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?

    • Margot Robbie@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        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.

        • Margot Robbie@lemmy.worldM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

        • KilgoreTheTrout@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah it’s just crazy that you have to always keep them around. I own a qudelik 5k And I have a couple cheap adapters that came with tablets or something but I never remember to have them on me.

          Maybe if you have a wallet case you could kind of stick it in there but otherwise they’re just too easy to lose.

  • gears@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    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.

    • mazkarth@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      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.

    • gronapa@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yea I only ever had this on a Samsung S9 and I did find it helpful. Snapchat as you said did a good job using it.

  • Zebov@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    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.

    • Spraynard Kruger@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      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.

  • Nytelock@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

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

    • phx@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        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.

        • phx@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year 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

  • j4k3@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    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.

    • WaDef7@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

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

    • 001100 010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      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.

  • CoderKat@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      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.

  • Lalop@toast.ooo
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    Headphone socket. They are taking away what was a universal feature and replacing it with inconvenient crap.

  • notapantsday@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

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

  • T156@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    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.

  • ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    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).

    • Rdan33l@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      A good well implemented button anywhere is a joy and I think there would be a lot of interest in smaller phones with interesting features.

  • Weezard@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    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

      • Weezard@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        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.

  • Jean_Lurk_Picard@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Whenever I buy a phone there’s two function I look for that is getting phased out: LED indicator and a 3.5mm audio jack. It’s why I have a Sony Xperia. The thing is there’s no user configuration for the LED indicator. You either need to pay for a third party app or unlock the bootloader and install a custom firmware. I would love if a flagship phone had an LED Indicstor that was customizable. i.e. Blue for a text, Red for an email, Green for battery at 80%+, etc.

    • FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I was actually writing up a big thing about how I’d gone out of my way to get a used Note 9 with the headphone jack, which also has the LED indicator, and how you could set the LED colors for individual apps. But after spending about 20 minutes Googling and looking for the settings in my phone, I’m not sure it’s actually possible. Maybe it was my Note 8 that had LED indicator options? Or maybe I just imagined it entirely. Hmm

      • n0cte@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Only ever had a Note 9 and I do remember the LED indicator being customizable. Try the extended utilities app from Samsung store?