If you did not know, I am not a phone savant or a technological designer in any way whatsoever.

But I am starting to notice more and more that the new releases for phones are seemingly recycled products, with the only difference being a better camera.

Seriously, every commercial I have seen recently for a new phone is always flaunting the camera and how they made it just a little better than the company’s last one. There is no new user interface, new features or anything.

I have noticed it recently from Apple mostly, just because they seem to have had more commercials to start the holiday season, but Samsung and Android phones use the same trap to get money out of us.

For example, we can take a look at the iPhone Xs and the iPhone 7/7 plus.

The camera on the Xs, the new phone that commercials have made seem like is brand new and like nothing ever before, has barely any new features.

The Xs’ camera has dual 12MP wide-angle and telephoto cameras, wide-angle f/1.8 aperture, telephoto f/2.4 aperture and 2x optical zoom, with up to 10x digital zoom.

There are plenty of other features, but if you then look at the camera features for the iPhone 7 and 7 plus, one or both of those phone’s cameras have the same features or have a slightly more primitive version of those features.

If you do not believe me, you can go on the Apple website and look for yourselves.

As a consumer, myself and others want new features that mean something. An updated camera (I will not call it new since it is just revised) is great, especially for someone like me who takes a lot of pictures and is a journalist.

But we want to see bigger changes. I want innovation.

My sister has been the one person in my immediate family to consistently have an iPhone. Every time she gets a new one, I ask to see it, and I see no differences.

The same layout regarding app placement, user interface and even app design is consistent with every “new” phone.

Like I said, Samsung and Android do this same thing. They slap the “new” tag on the commercials to make us think it is actually different.

Now, you could look at my criticisms and say that the phone companies are successful so who cares anyway. You would be right, who cares.

But as the public, we have the opportunity to call companies out on their bull and tell them we want different.

I also understand that with the phones all looking the same and acting the same, it builds the brand’s recognition and gives consumers products that they know and can easily use.

And maybe I am just the outlier for saying this, but I would throw away traditional brand recognition if the innovations I make are that amazing.

I want to buy my next phone and say, “Wow, I thought this was a (Galaxy, Apple phone or whatever). This looks nothing like it usually does, but it looks even better!”

That is the way we should feel about every new product we consume.

Dillan Schorfheide is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].