Call me a crotchety old man, but we’re hitting the point where SoC no longer feels like the limiting factor of phone performance.
Unless there’s somehow a dramatic improvement in energy efficiency, new SoCs don’t really see a benefit without some other significant advancement. E.g., significantly higher resolution displays, bigger and better image sensors (with the storage to back them up), etc.
Not saying there’s not more that can be done with faster phones, but more that the average user browsing the web, scrolling social media, and taking selfies will never notice a 20% increase in performance unless it’s paired with something else.
I don’t think there’s much point to higher resolution displays either. After you can’t see individual pixels from a normal viewing distance (which I think for most people is already the case) all a greater pixel density does is increase battery usage.
Make them more efficient and make them run cooler. It solves way more problems than making them 18% faster then following year.
Imagine getting 18% extra battery life each year. That would be something to write home about.