What niche phone features would appeal to you?

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?

dan_the_accountant,

A fucking headphone jack

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

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,
@saladfork@lemmy.world avatar

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.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Because the audio jack is the perfect connector for its purpose: It’s omnidirectional, the connection is as wide as it comes, and it locks the plug. The point for using a USB-C connector would be that it’s more versatile as you can use it for data transfer and power as well.

croobat,
@croobat@lemmy.world avatar

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

gears,

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.

mazkarth,

I think the galaxy s9 was the last that had that for the galaxy seriesm. When I got my S20U I handed my s8plus? The flagship to my mum. I still miss the notification light and it’s such a shame that we can’t even use the AMOLED screen to emulate the notification light.

polaroid,
@polaroid@kbin.social avatar

HEADPHONE JACK.

GIVE ME THE GOD DAMN HEADPHONE JACK BACK

DoucheAsaurus,
@DoucheAsaurus@kbin.social avatar

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.

zephyr,

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

Zebov,

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,

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.

independantiste,
@independantiste@lemmy.world avatar

sideloading is a requirement for me and unlockable bootloader, otherwise, some things like an IR blaster, headphone jack, removable battery (thx EU), RGB notification LED, front facing speakers would make a "good" phone become "great"

jjnjjlr,

Man, I forgot all about notification LEDs. My list is practically identical to yours.

joekar1990,

Add on an SD slot and you and I have an identical list.

CoderKat,
@CoderKat@kbin.social avatar

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?

Lodespawn,

@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

Liontigerwings,

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

SilentStorms,
@SilentStorms@lemmy.fmhy.ml avatar

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.

Nytelock,

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

phx,

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,

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.

phx,

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

Weezard,

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,

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

Weezard,

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.

notapantsday,

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,
@a1studmuffin@aussie.zone avatar

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

SuperSpruce,

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
j4k3,
@j4k3@lemmy.world avatar

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.

WaDef7,

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

001100010010,
@001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

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.

RobotDaniel,

An ir blaster, great as a universal remote

Apophis,

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.

bigbox,

A microsd card slot and a headphone jack

T156,

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.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • [email protected]
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • oklahoma
  • feritale
  • KamenRider
  • Ask_kbincafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • KbinCafe
  • Socialism
  • SuperSentai
  • All magazines
    •