fictions of future smartphones

We're about to take you on a journey through the likely, possible and down right ludicrous tech advances which you may witness in your communication device of the future - be that in the next few months, years or even decades.

Our smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and other mobile devices are evolving at a rate of knots, but it's still unclear where we'll be at the end of this year, let alone in five or 20 years time.

Will the smartphone still reign supreme or will the tablet-smartphone hybrids have killed off the mobile we know and embraced today? Maybe wearable technology is the future, or perhaps even our own bodies will see communication devices fused into them for that truly personal touch.

The future

It's a little easier to predict what the big phones of 2014 will bring us, as we've had hints from various companies on the technology they are working on.

Smartphone displays are always a hot topic and there's constant talk of 2K and 4K displays (twice and four times the resolution of full HD respectively) arriving this year - Qualcomm's processors already support the resolution, so it's technically possible right now.

Handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 can already shoot 4K video, so in a way it makes sense for you to be able to watch your video back at the full resolution.

There are however, concerns over the cost of this technology, whether the human eye can actually discern the difference and more importantly, the effect these super screens will have on battery life.

Battery life is something we're desperately hoping will be improved in 2014, as we're all getting a little tired of the daily charging ritual - remember the days when your Nokia 3310 would last almost the whole working week on one charge?

Another key development you can expect to see in phones this year is in the camera department. 2013 gave us the 20.7MP Sony Xperia Z1 and the impressive 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020 - so what's next?

Well, Qualcomm has revealed that its Snapdragon 800 SoC (system-on-chip) has support for cameras up to 55MP - so we can't wait to see what adorns the rear of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC M8.

Another step forward we witnessed in 2013 was fingerprint scanners worming their way into our pockets. Apple kicked things off with the excellent Touch ID on the iPhone 5S, which was closely followed by a digit reader on the rear of the HTC One Max

.The likes of Samsung, LG and HTC are all rumoured to be working on integrating the fingerprint technology into their 2014 flagship phones, and if done well, it's a feature which could genuinely be one of the most useful additions to handsets in recent years.

Security could be stepped up even further with talk of retina scanners being built into our smartphones - the tech has been linked to, the Galaxy S5 too.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 can already track the movement of our hands, face and eyes, while Android allows you to unlock handsets with your face, the step up to retina recognition hardly seems like a big one.

If we look a little further into the future we could see wearable tech becoming more and more relevant.

Items such as the Nike FuelBand SE, Samsung Galaxy Gear and Sony Smartwatch 2 are already with us, offering up our first taste of the wearable market - but there's much more to be had.

Pretty much every manufacturer is being linked with a smartwatch or some type of fitness band at the moment, but the one everyone is waiting (and hoping) for is the iWatch.

If Apple embraces the wearable technology market you can expect the sector to explode over the next two to five years, much in the same way we saw smartphones and tablets rapidly evolve post-iPhone and iPad.

Flexible phones are another hot topic and thanks to the launch of the LG G Flex the hope of having a fully bendable mobile is becoming more likely over the next few years.

While flexible screens are already available, it's the other components in our phones which need to get loose - LG is currently developing a variety of flexible batteries which could make their way into phones, tablets and wearable tech in the not too distant future.

The edge of human creation

Now lets go even further into the future - what will our phones be like in 10 to 20 years time?

Perhaps Google Glass will be the norm, with everyone living in some odd sort of virtual reality 24/7 - or maybe we'll see technology embedded into our own bodies.

That might sound very science fiction, but biometrics could easily play a much bigger role in our phones of the future.

There's already technology being developed in Germany which harnesses the power of bone conduction, beaming calls or notifications right into your head without the need for a Bluetooth headset.

Meanwhile the folks over at Disney Research can pass an audio message from one person to another with the touch of a finger, using low electrical pulses instead of bone conduction.

If you're addicted to getting inked, then MC10's Biostamp may be more up your street - a stretchable piece of silicon containing tiny circuits and an antennae and when applied to the skin, it looks a bit like a tattoo.

All this technology already exists, so just think what it'll be able to do in a decades time.