With robotics already making our lives easier, it’s no surprise that many great tech options get specifically designed to enhance your smartphone experience, from the best Sony earbuds to the most popular portable speakers. While some bits of kit are pretty commonplace, others are unique and offer advantages many people don’t know of yet. Today, we look at some of the most innovative smartphone accessories that every smartphone user needs.
Expand Your Smartphone Camera
When we buy a smartphone, most of us accept that the camera tech is pretty set. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. Camera lens manufacturers spotted a game in the market and have begun producing various camera lenses designed for smartphones.
Most of these kits focus on iPhones, but Android users will find alternatives. How these lenses work is that you clip them over a lens on your smartphone, and the lens works with the existing focus to create an entirely new focal length,
Using the macro lens on your phone’s main camera, you can use your phone for extremely close-up macro photography. Alternatively, you could add a fisheye lens to your wide-angle camera for that ‘small world’ effect. The only limits are your imagination.
Make Your Phone An All-In-One Computer Solution
This one is mostly for Samsung users. You may have noticed that your new Samsung has a feature called DeX. If you have ever tried using it without setting it up, you probably think it is a stupid feature that wants to connect to your other smart devices.
It is not that. Rather, it is an innovative feature that Samsung has developed for some time now. The goal is to turn your smartphone into a full-fledged desktop experience and replace your traditional laptop or computer.
You can use many little docks and cables to set DeX up to mimic a traditional desktop computer. However, that is not all that useful when the real draw of the technology is the mobility offered by using a single device. Fortunately, a product called NexDock has you covered.
NexDock is essentially a laptop without the computer part inside. However, it has a fully functioning keyboard, trackpad, and everything you expect from a modern laptop. The only difference is it gets designed to pair with your DeX capable smartphone and give you a true laptop experience.
The benefits of this setup are huge. First, consider having all your files on one device. Then, your media and files don’t need to sync every five minutes because you only use one device. And the possibilities the tech presents for the future are even more exciting.
Wireless Charging Surfaces
We have not shared the rest of the industry’s enthusiasm for wireless charging tech. The problem strikes you when you start using it. You have a small round disk that still has a USB cable plugged into a power brick. You still have to put your phone in a specific place to charge it. Only now, your phone sits precariously on a silly magnetic hockey puck thing.
Oh, and it’s slower than traditional charging and tends to heat your phone. All that when you could take the cable that gets plugged into the wireless charger, plug it straight into your phone/ You then get three times the charging speed, and you can put your phone anywhere safe without worrying it will fall off its charger, leaving you with a dead battery in the morning.
At least, this was our opinion until new tech iterations hit the market. We assume these companies also realized that standard wireless chargers are cool yet utterly idiotic. So these new products include wireless charging surfaces.
The charging pads have a much bigger surface area, all in a low profile. So you can charge more than one device at a time, and although it is still a bit silly, at least it is not frustrating to use. And you would be surprised at how much of a difference it makes when you can simultaneously charge more than one device on a charging pad.
One of the most popular addition to your phone that can be charged this way are the AirPods that come with the latest iPhones, or other wireless headphones from Sony and others. It’s important to have the same solution in case you decide to get a new pair. Make sure to do some research and figure out how to pair your Beats Fit Pro with the charging case for earbuds as this will make it much more convenient and useful. That way, you can enjoy wireless audio from your smartphone wherever you go without worrying about carrying extra charging cables around for the earbuds. With this setup, you’ll be able to listen to your favorite music or take calls with ease!
MagSafe Battery Pack
Okay, we just criticized wireless charging in the previous tip, so why are we promoting a wireless magnetic power bank? Well, the Apple MagSafe battery pack has a trick up its sleeve. This little 1,460mAh might sound modest, but it competes with traditional battery packs thanks to a unique voltage system.
It tackles a problem with which many people will be all too familiar—charging your phone on your person while you are busy. Have you ever walked around with a battery pack in one pocket and a charging cable leading to your phone in the other pocket?
It is a ridiculous experience, and the Apple MagSafe battery pack does away with it. The pack secures on the MagSafe magnetic mechanism on the back of your iPhone and uses the wireless charging coil to charge your phone without running any cables. Furthermore, it is less intrusive than your average heavy-duty phone case, so you won’t have to walk around with a bulging pocket.
Razor Gaming Controller
Modern smartphones are powerful computers. More powerful than many people realize. It is a thought that strikes when you hear someone demand the latest chipset when they will only ever use their phone for business calls and emails. It is a waste, given a modern iPhone has more computing power than a high-end workstation from 2010.
One of the areas in which smartphone computing power has expanded is graphics processing. A glance at a game like Genshin Impact or COD mobile shows what these devices can do. And yet the full potential goes to waste because gamers generally don’t like touch screen controls.
While many janky attempts at a proper controller have come and gone throughout the years, Razor has finally made a decent gaming controller for phones. Razor is one of the top peripheral makers in the high-end computer gaming industry, and that expertise shows in the Razer Kishi.
The Razer Kishi received praise from nearly every media outlet covering gaming gadgets. That is down to its features, innovative and truly forward-thinking approach to mobile gaming. Rather than trying to mimic the features of a traditional console controller, it adapts those principles to make sense on a smartphone. As a result, the Razer Kishi is a must-have for mobile gamers.