For me it’s the notification light you used to find on older phones, was particularly good to know if your phone was charged without picking it up
Physical buttons in cars
Repairable phones
Repairable laptops
Resoleable shoes
Hand-crank drills (for those quick and easy projects where dealing with batteries or cords isn’t worth it)
External frames on hiking packs
Actually tough jeans that need to be broken in and last a while
Headphone jack
I miss physical buttons on everything. We’re a tactile species living in a digital purgatory
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.
Resoleable shoes are alive and well, just not in the mainstream brands. Rose anvil youtube has a lot of good shoes reviewed.
Privacy.
Try to let go of Google everything. Start by ditching Chrome and Chromium based browsers
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.
Have you tried not shitting with the door open?
That’s funny. Every time somebody says “If you have nothing to hide, what are you worried about,” I reply, “Do you shit with the door open?”
But now the door isn’t just open. It feels like Uncle Sam is pissing between your legs.
Absolutely the damn LED. I would love to trade the stupid never-being-used selfie-cam for a damn 5 cent LED.
And swappable batteries. And a headphone-jack. And root by default (imagine you winpc came with no admin-pwd. Lol)… And…
I used to love customising the notification colour on my old phones, so good.
I miss my headphone jack so damn much, I’m over Bluetooth earbuds breaking constantly and being so damn expensive and low quality.
Then buy phones with headphone jacks. Mine has one, I dont buy ones without it.
If it matters for you to have it, dont buy phones that cut it. If models with it keep selling, theyre less likely to ditch it.
I’d rather just buy a DAP than randomly replace a perfectly good phone with one that sucks in comparison.
And that why you’ll never get it back. You’re clinging to brand loyalty and hung up on arbitrary crap rather than just trying competing phones. Have you actually used any of those “suck” phones, or are you just going with the usual iPhone/high end android circlejerk?
You have assumed completely wrong, friend.
As I mentioned in another comment, if you’d bothered to read it, I have particular needs that mean I can’t really replace my phone with something else right now. I have absolutely no loyalty to brands, and I’m not clinging to something arbitrary.
Lol I only buy jack phones, and if you think they suck you need to shop in places that arent back alleyways
It was a perfectly good MacDonald’s, thank you very much!
But in all seriousness, I just have particular needs that literally can’t be met by anything else.
U could try a usb to jack converter. Looks stupid but at least there’s a jack. Quality sucks anyway as they all use cheap dacs now 😩
usb to jack converter
AllMost of the ones you can get nowadays actually have a sound chip inside the cable (in the flat part behind the USB-C). So they’re pretty much a USB-C soundcard with just a headphone out. So it’s worth shopping around to find one that has a good soundcard built in.A good alternative is getting a decent portable Bluetooth audio receiver to plug your regular headphones into. Can get a better headphone amp that way.
There are phones that output analog audio over type C so you can have a type c to jack adapter with no dac inside, just wires. That is possible through Audio Adapter Accessory Alternate Mode.
My huawei tablet works with such an adapter, but when I try it with the samsung s10e which has a jack, it gives an error and doesn’t work.
Type C alternate modes are cool, too bad they are not advertised, they should be clearly labled and easily distinguishable. Type C has so many features yet it’s so hard to know what’s available without actually having the devices and connecting them. It’s both a blessing and a curse.
Thanks for the correction. I had thought that only some of the early Motorolas had that feature, but it looks like there are quite a few more phones that support analog audio out via USB-C.
From the wiki article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C#Alternate_modes
Moto Z/Z Force, Moto Z2/Z2 Force/Z2 Play, Moto Z3/Z3 Play
Sony Xperia XZ2
Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Huawei P20/P20 Pro, Honor Magic2, LeEco
Xiaomi phones
OnePlus 6T, OnePlus 7/7 Pro/7T/7T Pro
Oppo Find X/Oppo R17/R17 Pro
ZTE Nubia Z17/Z18
I’ve got a suprisingly good pair of USB C earbuds that I found in my mailbox at the moment, but yeah at some point I’ll probably get a DAC
I got all three on my XCover 6 Pro
But probably no easy root? That is imperative for me. I don’t buy gadget i wouldn’t own.
I have no idea honestly. It’s quite esoteric device so probably not.
Even I haven’t heard of it (yet). So most probably not. But still … :-)
I had an XCover 4 and hated the specs and the Samsung aspect. Too much bloat for my tastes.
I’m glad there are others still buying these phones though, and the “Pro” makes it sound like it has modern specs!
It’s very much a mid-range device but so was the price. It was still an easy decision since it is literally the only modern smartphone in existence that matched my minimum requirements. I’m coming from LG V20 so I still had to let go of FM-radio, optical image stabilization, IR blaster and the hi-fi DAC.
How’s the Samsung bloatware on it?
Root by default is an awful idea.
Of course not by default, that’d be dumb. Every app that wants it pops up a Y/N-dialogue. That’s how I want it. It’s my phone, goddamit. I might’ve phrased that a bit misleading :-)
Some Windows devices do come like that! Windows Home S is a stupid fucking thing that I am sick to death of family members bringing to me.
It’s free to bring it out but you need a Windows account to download the package to remove the S from the device to make it your own.
There was also the RT version like the Surface RT. Which was actually worse because I don’t remember there ever being a way to remove the RT and go to full Windows….
What I don’t understand is why the notification LED was removed in the first place? It can easily be put under the screen.
The LED was so helpful, and it’s so annoying when I don’t see an important message for hours, because I haven’t used my phone.I’m guessing… they don’t want us deciding whether to engage with our phones, they want us looking at them more. If that means less convenience for us we can get fucked
Because if you can read an LED notification system you have no purpose to pick up the cellphone.
Cellphones are not designed FOR YOU. They are designed by marketeers for you to use.
Once you realize this, all the anti-consumer shit makes sense.
3.5mm headphone jack
This going away has just make the Tiktok tide that much more horrendous. I work in a school. The hallways are nothing but that horrid shit blasting out of hundreds of bad speakers.
You don’t think it’d still be the same even with the headphone jack still there? Wireless headphones and converters for wired headphones do exist, they just don’t care.
My condolences. I stress out the moment a child thrusts a phone in front of me to watch a “funny” video
I can only imagine the hellscape that is your school
There are often enterprise versions that still have it. Like the S10E for example.
Yes, and I’m thinking my next phone will be one of those.
I have a much better time with wired earbuds than with bluetooth.
Forgot my bluetooth headphones the other day on a long trip and the 3.5mm jack saved my rear end.
Just needed to stop at a shop briefly for some cheap plug-in buds and I was no longer listening to babies screaming on the journey. As a bonus, it also didn’t interfere with me charging my phone
I’d like bluetooth earbuds a lot more if I could find some that aren’t “smart.” If I put on a beanie, I bump them. If I remove one earbud to converse, I bump it. I’ve not once intentionally used a gesture-based control on an earbud for anything else other than undoing the situation I’ve caused by bumping them. Otherwise, I control everything with my phone. If I’m working out, I just select my playlist, mute notifications, and I don’t have to touch anything after that. Gesture-based earbuds are not for me.
I really don’t think there are dumb bluetooth earbuds, though. At least, I haven’t been able to find any.
I have the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus and their app has an option to disable touches, so that’s what I do, because I’m the same as you. I bought them used and have been using them on a daily basis for at least three years and they’re still working well. Might be something to look into. I hope you find something that works for you!
I have a pair of cheap Skullcandy’s that have physical buttons instead of touch sensors. The buttons are basically impossible to use without smooshing the earbud into your ear trying to click it, but it also means it’s really hard to accidentally click them. Probably as close as you can get to dumb Bluetooth earbuds.
I don’t even understand why someone would want controls on their earbuds, much less for it to be such a widespread issue, but honestly I’m just going to make sure my next phone has a 3.5mm jack
Could always get one of the beanies that have bluetooth speakers in 'em. It’ll solve your problem of bumping your earbuds, (though not through a necessarily “good” option). Or, you could use the wired bluetooth headphones like these.
As another alternative, there’s the apple airpods, which, as far as I can tell, have not gestures but some weird-ass pseudo capacitive button that makes a sound when you press them. I did just realize though, that if you have an apple device they’ll automatically pause playback when you take a headphone out (I think), so that may not be your cup of tea. However, if you have an Android, this addition won’t work unless you have an app like CAPods (which you can turn on or off in the app, so no worries there). There’s also the downside of not having access to many features like toggling through the different modes (active noise canceling or whatever other bullshit like that), not being able to natively see the battery of the case or earbuds (though, like with the aforementioned feature, using an app like CAPods you can see it), and some others that I can’t recall at the moment.
Sorry about the length of this reply, I was originally just going to mention the bluetooth beanies as a joke, but I have nothing else to do at the moment, so why not share my experiences? Anywho, that’s my two cents, this could help, it could be utterly useless, you could already know all of this, you may not even read the wall of text, etc. etc… Do as you will with this.
You don’t happen to know if there’s some open-source software for Android that might be similar to CAPods? Tbh I’m probably never going to buy either airpods or the brand-name Samsung ones, but I’d imagine there might be a more universal solution?
Yeah, I don’t actually recommend buying airpods unless you got them for free if you’re an Android user (that’s the only reason I’m using airpods atm).
As to open source, I believe CAPods is, unless you’re referring to an open source app for most headphones (which upon second thought you probably are).
As to that question, CAPods, according to their GitHub page, supports a few Beats devices, this app for Galaxy Buds on Windows/Linux devices, and this one for Huawei Freebuds device(s?).
Overall, the closest I could find was GadgetBridge, which has support (partial or full) for a few Samsung devices, one Nothing, a few Sony, and Bose(?), though, I did keep running into internal server errors, so it might be out of date.
I’ve had an S10E for a while and didn’t even know the headphone jacks are no longer the norm!
Clinging to my S9+ so hard.
I was lucky i found this store that sells second hand devices from big companies that have bought too many? ( dunno how it actually works), but the quality is sometimes fully new, or have been used briefly; much cheaper and older models like my S10E, which I think it’s from 2018.
I tend to break phones rather often unfortunately (very clumsy, small hands and lack of pockets) so I want to have something like this still available. I do use screen and case protectors and all that. It still lands on the floor quite often :/
Not really, it’s mostly only budget phones that have it nowadays. The S10E(which stands for ‘essential’ btw, not ‘enterprise’) is almost 5 years old, not exactly representative of the modern phone market.
The newest Asus zenfone is still rocking it!
People keep going on about that and I get it from the point of not having to charge headphones all the time. But to me that is a very mild inconvenience compared to having to deal with those fucking cables all the time. I hate cables so damn much.
For me I’m just very attached to my earphones. I had tried out different earphones for a long time when I was younger before I discovered these and I’ve been using them for over 8 years now. I don’t really want to switch to a different pair of earphones.
It’s more than just having to charge them I wouldn’t even really consider that much of a downside with how long they last. I haven’t yet ran out of charge before I was ready to take mine out. The actual downsides are- Wireless earbuds are expensive. The batteries in them wear out over time and you have to buy all new ones which is wasteful. Bluetooth adds a noticeable delay that sucks when watching video. My car doesn’t have bluetooth so I need a headphone jack for AUX. I have both and like wireless ones when I’m on the go but if I’m stationary wired don’t cause any problems.
Oh, my problem isn’t with charging them. They actually hold a charge for a super long time.
I’d like bluetooth earbuds a lot more if I could find some that aren’t “smart.” If I put on a beanie, I bump them. If I remove one earbud to converse, I bump it. I’ve not once intentionally used a gesture-based control on an earbud for anything else other than undoing the situation I’ve caused by bumping them. Otherwise, I control everything with my phone. If I’m working out, I just select my playlist, mute notifications, and I don’t have to touch anything after that. Gesture-based earbuds are not for me.
I really don’t think there are dumb bluetooth earbuds, though. At least, I haven’t been able to find any.
And I don’t mind cables as much as you do. I think my favorite earbuds would be those that are connected to each other by a cable, but again – only if they were not smart.
This might sound crazy but apple earbuds would be good for you. I actually like having pause and skip buttons, and apparently these do have controls when you touch them, but that’s never worked for me. I think it’s intentionally broken on android which in your case makes them good.
They’re grossly overpriced, though. I’d never buy them.
You can get them used thanks to apple fanboys inherent need to get the newest version. There’s lots out there due to that. But I get it if you don’t like the idea of used headphones.
Not sure what brand you have but mine you can turn off the functions on the buttons in the app.
Which app? I usually use YouTube or Spotify. I doubt I need a dedicated app for earbuds.
The brand is Jabra, they have an app associated with them where you can change various settings on how the earbuds work. One of them is what the buttons do.
You can turn off the touch controls on Samsung Galaxy Bud Pros, maybe the other galaxy bud models too
For most of these, turning off touch controls means that when you accidentally trigger the touch commands, it plays a little jingle and pushes a notification telling you that youve disabled touch controls and you need to reenable them.
Completely defeating the fucking point of turning off touch controls, and making me want to wrap my hands around the throat of the idiot who designed that
On my buds if I turn on “block touches” and I touch them nothing happens, no jingle or notification. But yeah that does sound like a stupid feature
Here’s the crazy thing tho… You could just not use it and choose to use blue tooth still.
My Note 9 still has it!
WAVES OLD MAN CANE AROUND THREATENINGLY
First smartphone I had is still my favorite. Motorola Droid. I still have it!
The battery life is hell, though
In smartphones
- Replaceable batteries
- Headphone jack
- Software unlocked parts
- Root-able phones
In PCs
- No-RGB components that only prioritise performance
- No nonsense PC cases that are just a black box with awesome airflow
- GPUs that don’t need a mortgage
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!”the steering wheel buttons
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.
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.
I love this car lol
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
My car loves to lock down the infotainment system, with a warning not to take my eyes off the road, after the car has been in motion.
Like, yeah, that was the plan.
My new Hyundai Kona Electric still has those and I think all of Hyundai’s new models (EV or not) still have them
SD card slots, user-replaceable batteries, and headphone jacks.
Where did they go? Just vanished?
They realized they can charge inflated prices for an extra 128gb, battery replacement, and Bluetooth headphones
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.
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.
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.
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.
Does that sound right?
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.
people had to buy Bluetooth headphones
people seem to forget that external dacs exist. Every device manufacturer makes them.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU7E2AM/A/usb-c-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter
https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/usb-c-to-mini-audio-jack-adapter-3-5mm-18
Oh yeah, we just forgot. Because everyone loves adding a dongle between phone and cable.
It honestly isn’t really noticeable. The better sound quality of the external dac is however.
I mean when phones had 3.5 mm jacks, the DAC was built-in.
I mean when phones had 3.5 mm jacks, the DAC was built-in.
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.
Excellent, I love when my phone is so thin it risks bending.
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.
I guess people don’t use sd cards to increase storage but to keep their data handy when device dies or somehow renderes inaccessible.
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.
Oddly enough Apple still includes SD slots and headphones in laptops (my M1 Mac Pro has them). But not in their other devices…
That’s not really that odd though, since laptops are gigantic compared to phones.
But I guess, iPads should also include them.
Wait iPhones have SD slots? I literally had no idea
Add in an IR blaster, and that’s my whole list.
bingo
Everything. We’re down to barebones and marketing now focus solely on camera software updates or phone materials (“now with titanium!” How fucking sad is that?) And they are all selling the same phone.
Some of the most important loses…
Swappable batteries changed travel for me. Always having two extra charged batteries in my backpack, that you could swap top 100% in 20 seconds, made me ONLY use my phone as a free and completely useful tool without any planning or restrictions on my use. Otherwise, you can’t take too many pictures or videos, stream music or video or make video calls too long or you might be fucked when you need phone, GPS, payment or to get a rideshare to where you’re staying.
Audio jack similarly meant freedom. Bluetooth headphones out of battery, broken or one earbud lost? Have a pair of wired in the backpack always add backup. Also better audio quality through wired with DAC on certain models and less daily device load to charge/babysit
secondary screens LG V10 had a bar on top, they also had the T shaped dual screen phone and the secondary screen phone case. There was just creativity and attempts at innovation.
microSD expandable memory, again less and less available and this was about freedom - fuck your cloud storage add its data leaks, corruption and redaction. I own my data, you don’t control it.
I loved the notification light, I had mine programmed to have different colors correspond to different types of notifications and it would buzz at me in response to being picked up as well if I’d missed a call or text.
I got an app called Always On Edge where you can do literally just that and you can also choose for the entire edge to flash or glow or keep the old virtual dot, change the colors and interactions based on which app it was, and more.
Highly recommend it.
Ooh, thank you I will check that out. That sounds great.
I use AODnotify to effectively do the same thing. It animates a ring around either the display (when the screen is “off”), or the camera cutout when it’s on.
New phones have always on displays where you can configure them to show any info you want
They’re not all that configurable and it’s always a wall of useless text notifications and it’s hard on battery life, 100x less useful.
No. Not what I want.
HEADPHONE JACKS
By far replaceable batteries. You used to be able to purchase physically larger and higher capacity batteries to get insane battery life, but because they would include a larger rear plastic for the phone it would still look normal. Now we have to waste space and lose efficiency with external power banks.
Pretty sure phone cases with external batteries exist that are literally identical to what you are describing (“purchase physically larger or higher capacity batteries”). Also current phones do a lot more than the old phones you’re describing as “having insane battery life.” Sure, a cell phone of 2005 could be left on for probably two days straight without needing a charge but you were only getting an occasional text message and maybe calling someone once or twice and maybe playing Snake during that timeframe.
External batteries are not the same as there is substantial loss in transmitting the power to the phone, particularly with the many “magsafe” compatible wireless ones. The wired ones add substantially more bulk for similar battery size and although the standard for battery life is much better now, for many otherwise great phones it’s still not amazing (aka every pixel prior to this year’s).
Being able to quickly swap a battery or simply replace it with a 10000mAh cell for only a few mm more thickness (my preferred method) simply isn’t an option now.
Thank you European Union for creating a law mandating replaceable batteries.
Thank you regulatory capture for letting corporations rule the globe like kings
At least the EU is bringing back easy battery swaps for users, so that’s something to look forward to.
A headphone jack
A home button
Replaceable battery
3.5 headphone jack
Sony seems to be the only company making high-end phones with the 3.5 headphone jack. Unfortunately, their firmware is kind of weird with them not activating 5G on certain regions.
I swear phone manufacturers have gradually made the audio jack worse on phones just for the justification of dropping it.
Apps like Garage Band are completely useless over Bluetooth.
Came here to say this.
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.
Most features that smart phones had. Most prodomimantly the micro SD card slot, headphone jack and IR blaster.
