CBA Record November-December 2025

LPMT BITS & BYTES BY KEVIN THOMPSON Smartphone Roundup T his time of year, I look forward to our Law Practice Management and Technology Committee’s annual tradition, the “Tech for The Holidays” webcast. Currently scheduled for December 5 (see registration at Learn.ChicagoBar.org), we usually cover what is new and exciting for this year. Tips, tricks, and app recommendations are on the agenda. One question I’m often asked is what I think of the latest smartphone releases. As we get further away from the original iPhone release in 2007, the annual updates have become iterative. Personally, I am on a multi-year upgrade cycle. Other than tech blog gers, few people upgrade annually anymore. In fact, if you look at Apple’s revenue announcements, they sell a lot of phones across the entire year and are not tied to new releases. People tend to use phones until they see a significant performance decrease (or have an accident with their current model) and then upgrade. Some lawyers and other legal professionals can certainly see the benefits of higher end phones. However, unless we’re doing processor-intensive tasks or need the highest quality camera available, many of us can get by with the base models. When deciding whether to upgrade, I recommend seeing how much storage you are using on your current device. If it’s less than 128GB, then you can likely stay at that capacity on a new device. I usually ask people what “ecosystem” they are in before making recommendations for specific phone models. Personally, I am an iPhone user, but I have colleagues who love their Google Pixel or Samsung models. It’s normally not worth the headache to make the leap between ecosystems unless you have a higher purpose in mind. On the Google side, it’s hard to go wrong with any of their offerings this year. I hear good things about the Pixel 10 Pro XL, especially due to its camera system. Their Pixel 9a is a good option for a mid-range phone. On the Samsung side, it’s worth taking a look at the Galaxy S25 Ultra for its display and overall performance. Their foldable option, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, is worth consider ing if you are in the market for a foldable. On the mid-range side, Samsung produces a lot of options, but I’d recommend looking at the Galaxy A series. On the Apple side, even the lowest base model in the 17 series has an always-on display now. That used to be a feature found only on the Pro phones. The new models

also have an improved selfie camera so you do not need to rotate the phone to take wider selfies. The most visually strik ing new Apple phone is the Air, which makes some compromises in battery life and camera to be very thin, apart from the camera plateau. It could be a nice mid-range option for some people, but the lower-priced base model 17 has better battery life and a better camera. The iPhone 17 Pros have the best camera system and battery life on an iPhone currently, with the expected trad eoffs on weight and size. Apple addressed some heat concerns of users of the 15 and 16 Pros by bringing out a new vapor cool ing system in the 17 Pros. Only time will tell if it is enough to fully address the heat concerns found in those prior genera tions. This spring, Apple introduced a lower cost 16E model. This remains in the lineup and is a viable option for many people. For the lower price, you get a phone that uses an older processor and a decent (but not stellar) screen. It does not include MagSafe, so if you are used to that you could locate a case that provides that capability, even though the phone itself does not. My current phone does not support Apple Intelligence, so I cannot recom mend it from personal experience. From what I have gleaned from others, it is similar to features found on the Google and Samsung models. If your phone sup ports it, the live translation and writing tools are interesting options to look at, as are some of the automation tools. Regardless of what ecosystem you are on, I hope this column helps to explore options if you are indeed in the mobile phone market this year. And be sure to come to “Tech for the Holidays” for more tips.

Kevin A. Thompson heads the intellectual property practice at Levin Ginsburg, where he is a partner; he also chairs the CBA’s Law Practice Management and Technology Committee and co-chairs the International and Foreign Law Committee. He receives no compensation by vendors for products mentioned in this column.

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