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submitted 1 year ago by Rdan33l@lemmy.world to c/android@lemmy.world

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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[-] dan_the_accountant@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago
[-] croobat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

How did we end up in a world where this is a niche feature. 😭😭

[-] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] saladfork@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year 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.

[-] tooting_lemmy@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

An open bootloader and a removable battery.

[-] polaroid@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

HEADPHONE JACK.

GIVE ME THE GOD DAMN HEADPHONE JACK BACK

[-] zephyr@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

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

[-] gears@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year 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.

[-] notapantsday@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] a1studmuffin@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago

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

[-] Zebov@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] SpraynardKruger@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year 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.

[-] CoderKat@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

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?

[-] SilentStorms@lemmy.fmhy.ml 2 points 1 year 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.

[-] Weezard@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] BlueSwitch@lemmy.fmhy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

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

[-] Weezard@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year 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.

[-] Nytelock@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

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

[-] phx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

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

[-] Thadrax@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

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.

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[-] RobotDaniel@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

An ir blaster, great as a universal remote

[-] Lasso1971@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 year ago

Larger, swappable battery. Squeeze for assistant

[-] tooting_lemmy@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] T156@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

E-Ink would be nice, whether integrated as part of an OLED/LCD screen, or a separate module that goes over the top.

Most of the things that I use my phone for don't generally need the full colour display (text isn't that expensive to display), and I wouldn't mind trading that for vastly better battery life that you can get from e-ink, but having the option to use both is probably the best way to go.

An IR transceiver wouldn't go poorly either. It's not something I use much, but it was handy to have when I did, whether to send things around, or to just use my phone as a remote for televisions and things.

I want a Galaxy Fold style phone, but the external screen is eInk. Have it set to always show the book I am reading. This will let me read in bite sized pieces.

[-] bric@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

That would be awesome, although it might make the camera experience worse since you usually use the camera folded. I saw a prototype for a phone a while back that had a regular screen on one side and e-ink on the other, I always thought that was cool.

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

[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

physical hardware switches to completely disable the mic, camera, battery, and entire modem

There is one, the Librem 5.

Warning: Usability is not great last I heard. Runs on a linux distro so no android apps.

Edit: nvm don't bother checking it. They just raised the price to $1299 and it's 32 gb storage with 3gb ram. I mean at this point, just get a google pixel and slap on graphene os.

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[-] SuperSpruce@vlemmy.net 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Late to the thread but here's my thoughts on everything I'd like in a phone. Having just a few of these would make a huge difference in how much I'd want the phone.

Hardware:

  1. Standard features like a 3.5mm jack and MicroSD slot.
  2. Multiple USB ports (especially on tablets)
  3. Thunderbolt port
  4. Here's a simple idea: Instead of making a thin phone with a massive camera bump, you make a thick phone with the camera flush with the back, and use the extra space for a bigger battery?
  5. User-replacable battery
  6. Modules like the modo mods
  7. Battery passthrough when charging
  8. Upgradable SoC, RAM, internal storage???

Software (here lies my hopes and dreams that will never be manifested):

  1. Starting off simple, a feature that lets you manually limit how much you charge your battery.
  2. Manual over/underclocking controls for the CPU
  3. Separate WiFi/data toggles
  4. More control over how big or small icons and text is
  5. Easy root access with app makers not getting all "you sus" over the fact that your device is rooted
  6. No data harvesting (duh)
  7. Better file management (and removing scoped storage)
  8. Multiple logins to a phone (like what you can do with a desktop)
  9. One app, multiple accounts
  10. Just having the software take less system resources.
  11. Open sourcing hardware drivers
  12. Multiple floating windows like with a desktop OS
  13. More than 3 split screen options
  14. I'm sure there's a lot more I can't think of now
[-] bitwolf@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • Removable battery
  • Ambidextrous button placement
  • Screws instead of glue where possible
  • USB4 + desktop mode
[-] Gili@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago
[-] ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I was looking into smaller form factor phones awhile back, and an interesting feature I noticed some of them had was a programmable button.

I don't know that programmable buttons on phones are that niche, but it's certainly not common either so far as I'm aware, so this super simple feature would be wicked imo. I'd also really like if more phones just stole Motorola's gesture interactions (e.g. quick twist for camera, firm double-shake for flashlight, etc.).

Also, uh...Speaking of small form factor phones, I don't know if that counts as a feature, but it's one detail I'd like to see come back, or flip phones with separate screens (clunky, sure, but better than the screen eventually creasing imo).

[-] bigbox@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

A microsd card slot and a headphone jack

[-] ironhydroxide@partizle.com 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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.

[-] nope@yiffit.net 1 points 1 year ago

What about an external, optical camera lens ? I would 100% pay for a phone that looks like a brick but that has an optical zoom

[-] Jojo-Mcfrost572@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Phone upgrades.
Battery.. Non lithuim. Flexible and new. []
Flexible screen. Wrist strap or just flexible. []
Fitness/health capabilities. []
Usb 3.1 reversible.. Proper specs [x]
Wireless charging. Using new WiFi microwave to charge phone without mat. Wattup []
Better nfc/Google pay [x]
Smaller screen oled,s than 5.5 []
Better speakers none conduction or ceramic
Encryption []
Bezelless. Screen to screen hole cut out. 2018 []
Solar panel in screen. Sapphire glass. Smudge and germ

This list was created a few years ago.

Some things have been implemented but not all.

[-] lemmy@lemmy.quad442.com 1 points 1 year ago

I miss my keyboards

[-] zorrothefox2001@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I just want a new Droid with a slide-out keyboard

I've had every one of them until the Droid 4 and they never released a new one

[-] fraenki@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Foldable display - They are still way too expensive!

Metal case - I just loved the heavy Samsung Omnia 7 metal case. It made it unbreakable and grippy!

[-] 3migo@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I'm on a Fold 4 now and I do love the novelty/oddity aspect of having a folding tablet.

But I would love to see the return of IR blasters on most phones and sliding phones for physical keyboards.

[-] riskable@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

OMG great question! I want:

  • Laser range finder/"tape" measure
  • Thermal camera
  • Air quality sensor
  • Radiation detector/Geiger counter
  • Multimeter capabilities
  • IR LED (so I can use it as a remote)
  • Ultrasound capabilities
  • Peltier so I can put a drink on my phone to chill it down 👍

An unlocked bootloader and a normal Linux distribution where I have root!

[-] mcherm@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

A swappable battery. I could buy a few batteries and never be out of power. I could replace the battery on an older phone without pretty much having to replace the phone itself.

[-] Lilium@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago

It's the rear fingerprint reader for me, I use the pulldown action constantly. That and stereo front-facing speakers.

[-] Astigma@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

I miss the IR blaster. Being able to control my TV and other set-top boxes was amazing. Now that functionality has been replaced by each manufacturer having their own control app that needs an internet connection and all your information. Bring back the IR blaster!

[-] greyscale@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

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

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this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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