in Europe, though other markets get both. Makes sense. In short, for 2015 Samsung decided to listen to the critics when it comes to design, and not listen to the faithfuls when it comes to features. The latter is what was selling their phones so far. They didn’t deliver on first but they sure did disappoint a number of customers.

HTC

After a good start in Android space and a few speed bumps, HTC made a supposed turnaround two years ago with the release of HTC One (2013), now also known as M7. The M7 moniker was actually a codename, not meant to be widely used — but that had to change the year after HTC decided to make a new phone next year, and again called it HTC One. Then in a failed attempt to make it less confusing codenames were added to official names. This year same phone again, with the name HTC One M9. And this is finally how past three models are called:

2013: HTC One

2014: HTC One (M8) (parentheses included by HTC, not me)

2015: HTC One M9

Funny thing in this story is that M7 was an internal codename, M8 too, but for the 2015 model called HTC One M9 codename is actually “Hima”. Makes sense?

Design and feature set is not a smaller mess than naming scheme: M7 was fresh and a looker, but not greatest design ever though. M8 didn’t really take it forward, and M9 took a step back. Even today on the latest model battery life is not what it should be, and after a few years the camera is still underperforming. Overall M7 set a right direction, but after two misfires HTC now has plenty of problems.

Sony

Sony’s naming scheme at least made sense until now. Top model was the Xperia Z line so we had a Z, Z2, Z3 and then of course Z3+. Wait, what? Z3 Plus, not Z4? As Tomi Ahonen put it, this was the time for Sony to step up as others were offering underwhelming phones, they had solid foundations with the Z3 and Z3 compact (top processor, screen, access to decent camera, multiple sizes) — and instead of going all in with a proper flagship Z4, so far they put out a “Z3+”. Like a minor improvement over last year’s solid model. Other manufacturers increase the number even when the phone is not necessarily much better (see above), but Sony managed to mess up even more than HTC when it comes to names.

LG, Lenovo, Huawei, Motorola, Xiaomi, OnePlus and others

I can’t go through all models exactly, but most of the other far eastern models are either lacking in some areas, or not available as widely as they should be in order to take advantage of poor lineup of competing devices for 2015. LG G4 is a solid offering but not a great one again; design-wise it’s like a G3 placed into a Galaxy S5 kind of enclosure, battery life is not stellar and there are some other software issues. OnePlus Two is advertised as “2016 flagship killer” but it’s already mocked for lacking features from 2014 Android models. Moto X offers a decent value for money, though Moto G even better. X’s 2015 lineup is kind of confusing with limited availability, 0.2 inch difference in screen size between two models, uninspired names, different resolutions, though with same camera and so on. Motorola made it a very easy decision for customers — if you go with Moto, pick a mid-range Moto G phone, not a flagship. Xiaomi is growing, but in the west it’s top models are either not available or perceived as iPhone wannabe devices. Nexus line went gigantic with 6 inch phone last year and it remains to be seen what comes out this year. Nexus lineup never sold great and now also has a naming mess, with past models being Nexus 5 and Nexus 6. They are running out of unused numbers, so whatever number next Nexus gets it will need a year number to know what model is it exactly. And of course there’s nothing in the name to make the distinction between Nexus tabled and phone, other than guessing that “7” is probably not a phone. But then again based on size alone, I’d say that “6” is also not a phone.

Overall, nothing stands out in particular, and if money is not an object for most consumers no Android flagship can be recommended over the iPhone. Mid and low range is doing great with many good phones for a fair price, but this is not a segment where the profits are, and it’s not competing with Apple for the title of best smartphone. To actually compete at the highest end of market, I feel that a contender must have as many extras as possible that Android phones can add, to give them at least some edge over the iPhone.

I understand this looks like a hollow “make it better than competition” statement, but in fact it’s not unclear what these extras should be. Phones in the past had some of them, and all of them are very obvious, not some wild fantasies. Here’s a simple list of dos and don’ts for Android flagship in order to compare more favourably to iPhones:

Removable battery and expandable storage: To make a really slim and well designed phone, it probably helps when customers can’t open it. If one can design a phone nicer than Apple does, then it’s fine to not deliver removable battery and expandable storage. But if that’s not an option, and judging by the current lineup it’s really not, one should make peace with the fact that design-wise it cannot best Apple, but instead use the opportunity to make it into a competitive advantage.

Water resistance: Related to previous, make the phone resistant in some way. IP67 makes it already better than most of the competition, and advantages of having it as feature should not be difficult to explain. It seems like an easy win over iPhone which will lack this for some time. Just don’t call it IP67 when marketing.

Bloat on the phone: Reverse Nike it (just don’t do it). Phone straight out of the box should absolutely not offer two browsers, two photos applications, two settings apps and so on. Add custom apps only when they are absolutely better for the customer , not just to put your name on as many screens as possible. For example, HTC had a fantastic smart phone dialer which would search through all numbers, names, contacts and so on. Just don’t advertise is as “our phone now has 50% less trash”.

, not just to put your name on as many screens as possible. For example, HTC had a fantastic smart phone dialer which would search through all numbers, names, contacts and so on. Just don’t advertise is as “our phone now has 50% less trash”. Get the name right: It’s insane that this needs to be said at all, but a lot of phones either don’t get naming right or run themselves into a corner in a couple of years. Don’t give the same name each year. You could use year number in the name for distinction, but then new phones immediately seem like a rehash of previous edition and not a hot new thing. There’s less perceived difference between 2015 and 2016, than between 5 and 6. Have a catchy name, ideally keep it a exclusive to high-end device. Samsung was doing this nicely until they started seriously diluting the “Galaxy” brand. If everyone is doing a letter + number, don’t be part of that crowd (G4, Z3, …). Don’t copy Apple by using a variant of “i” or “Phone”, you will regret it later.

Camera and megapixels: Offer more since that’s easy to advertise, but don’t neglect image quality. Samsung for example is doing well here. Do optical image stabilisation if possible.

Protruding camera: Make the camera not stick out of the phone. It’s ugly and gets a quick design win over the iPhones.

Multiple sizes: If possible, offer a “regular” version of around 4.5"’-5", and a large one with over 5" screen. “Regular” version however should not actually be named “compact”, or “mini”, or anything that would make it sound inferior in any way. Samsung almost does this well, but in their case “Note” means that it comes with stylus, not that it’s a large screen device. Good for them the customers don’t know that.

Colors: Yes there should obviously be multiple colors. Do a proper black color option; it’s increasingly difficult to find a proper black smartphone. Space black/grey is not a black phone.

RAM: Put as much as possible. Apple tends to go cheap on RAM. Since they own hardware and software, OS still performs well, but browser behavior for example could be better. Android makers tend to offer more RAM, but clog the system with unnecessary bloat.

Marketing: Spend a lot and make it worth your dollar. Decide whether you should go from a position of a contender (like Apple did with “I’m a Mac” ads) or just play to your strengths without too much mentioning the competition. Personally I’d prefer latter, try not to spend half of your precious ad space on talking about someone else’s product.

Things that are difficult to control: CPU, security and OS updates. Most manufacturers depend on other parties for this, mostly Qualcomm for hardware and Google/operators for updates and security. If possible one should use own resources, but if there are external dependencies try to control them. E.g. if a series of processors is troublesome due to overheating (Snapdragon?), using a slower but more reliable variant could be offset by less bloat, more RAM and so on. Also at this point it’s obvious how Android updates tend to be delivered months after new OS is done, and only to a limited crowd. While it’s true that users with a not up-to-date OS have some incentive to buy new hardware, there’s no guarantee current customers will buy your hardware again if your support is lacking.

None of this will make for a single phone that sells better than iPhone, but it gives a potential contender both means to differentiate from many other Android manufacturers, and genuine advantage over Apple’s offering. Compiling the list was not difficult, the tricky thing would be how to offer mid and low end phones at the same time, that are both competitive within that segment but not eating away too much of high end. More on that some other time.