What is a nifty little feature modern gadgets have lost?
For me it’s the notification light you used to find on older phones, was particularly good to know if your phone was charged without picking it up
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For me it’s the notification light you used to find on older phones, was particularly good to know if your phone was charged without picking it up
Swappable batteries in mobile phones.
It will most likely come back due to EU legislation.
Maybe, but swappable =/= replaceable, in my opinion. I could be wrong, but I'm not sure that EU legislation says that phone batteries should be swappable, only replaceable
“ Portable batteries incorporated in appliances shall be readily removable and replaceable by the end-user or by independent operators during the lifetime of the appliance, if the batteries have a shorter lifetime than the appliance, or at the latest at the end of the lifetime of the appliance. A battery is readily replaceable where, after its removal from an appliance, it can be substituted by a similar battery, without affecting the functioning or the performance of that appliance.”
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0798&qid=1703805580803
So we see here that batteries must be replaceable without affecting the function of the device. Yet waterproofing is important. What seems more likely to me is that batteries need to be replaceable without opening the entire device and therefore destroying liquid protections as per the proposed law. Easiest way to do that would be something similar to a SIM card tray where a hidden button is pressed to release the battery to swap it. The designers would have to go out of their way to make this process difficult, which the EU also doesn’t want, to avoid making them swappable. And that feature is attractive. Knowing Apple though, it’ll be harder on the base models or batteries will cost too much.
The snippet “if the batteries have a shorter lifetime than the appliance” worries me. Seems to me that modern engineers are capable of making their crap’s lifespan just barely shorter than the projected batty lifespan, and people might just be stupid enough to still buy it.
I mean, the disposable vape market is an extreme example, but somewhat relevant I think.
That being said, if the processor on the LG G5 had kept up with the market better, I don’t see how that couldn’t have been a starting point.
As for waterproofing, my GoPro stays waterproof but the side door opens to give access to the SD card, battery, etc, so it’s absolutely possible.
Water proofing isnt a super hard thing to do, compressed rubber works wonders. If they can make a speaker port waterproof while still being able to hear through, I'm sure it's possible to make a waterproof phone with a removable battery
Not really. EU legislation is about the right to repair, not about swappable batteries on the run
https://mashable.com/article/replaceable-batteries-smartphones-iphones-2027
The law just means it needs to be replaceable with at most basic tools or specialized tools supplied with the device.
How does one safely repair a lithium-ion battery without just swapping it for a working one?
It's the difference between sitting down for 20 minutes unscrewing various components to get to the damaged battery you need to replace, vs. popping off the back cover and simply swapping out one dead battery for a charged one anytime you run out of power. The former is replaceable. The latter is swappable.
This. Like ten years ago, when Samsungs had swappable batteries, they were super proud of it. They would advertise it as a feature that Apple doesn’t have.
When I was at a festival, Samsung had an activation where you could tweet at them with your phone model and location and they would send someone with a full battery to trade you for yours. It was an amazing free service that I used so many times, and every time, the jealousy on the faces of all the iPhone people was palpable. Then one year, they quietly removed the swappability from their new phones.
Swappable batteries are such a huge feature that most people don’t even know that they want.
Thanks! You are right. "Swapping vs. replacing" is not the same usecase.
Nope, that EU legislation only requires batteries be replaceable, not swappable. In other words, you probably won't need a heat gun to replace it, but you'll probably still need a screwdriver.
The fairphone and pinephonenhave that.
Was about to mentioned it. I have the Fp5 and the only thing that i miss is the headphonejack. Everything else is there:
Sure, but the Fairphone 5 is €700 and, ease of repair aside, you can get a better phone for less than half the price. Repairability doesn't mean much when buying a cheaper (and otherwise better) phone and fully replacing it ends up being, well, cheaper.
I get your point. But it's also about support for the phone and the fair production. I know they are not perfect, but someone needs to start somewhere. I needed a new phone anyway and invested in this one.
I miss 1998 and my nokia I could use for self defense.
I see this get talked about a lot.
Almost all my inside phone batteries I've had in cheaper knockoff phones have been replaceable. It's not as easy as pulling the back cover off and instantly swapping it, but it's not THAT much harder. It's doesn't exactly require microsoldering. Which is the reason why I know my last three have been replaceable despite being in-house.
Manufacturers really just need to make better and more secure charge ports. Having to resolder my last two blu phones and a Samsung because the charge ports go bad is just annoying.
Never had issues with a battery in all my years of using smartphones though.
I used to love customising the notification colour on my old phones, so good.
I miss my headphone jack so damn much, I'm over Bluetooth earbuds breaking constantly and being so damn expensive and low quality.
Then buy phones with headphone jacks. Mine has one, I dont buy ones without it.
If it matters for you to have it, dont buy phones that cut it. If models with it keep selling, theyre less likely to ditch it.
I'd rather just buy a DAP than randomly replace a perfectly good phone with one that sucks in comparison.
And that why you'll never get it back. You're clinging to brand loyalty and hung up on arbitrary crap rather than just trying competing phones. Have you actually used any of those "suck" phones, or are you just going with the usual iPhone/high end android circlejerk?
You have assumed completely wrong, friend.
As I mentioned in another comment, if you'd bothered to read it, I have particular needs that mean I can't really replace my phone with something else right now. I have absolutely no loyalty to brands, and I'm not clinging to something arbitrary.
Lol I only buy jack phones, and if you think they suck you need to shop in places that arent back alleyways
It was a perfectly good MacDonald's, thank you very much!
But in all seriousness, I just have particular needs that literally can't be met by anything else.
AllMost of the ones you can get nowadays actually have a sound chip inside the cable (in the flat part behind the USB-C). So they're pretty much a USB-C soundcard with just a headphone out. So it's worth shopping around to find one that has a good soundcard built in.A good alternative is getting a decent portable Bluetooth audio receiver to plug your regular headphones into. Can get a better headphone amp that way.
There are phones that output analog audio over type C so you can have a type c to jack adapter with no dac inside, just wires. That is possible through Audio Adapter Accessory Alternate Mode.
My huawei tablet works with such an adapter, but when I try it with the samsung s10e which has a jack, it gives an error and doesn't work.
Type C alternate modes are cool, too bad they are not advertised, they should be clearly labled and easily distinguishable. Type C has so many features yet it's so hard to know what's available without actually having the devices and connecting them. It's both a blessing and a curse.
Thanks for the correction. I had thought that only some of the early Motorolas had that feature, but it looks like there are quite a few more phones that support analog audio out via USB-C.
From the wiki article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C#Alternate_modes
Moto Z/Z Force, Moto Z2/Z2 Force/Z2 Play, Moto Z3/Z3 Play
Sony Xperia XZ2
Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Huawei P20/P20 Pro, Honor Magic2, LeEco
Xiaomi phones
OnePlus 6T, OnePlus 7/7 Pro/7T/7T Pro
Oppo Find X/Oppo R17/R17 Pro
ZTE Nubia Z17/Z18
I've got a suprisingly good pair of USB C earbuds that I found in my mailbox at the moment, but yeah at some point I'll probably get a DAC
I used to have a similar problem - even if well reviewed, budget and midrange bluetooth earbuds would not last while budget-midrange wired earphones would last forever.
Think it's just build quality for bluetooth buds. I got a set of Galaxy buds, 1st gen, roughly 3+ years and still running strong to this day. Was not cheap though.
I've been through two pairs of Sennheiser's wireless buds, and I'm just over it.
The only thing that might bring me back is the ANC, but even then I get significantly better ANC from my over ears, so probably not.
What I don't understand is why the notification LED was removed in the first place? It can easily be put under the screen.
The LED was so helpful, and it's so annoying when I don't see an important message for hours, because I haven't used my phone.
I think you may have a point, It's kind of weird how the first 10 years of smartphones, was an ever higher climb for better phones, driven by competition.
But now that everybody are dependent on the phones, they all agree on taking useful features away???
Fuck. You're probably right. It's all about nudging us towards the behavior they want.
It’s probably also a little safer with only system apis accessing system hardware. If you look at how the camera assembly is one piece and apps basically access the whole thing securely.
I used to have a custom ROM that would allow me to change the color based on which app had the most recent notification: FB was Blue, SMS was Green. Let me be prepared ahead of time if it was going to be important or not.
Even more than that, in early versions of Android this setting was baked in. I had colors set based on text messages, emails, etc. I think around 2.x was when the option was removed.
I remember and miss that. Any remember the original droid with the slide out keyboard ?
I don't know about the original, but I rocked a Droid 4 for the longest time. It's probably my all time favorite phone. I really miss how quickly I could type and the extra screen space I got from not needing the software keyboard.
Ironically I was grateful for a custom rom to turn off the light. It was useful but I hated it at night because at least on my phone it was stupidly bright
Nowadays most phones have OLED screens, which can easily replicate the function of the notification LED with the “always on” feature.
Yet there are often warnings that even with OLED AOD eats a lot of battery, not so with a notification LED.
The absolute newest OLED that can do 1Hz refresh are better. But that doesn't change that the removal of the notification LED was detrimental to the functionality of the smartphone.
OLED AoD eats a lot of battery because there's still quite a lot of information(and thus, pixels turned on) shown on the AoD. A single pixel blinking on and off would at most use the same power as a dedicated notification led.
Someone else posted an app that gives the feature back. If you turn off other aid features and just use the app it won't use more battery than a notification led.
What?
If the screen has 60hz or higher refresh, I'm pretty sure it will. The screen itself may not use much, but the DAC will still use power.
I haven't seen this actually tested, but many claim the difference in battery life is noticeable. I don't think it matters much what app you use, many phones come with an AOD app, and I seriously doubt a third party app is better.
Typo: aod feature. Always on display.
It's supposed to drop down to 1hz. The CPU refreshing a pixel of an OLED screen or a notification led is the same power usage. That is even if you have a notification led, the CPU could still be stuck refreshing it at 60 hz.
AH ok that makes a lot more sense. ;) As I understand it, it's only the newest top displays that can go down to 1 Hz. Or maybe it's just when in use they can't for some reason. I find the 1Hz capability to be extremely cool, so it would be great if it's a more general feature of AOD.
And yet they don't
Oh, in some cases the notification LED is physically there, but is disabled in software. At least I know that was the case with a bunch of Motorola phones, including my Moto G5s Plus.
I'm pretty sure mine has a tiny LED under the screen, that only shows very shortly on reboot. But as you say, it's disabled for some weird reason.
Because if you can read an LED notification system you have no purpose to pick up the cellphone.
Cellphones are not designed FOR YOU. They are designed by marketeers for you to use.
Once you realize this, all the anti-consumer shit makes sense.
I got all three on my XCover 6 Pro
I had an XCover 4 and hated the specs and the Samsung aspect. Too much bloat for my tastes.
I'm glad there are others still buying these phones though, and the "Pro" makes it sound like it has modern specs!
It's very much a mid-range device but so was the price. It was still an easy decision since it is literally the only modern smartphone in existence that matched my minimum requirements. I'm coming from LG V20 so I still had to let go of FM-radio, optical image stabilization, IR blaster and the hi-fi DAC.
How's the Samsung bloatware on it?
I have no idea honestly. It's quite esoteric device so probably not.
Root by default is an awful idea.
I also just don’t understand why apple didn’t put one in the dynamic island, could have worked really well
Not sure but you can have the back camera led flash when you get a notification at least.
3.5mm headphone jack
There are often enterprise versions that still have it. Like the S10E for example.
Yes, and I'm thinking my next phone will be one of those.
I have a much better time with wired earbuds than with bluetooth.
Forgot my bluetooth headphones the other day on a long trip and the 3.5mm jack saved my rear end.
Just needed to stop at a shop briefly for some cheap plug-in buds and I was no longer listening to babies screaming on the journey. As a bonus, it also didn't interfere with me charging my phone
I'd like bluetooth earbuds a lot more if I could find some that aren't "smart." If I put on a beanie, I bump them. If I remove one earbud to converse, I bump it. I've not once intentionally used a gesture-based control on an earbud for anything else other than undoing the situation I've caused by bumping them. Otherwise, I control everything with my phone. If I'm working out, I just select my playlist, mute notifications, and I don't have to touch anything after that. Gesture-based earbuds are not for me.
I really don't think there are dumb bluetooth earbuds, though. At least, I haven't been able to find any.
I have the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus and their app has an option to disable touches, so that's what I do, because I'm the same as you. I bought them used and have been using them on a daily basis for at least three years and they're still working well. Might be something to look into. I hope you find something that works for you!
Oh, that sounds promising! I'll look into it, thanks.
I have a pair of cheap Skullcandy's that have physical buttons instead of touch sensors. The buttons are basically impossible to use without smooshing the earbud into your ear trying to click it, but it also means it's really hard to accidentally click them. Probably as close as you can get to dumb Bluetooth earbuds.
I don't even understand why someone would want controls on their earbuds, much less for it to be such a widespread issue, but honestly I'm just going to make sure my next phone has a 3.5mm jack
Could always get one of the beanies that have bluetooth speakers in 'em. It'll solve your problem of bumping your earbuds, (though not through a necessarily "good" option). Or, you could use the wired bluetooth headphones like these.
As another alternative, there's the apple airpods, which, as far as I can tell, have not gestures but some weird-ass pseudo capacitive button that makes a sound when you press them. I did just realize though, that if you have an apple device they'll automatically pause playback when you take a headphone out (I think), so that may not be your cup of tea. However, if you have an Android, this addition won't work unless you have an app like CAPods (which you can turn on or off in the app, so no worries there). There's also the downside of not having access to many features like toggling through the different modes (active noise canceling or whatever other bullshit like that), not being able to natively see the battery of the case or earbuds (though, like with the aforementioned feature, using an app like CAPods you can see it), and some others that I can't recall at the moment.
Sorry about the length of this reply, I was originally just going to mention the bluetooth beanies as a joke, but I have nothing else to do at the moment, so why not share my experiences? Anywho, that's my two cents, this could help, it could be utterly useless, you could already know all of this, you may not even read the wall of text, etc. etc.. Do as you will with this.
You don't happen to know if there's some open-source software for Android that might be similar to CAPods? Tbh I'm probably never going to buy either airpods or the brand-name Samsung ones, but I'd imagine there might be a more universal solution?
Yeah, I don't actually recommend buying airpods unless you got them for free if you're an Android user (that's the only reason I'm using airpods atm).
As to open source, I believe CAPods is, unless you're referring to an open source app for most headphones (which upon second thought you probably are).
As to that question, CAPods, according to their GitHub page, supports a few Beats devices, this app for Galaxy Buds on Windows/Linux devices, and this one for Huawei Freebuds device(s?).
Overall, the closest I could find was GadgetBridge, which has support (partial or full) for a few Samsung devices, one Nothing, a few Sony, and Bose(?), though, I did keep running into internal server errors, so it might be out of date.
I've had an S10E for a while and didn't even know the headphone jacks are no longer the norm!
Clinging to my S9+ so hard.
I was lucky i found this store that sells second hand devices from big companies that have bought too many? ( dunno how it actually works), but the quality is sometimes fully new, or have been used briefly; much cheaper and older models like my S10E, which I think it's from 2018.
I tend to break phones rather often unfortunately (very clumsy, small hands and lack of pockets) so I want to have something like this still available. I do use screen and case protectors and all that. It still lands on the floor quite often :/
Not really, it's mostly only budget phones that have it nowadays. The S10E(which stands for 'essential' btw, not 'enterprise') is almost 5 years old, not exactly representative of the modern phone market.
To be fair, on the modern phone market it doesn't really matter whether you spend 300 or 1000. They're all decent ish
This going away has just make the Tiktok tide that much more horrendous. I work in a school. The hallways are nothing but that horrid shit blasting out of hundreds of bad speakers.
You don't think it'd still be the same even with the headphone jack still there? Wireless headphones and converters for wired headphones do exist, they just don't care.
My condolences. I stress out the moment a child thrusts a phone in front of me to watch a "funny" video
I can only imagine the hellscape that is your school
The newest Asus zenfone is still rocking it!
People keep going on about that and I get it from the point of not having to charge headphones all the time. But to me that is a very mild inconvenience compared to having to deal with those fucking cables all the time. I hate cables so damn much.
Here's the crazy thing tho... You could just not use it and choose to use blue tooth still.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be a port, just saying that I really don't see the value.
Oh, my problem isn't with charging them. They actually hold a charge for a super long time.
I’d like bluetooth earbuds a lot more if I could find some that aren’t “smart.” If I put on a beanie, I bump them. If I remove one earbud to converse, I bump it. I’ve not once intentionally used a gesture-based control on an earbud for anything else other than undoing the situation I’ve caused by bumping them. Otherwise, I control everything with my phone. If I’m working out, I just select my playlist, mute notifications, and I don’t have to touch anything after that. Gesture-based earbuds are not for me.
I really don’t think there are dumb bluetooth earbuds, though. At least, I haven’t been able to find any.
And I don't mind cables as much as you do. I think my favorite earbuds would be those that are connected to each other by a cable, but again -- only if they were not smart.
You can turn off the touch controls on Samsung Galaxy Bud Pros, maybe the other galaxy bud models too
For most of these, turning off touch controls means that when you accidentally trigger the touch commands, it plays a little jingle and pushes a notification telling you that youve disabled touch controls and you need to reenable them.
Completely defeating the fucking point of turning off touch controls, and making me want to wrap my hands around the throat of the idiot who designed that
On my buds if I turn on "block touches" and I touch them nothing happens, no jingle or notification. But yeah that does sound like a stupid feature
I'll look into it. The only bluetooth earbuds I currently have are an off brand called SYNRGY. Maybe there's some setting that I'm not aware of to disable touch controls too. I've also considered applying a few coats of clear nail polish. Maybe that would work?
I actually don't know anyone who has the official Samsung ones.
This might sound crazy but apple earbuds would be good for you. I actually like having pause and skip buttons, and apparently these do have controls when you touch them, but that's never worked for me. I think it's intentionally broken on android which in your case makes them good.
They're grossly overpriced, though. I'd never buy them.
You can get them used thanks to apple fanboys inherent need to get the newest version. There's lots out there due to that. But I get it if you don't like the idea of used headphones.
I don't mind, actually. Rubbing alcohol covers a multitude of evils.
I'll look into it.
Not sure what brand you have but mine you can turn off the functions on the buttons in the app.
Which app? I usually use YouTube or Spotify. I doubt I need a dedicated app for earbuds.
The brand is Jabra, they have an app associated with them where you can change various settings on how the earbuds work. One of them is what the buttons do.
For me I'm just very attached to my earphones. I had tried out different earphones for a long time when I was younger before I discovered these and I've been using them for over 8 years now. I don't really want to switch to a different pair of earphones.
It's more than just having to charge them I wouldn't even really consider that much of a downside with how long they last. I haven't yet ran out of charge before I was ready to take mine out. The actual downsides are- Wireless earbuds are expensive. The batteries in them wear out over time and you have to buy all new ones which is wasteful. Bluetooth adds a noticeable delay that sucks when watching video. My car doesn't have bluetooth so I need a headphone jack for AUX. I have both and like wireless ones when I'm on the go but if I'm stationary wired don't cause any problems.
My Note 9 still has it!
WAVES OLD MAN CANE AROUND THREATENINGLY
First smartphone I had is still my favorite. Motorola Droid. I still have it!
The battery life is hell, though
HTC just came out with a phone that has a headphone jack AND expandable memory. I hope they go for a gen 2 in the near future since it had some kinks to work out, such as a curved glass screen, becase then it would be just about everything I could ask for in a phone.
Get a dongle. Get several. Stick them on the ends of all your headphones and aux cables and forget that you don't have a headphone jack on your phone.
I do have one. That's how I listen to music in my old ass car XD
But still I wish they'd just never removed something that was so useful and immediately accessible to everyone
I have like 5. It still doesn't make it less inconvenient. I use my earphones for my laptop for work and my phone when I'm commuting so I have to attach the dongle, plug it into my phone, get to work, unplug the dongle plug it in the laptop and do the whole process again when I go home and repeat every day. It's a pain. Not to mention the occasional times where you want to charge your phone while you're listening to music.
Oh that charging thing is a major pain when we have to take a roadtrip. Whoever came up with the cloaca design for phones really did not think things through.
I believe they sell splitters but they are harder to find and larger.
Privacy.
Physical buttons in cars
Repairable phones
Repairable laptops
Resoleable shoes
Hand-crank drills (for those quick and easy projects where dealing with batteries or cords isn't worth it)
External frames on hiking packs
Actually tough jeans that need to be broken in and last a while
Headphone jack
Headphone jack, bigger batteries, front facing speakers, SD card slot, IR blaster, magnetic field to let you use your credit cards at check out from your phone (MST) - THROUGH THE ACTUAL CARD READER SO THEY DIDN'T NEED GOOGLE/APPLE/SAMSUNG WALLET WHATEVER THE FUCK. I also agree that I miss the light too lol
That said, here's what I can't stand in newer phones: camera bumps. Unless you're a droid x or Nexus get that rocking on any flat service while I'm trying to type shit outta here. I don't give a shit about my cameras but if they need to be that fat and advanced, just make the rest of the phone that fat and give me the extra battery instead of making a tiny stovetop in the corner. Fuckin weird and dumb. Also camera cutouts in the screen, put that shit under the screen or set it next to a front facing speaker on the bezel. Also bezel-less phones, I know we're trying to fill our phones with screens but my fat palms don't care about that when I'm accidentally touching everything on the side while holding it
By far replaceable batteries. You used to be able to purchase physically larger and higher capacity batteries to get insane battery life, but because they would include a larger rear plastic for the phone it would still look normal. Now we have to waste space and lose efficiency with external power banks.
Physical buttons in cars for radio and environment settings.
There used to be a time when I could have my hand on the gear shifter and just reach out with my fingers to change radio stations or adjust the heat or a/c without needing to look down at all.
Now with modern touchscreens in cars, you can't do any of that. I have gotten used to playing with the radio via the steering wheel buttons, but anything else requires hunting around, looking for the correct spot to touch the screen.
And yet they say, "don't take your eyes off the road!"
IR blaster for smartphones. I still have one on mine and I can use it for tons of stuff, not just as a TV remote.
I even worked for a company who made lots of IR based products (taps/faucets, accessibility stuff) and it was amazing how many people had to buy the dedicated remotes for these products for extra money.
When I asked them if their phone has an IR blaster, so they could just download a free app and use it instead. "I have an iPhone" was the most common answer.
There are small and cheap USB-C IR dongles around nowadays - generally USB-C has been a blessing for making additional hardware features available on smartphones.
My current phone does have IR - though I'm not really using it much since most of the existing Android software for that is horrible (broken, ad-infested, requires account and access to everything, ..), and I have too many open projects to start another one for writing my own software for that.
IR blasters were such a treat, still fucking hate when the remote stops working or the battery runs out
Buy Xiaomi phones.
Dont buy Xiaomi phones, the software is absolutely dogshit.
-sent from Xiaomi 12
See if you can install LineageOS on it. Replaces all the dog shit and has opt in for the google services etc. if you value your privacy.
-sent from Xiaomi 11
That sadly isnt viable for me as i do all my banking and have all my government ID, including drivers license, which wont verify on unofficial OS's 🤦
I don't know about the ID and drivers license, but banking is no problem as you do not root the phones anymore. You can even use the google wallet if you want. I think the only thing not there is the google safetyNez verification, even tho you can install apps through the playstore. So I don't know if the apps can determine if there on an official build or not.
Edit: Please take my words carefully as I'm only in the experimentation phase myself. All I really can say is: my banking app and PayPal work no problem
I have tried other roms, and nope those apps wont verify sadly.
I agree the software is bad. All my phones bought after nexus 4 was made by Xiaomi. They give option to unlock bootloader and flash custom rom.
Not all the phones get official lineage os support, but almost all snapdragon versions get custom rom support.
I gave my Redmi Note 4 to my mom, which is 6 years old and running latest OS with recent security patches. None of the other OEMs were supported upto this period (just give exception to Samsung Galaxy 2).
Buy them for the hardware and change the rom.
Not possible in my case though, as it is necessary for me to use some apps that wont verify on custom roms.
I do have a Xiaomi phone and as I mentioned I am actively using the IR blaster, but the majority of regular users will not even think about checking the specs when buying new tech.
They will just go for the latest iPhone or the current trending android bestseller.
SD card slots, user-replaceable batteries, and headphone jacks.
In smartphones
In PCs
Pretty much everything the Galaxy S5 had
I currently use a FP3 which has 4 out of the 6 features above, which I feel is the best we'll get right now.
Admittedly the Heart rate monitor is more of a gimmick nowadays, especially that it's standard and automatic on most smartwatches and sports watches. Back then when stuff like the Sony Ericsson LiveView and LG W100 watches were popular, they did not have heart rate sensing built in
All that while being water resistant, let's not forget! What an amazing phone
What do you mean water resistant? Phone with replaceable battery and headphone jack can't be water resistant! /s
IR blaster was the shit. Back then, there was an app called beep and go (I think) that held the barcodes for your loyalty cards. For someone that collected them like baseball cards, it was really handy.
Anyway, Samsung actually had the ability to transmit the barcode via the IR blaster which some scanners could read if they couldn't read the barcode on the phone.
It was awesome!
I agree that the heart rate monitor was a bit of a gimmick though.
What is FP3?
I presume it's Fairphone 3?
Fairphone 3
Ah OK.
Fairphone 3. I have one as well, but upgraded it to the +model by installing a better camera
Wow, cool that you can do that. 👍
IR blaster! I miss that feature. When my wife was sick in the hospital they had a TV with 10 stupid channels. But I found that the TV had a USB post. So I used a flash drive and my phone as the remote to let her watch TV shows while she was stuck in bed.
Wait, Galaxy phones no longer have a SD slot??
Even their $120 tablet has that. Why the fuck doesn't a $1k phone have it?? 💩
Pretty much all high end phones outside of Sony have omitted the headphone jack and SD card slot.
Samsung low end phone and low end phones in general still have it for example the galaxy a54 has it.
The reason why is they want you to spend more on storage upgrades.
And then they completely bork the file system with separate storage for every app. Nobody needs a dozen different folders for storing pictures, with no way to combine them.
The higher tier A series phones are pretty solid if you really want a Samsung anyway. S series is overkill for most people.
Kinda surprised that no one has mentioned the FM tuner. For reasons I never really understood, a lot of companies continued to build the hardware into phones but then wall it off with firmware.
My first MP3 player had one, my TV had one, there were even watches and lots of other devices that had one. People still listen to radio, so why don't they give us a tuner?
Everything. We're down to barebones and marketing now focus solely on camera software updates or phone materials ("now with titanium!" How fucking sad is that?) And they are all selling the same phone.
Some of the most important loses...
Swappable batteries changed travel for me. Always having two extra charged batteries in my backpack, that you could swap top 100% in 20 seconds, made me ONLY use my phone as a free and completely useful tool without any planning or restrictions on my use. Otherwise, you can't take too many pictures or videos, stream music or video or make video calls too long or you might be fucked when you need phone, GPS, payment or to get a rideshare to where you're staying.
Audio jack similarly meant freedom. Bluetooth headphones out of battery, broken or one earbud lost? Have a pair of wired in the backpack always add backup. Also better audio quality through wired with DAC on certain models and less daily device load to charge/babysit
secondary screens LG V10 had a bar on top, they also had the T shaped dual screen phone and the secondary screen phone case. There was just creativity and attempts at innovation.
microSD expandable memory, again less and less available and this was about freedom - fuck your cloud storage add its data leaks, corruption and redaction. I own my data, you don't control it.
The audio port for headphones and headsets. Replaceable batteries. Extendable storage. Fuckers charge 100x more for every little upgrade now.
The notification light would also let you know what type of notification it was by colour on my old Samsung Note.
I loved the notification light, I had mine programmed to have different colors correspond to different types of notifications and it would buzz at me in response to being picked up as well if I'd missed a call or text.
HEADPHONE JACKS
A headphone jack
A home button
Replaceable battery
Fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone
It was literally a perfect design.
The phone was already on by the time it was at your face.
I am sad for its loss
I'm holding on to my Pixel 4a until it dies because of this.
Hard disagree here. Your fingers are already on the display to use your phone, fingerprint reader in the front makes far more sense.
Often my phone is on a table, all I need to unlock it is touch the screen. No need to pick it up.
I wouldn't buy a phone with the fingerprint reader in the back.
My problem with the fingerprint reader in the display is that it just doesn't work well. I'm on a pixel 7 pro, and more often than not it will try and fail a few times, then require a pin unlock. My pixel 5 with the fingerprint reader on the back was nearly flawless.
The one in my Galaxy S22 works great. There is a trick though to make it work even better: Register the same finger twice (and really get all angles). That usually makes the unlock much more reliable.
Oh cool, thanks for the tip. I'll give that a shot!
I had a honor 7 and a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and the sensor was a thousand times faster and better than the one on my pixel 6.
My Pixel 7 fingerprint reader was unusably bad on Android 13 but now works well on Android 14.
I jumped to the Pixel 6a to the Pixel 8, and the in display fingerprint scanner got much better
My phone is face down most of the time if it's sitting on a table. This turns on silent.
Mine has it on the side, also good.
Meh, I prefer it under the screen personally.
3.5 headphone jack
I forget which Samsung galaxy model it was, maybe S6, but it had a universal IR blaster built into the phone which was super convenient for controlling all of my devices. I did however often abuse the shit out of it by flipping the channels on bar tvs or turning off the stereo receiver and nobody was ever suspecting it was me on my phone. I guess that's probably why they removed it lol, but it was fun while it lasted.
Most features that smart phones had. Most prodomimantly the micro SD card slot, headphone jack and IR blaster.
Not a feature but I do miss phones having side bezels. You could firmly hold your phone and not disturb the content on your phone. I can barely use youtube now because i keep touching my screen apparently
Headphone jacks and small phones
Fuck modern features; gimme back my god damn 3.5mm audio port.
I miss buttons. This message was brought to you by fat thumbs.
A real keyboard and general tactile-oriented inputs. Touchscreens are okay as a supplement like in the DS or Samsung devices that have a pen, but touch-centered everything has never stopped being a frustrating user experience. Even worse is the way companies have embraced it for business use as well. Heavy industrial machinery should not come equipped with unintuitive little interfaces that are clearly an afterthought at best.
The other thing is the general desktop metaphors, and file/folder structure. The way that Android, and so many apps, hide the file system from the end user just leads to more confusion when the user needs to use a file manager to track down where those apps have actually stored data only to (maybe) find them in the most pointlessly obscure locations.
The IR blaster that worked on most televisions.
Headphone jack.
Tactile buttons, all my homies hate cap-sense
Rootable modable phones, with a 3.5mm headphone jack, SD card slot, and an ultrasonic fingerprint reader cherry on top. Maybe some heart rate monitor sprinkles if you are so inclined. My S10 that I still use checks all of the boxes minus root. It feels like I have a sundae with all the high quality toppings I could want... but no proper ice cream. And I want the whole custom sundae, which these days seems impossible to find.
Seperate fingerprint sensors, which were fast, reliable, and accurate, in contrast to the shitty in screen sensors, which are slow, inaccurate, and sometimes just dont work. I would like to kill all people who were part of this shit
My Sony Xperia 10iii still has that light as well as a heaphone jack, SD card slot that can be removed by hand (no ejector tool needed) and full waterproofing. These are literally all the features missing on newer phones. Plus it has a genuine 3 cameras: wide, ultrawide and telephoto - no fake "macro" BS here.
Best of all it's successor the Xperia 10v can be bought on the UK Sony site for just GBP299! Incredible price. But alas I don't live there but if one had a friend there you could have them order it send it to you via courier.
Physical keyboards.
I loathe typing on my phone. My texts are unreadable a vast majority of the time
I too miss the LED notification light. If you have an amoled display, check this out:
https://github.com/Chainfire/HoleyLight
Simplicity.
iPhones are far too big and have too many huge cameras for me. Everything requires a subscription or some login to do anything. Applications and operating systems are updated at the whims of CEOs while the job of UX designers is de-prioritized. Software updates keep breaking established workflows. I can no longer rely on devices or apps to maintain a consistent experience from one year to the next. It's just been years and years and years of disappointment and stress as technology changes for the worse.
All this is pushing me towards a more unplugged lifestyle. Which is a bit ironic given how it adds more complexity with the need to own and travel with more things. A bag of five 'things' that always work regardless of network connection is better than a little tablet that could crash or die or be updated at any moment and having a significant impact on your lifestyle.
There's just no fucking zen anymore. I feel like I'm living inside a simulation built by the same people who brought us Windows 95.
Real buttons that you can feel. Hence could use them without looking at the screen.
What's kinda crazy is we could reimplement the notification LED with blue OLED now just via software. Just no one has done it.
Edit: It's been done, but a quick Google search says it no longer works. I might get bored and write one.
Edit2: This one seems to be working fine for me.
IR blaster in phones
In the gaming sector, nothing has adequately replicated the stylus used by the DS, 3DS, and Wii U. It was the best way to play a few signature games like Elite Beat Agents (now incarnated as Osu) and Trauma Center: Under the Knife. Touchscreens are just a bit too universal and resilient for us to go back to them.
Headphone jack. Next to my bed is the one good Bluetooth headset, the two crappy backup sets for when it is charging, and the gigantic earmuff yardwork set for when the good one is still charging and the 2 shit ones have already died.
IR blaster. I could control just about anything in my house with my old Galaxy S6. Made it so convenient to have a universal remote built into the phone. Especially when you end up in a hotel or at a friend's house and can't find a remote.
I miss the instant channel switching on old analog tv sets. Everything now is digital so the switching is done with microprocessors, but on old sets you could flip through about 5 channels a second, as fast as you could press the button.
Not sure if an automatic transmission qualifies as a modern gadget, but I remember push starting my car back in the day when the battery died.
Less of a feature and more of a design, but I miss phones being small. The iPhone 4S was the perfect physical size IMO and that thing looks tiny compared to my fuckhuge S23U. The physical bloat of the past 5 Galaxys is why I've decided not to go with Samsung for my next mobile
Good keyboards on computers. At the office, everything are those extremely uncomfortable $5 dell keyboards. At a climbing gym or pool, the liability iPads that you sign forms on is using those really uncomfortable apple keyboards too.
I miss the better keyboards that we had back 25 years ago. Modern box jades bring some of that back for your own PC.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention IR transmitters in phones. Luckily, some phones are bringing them back (cough OnePlus Open cough)
IR transmitter on my phone!
Memory card slots.
I can tolerate a missing headphone jack, a non replaceable battery, but a missing memory card slot is just too much.
At the moment, the only non Chinese brand of phones that includes this slot are Samsung I think. And even then, certain models also include it.
A few Motorola and Sony phones as well as the Fairphone still have them as well.
Motorola is Chinese they are owned by Lenovo
One big technical reason for this was actually the file system. Back when phones came with various types of sd-card support, they only had a few gigs of storage. fat32 was enough and was supported everywhere. But fat32 had some file system limitations and when sd-card sizes grew over 4gb there were comparability issues since windows was limited to fat32 and ntfs. I can imagine the support hell when a user couldn’t mount the sd card containing photos on his or her computer.
The solution to that was ExFAT, which is another patented MS system, so requires a license fee (I think) but otherwise is compatible with anything (because they all had to pay the fee...) But specifically compatible with Windows out of the box.
I beliexe exFAT has been made free. It's the official filesystem of SDXC cards, and many of them come pre-formatted.
Samsung is Korean
I'm sad that popup front cameras didn't catch on. I only remember 2 or 3 phones that had them. For me it's the perfect compromise - this way you can make an end to end screen without the need for a notch, and since I very rarely use the front camera, I wouldn't be too concerned about the durability of the popup mechanism. The only real downside I see is that it complicates waterproofing.
Things in general used to be made to last / hard to break.
The Nexus One had so many features I miss:
Trackball for scrolling
Notification light built into the trackball with customizable colors depending on the app
Back plate came off, replaceable battery
Small and a one handed wonder, the trackball kept my fingers off the screen
It was a replacement for my jail broken iPhone OG, such a better interface for me than the iPhones and it had very basic multitasking when the other guys could only do one app at a time
Edit: Formatting
For real, you sold me on that trackball. That sounds like the coolest feature a phone could have, right down to the multi-color led built in beneath it. I really really hope we see a return to something like that! Touch screens are very useful and have their place but physical buttons/controls are usually preferred when done properly. Here's a pic of the Nexus 1, that trackball indeed appears to be cool as fuck:
Oh hey, it's my 2nd smartphone ever. How nostalgic! This phone was built like an absolute tank. It really was a great little phone.
That said, the problem with physical controls is that you either need a larger device or smaller screen to accommodate them. For most people, the tradeoff just isn't worth it.
For a while, I bemoaned the loss of the physical button bar. Having four (!) indicator lights was really useful to boot. Now I happily use gestures with no looking back.
Would be nice to still see some phones offer this for those who want them, though.
If they can do holepunch cameras they can do holepunch trackballs. That would be the greatest thing ever 👌
I thought the digital trackball of the HTC Incredible was cool as shit. It was my favorite phone and I would still be using it today (not as a phone) if it didn't have a restart bug that HTC refused to acknowledge.
I miss how gadgets used to be nifty and little. Every time I get a new phone now I have to stretch my fingers more and more just to hold it.
You have to embrace them. That's how that giant shit is rolling.
I just use my cock, mate
Good thought, that way you can make your phone look massive.
Hold on, I think I got it the other way
FM receiver on phones + 3.5mn jack was a crucial source of local radio transmissions. I suspect some phones still ship radio receivers but the popular types like Samsungs and iPhones don’t seem to care (or perhaps that competes with their music and podcast markets).
Small Flagship Android Phones. Im just not a big fan of phones which doesnt fit into pockets :(
Size. I really don’t like the current 6”+ phones. The last phone I really liked was Google Nexus 5, because it had just 5" display.
Oh yes the notification light was incredible. I had one on my Pixel 2 XL. I just switched phones like a week ago to a Nord N200 and it doesn't have one. Not too big of a deal though.
I wish phones still had IR blasters but those are long gone. It would be awesome to control my Edifier speakers with my phone as a remote control.
Edifier RC10E (Unofficial remote control for Edifier R1280DB speakers) https://f-droid.org/packages/ir.remote.edifier.rc10e/
Edit: Also how about a good camera? All mid range and low end phones today have like 3 or 4 mediocre cameras because it looks fancier then having 1 nice camera.
Affordability?
My 1st phones were around €200, now you only find cheap junk that breaks within a year at that prize point. Having to cough up €500-700 for a phone that lasts a few years sounds excessive. Best phone until now is my '18 Nokia 6.1. Prize was €300 and it's still going strong.
The ability to reach every part of the screen with the thumb on the hand holding it
Physical keyboards. I want a modern Blackberry that actually gets some half-assed OS support. Unihertz Titan was a neat one but had some quirks.
A lot of what I'm seeing here is included on my Sony Xperia.
Headphone jack, notification light, SD card.
I do miss having a replaceable battery like my older LG phones had and stereo fromt-firing speakers like my HTC One M8.
I miss phone bodies being plastic. Sure, metal feels premium but you can't drop your phone without leaving a permanent mark on it. Not to mention how stupid the idea of having glass background is. These days it's hard to see a phone whose glass is not messed up.
To be honest, peak design for me was Samsung's Galaxy S2. I loved that device. Thin, very light, perfect size for my hands. I'd kill for something like that but upgraded to modern standards. I'd also love to see devices with physical keyboard. I waited for BB Key3 to come out when they decided to discontinue the line. Ended up with yet another Samsung device.
My 2001 flip phone could schedule sms messages to be sent and it took smartphones a decade ish to add that feature.
A built-in scripting language. The TI-83 line of calculators have an app programming language that requires you to side-load code from another computer, but they also have TI-BASIC, which allows you to write a wide variety of scripts right on the calculator itself. This should be standard on all 'smart' devices. It's so stupid to have gigahertz of computing power in your pocket and not be able to do anything without writing the app on another machine.
I know Termux for Android exists and that's a good start, but I'd like to see something baked right into the OS that has access to all my device's cool sensors and gizmos. The camera, the microphone, the aux port, the usb port, the accelerometer, the bluetooth antenna... all of those things should be exposed to the user. This would be a really good use case for 'visual' programming ala Scratch, since you could assemble a script right from a touch screen instead of having to plug in a keyboard.
ITT are many middle aged nerds
Buttons.
Full qwerty keyboard. I know I am a minority. I don't need more screen estate, I need to be able to make notes in my diary whithout looking on the screen and not bumping into things while I am walking. I've tried the Uniherz offers, but the OS and the quality is really sub-par. I've jumped on the Astroslide train, but the manufacturing batches went south over the Covid and I don't blame the Astro guys for not getting my device. Some US company did buy the BlackBerry licence and I was ready to pay any price for their phone - but they failed to manufacture anything. If only you could jailbreak BlackBerry Key 2 - I'd be carrying it proudly around till today. (written on Google Pixel 6 runnning Graphene with a collabsible pocket bluetooth keyboard - so I can type at least while I am not moving - best among terrible options).
I loved the old Windows CE phones. You got a dpad, buttons on the front, and side buttons. All frequently used apps were instant at the button press. No nonsense of turning on phone, unlock, look carefully before clicking app on touch screen because you can't physically feel the button.
Samsung blackjack Ii was the peak of cell phone innovation.
I miss tether points. We have these super expensive, slippery devices and we have to stick something like a pop socket onto them to be able to get a good grip on them. I used to have these little dangly thumb loops that if I dropped my phone, it would just dangle there instead of slamming into the ground. It's very minor, but I don't understand why they don't have them anymore.
Lack of notch
IR blaster.
Ad-Hoc wireless networking. I miss it, was useful back in the day if you needed to share files with multiple people without a wireless router at a location. Most laptops don't support this anymore. To be fair, I've only really wanted to use it maybe twice in the last 10 years.
Durability, battery life, repairability.
Replaceable battery, micro SD card slots are hard to come by these days, too.
Hardware alarm so I could turn off my phone at night...
Printers that work.
Pixel phones and I believe Samsung phones just light up the OLED display to let you know that there is notification. An independent LED was only necessary because screens would have to light up the whole display to indicate notification,but now we have better screens so that isn't necessary.
What happened to the notification light?
My Orbic Myra 5G has one, and I got it for free.
I want a IR blaster again and a front notification light.
Or at least let me easily simulate the notification light without a third part app.
The rotary disc on phones!
I miss the home phisical button and back/menu touch 'button' on tablet and phones. Having to swipe down from the top, then press the right symbol at the bottom before they disappear again is a mess.
That crackling sound you had on your calls back in the analogic era. Not sure is a feature but made calls more warm.
Physical buttons.
I still require all my phones to have a SD card slot since the higher capacity versions are way more expensive than even a UHS card.
Yes it's getting harder to find newer phones that have it above entry level models.
Aren't notification LEDs somewhat obsolete now that we have always on displays? One advantage could be that they are less power hungry than keeping the screen / touch panel alive all the time. But in theory one could just create a permanent "notification LED" with an always on display, then it's the same thing from a user's perspective.
My trusty old Psion Series 5 was an awesome pocket computer that would run for three weeks on two AA batteries!
It also had a large touch screen and a clever physical keyboard that was just large enough for ten-finger typing.
I used it for 15 years, it was amazing and no smartphone ever came close.
Snake, I spent way too much time on it.
For me the Galaxy Nexus was the peak of enthusiast phone joy. Notification LED was bright and colorful, replaceable battery (to be fair, this was necessary because battery life was so short), unlocked by default, slightly curved front glass made it a pleasure to use as a phone. I also liked the ceramic back of the Essential Phone. The back fingerprint sensors on most phone models were so much more practical than the in-screen options and provided a handy way to lower the notification tray. I miss the litltle touch navigation nubbin on my Droid Incredible, which was handy for scrolling around without touching the screen.
I also miss how open Android was; Google has been gradually cracking down on enthusiast use cases in the name of "security" like text backup no longer being possible for Play Store apps, email access locked down (requiring a security audit for apps to access GMail), scoped storage screwed up a lot of use cases as well.
Ok, how about features of gadgets that aren't smartphones?
5.25 inch drive bays on computer cases.
I know most people here knock the always on display, but my Samsung has the option to only show if I tap the screen or a notification comes through. I also use the option that blinks a certain color light around the perimeter of the screen and/or the in screen camera so it effectively simulates that old led.
For me it's this (the color coded notification LED on phones) and while on the topic of phones I used to have a xiaomi phone several years ago that had an infrared face unlock feature so you could use face unlock in complete darkness. Haven't had a phone with that before or after. It was awesome.
Actual keyboards, my Moto Droid was my favorite phone I've ever owned. Miss it so much. I'd give anything to have an updated version of it.
for what it’s worth, you can make your phone’s flashlight serve the same purpose as those old notification lights. more harsh and no colors, but it’ll get your attention
Not really, because to see that, you have to put your phone with the screen down on the table. That both ruin the quiet mode function, and increases risk of wear of the screen glass from hard surfaces.
Plus it's fucking distracting to see students' phones blinking throughout the classroom
Graphic design with depth or shading.
Privacy
Recent phone do not have notification light? I am still using my phone from 2019 and it has it.
Doesn't the Always-On Display do the same thing as the LED though?
Headphone Jack.
Giving me annoying audible notifications that my battery is low. We moved to batteries that degrade when lower than ~40% and got rid of the notifications that let us know your battery is dead..
Of course the 3.5mm headphone jack, but also IR Blasters.
I also miss the little light
AodNotify almost replaced the LED for me. It always locked up my display black every few days so had to stop using it.
Ooh I'd have to say an IR blaster, before switching to an S23 Ultra, my Huawei P20 Pro had one and a notification light. Didn't realise how much I used the IR blaster until it was gone.
I don't really miss 3.5mm, neither do I miss SD card slots. I don't even miss replaceable batteries and all that stuff. But I do sincerely miss good devices with physical keyboards. Damn I wish Blackberry came back for a good flagship.
Rechargable bat-trees, the headphone jack, nugget shaped phones (ie. BlackBerry Bold much), and the damn hardware keyboard >:(((
My current Xiaomi phone has an IR blaster, but what I miss is having an IR receiver as well, trying 100 random remotes to find which one works with your obscure TV/AC is such a pain when you used to be able to just clone one instead.
Existing. I feel every gadget has either become a phone app or an integrated sensor inside the phone (while losing precision because of not being a dedicated device).
Free and easily added custom ringtones
Those tiny solar cells calculators used to have
Suddenly I feel very happy (and a little bit smug) about my 2 year old Sony Xperia which both a notification LED, headphone jack and micro SD card slot.
But a replacable battery is sorely lacking..
I think I'll go with the latest Fairphone when my current needs replacement, but I'm a bit worried about it's lack of water resistance
Rewind! None of my devices have a rewind feature any more and it’s driving me crazy!
Nobody needs bazillion cameras, a range finder, laser focuses and shit that's needs to be in a professional camera hardware in a phone. You just need total of 2 cameras and a decent hardware. I don't want to pay for a extra N cameras in a phone.
Also what the fuck happened to changeable batteries. I had a Samsung note 4 and used that shit until 2019 when I broke it ( had some anger issues that year). Waterproof dust proof excuses can go have an intercourse with their phones. I used that phone in 6 different countries and all kind of weather nothing happened to it.
IR led, useful to use your phone as a remote control for various non-connected hardware
What modern gadgets? All that's left are cell phone tracking devices
Being able to use my phone as a remote control for TV's that was so awesome. Could mess with TV's at bars and never had to look for the remote lol
Headphone jacks on phones. I know most people use Bluetooth nowadays, but I was forced to use Bluetooth because my phone no longer has a headphone jack. Corded headphones were nifty because you didn't need to charge them every couple of hours. As long as your phone had a charge, you could listen to anything you want without having to stop to swap headphones or charge your wireless Bluetooth set.
While the LED notification light was awesome, it is something that I don't really need. I also don't need a removal battery because my battery life has been extremely good and I'll replace my phone before the battery goes bad. I don't need wireless charging. My phone had that years ago but it's kind of a gimmick, especially when a phone can charge up in about an hour and a half from dead. I don't need a 3.5 mm headphone jack because I don't use wired headphones, I have Bluetooth headphones but they rarely get used.
I'm about to lose non-swappable batteries.
It's going to be garbage. Screw the EU on this one.
If anything, this thread kind of shows how much people fail to get informed about their smartphone before they buy one.
Literally every single one of these features is available on the market. Most of those phones are actually the quality stuff, like the German produced Gigaset/Volla, or the Dutch (assembled?) Fairphone. But no, you have to go out of your way to get the bottom of the barrel Iphone and Samsung made in China.