Poll: Which abandoned Android phone features do you miss the most?
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Lock screen widgets are a thing now.
You really gonna put a tv remote on your lockscreen?
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There's an app iirc that lets you plug headphones in and it somehow uses them as an antenna..
Oh wait, no more headphone jack!
It depends if the hardware is locked down or not
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I might be the only one, but KEYBOARDS!
I even designed my own keyboard attachment to get one back.
I was watching this Janus Cycle video at the weekend, and god it made me wish I could buy a folding keyboard case for my Pixel 9.
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As someone who currently has a new phone with root and an sd-card slot, this was a fun read.
What phone is that?
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headphone jack mostly because it was the most consumer unfriendly decision removed purely to make phone companies more money
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I just want the LG G5 back. It had a(n):
- Removable battery
- SD card slot
- Infrared blaster
- FM Radio
- 3.5mm jack
- Compass
- Barometer
- Gyro
- NFC
- Fingerprint reader
And a ton of other stuff. Truly the best android phone ever made
Closest I can find now is the Ulefone line (no removable battery) but I have no idea if they're decent phones or not.
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Stereo front facing speakers.
I have no idea why these terrible downward facing speakers took off, HTC had it nailed in 2012. RIP, king of smartphones. I'm glad to at least have 2 proper speakers on my Fold6 and 7, rather than an amplified earpiece speaker... But this is just not how sound works. I shouldn't have to cup my hand around the side to point the sound in the proper direction.
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The smaller size phones (I hate these Phablets,) 3.5mm jack and back finger print reader, (although my Pixel 4a5G has them, it will be the last,) replaceable batteries, and selfie camera that doesn't take up screen real estate.
Phablets, lmao. You invoke the ancient magicks.
I'm so far on the opposite side on this one though - I always have preferred large screen devices and today, I ADORE my folding pocket tablet most of all.
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I might be the only one, but KEYBOARDS!
I even designed my own keyboard attachment to get one back.
I miss them dearly.
Luckily there is some options, I currently using clicks but it is not without its flaws mainly that my phone feels like a tv remote. -
I liked the notification LEDs that some of the nexus phones used to have, you could customize the color / flashing pattern per contact.
The trackball that had the customizable notification LED under it on the Nexus One was so damned cool. Since it was raised up and I had work emails, texts, personal emails, and GTalk all on distinct colors, I could tell from across the room whether it was worth even grabbing my phone.
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I got Motorola with a headphone jack, and I use it surprisingly often. All my Bluetooth stuff has fallen apart faster than my wired stuff.
They are one of the few OEMs that still offers headphone jacks and they are overall decent midrange phones. If they weren't so damned big and had an unlocked bootloader for ROM support I'd be on one right now.
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I charge my phone once a day.
I use my jack 3-4 times a day on average.
Fair enough, though would you be happy if there were significant improvements made to usb-c port build quality?
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I miss just being able to take it out and have no phone for however long I want. Didn't drain the battery, didn't worry about the phone.
It does compromise the waterproofing to open and close phones, even cases. But fuck you, let me make my own mistakes, your job is to engineer things to be better and fit my needs, not just give up and charge more and strip features and invade my privacy and spy on me with psyops and try to control my life. I'm a customer, not a user.
There were several waterproof phones with removable batteries back in the S5 era
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Nope, it's a smaller manufacturer called "SHIFT". Kind of like a competitor to Fairphone, in terms of repairability, sustainability, Custom ROM support and being expensive AF.
SHIFT
I just looked at the site and it looks great, but parts of it didn't look available in English. Do you have any idea if it's fully compatible with US networks?
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Don't forget the notification light.
The most bullshit thing ever. I have a Moto 5g Ace, I was sad it didn't have a light, used it for a couple years before putting LineageOS on it. Low and behold it actually has a notification light that was disabled in the stock ROM! WTF
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In order, I'd say SDcard slot, notification light, 3.5mm jack
My Zenfone 8 has two out of those three features.
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You really gonna put a tv remote on your lockscreen?
Yeah, that's how I had my old HTC One M8 set up. I didn't have a full numpad setup or anything; just power, volume, and channel. I had a separate widget for my ceiling fan, too.
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Sub 5" screen, 3.5mm jack, removable battery, 2-stage camera shutter button.
My old Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact had all of those, except for the removable battery.
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It always surprises me that so many people still want this. I know it's representative of the anti-choice homogenisation of phones in general, but something like removable batteries or expandable storage seems so much more important than a dedicated old headphone connector.
I personally hate how annoying headphone wires are, but even if you like them then is it so inconvenient to leave an adapter connected to your headphones? And a splitter as well if you're desperate to charge simultaneously?
Wired does not mean "old", it means faster, more reliable, better for the environment and cheaper too!
In the time that some very affordable studio headphones last me, I'd have to buy about 5 or so similarly priced BT headphones or 10 pairs of true wireless ear buds. Turns out adding complexity to a device and powering it with a non replaceable battery makes it way less reliable and worse for the environment.
On top of that, wireless almost always implies audio compression. (but in fairness that won't be noticeable for everyone)
Imho a headphone jack should still be a "must have" for smartphones. -
Yeah, that's how I had my old HTC One M8 set up. I didn't have a full numpad setup or anything; just power, volume, and channel. I had a separate widget for my ceiling fan, too.
Fair enough! That does actually sound perfectly serviceable.
