Can second the replaceable batteries and extendable storage.
However I don’t mind the lack of a headphone jack, because they make affordable dongle dacs now. I think instead of a headphone jack phones should just have 2 usb c ports
Dacs are great, I have one for my IEMs and love it. But only when im sitting. As soon as any movement happens I am occasionally punished when the cable moves 1mm out of its port with noise or complete sound stoppage. I can use my TWS but sound quality and reliability suffers.
Replacement batteries should be a legal requirement. My 5 year old android phone needed a new battery and people kept telling me to get a new one as the phone is old anyway. It still does what I need so why should I get a new one just because of a battery.
I ended up taking the phone apart myself and replacing it. Wasn’t easy and took me over 2 hours.
I’m up for anything which keeps phones working for longer. Such a waste of money and resources for what should be a simple job.
To be fair, expandable storage as we’ve had it sucks. MicroSD cards cause a lot of issues, and a good chunk of Android apps block the ability to use them. Connecting an SSD to your phone is a much better experience.
Lots of phones still have those. Notably all Redmi phones have a SD card slot, and Redmi still sells new phones with IR blaster, and most have a headphone jack too.
I’ve looked into those phones, the specs look nice but they don’t work in my region, unfortunately rural areas of the US don’t have Tower support for those style models(yay refusal to upgrade any sort of infrastructure). many of my friends that are overseas have stated that they love the phones though.
Yeah but they’re all the lower end phones, all the major flagships removed the features three or four versions ago, I don’t want to have to sacrifice camera or screen quality in order to have features that should be built into phones by default
That’s really that is why I went with the phone I have, out of the phones that I looked at all of them were a downgrade for the screen, and generally camera. Or lacked the tower support in my area since we barely have LTE
I’m going to say that today, even on lower-end phones, the screen, processor and camera are all pretty decent.
I have a Motorola G31, which cost about 200€ one year ago, when I got it. It has a Micro SD Card Slot and a headphone jack. The screen is plenty good (1440p,60hz) (why would you need 120hz or 4k on a phone) And the camera is also quite nice. It has no fancy features, but it takes pictures and that’s all I need.
From my perspective, flagship phones are impractical and overpriced to say the least.
I switched to duck duck go who knows how many years ago. Haven’t looked back.
Can’t even remember when I started using Firefox, but that was probably around the time when Opera became popular. Before Crome existed, I was already on FF and never regretted staying there. At that point, I was already somewhat aware of privacy matters, so switching to Chrome seemed completely stupid to me.
I liked the sd-card feature, too. But nowadays my android has 128 GB and I never got more data than 25% on it. Because I sync and remove everything to the cloud. Idk what I could put on a sd-card.
I download everything I consume, my podcasts, music, manga, and even some netflix and pocket articles, this + gachas becoming increasingly bigger now makes it so 128GB is not enough anymore when Genshin alone occupies 30% of that.
After system updates you effectively only have like 100GB of space for real.
Sony phones still have the SD card slot, also no notch, a headphone jack while still being water resistant and the RGB notification led, if you’re interested.
Pixel phones and I believe Samsung phones just light up the OLED display to let you know that there is notification. An independent LED was only necessary because screens would have to light up the whole display to indicate notification,but now we have better screens so that isn’t necessary.
I have a Samsung and have it set to light up the screen but it’s not the same as that LED. I used to be able to set the LED color for messages from certain people. Ex: Blue was a friend, Red was mom. The LED would also stay that color until I read the message where as the current screen color only lights up for a few seconds (unless there is a setting I’m missing).
My 1st phones were around €200, now you only find cheap junk that breaks within a year at that prize point. Having to cough up €500-700 for a phone that lasts a few years sounds excessive. Best phone until now is my '18 Nokia 6.1. Prize was €300 and it’s still going strong.
I forget which Samsung galaxy model it was, maybe S6, but it had a universal IR blaster built into the phone which was super convenient for controlling all of my devices. I did however often abuse the shit out of it by flipping the channels on bar tvs or turning off the stereo receiver and nobody was ever suspecting it was me on my phone. I guess that’s probably why they removed it lol, but it was fun while it lasted.
Unsure about the S6, but my S5 (which I still have and currently use as a dashcam in a pinch if I’m not in my usual car) definitely has an IR blaster and yeah, it was so good to just flick on the TV in the living room, or notice that my parents TV was still on while they were sleeping and I’d just turn it off from my phone.
Got an IR watch in high school before universal remotes were a known enough technology. That teacher must have really hated that day. Sorry Mrs Desgagné if you’re out there.
I wonder if there might not be an add on that might have an IR blaster they connects via USB-C and has an app to run it… If it was good I might consider getting one.
In the gaming sector, nothing has adequately replicated the stylus used by the DS, 3DS, and Wii U. It was the best way to play a few signature games like Elite Beat Agents (now incarnated as Osu) and Trauma Center: Under the Knife. Touchscreens are just a bit too universal and resilient for us to go back to them.
To be precise Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan was the original Japanese game, Elite Beat Agents was the English-language localization adaptation mutation, and osu! is the fan-made knockoff of both.
My personal conspiracy theory is, SD card slots were removed from phones so Google, Apple, and Samsung can more readily push their cloud storage subscriptions
This seems fair - especially when you start looking at how Google seems to be continually further hindering file access in Android in the name of Security. I use my file system a fair bit on my phone and it just keeps getting worse with every new android release.
There are several advantages to not having them: without all the extra parts needed to support these features you can make the phone thinner (thickness is traditionally a key marketing point for smartphones) and cheaper to make.
Additionally, it seems that a lot of people no longer need these features, making them prime candidates for exclusion: Bluetooth headphones have become very common, internal storages have become large enough, and people buy a new phone often enough nowadays that battery wear is not as much of an issue.
Of course, if you are one of the people who still do want these features you’re pretty much out of luck. Which sucks.
The idea that people don’t need headphone jack seems pretty weird. Phones removed the 3.5mm jack, so people had to buy Bluetooth headphones, because now there is just 1 port on the phone.
And now, because of this change, you’re looking back and saying that that’s a not needed feature.
I mean, I love my bluetooth headphones but also bluetooth sucks. Anyone who says bluetooth is a reliable spec we should longterm trust our ability to connect audio devices together with is horrifically deceiving themselves. Bluetooth is an absolute train wreck of a technical spec, and it can be further broken at any point because it is just software that can be “updated” with “new features” that break backwards compatibility.
To call bluetooth a replacement of the 3.5mm jack which has a stunning, decades long established compatibility with other devices is a slap to the face of consumers even if most of those consumers don’t use their 3.5mm jack anywhere as much as bluetooth audio. The point is there is NO good reason that device makers had to take away the option of a 3.5mm jack other than to take away an alternative option. How much does it cost to stick an audio jack in a phone? Does it add like… what $1.25 to the cost of the phone all totaled? People are way to willing to believe tech companies removing features is an innocuous side effect of progress rather than a constant probing to see what bullshit they can get away with in order to introduce monetizable friction into the experience of using a device.
Also just to transfer pictures to a laptop for editing and to clear space for taking more pics on the phone. I know cloud exists, but I want to control my own data.
There are several advantages to not having them: without all the extra parts needed to support these features you can make the phone thinner (thickness is traditionally a key marketing point for smartphones)
I’d be pretty happy with a phone that’s 1.5x thicker than normal if it has a 6000-7000 mAh battery.
without all the extra parts needed to support these features you can make the phone thinner
I don’t think the 3.5mm jack is the limiting spec on how thick phones are. The latest iphone (15) without the jack is 7.8mm thick, while my phone that has one is 7.9mm. The 15 pro is 8.3mm. Thickness may have been a selling point in the past but I don’t think people care anymore bc essentially everything’s pretty thin these days–size concerns are way more focused on length/width.
Bluetooth headphones were very much useable when we had headphone jacks. Now your only option is overpriced Bluetooth devices that will not last.
Internal storage on your phone is not that big. What they want to do is sell you cloud storage. iPhone 15 Pro, to get 1TB of internal storage is $1500. The cheapest Samsung is ‘Galaxy S22 Ultra, 1TB’ @ $1600. And the Google Pixel 8, your looking at $1200. Each option basically costs about $500 for that 1TB option. But I could buy a 1.5TB card for $150 on Amazon…
Phone’s being thinner is the dumbest marketing point. It’s counterproductive to everything you want the phone to have. Like a decent sized battery, proper cooling, and features… And make it so that the phone isn’t flimsy. To say that people no longer needed these features is also just dumb. You know who decided people no longer need these features, someone in Apple’s marketing department who realized you could sell $150 headphones instead of giving away quality $20 headphones.
You need to realize that the reason people keep buying new phones isn’t because of the new features (which there are none) it’s because their phone now sucks because it’s aging out because they can’t replace anything. Imagine being able to recycle the battery instead of creating just a bunch of e-waste every couple of years.
without all the extra parts needed to support these features you can make the phone thinner
The Galaxy S4 from 2013 has a removable battery, headphone jack, and sd card slot. Its no thicker then a modern smartphone.
cheaper to make
I’d rather pay more for something that lasts me longer. If users can replace their own batteries easily and expand their storage, they can hold on to the device for longer. That way they’ll buy less phones and won’t care that the product was minorly more expensive.
Bluetooth headphones have become very common
And have flooded landfills with batteries. Wired headphones don’t have batteries that will degrade or need charging.
internal storages have become large enough
Not really. I have a 64gb phone and need an sd card to store my music. If I wanted more storage I would literally have to buy a different device. I’d rather just have an sd card slot.
people buy a new phone often enough nowadays that battery wear is not as much of an issue
battery wear is part of the reason people trash their otherwise working phones. People buying phones more often is a symptom of not having right to repair.
people buy a new phone often enough nowadays that battery wear is not as much of an issue
battery wear is part of the reason people trash their otherwise working phones. People buying phones more often is a symptom of not having right to repair.
Also, buying an extra battery and charger meant you could carry a fully charged battery in your pocket and if you were out hiking or something, you could just swap batteries instead of needing a power bank and a whole bunch of charging time.
I switched to the 2022 iPhone SE for this last year only for the EU to pull the usb-c thing toward apple (who of course requires the Apple certified cables now anyways so it solved nothing). and after that happened I know the writing is on the wall for this phone one day because of its design. I’m going to be using it until the very bitter end when not a single app is supported anymore. I will be a physical button warrior to the end.
I agree with all but hand crank drills. If you own a battery drill it’s probably stored with it’s battery and with keyless chucks (that don’t work on a hand crank drill) getting a battery drill ready for work is faster than a hand crank, and it will do the job faster too.
Agreed and that was also my one exception to that comment.
If someone’s really worried about having a super compact kit for smaller, light duty jobs, the 12v (and under) options from any major tool manufacturer will fit the bill nicely.
I have a framework 13 and absolutely love it. Not used a Fairphone yet, and I believe the latest model might have sadly scrapped the 3.5 headphone jack, but will still be a strong contender when I next need an upgrade.
My induction hob, my extractor fan, a light above the countertop… All of these things just in my kitchen don’t have physical buttons and I hate it. Physical buttons are so easy to use and in so many ways superior to these “touch” buttons.
You can still readily get crank hand drills, I have a (vaguely) modern one that I use for situations where I want the control/tactile feedback and/or have restricted access or the like. It covers a different set of problems than the standard cordless.
Mine is Fiskars branded and a little plasticky (and not the version they sell currently). I like it enough that I’ll get a nicer one if I kill it.
Physical buttons in cars for radio and environment settings.
There used to be a time when I could have my hand on the gear shifter and just reach out with my fingers to change radio stations or adjust the heat or a/c without needing to look down at all.
Now with modern touchscreens in cars, you can’t do any of that. I have gotten used to playing with the radio via the steering wheel buttons, but anything else requires hunting around, looking for the correct spot to touch the screen.
And yet they say, “don’t take your eyes off the road!”
Yeah you can preview this cycle by looking at Cadillac. They were among the first to go touch-only with Cue in the early 2010s, started fading back in physical buttons with new models in the late 2010s, and on their newest models now have a full set of very nice custom buttons not shared from the GM parts bin.
Physical buttons do everything better and are safer for drivers since they require less attention to be taken off the road.
I will continue to refuse to buy any car that has internet connectivity or touchscreens. They’re unsafe and unnecessary, only allowing for more tracking of our personal lives
Im with you on the always online automobiles and the importance of tactile feedback for important and commonly used buttons, but a small screen for a back-up camera is very nice.
Im not against screens entirely, just ones that are touchscreen and hide critical buttons behind menus.
A screen that does nothing more than GPS, Music and Backup cameras is pretty much the extent of what I’d need, and there’s a bunch of 3rd party accessories that do that.
Some car companies are going back to physical buttons. A screen for everything is still my most hated thing about modern vehicles. I wanna look like I’m operating the millennium falcon or a Gundam when I’m driving, gimme back muscle memory.
My 2021 VW GLI is mostly buttons. There’s a big touchscreen for the infotainment, except volume. There’s a “tuner” knob but it doesn’t really so anything (I don’t listen to am/fm radio). HVAC controls are all buttons and knobs. Steering wheel controls are also buttons and switches.
My CX5 is similar, buttons for all things not entertainment. There’s only one out of place design on the car that irks me - it doesn’t have a setting to change whether the mirrors fold or not. Why is this useful? I’m in the Midwest and in the winter they can get stuck overnight due to ice. So they have a convoluted process (without an audible or visual confirmation mind you) to disable or enable. Ignition on, lock the windows. Press all three passenger window buttons on the driver’s door down for 3 seconds. This would have been so much nicer to be in a menu off of the entertainment system, similar to say the lighting timing upon exit etc.
I just got a 2018 Honda Odyssey and it’s great. It has the touch screen, but also has physical buttons for almost all of the climate and radio stuff. That’s how it should be IMO. Just give us both!
You’re lucky (or smart) to go with the 2018, my gfs 2016 Honda Accord does have physical buttons for the climate, but for some reason has a weird touch pad thing instead of a volume knob. It drives us both up the wall. The car is near perfect besides that but that one issue is enough to convince me to never buy a Honda of that generation.
Our 2021 Hyundai Kona has physical buttons for most things, and some advanced functions are accessible through the touchscreen. Maybe it’s an exception
I’m a school bus driver and some modern buses have the switches for operating the doors and the 8-ways (the amber and red flashers at the top corners) on the steering wheel and they drive me up the fucking wall. The problem is that you often have to stop for kids after making a sharp turn one way or the other, so the wheel is not in its normal position and you have no idea where the switches are and have to look down to see them. If they’re on the left fixed panel (their “normal” location) you can reach for them without having to look.
That’s just terrible design, the only buttons that should be on the steering wheel are ones you are likely to use while at speed and there should always be backups on the dash. It’s more expensive to run wires to the wheel and they’re more likely to break.
I honestly would if I could. A few times I’ve started the car and gotten a “handbrake error” which has left me stranded until the Google told me I need to take the key out of the ignition, lock the doors and wait for the car to go into low power mode then try again. Fuck automatic handbrakes.
Apart from that the car is pretty great though. Uses almost no fuel and has lasted forever, touch wood. 15 years old now and going strong.
Oh sorry, the oil filter is buried in the middle of the engine and the battery was an absolute nightmare to replace because it was also buried. Two things that should be easy peasy to sort out yourself.
But apart from that it’s been a great car. Honestly. :D
Good keyboards on computers. At the office, everything are those extremely uncomfortable $5 dell keyboards. At a climbing gym or pool, the liability iPads that you sign forms on is using those really uncomfortable apple keyboards too.
I miss the better keyboards that we had back 25 years ago. Modern box jades bring some of that back for your own PC.
Excuse me, the IBM model M was made from 85-96, there was then a 10 year gap until the Das Mechanical came out in 06 but the Model M was 100% widely available used during that time and Cherry AG stayed in business so there were still modders and small companies making Model M type keyboards even then.
But… you could just buy a good keyboard? With a bit larger budget than that 5$ a lot of modern mechanical keyboards could just as well be pure gold, they are so good. I’m still chugging on my 65$ CM Storm Quickfire XT from 8-10 years ago. This is problem of knowledge/motivation , not a problem of supply/scarcity
You can get nice mechanical keyboards these days. They’re not cheap though
Back in 2004 the company we worked at (we worked for another company who provided tech contract work for them) was bought and they were dismantling a particular site. I remember getting to the e-trash dumpster and finding boxes of almost new computers and HP keyboards. I had a truck so I grabbed them all. The computers, I donated. The keyboards I still have maybe 3 or 4, after having given others to friends and family.
Headphone jack, bigger batteries, front facing speakers, SD card slot, IR blaster, magnetic field to let you use your credit cards at check out from your phone (MST) - THROUGH THE ACTUAL CARD READER SO THEY DIDN’T NEED GOOGLE/APPLE/SAMSUNG WALLET WHATEVER THE FUCK. I also agree that I miss the light too lol
That said, here’s what I can’t stand in newer phones: camera bumps. Unless you’re a droid x or Nexus get that rocking on any flat service while I’m trying to type shit outta here. I don’t give a shit about my cameras but if they need to be that fat and advanced, just make the rest of the phone that fat and give me the extra battery instead of making a tiny stovetop in the corner. Fuckin weird and dumb. Also camera cutouts in the screen, put that shit under the screen or set it next to a front facing speaker on the bezel. Also bezel-less phones, I know we’re trying to fill our phones with screens but my fat palms don’t care about that when I’m accidentally touching everything on the side while holding it
It was MST, I know some Samsung phones had them, and it was used at credit card checkouts for stores that don’t have the nft/tap to pay. As far as I know it literally spoofed the magnetic field your credit card makes, so the credit card reader would think you swiped it. Super handy at stores that aren’t caught up with the tech when you didn’t have your wallet lol
I was going to mention the IR blaster. I had one on my LG G4 & G5 if I remember correctly. It was so cool! I was so bummed when they stopped having it.
Some phones still have em, most Xiaomi phones do but then you gotta put up with their software or be comfortable flashing a custom ROM.
I love having an IR blaster in my phone mostly cause my work doesn’t trust us with air conditioning remotes but also I never have to stress about finding the right remote for everything since I’ve got anything I might interact with daily that uses an IR remote programmed into my phone.
THROUGH THE ACTUAL CARD READER SO THEY DIDN’T NEED GOOGLE/APPLE/SAMSUNG WALLET WHATEVER THE FUCK
That’s not an issue, I’m assuming you mean the establishment didn’t need it, but just to cover my bases I’ll give you both scenarios:
either you’re talking about your phone needing an app, which was still the case for the magnetic card thing, but I doubt you were talking about this.
or more likely, you are talking about the place you’re paying needing a new PoS for receiving NFC based payment. In this case the issue is from the retailers trying to get another cut of the money by making you go through their app, when they can receive that payment via tap to pay which is also a thing on new cards, I have used them both in my country without any issue because we don’t have those ass backwards retailers, there’s an issue of the person taking payment being unaware and trying to enable another mobile based payment method instead of just setting it to card based payment.
I’m talking about MST, which was actual hardware on the phone used in conjunction with software to fool card readers into thinking you swiped the actual card, even if they didn’t support nft. It was super handy and easy for the shops that haven’t upgraded yet.
I know, but that’s not really an app issue, that would be equivalent to complaining about cards without magnetic strip which only rely on NFC. It’s a result of new technology and not some bad idea trying to do things in a different way. It’s like complaining about touch screen tech because you can’t do things the exact way you used to on flip phones.
That’s like saying it’s ok that they removed the headphone jack because Bluetooth is newer technology? And I know it’s not an app issue, I was complaining about a hardware removal? I’m so confused after this comment lol
The magnetic thing was only ever a Samsung thing and it wasn’t as secure as NFC, NFC works basically the same as the thing you’re talking about, its only flaw would be that it doesn’t work with the old style card readers.
I never claimed otherwise? OP asked what a nifty feature on old gadgets was that’s not on newer gadgets, and I said that. That’s an old feature that’s not on newer gadgets, and it was very handy at the time because very few stores had adopted tap to pay. Would it be AS handy today? Certainly not, but there have still been times I’ve missed it when a store doesn’t have tap to pay.
Yes it’s outdated. Isn’t that the whole point of everything in this thread??? I just keep getting more confused lol
Edit: to clarify, the phone I had had BOTH MST and NFC. NFC had actually already been around and MST was the new thing at the time. It was simply a cool additional feature.
I suspect that the magnetic feature you desire is pretty unique to the usa. Anywhere else I’ve been in the world was chip or tap. Swiping the card would throw an error to use the chip only. So that country is just really far behind.
I was so frustrated when we switched to chip cards in the US, but did chip and signature, instead of chip and PIN like the rest of the world. WHY WHY WHY!?
The US was actually one of the first places the feature was removed, because (according to Samsung) there’s not really a need for it anymore since so many places adopted tap to pay so early. So we are actually just too far ahead in that regard for my taste lol. It’s also probably good to note that I haven’t seen this feature since the S20. (Also I definitely think Samsung exaggerated that and it was just cheaper to get rid of).
Still a very handy feature that I miss, there’s ALWAYS places you go that are still behind tech-wise XD
100% of this. It’s not just that I don’t need the screen space, it’s that my hands are not capable of holding my s22 without touching the screen because they had the fucking stupid idea to wrap the screen around the sides. I’m convinced the engineers at samsung are running an experiment to see how fucking stupid their phones can get without losing sales.
My current phone has all the things you listed except MST (never heard of that before though), and I bought it specifically for those reasons. Made by Xiaomi who still seems to want to give users features for some reason. Unlocked, rooted, custom rom, the whole shebang, I’m very happy with it.
It does still have a small front camera hole and a big back camera bump, but I don’t mind those personally. Though I do wish the camera bump wasn’t off centre. And like someone mentioned, I do wish it had an indicator led somewhere.
My personal pet peeve is pre-installed, un-removable software and apps. My current mobile phone for example has apps that link to twitter, facebook, amazon etc. none of which I will ever use, but you can somehow not delete them. Why do I need to have that virtual junk in my phone?
Honestly this irks me to no end. We now have thousand dollar phones with all the speed, Ai capabilities, design, cameras, speakers, etc. Everything you could’ve wanted at its best in terms of performance, picture and camera quality, AI features… Except now you’re missing headphone jacks, replaceable batteries, Ir blasters, SD cards, extra Sim slots… Like, really, a thousand dollars for a phone and it has less features than a 200 dollar phone? Less features than phones from 6 years ago? Why the fuck have we sacrificed so much?? We had the chance to have a long golden era of long lasting, everything capable phones, but instead we’re stuck with boring bricks that do less than before, last less due to batteries wearing out, and come bloated with shit that you don’t need and can’t remove.
We seriously need some phone company out there to spec the fuck out of a high end phone with all these features, AND which meets GrapheneOS requirements and lets us flash the phone with whatever the fuck we want. We’ve gone completely backwards on phones, and it’s becoming more and more pointless to upgrade, you’re just changing phones for the batteries these days.
Well I haven’t owned one since college, but I was a cell phone salesman, so I loved it too. And I’m glad I already knew about that and used a comma as punctuation after “lol,” but thanks for the info I guess? Fair warning, this is the Internet, and you might run into more people like me :o
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