this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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I went through my late teens as the initial smart phone boom was happening. I had a Motorola q that could get TV channels and had a keyboard. I had the enV that flipped open. And many androids/blackberries that I loved for their unique form factor and functionality.

I have never balked at spending money on a phone and for a long time i felt locked into generic flagship devices. With the debut of folding screens I feel like my appetite for unique devices rekindled. I think the power of android lies in its diversity of implementation.

So what features and functionalities would you choose over the next flagship release?

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[โ€“] dan_the_accountant@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[โ€“] croobat@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

How did we end up in a world where this is a niche feature. ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ

[โ€“] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I feel like I wouldn't mind the lack of headphone jack so much if they just gave us another USB-C port on the bottom instead so you can charge and listen to music without a dongle.

[โ€“] saladfork@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I've really tried hard with these usb-c headphones / adapters and they just don't work very well for me. They function mostly, but much more often come unplugged or slightly ajar.

[โ€“] tooting_lemmy@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago

An open bootloader and a removable battery.

[โ€“] gears@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

I miss having a notification LED. It used to be super common to have a "breathing" effect with a given color when an app had sent a notification.

So a Snapchat for example would show the breathing as yellow, etc. Super convenient to check for messages without going and grabbing the phone.

[โ€“] polaroid@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

HEADPHONE JACK.

GIVE ME THE GOD DAMN HEADPHONE JACK BACK

[โ€“] zephyr@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Hit the road, bc Jack won't come back home no more

[โ€“] DoucheAsaurus@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Ironically enough the headphone jack is more common on cheaper phones. Honestly though the mid grade phones are so good now that I can't see myself buying a flagship device unless there's some incentive.

[โ€“] CoderKat@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I know some phones had already did this, but I always liked the idea of support for using your phone as a TV remote. The phone has replaced so many pieces of hardware that it feels silly that TV remotes haven't been replaced yet.

I also specifically wish Chrome supported extensions on mobile. Firefox does it. Why can't the biggest browser do it?

[โ€“] SilentStorms@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I miss the innovation of early 2010s phones. Using the IR blaster to mess around with bar TVs was a ton of fun. Not to mention headphone jacks, SD card slots, and removable batteries.

I wish Firefox mobile supported desktop extensions. I know its doable with Nightly builds, but that's a pain to set up.

[โ€“] Lodespawn@kbin.social 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@CoderKat I'm pretty sure there are apps that let you do this. In my experience they tend to be buggy and slower than the dedicated hardware.

@Rdan33l

[โ€“] Liontigerwings@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Through wifi. They used to have IR blasters that work just like the real remote

[โ€“] Zebov@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Apparently most of my requirements/desires fit this. I require an unlocked bootloader, because I need root to not throw my phone through a window. An amazing camera would be needed as well.

I REALLY, REALLY would like a removable battery, IR blaster, small form function, a headphone jack, and a rear fingerprint reader.

[โ€“] SpraynardKruger@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I miss the IR blaster on my Galaxy S4. I remember when I finally upgraded to the S8, I was using it for several months before realizing it was gone. I tried to change the channel on the TV at work only to find out that they removed that feature from their Galaxy line pretty much right after the S4. Needless to say, I was disappointed, but it makes sense to remove a super niche feature from their mass-marketed device line.

[โ€“] RobotDaniel@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

An ir blaster, great as a universal remote

[โ€“] Nytelock@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Headset jack and let me replace my damn battery. Also default option to uninstall non-OEM apps

[โ€“] phx@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You're in luck for the battery thing. It's basically going to be mandatory in the EU which should hopefully help push change everywhere

[โ€“] Thadrax@lemmy.world -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I really hate that it is becoming mandatory. I would have preferred the option to either have a reasonably priced service to replace the battery or have it user replaceable. Forcing one solution just seems not very consumer friendly.

I don't like the compromises they have to make to make them easily replaceable and I never had a battery fail on me.

[โ€“] phx@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Well, what we've seen this far is not making it mandatory just means that the battery will not be user-replaceable on 99% of devices, because that's the most profitable way of doing it even if it results in a lot of extra waste

[โ€“] bitwolf@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
  • Removable battery
  • Ambidextrous button placement
  • Screws instead of glue where possible
  • USB4 + desktop mode
[โ€“] Weezard@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Slide out physical keyboard, notification LEDs or some form of cool lights, a dedicated camera shutter button, and a scroll wheel / touch pad like what used to be on the blackberry or like the LG KE970 I really liked that.

I really miss notification LED's though, always on display is good, but a little light is going to use far less battery and be immediately apparent from across the room by the colour what app the notification came from is.

edit : formatting

[โ€“] BlueSwitch@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm so annoyed that my Moto G60 has a sign of life LED that can't be used for notifications.

[โ€“] Weezard@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago

That sounds infuriating, I really miss these features, its not like there isn't even space to put them in, screen real estate isn't everything.

[โ€“] Gili@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

duck duck go tracker blocking that doesn't use vpn technology

[โ€“] j4k3@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'd like a phone with no camera facing me, and physical hardware switches to completely disable the mic, camera, battery, and entire modem. Not some software interrupt and lock. I mean, the switch is circuit ground for these circuit blocks. When I select OFF, it means real world "this thing does not exist any more ever" until I turn it back on.

It would be interesting to have a modular rear camera with a removable lens, removable IR filter, along with public documentation and the full API for the sensor. This would open up an enormous range of applications. I would mostly mess with astrophotography more.

[โ€“] WaDef7@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

The modular rear camera idea makes a lot of sense when you consider that camera bumps have become an industry standard.

Basically an Asus Zenfone 9 with a removable battery and an Sd card. Also, make the front like Sony phones - larger bezels on the top and the bottom of the display and house stereo speakers and front camera there instead of a cutout.

[โ€“] notapantsday@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There are some niche phones with a thermal camera, would love to see more of that. Thermal modules are getting smaller, cheaper and better all the time and the main producers like infiray or guide are offering modules that seem to be clearly targeted at the smartphone market.

I'm still discovering new uses for my thermal camera and I wish I could have it in my pocket all the time. The obvious uses are finding gaps in your house's thermal insulation or finding devices that draw a lot of standby energy. But you can also use it to find studs in your walls, find things that have recently been used, like cars in a parking lot or chairs in an office.

[โ€“] a1studmuffin@aussie.zone 2 points 2 years ago

Thermal cameras are also really handy for electronics repair and spotting invisible water leaks in ceilings.

[โ€“] breakerfall@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Modular everything. I really wanted Project Ara to come to market.

[โ€“] ironhydroxide@partizle.com 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Not really a feature of the phone, but a design theory. I want my small phone back. Not this "zenfone 9" size small. Like HTC One size small.

Make it bifold wallet sized, and ~1/2"thick.

These hugely tall phones where you can't reach the top third if the screen without dropping the thing are just annoyingly huge. Then they make them so thin they can't fit a big enough battery for a full day use.

Beyond that would like an under display fingerprint sensor. Rear and side mounted always have issues with cases for me, and make it more annoying when using the device while it's on a desk.

[โ€“] M_Reimer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Native Bluetooth GPS support. I do mapping for OpenStreetMap a lot and the built in GPS modules are just too bad for that. Currently I have to use an app to get my Bluetooth GPS connected. But sometimes this app fails and the built in GPS takes over and ruins my logs.

[โ€“] greyscale@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago

Keyboard. I want a damn keyboard. I'm a blackberry refugee hiding out on a unihertz titan/titan slim

[โ€“] XLRV@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

A Silent/Vibrate/Ring switch like on the OnePlus phones, headphone jack and a easily swappable battery.

[โ€“] bigbox@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

A microsd card slot and a headphone jack

[โ€“] Lasso1971@thelemmy.club 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Larger, swappable battery. Squeeze for assistant

[โ€“] tooting_lemmy@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

+1 for the battery. I turned off squeeze for assistant when I had it, lol. It kept going off by accident.

[โ€“] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Something interesting. Like 2 USB-C ports, also a nice hard plastic back, since they are so hard to find now.

[โ€“] mrfriki@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)
  • Slim form factor
  • No notch
  • No camera bump, even if at a cost in camera quality.
[โ€“] trimmerfrost@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago

Aluminium back instead of plastic or glass