Poll: Which abandoned Android phone features do you miss the most?
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Replaceable battery
AUX plug
Expandable storage by SD card
Did I say replaceable battery already?
Edit: oh and non-edged screens (the roundings on the side, don't know the official name... But it sucks and almost all flagship phones have them, or at least when I bought mine 3 years ago, don't know about now tbh)
Did I say replaceable battery already?
Fairphone, Samsung Xcover.
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I need my expandable 1TB SD Card storage. 128 default is lame
I want to have 10 TV shows, 50 movies, a offline wikipedia .zim file, bunch of photos, etc...
I don't want my phone to just be a phone, I want it to be a Pocket PC.
GIMME THE FUCKING SD CARD SLOT
GIMME THE FUCKING SD CARD SLOT
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It's like picking between beige and off-white to give the living room a little 'character'. I was thinking of maybe going with a taupe accent but it was overwhelming. Don't want to offend anyone!
YOU'LL USE MAGNOLIA AND YOU'LL LIKE IT /jk
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Do you mean Pixel 5? The Nexus 5 didn't have a fingerprint scanner.
yeah it did this little cicle thing on the back was a finger print scanner and it was so good.
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Oh I’m well aware! The TV actually has a dedicated PC connected to it that’s hidden behind the wall. I’m going to move that PC out of there to a desktop for my kid, but I digress.
I mentioned the family context because that’s what makes the swing-out monitor awesome. We can be watching a movie or even playing a game together on the TV, but in my field of view I have the monitor floating off to the side of the TV. It’s like playing on a phone, but it doesn’t occupy my hands, it has a 27 inch 144Hz screen, and it’s a proper open platform that’s running linux.
Plus having my monitor in addition to the TV means that there’s already a 2-player LAN ready to go at all times. If it’s something cross platform where my kid can use phone or tablet (like Roblox which seems to have great cross platform support) then it’s 3-4 players with their own screens.
Oh dam I didn't think that through.
I may be looking into getting a monitor arm now...
It's like Picture in Picture but you know a whole lot better.
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What phone do you have? I have literally never had any issues with the on screen fingerprint readers on any of my samsung phones. It literally still takes less than half a second if that to unlock
Galaxy S25. I have the screen protector mode with enhanced sensitivity enabled also.
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OnePlus still offers this one on some of their phones.
Unfortunately I'm all-in on foldables so my options are even more limited. I don't think the OnePlus Open has an IR blaster.
Plus I really, really like Good Lock, which means I'm even further limited in my choices because it's a Samsung exclusive.
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In my experience it's very optional
Oh sure you can refuse to install it I guess but why would you? Its weird so many people don't understand what a advantage it is to have root access.
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Oh sure you can refuse to install it I guess but why would you? Its weird so many people don't understand what a advantage it is to have root access.
And there's even more people who don't understand the dangers. Install the wrong APK or click a fishy link, and your device can be completely fucked without you ever knowing. That's why the AOSP has worked so hard on isolation and ACL.
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I’d pull it out of my pocket with my finger naturally on the back side and it would be unlocked by the time I viewed the screen.
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Oh dam I didn't think that through.
I may be looking into getting a monitor arm now...
It's like Picture in Picture but you know a whole lot better.
Yeah, it feels like an actual life hack in the original spirit of the term, rather than the modern usage that just means a recommendation.
It’s such a simple thing, but one that’s easy to not think of because it’s just not that common to combine couch + desktop monitor(s). It is so damn nice.
And, if you’re middle aged like me, it’s even a bit nostalgic. It reminds me of the high school and college days where instead of doomscrolling on a phone for hours, we would sit at a desktop PC for hours enjoying that good old internet. That internet was old enough to be wild and free (not corpo-enshittified), but new enough that leaving home and going to college meant upgrading from <= 56kbps to 10Mbps.
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And there's even more people who don't understand the dangers. Install the wrong APK or click a fishy link, and your device can be completely fucked without you ever knowing. That's why the AOSP has worked so hard on isolation and ACL.
I've never had that problem. Probably due to my not installing dodgy software.
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What headphones are you using? Are they comfortable when you sleep on your side?
wrote last edited by [email protected]They're called sleepphones and yes, they're designed for side sleeping. Basically a headband with speakers. Each speaker is like a C battery, stitched into layers of felt.
The Bluetooth version has a silicon casing with a folding crease in it, to keep it flexible, but it's several inches long and doesn't seem to last long before I get whining. Idk how much of that is Bluetooth degradation vs the receiver's wear and tear from folding or being lied on. It needs regular recharging (micro USB, or i think they have a cordless charge version).
The 3.5mm has a long braided cord, has never whined, and doesn't have the chunky Bluetooth receiver. It gets charge from the phone. I always know I can use it when I want to.
Sleepphones also sells replaceable parts piecemeal so you can get just a band, just speakers, just BT unit etc.
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They're called sleepphones and yes, they're designed for side sleeping. Basically a headband with speakers. Each speaker is like a C battery, stitched into layers of felt.
The Bluetooth version has a silicon casing with a folding crease in it, to keep it flexible, but it's several inches long and doesn't seem to last long before I get whining. Idk how much of that is Bluetooth degradation vs the receiver's wear and tear from folding or being lied on. It needs regular recharging (micro USB, or i think they have a cordless charge version).
The 3.5mm has a long braided cord, has never whined, and doesn't have the chunky Bluetooth receiver. It gets charge from the phone. I always know I can use it when I want to.
Sleepphones also sells replaceable parts piecemeal so you can get just a band, just speakers, just BT unit etc.
Thanks. They look very nice and from what I see the wired version is much cheaper too, hopefully the cable can be bought as well, I always kill earphones from getting shibaried by the cord.
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IR transmitters
Miracast (in base open source Android, especially access to the ability to receive)
Scrolling notification text in the notification bar (seriously, that was sooooo much better than the obnoxious new default pop-up notifications)
A bunch of permissions that's been too locked down (stuff used by Tasker, networking tools, etc)
There's an IR blaster on my OnePlus Open and the casual ease of fixing a display TV where the remote wasn't working was divine
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Idk what phone you're using but I can do it no problem on my older S21 Ultra and my new Fairphone 6 by just clicking on the notification
wrote last edited by [email protected]This is not USB Mass Storage. This is MTP. If this was USB Mass Storage, then the phone would have a drive letter (or two different drive letter for internal storage/sd card) and wouldn't appear under "This PC".
EDIT here are some screenshots from The Before Times, when some phones actually allowed you to switch between the two modes. First is UMS, second is MTP. source
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Unimpeded root. You can still get it on maybe a handful of phones but apps are getting harder and harder to run with it enabled.
It's sad how root is still required on many phones to reach full functionality, yet they makes you jump through hoops to get it.
On my phone I needed root to set a battery charge limit. The rom I'm using only added that functionality natively a few years ago. I still need root to make backups ever since google kneecapped ADB backup. Seriously, do they just expect people to not make backups of the device they use every day!?
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This is not USB Mass Storage. This is MTP. If this was USB Mass Storage, then the phone would have a drive letter (or two different drive letter for internal storage/sd card) and wouldn't appear under "This PC".
EDIT here are some screenshots from The Before Times, when some phones actually allowed you to switch between the two modes. First is UMS, second is MTP. source
wrote last edited by [email protected]Ok, I mean if that's MTP then sure, I thought it was something else, but I don't see the problem, I've literally never had issues with reading or writing files using it over multiple devices and I have access to everything I'd have with a file browser app on my phone.
Edit:
Reading this article, I don't see why you would ever want to go back, it sounds like it has way more issues than the current solution. -
Ok, I mean if that's MTP then sure, I thought it was something else, but I don't see the problem, I've literally never had issues with reading or writing files using it over multiple devices and I have access to everything I'd have with a file browser app on my phone.
Edit:
Reading this article, I don't see why you would ever want to go back, it sounds like it has way more issues than the current solution.wrote last edited by [email protected]I'm glad that it works for you but you have to know that it's not like that for everyone. Last time I tried using MTP I had to write a script that would call
rsyncin a loop until all files were transfered because every time like one or two files would just mysteriously not make it across the cable.Also, not me personally, but some people have usecases like playing video files from their phone on their tv or sending files to a printer over the cable. This wouldn't work with MTP because most "dumb" devices like that don't support it
