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
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
For the smartphones I mostly agree. Even Pixels, although easily unlockable and rootable, make you jump through hoops if you want to use things like banking.
For PCs, there are still options available. Fractal have cases with no RGB and even metal side panels (as opposed to tempered glass ones) if that’s your thing. Noctua and be quiet! still make non-RGB fans and coolers.
Fractal does black boxes and some more fancy looking ones
I’m with you on the black towers. Still rocking an Antec P120 on my wife’s PC - “the monolith” it got nicknamed.
Check out Silverstone cases, they have a few that are understated, and make them in a variety of form factors if you wanted to do, say, a custom NAS, server or media center build.
For the smartphone, what do you mean by software unlocked parts? For the rest I’m in total agreement.
The high end graphics card market really needs more clean RGB free stuff. My 3090’s lights didn’t turn on despite it functioning just fine so maybe that counts :) ?
As for case I know you had plenty of answers already, but I recently got a Corsair 4000D my latest build it’s sleek and has no inbuilt RGB lighting.
By unlocked parts, they may be referring to how Apple serializes parts in iPhones so that you are forced to pay for repair at the Apple store. Part serialization means that if you took two real iPhones apart, swapped every component with each other, and tried to use the phone, certain features just stop working… Here is a demo from Hugh Jeffreys, who has demonstrated this problem with many recent iPhone models: https://youtu.be/dbRKQ0OjQeE
I just hope android devices never adopt this anti-feature like has happened many times in the past with Apple’s anti consumer design choices.
Damn that’s such unnecessary DRM, I think it should be illegal to serialize parts like that for a mass produced product.
Plenty of phones are still rootable. Fairphones have replaceable batteries.
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.
My new android phone is waterproof, rugged, has 5 days of battery life, 2 microsim, 1 microsd (up to 1TB i think, for apps and/or photos depending on partitioning via adb), headphone jack, no stupid notch or hole in the display and a notification light for $100. Sure I only get 4GB of RAM, a 24MP camera without stabilization, 64GB of slow-ish flash and an 8 core mediatek cpu. But if Google or HTC won’t give me what I want, I’ll buy the Doogee S51 with the fake 2nd wide angle camera that is just a dummy lens.
I was really baffled when I got a November 2023 security OTA update. Didn’t expect that. Also it isn’t loaded with crapware like a Samsung or Lenovo. Overall I am quite satisfied with price/performance.
I think the reason why you get the OTA is because Doogee uses mostly non modified Android software, making the official releases available for your phone with ease.
Swappable batteries are coming back in 2027 because of the EU.
Under the legislation, consumers must be able to "easily remove and replace” portable batteries used in devices such as smartphones, tablets, and cameras.
I also very much miss the removable batteries. I spent 8 years with my old phone simply because I didn’t want to give up it’s easy swap ability but I have to say that the headphone jack is the thing that really affects and annoys me the most. For years and years I literally carried a pair of wired earbuds with me everywhere I went (coiled up and carried in the small pocket of my jeans). No matter where I was or what I was doing, I could literally be ready to go music mode at any time. I absolutely loved it. Being saddled with the bluetooth buds now and their annoying battery life is not at all ideal for me. I often take very long daily excursions that end up seeing my headphones die on me frequently now and I miss my wired headphones nearly every single day.
When the iphone first came out, it was nice to be able to use the earbuds with my macbook too.
I don’t think I’ll ever forgive apple for what they did with the lightning jack
I just tried a Pixel 8 for a few days after years of using a Pixel 6 - it is legitimately a worse phone. Even with its higher frame rate screen (which is considerably smaller), all the phones animations look like garbage because the CPU struggles to keep up. I found some menus that I tested side by side on the pixel 6 and 8… the 6’s reaction was instant and smooth, while the 8 took about half a second to register that it had been touched, after which the menu’s animation was glitchy. My wife tested one too, and was having issues getting her fingerprints to save.
Is there even an option for a decent modern android phone that doesn’t have bloatware (i.e… Samsung)? I was hoping the pixel would be acceptable so I could use Graphene OS, but it doesn’t look like that is going to be happening. Is there another device that works well with Lineage or something similar that would be a decent alternative to a Pixel with Graphene?
I’ll miss LG. My Fuzic II had a headphone jack, full QWERTY keyboard, FM transmitter…
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.
HTC just came out with a phone that has a headphone jack AND expandable memory. I hope they go for a gen 2 in the near future since it had some kinks to work out, such as a curved glass screen, becase then it would be just about everything I could ask for in a phone.
Privacy.
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.
Try to let go of Google everything. Start by ditching Chrome and Chromium based browsers
A headphone jack
A home button
Replaceable battery
I can fully admit that I don’t think the home button was that useful compared to the software equivalents.
The other two, yeah I fully agree.
Buttons that you can manipulate without opening your eyes at night. Yes, please.
Not trying to be snarky here, but what are you trying to do with your phone without opening your eyes? I sometimes snooze my morning alarm with the power button on the side without looking at it, but what did the home button do for you when you weren’t looking at the screen?
I can activate Google Assistant and ask it to tell me the time.
(No, I don’t like Google Assistant to constantly listen for a wake-up word. I had two previous bad experiences with that.)
Fair enough, sounds reasonable.
Still rocking a Galaxy J7 here, has all of those
Not a feature but I do miss phones having side bezels. You could firmly hold your phone and not disturb the content on your phone. I can barely use youtube now because i keep touching my screen apparently
My Sony Xperia 10iii still has that light as well as a heaphone jack, SD card slot that can be removed by hand (no ejector tool needed) and full waterproofing. These are literally all the features missing on newer phones. Plus it has a genuine 3 cameras: wide, ultrawide and telephoto - no fake “macro” BS here.
Best of all it’s successor the Xperia 10v can be bought on the UK Sony site for just GBP299! Incredible price. But alas I don’t live there but if one had a friend there you could have them order it send it to you via courier.
Yup, even though it’s camera software is ass, I bought sony phone to “vote with my wallet”.
Also you missed extremely important detail, no notch, pinhole or any type of that BS.
Can’t you just use a different camera app? Or are we talking firmware?
Yeah, sorry app is actually great, but firmware is horrible
Hm, interesting. Thanks!
I’ve had an Xperia for years. It’s indestructible I swear, never had it in a case and it’s been dropped, kicked, smacked, and generally knocked around for all of those years with hardly a scratch on it. I want to say I’m due an upgrade so I could think about a newer one, buuuut… Honestly it’s just such a trooper I don’t see why I’d bother. The XZ1 is nearly 7 years old now so the camera frankly sucks, but that’s it.
It would be nice for you to get a new Sony with better cameras and better life 😊
Sonys always made such cool phones. My Z3 was probably my favorite phone ever.
Yes. My first one was the Z2. Coming from iPhone the Z2 was a revelation! So, so far ahead.
Same, I recently upgraded from the Sony Xperia 1 to the 1 IV, it burns my hands at times but love all those features!
It’s not a cheap phone, tho.
Most features that smart phones had. Most prodomimantly the micro SD card slot, headphone jack and IR blaster.
But by removing all the ports and turning them into screen monoliths, we can now safely pee on them.
And yet, we still don’t have a phone that can pee on us. Engineers are so culture-deaf.
i wish my pixel 7a had those
I miss IR blaster on my phones, so handy.
There are lots of phones with micro SD and headphone jacks.
My Motorola G60s has either dual sim or sim with SD and a headohone jack. Also has a 120hz screen. Just missing the ol IR blaster
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
Then dont go for the flagship phones?
What does a $1000 phone do that my $250 phone cant?
Shit this POS im using can even record at 240 fps
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 too miss the LED notification light. If you have an amoled display, check this out:
That’s really cool, thanks!
The IR blaster that worked on most televisions.
IR blaster. I could control just about anything in my house with my old Galaxy S6. Made it so convenient to have a universal remote built into the phone. Especially when you end up in a hotel or at a friend’s house and can’t find a remote.
Oh, my HTC One M8 had that. Really miss it for the IR Blaster and the air pressure sensor. You always had a really good weather station in your pocket.
I used to love having one of these while I was in college. I would use it whenever I went into the cafeteria for lunch and they had Cartoon Network on on the TV and Teen Titans NO was on. Yes, I know what I did. It is the only appropriate title for that steaming pile of radioactive waste.
It was also fun to mess with other public TVs when they thought that nobody would have the ability to change the channel.
3.5 headphone jack
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.
VR though?
Elite Beat Agents (now incarnated as Osu)
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.
as a kid tho i found the smackdown vs raw games to be bloody impossible
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.
A headphone jack, bluetooth sucks, it’s convenient but it sucks. It’s audio quality is bad, it’s latency is bad… it’s just all bad.
Id disagree about bluetooth these days. I have a pair of headset I use daily between my computer and phone. Quality is there, ive done side by side conparisons via 2.4ghz dongle, bluetooth and wired (headset supports all) and I cant hear a difference.
Removable battery and optional modules like the LG G5 : VR headset, DAC, …
Dude, I miss the LG G5 and the V20. Had some pretty good ideas for the time. I liked how the V20 had a tiny always on display so the main display could power down. Although OLED dont have the power drain problem that LCD have when using AOD
There may not be a difference when you’re sitting in front of a computer but Bluetooth quality can go way downhill if you’re trying to listen to earbuds while your phone is in your pocket or a bag or similar, especially if you’re moving around and/or there’s a lot of electronic interference in the area. My city commute is when I really miss wired listening.
Bro how shit are your bluetooth headphones?? I’ve had busy city commutes plenty with even cheapoid wireless headphones, iphone 6s, phone in pocket or bag…
Dude, I live in a faraday cage (lath & plaster with chicken wire embedded in it) and I can walk around my house with little to no issues. Bluetooth 4+ has been rock solid for me. At most my phone disconnects but thats my phones issue. Bluetooth to my PC is perfect an never had any dropouts.
If bluetooth is so great why don’t they use it for concert audio at big shows?
Its for personal use ya dummy. What a stupid line of questoning
It’s an excellent line of questioning, and it conveys the point well.
Really? Something that has a range of 30’ (9m) and use it for a fucking concert and use the same frequencies as 1000’s of atendees?
Bluetooth is a short range low bandwidth (at least vs wifi, 3/4/5g) protocol. Using it for something well outside its capablilites is stupid. Like taking a mini mudding or hammering in nails using a rachet
You hypothetical situation is just pointing out the very well known flaws of the bluetooth protocol. So once again, what a stupid line of questioning
I only buy phones with headphone jacks. Don’t look forward to not having the option.
Bluetooth audio can’t be bad, it’s digital. I would understand it drops packets or is choppy but quality should be given. What can suck is DAC on your headphones, which is the likely culprit.
Where on Earth did you get the idea that being digital means it can’t be bad???
Because chances are your device has Bluetooth version 5.2, as all newer phones have and standard has been out for almost a decade now. That version supports both aptX and LC3 codecs. Both of which are significantly higher quality than default inital SBC. In fact aptX has been around since 2009. In 2009, Senheizer released first ever Bluetooth headset with aptX support. Later in 2016 we got aptX HD.
Even Sony’s proprietary LDAC codec has been added to Android in version 8 and was officially supported by all Android devices since then. That codec can push 32 bits/96 kHz, which is more than enough quality.
Of course with all digital protocols, like Bluetooth is, received data is the same as transmitted data. If your headset audio quality is lacking, that is on headset, not protocol itself since Bluetooth supports high quality audio for decades now. Only time when Bluetooth will revert back to old codec which was “reasonable quality” as they describe it is if your headset doesn’t support better codecs.
Relying on a codec, which intrinsically plays priority on the basis of specific frequencies, is intrinsic to the limitations of using low-energy radio waves in the UHF range. Codecs are for phone calls and data packets, not full spectrum audio. That doesn’t solve the issue, it just slaps a bandage on it so it’s less noticeable. If I need a larger spectrum, rather than a patch of bass and treble, Bluetooth continues to fall dramatically and irritatingly short.
I’m glad it works for your purposes, though. I do not mean to come off like a jerk; I just prefer dedicated bands for anything wireless that cover a wider range.
