For me its the ‘Knock Code’ that LG had on their phones (I really wish LG still made at least the V series phones)
Basically there was a four-square area and you set up a sequence of where you would tap to unlock the phone. That set of squares was only shown when you set up the code
Then, to unlock your phone, you would tap those areas in the sequence you set up (even with the screen off).
Fingerprint readers are nice, but I really do miss the knock code
Edit: did find this article with a way to do the knock code, but if done wrong, could brick your phone I guess.
Plus, article is from 2014. When I looked at XDA’s info on it (they also being the developers) it looks like development on it is over, but individual modules may or may not still be supported by their devs
Unlockable bootloader, removable battery, headphone jack, being assembled with SCREWS rather than GLUE.
Love the first answer as, I have to get on my Linux soapbox here.
I remember first using Linux (Ubuntu 9.10 for those curious). One of the big ideas behind it was ‘its your computer, do what you want’. That’s why you can have access to Root or the Super User. Since its open source, root can do what it wants.
Android was initially built on Linux, but they have taken Root and turned it into a way to restrict users not just from sensitive things (like necessary system apps), but also from bloatware (looking at you Samsung). Years ago I had a phone that came with the NFL Network which I didn’t want. Could I remove it? Of course not, I would have to be Root to do that!.
Sorry for the rant, but really, I should have access to anything on my phone if I want it. Give me a warning, make it so people can’t get to it ‘accidentally’, but then let it be on me.
You want to… own the phone you bought???
Spot on, my daily driver is a PinePhone Pro with keyboard case. It ticks all the boxes. It also covers the “physical keyboard” feature which is a few comments down.
It has its downsides, but it’s a full fledged Linux computer in my pocket. What’s not to love?
You can still buy Android phones that have manufacturer support for unlocking the bootloader. Once that’s done obtaining root is trivial. Pixel phones notably support this. Personally, I only buy phones I can unlock the bootloader on to show the demand for this feature. It doesn’t matter to me how great a phone is otherwise. Can’t unlock the bootloader? Not buying it.
That said, I completely agree with you. We all pay for and own the hardware, but let the manufacturer dictate what software it can run. That’s like buying a car and letting the car company tell you what roads you’re allowed to drive your car on. I don’t really blame the average use for not giving a crap because end users will never care about this stuff as long as their basic needs are met. It’s a failure of the people in the software industry to stand up for the open systems that built everything we have today. Without that constant fight for openness companies are going to be more than happy to take advantage of a locked down system to create a competitive advantage. Hell, look at what Google is currently doing with WEI in Chrome. If they have their way, the web will become just as locked down as smartphones are now.
Android was initially built on Linux
For the record, it still is.
This isn’t an Android thing. First-party Google phones can do this. This is on other Android OEMs.
Sony phones still do the bootloader and headphone jacks at least. I’m pretty happy with mine.
Problem is they’re kinda overpriced and not very good value. Also I hate the super tall aspect ratio that they’ve gone with.
Many midrange phones still have headphone jacks, and removable battery has to come back if they want to continue selling in the EU.
Slowly going away though. Samsung took them off in the A53, and Xiaomi did the same with the T series phones.
Screws. Hell ya.
wait phones have non-unlockable bootloaders? I’ve never seen that before although you do have to do some annoying stuff on some to unlock them which isn’t necessary
Plenty of phones have unlockable bootloaders and it used to be pretty much an expected thing on Android phones until manufacturers and carriers started locking it down and being more Apple-like. You can’t run most custom ROMs without an unlocked bootloader as being able to run a custom kernel requires an unlocked bootloader. Being able to use non-Android Linux operating systems like postmarketOS also depend on unlocked bootloaders.
On most it’s just a matter of toggling an option in developer settings and using fastboot to unlock. Some make it more difficult than that, others completely prevent unlocking (and thus become e-waste after the official software stops getting updated).
Removable battery is the big one. I had a phone where they only cost like $15, so I could take 2 of them on a trip and last a week w/o charging.
Removable batteries may come back since the European Union has mandated all smartphones have them by 2027
I did see that, of all phones and manufacturers, the Kyocera DuraForce Pro 3 on Verizon actually has removable batteries (and an sd card slot).
There’s definitely a business opportunity for hot swapable batteries. I really don’t understand why no one is exploiting this market. Construction, factory and all scale workers need phones and if they can hotswap battery they’ll gonna love that.
They make rugged phones and tablets for industrial setting with replaceable batteries. But they are way more expensive that consumer devices of the same spec.
Just curious, what situations do you find yourself in relatively frequently that a hot swappable batter would be more convenient?
Nowadays w/ 15 SOT I don’t think I’ve actually needed one minus camping where I don’t really use my phone much anyways.
Being able to rip the battery out when the phone locks up. Needing to make sure it’s actually off and can’t be remotely powered on. When it’s 3 years old and the hardware is still well up to the task but the battery lasts 4 hours.
Being able to rip the battery out when the phone locks up
How often does your phone lock up that that’s necessary? I used to have lockups a lot more but android is damn stable now, haven’t had one in years.
Needing to make sure it’s actually off and can’t be remotely powered on
Do you disconnect your PC’s PSU?
When it’s 3 years old and the hardware is still well up to the task but the battery lasts 4 hours.
Fair, but if you’re getting 4 hours SOT after 3 years, it’s just not a great phone. My current Note 10+ still pumping out 10 hours SOT and I’m a HEAVY user.
Honestly in 2015 I’m totally on your side for this, but in the last few years I’ve never felt the need to hotswap batteries, and only slightly felt the need to replace it in general.
Samsung does produce the xcover series for construction/industrial use. I seriously considered one, the issue was it would have been a downgrade for me in CPU, display and doesn’t have dex
The next administration will just revoke it
Not really how the EU works.
Every president does it
What are you talking about? The EU doesn’t have a president.
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Go back to Reddit troll.
I don’t understand that argument, power banks are widely accessible nowadays, you can charge your phone without downtime, also can’t imagine charging this additional battery, like shutting the phone down jest to charge the second one? I’m all for user replaceable batteries tho in case of battery degradation and prolonging device’s life
While true, my personal gripe is when the main battery goes to shit. It’s nice to be able to swap it out and get another 3-4 years out of it
Yeah that’s what I meant, it’s carrying extra batteries to swap in case one in the phone dies, that I don’t understand
At that point you are using outdated tech
That’s not the point. Everyone has their reasoning for prolonging the lifespan of their equipment, outdated or not. This mindset of disposable gadgets needs to end.
I prefer newest tech
Good for you, not everyone can afford to upgrade their stuff every two years
Thats a choice. Anyone can make money. Sell your old stuff
IR Blasters!
I feel like I’m the only one who used them or cares that they were quietly phased out of phones.
You used to be able to use your phone as a universal remote. Being able to control my TV, sound system, ceiling fan, and lights all from my phone was so convenient! Plus if you were stuck in like a waiting room and they had ads or garbage like Fox News on, you could change the channel or turn it off completely. It was an incredibly useful feature to me, but I guess barely anyone else used since it was removed from phones without any complaints.
Except me. I’m complaining!
Back in the day, I discovered I could i) print over IR to our office’s HP laser printer from my Psion organiser, ii) print control codes from the built-in OPL language to change the display message on the printer. I would occassionaly send messages like “insert coin”, “too much paper”, “grammatical error”, etc. when colleagues were printing.
I love it! Those messages are hilarious!
Still had one on my previous phone - LG V20. Loved when people starter looking around confused when I started browsing the channels on the public TV on gas stations, waiting rooms, gym etc.
I loved my LGV20!! The last phone of mine I 100% enjoyed using.
Wing night at the pub took on a whole new danger. The IR blaster was a total selling point for me on a few devices.
Put me down for another complainer about the lack of IR blaster. I used my Huawei P30 as a remote for 3 different TVs, two different office ACs, and a workshop radio regularly. I also used it a lot when doing tech support for family for basic stuff like ruling out the remote not working on an AC for example, or accessing TV setup menus you can’t access with physical buttons on the TV and of course mums lost the remote again.
I really miss it too. My wife loses the remote every 5 minutes.
Smart home systems will replace that, and it’s more secure for everyone involved.
Still have an ir blaster phone, they can tear this old phone out of my cold dead hands
I remember transferring files via IR. It was convenient.
I remember, pre-Wifi, setting up a network over IR between two laptops to play C&C Red Alert.
Infrared Alert
My Xiaomi from 2020 has it
Headphone jack, dedicated fingerprint reader, removable battery, physical sim card trays
Edit: expandable storage
Definitely miss the dedicated fingerprint reader. Had a metal case once that came with a fairly thick (tempered glass I think) screen protector. Everything worked great except the fingerprint reader.
Removable batteries may come back since the European Union has mandated all smartphones have them by 2027
Samsung xcover pro
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_xcover6_pro-11600.php
physical sim card trays
Seems like a backwards move IMO. honestly haven’t needed a tray in ~6 years
That tray is important to me at least since my last couple phones used that same tray to also hold the SD card. I can’t speak for anyone else, but a phone without an SD card for extra storage is a huge NO from me, so that tray is an absolute make or break for what my next upgrade is gonna be.
I find them VERY useful because if you break your phone, you can just swap your sim into a backup immediately.
But honestly it’s not a huge deal, I swapped an esim in under 3 minutes last week
Honestly? For all the bitching when Apple first removed it, I hadent and haven’t used wired headphones for a long while. I had Bluetooth headphones long before then.
I still don’t like them, audio gear should last, and Bluetooth earphones are the ultimate in disposable tech. Costs more, shorter lifespan; only good thing is that it’s a revenue driver for those producing them.
I’ve owned three Bluetooth headsets in total. The first I lost, the second is now my wife’s, and the third I still use. I wouldn’t call them disposable, but I’ll agree they are easier to lose.
Something a wired set of anything can’t give me is absolute freedom to move my head and walk away from my phone. I will never willingly go back to wired for anything other than gaming.
The batteries in them aren’t going to go past 4-5 years; I have headphones and earphones over 10 years old, with one pair about to reach the two decade mark.
That is honestly impressive. I can confidently say I’ve only owned one wired headset for a decade, and it’s the one I use for gaming so it never leaves my office.
Everything else has either broken, or been lost. Though I fully admit, serviceable wireless buds would be a thing of beauty. IIRC there are people out there actively working on the problem (other than the companies explicitly aiming for them to be a consumable forever.)
In my experience wired gear doesn’t last as long as wireless. The cable is a major weakness and there’s no affordable way around it.
Couldn’t disagree more. Plenty of wired headphones and iems come with detachable/ replaceable cables. On the other hand wireless earbuds can be difficult to keep track of and easy to lose if one happens to fall out. If you lose one, congrats you have to buy a whole new set because they don’t generally sell replacements and usually come paired from the factory meaning getting a second replacement wouldn’t work.
I’ve got wired buds i bought ten years ago that are still kicking and wired headphones made in the late 80s that have only needed cup replacements. Wired headphones will cost half that of wireless for similar quality and if a cable is ever damaged and isn’t detachable it really isn’t difficult to solder in a new one.
God I wish I could get a pair of wired headphones with detachable/replacement wires.
Definitely something I really wanna invest in some day in the future since I have had pretty bad luck with the audio jacks breaking on me.
You should look into the world of IEMs and “chi-fi”. There are great sounding headphones with detachable cables that are still very affordable.
I definitely will look into this.
No affordable way around it? If you are approaching BT headphone cost, your headphones or buds will almost definitely come with a detacheable wire.
Personally my on the go is PortaPro, they dont have detacheable cable, the wire is flimsy but are only 30 bucks and the repair on them is actually super easy, the part where the wires solder on is actually easily accessible.
I don’t know why you are downvoted. Wires are major breakpoint in many earphones. When i used a cabled earphones daily for hours as a student, one wouldn’t last me 6 months. I could not solder freely since they always broke near jack entry for some reason and i didn’t have cables around me all the time since i wasn’t an electrician. Finally last headphone i used had detachable cables. After that i used bluetooth all the way.
It’s probably a rarer use case, but I use the headphone jack on my S10 all the time to connect it to my stereo and get good audio quality, most cheaper bluetooth receivers only use SBC so the difference is quite noticeable. (Also because the S10 has a pretty good DAC).
I think it came a bit too soon. I had a mid-tier (couple hundred bucks) pair of headphones, so it was annoying to me until they broke and I moved to Bluetooth (Sony WH-1000 gang)
They did have a dongle for it. Annoying, but not insurmountable by any means.
I dont care about the jack, the lightning-3.5 for 10bucks is more than a-ok, that said fuck bluetooth headphones, apart from the “smart” features, sub 50$ cans can and will blow the audio quality out of the water for many of the “entry level” (quotes cause entry is still approaching 100 bucks) BT ones and when you match price it is no-contest.
That said BT cans are still fine but after dabbling with hi-fi I can’t go back to BT.
I use IEMs when I’m on the go. It would be much better if I had the functionality of using that port instead of the charging port.
I use them daily at work. Luckily I found a pair with a lightning connector. I also use cable in the car (it’s too old for Bluetooth) and it’s a pain not being able to charge and listen.
We have a Bluetooth adapter for our car audio and it’s great. Plugs into the aux jack and car power. Really handy not needing to plug in.
Same
Fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. So you’d pick it up and your finger would naturally fall on the sensor, so that by the time you look at the screen, it’s unlocked.
I also found these to work way more consistently than on screen fingerprint scanners.
Eh, I was worried about this when I got my current phone but I’m the end I like it much better. It’s just as reactive for me, and has the added bonus that I can unlock the phone while it’s resting on a table without having to pick it up, I guess I do that a fair bit because it was a pain point I felt with my previous phone.
Hadn’t thought about the table use case. Good point
I always put my phone face down so I have to pick it up anyway.
I’m still on the original google pixel, and I am dreading the day I’m forced to upgrade. It has the backside fingerprint sensor, and is in general pretty much the platonic ideal of a smartphone.
On my Samsung fold 3, fingerprint sensor on power button is awesome.
Works really fast and it’s very reliable. Much better than fingerprint sensor under screen in my old oneplus 7 pro.
Is this discontinued? My phone does this.
I think the most logical placement for a fingerprint scanner is power button>back>bottom screen=on screen
Except at current screen sizes, holding your phone such that the index finger is firmly in the middle of the back of the phone means you have barely any screen reach with the thumb.
You don’t have to leave your finger on the sensor while you use the phone.
That’s my whole point… It’s an extra move.
IR blaster. You could have a universal remote app and control any tv from my palm PDA
100% this. I used to be able to control my ceiling fan, my portable a/c, and my TV from my phone.
Now I have to use the fan remote, the a/c remote, and install and create an account with some stupid TV app.
…it was also fun for changing the channel of TVs at bars & restaurants.
This brings memories back for when IR data exchange was a thing and you had to carefully place two phones head-to-head and not move them for minutes just to transfer a song lol.
One of the reasons I had Xiaomy phones in the past 5 years. Many models still have IR blaster.
Funny thing is I work for a company who manufactures products with infrared sensors and we have an app specifically for IR capable snartphones to fine tune these products. In the past 5 years I did not see a single client who would have IR on their phones, so basically the app is not used by a single person anymore. Either this or they can buy our official remote… for 200 euros a piece.
There is a USB-C IR blaster that exists, but the Tiqiaa/ZaZaRemote app is awful.
Pubs were fun with these.
Same with screwing around at school
Not everything uses IR blasters anymore.
I remember seeing these everywhere and was super disappointed that by the time I could afford phones not bought at Dollar General, they weren’t a thing anymore.
Yep. My final phone to have one came with this app to control it that was straight malware. Force click a pop up every time you open the app type shit. I still miss it
I miss the notification lights. One of my first true smart phones was the original oneplus. It was fun setting up custom colors for different types of notifications and came in handy every now and then
If you have an OLED phone, this is still a thing you can do.
God yes. I had a phone with a bright LED right next to the front camera and it was so convenient to know exactly what app was notifying me at any time
We got my legally-blind grandma a flip-phone with a notification LED on the outside. That little light has been a huge pain, because anytime she misses a call from a telemarketer/scammer or gets a marketing text, it turns on and she just. can’t. ignore. it. If that light is on, I’ve gotta drive all the way over there and clear the notifications.
I would like to ask about if you can not teach the poor old people some button combos to “mark as seen” but i imagine some old people want to know everything on their phone even if those texts and calls are scams and even they knew they are scams. Nevermind.
Galaxy XCover 6Pro still has one. Also headphone jack, SD slot and user removable battery
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Or even just the navigation buttons being separate from the screen.
I really miss how the blackberry volume rocker buttons would seek media on a long press
My oneplus does that when the screen is off. But you just reminded me how much I miss my blackberry curve, that thing was rad. One gripe was the trackball would get filthy, then they released the touch track thing.
Preach it, brother!
What sucks is it would be easily doable.
Before smartphones were big I had a Samsung Messager (I think) with a slide out keyboard). Why not? A slide out keyboard would be sweet, and then you could choose to enable the digital keyboard if you wanted.
Wonder if they make a phone case with a keyboard (they certainly make the bluetooth keyboards for phones)
Edit: did some looking. It looks like they used to make these in a way I was thinking, such as this one
They don’t seem to make them that way now (at least not for phones). I did run into a phone that has a new-ish phone that has a physical keyboard
I’ve seen such keyboard, packaged neatly into a folding case. Problem is the keyboard doesn’t have enough weight to support the phone so it becomes awkward trying to hold the weight of the phone with your fingers while typing.
I do miss the tactile nature of it. However, I honestly don’t think I’d trade screen space for it again.
Brave.
Wrong but brave
PinePhone with keyboard case!
This may sound dumb… An old Samsung phone I had years ago, came with alarms that gradually faded in. The most memorable, started with the ocean, and the seagulls… Then there was a fog horn in the distance. Slowly the horn got closer, and closer… Until it was all you could hear, and your alarm was going off.
I’ve looked everywhere for the sound file… It must be Locked away in a basement at Samsung somewhere.
One day I’ll find it
idk why, but I dug around YouTube for an hour or so to try and find that alarm for you. I stumbled across one that’s so close to your description, though it’s from a BlackBerry, not a Samsung:
Is this the one?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/bOBaJHw36Dc
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
That’s a good find. I would love a much longer version of this, like 10 or 20 minutes.
Do you want the exact same tone, or are you willing to try something new? My OnePlus has some tones similar to what you’re looking for I think. They start off gradually and gently and I’ve been using the same tone for years now and haven’t started hating it, which says a lot!
Not op, but… yes please
Sorry my app wouldn’t show me your comment to reply to, but it was updated yesterday and now I can see it. This playlist has the oneplus alarm tones. The one I like the most is called Dawn. I find it to be the best suited for my preference. There are lots more on that channel if you want to have a look.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/playlist?list=PLbxUYYPfrGGkdwPLyPQ1wvL8lQtCCLtm9
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
That absolutely does. As much as I loved the ship one, and would love to find that one, I found the concept a very healthy way to wake up. Didn’t panicked you, just got you up. Sorry, I may be living under a rock, is a one plus a phone? Or app?
I absolutely know what you mean and feel the same way. I hate being woken up to something that scares the shit out of me. This playlist has the oneplus alarm tones (it’s a phone company, not an app). The one I like the most is called Dawn. I find it to be the best suited one for my preference. There are lots more on that channel if you want to have a look.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/playlist?list=PLbxUYYPfrGGkdwPLyPQ1wvL8lQtCCLtm9
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Didn’t even know i needed that, nevermind it used to be a feature on a phone.
The sleep as android app has that feature. Set your alarm tone of choice and you can allow it to fade in. I have used this for years
I miss my smart watch waking me up outside of detected REM sleep.
On the Microsoft Band you could set a time window where the alarm would go off - say between 0700-0800. If you’re in REM sleep at 0700, the alarm stays off until you naturally rouse, or 0800.
I’ve worked as a sleep scientist for 7 years, and the idea of not being woken out of REM is such a neat idea, and yet no other watch seems to do it.
Probably because that detection isn’t done on the watch. It’s a machine learning model running on the phone (if not worse) I guess.
Sleep as Android seems to offer such alarm.
+1 for sleep as android. Been using it for years by now.
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The Huawei Talkband series does it. It’s a smartwatch which turns into a bluetooth headset. For some reason, most reviewers struggle to see why anyone would want that but I struggle to see why anyone wouldn’t…
I really miss the Band 2. It was so far ahead in terms of features, sensors, and the display was gorgeous.
3.5mm headphone jack.
Being able reach the entire screen with one hand… Even with larger hands, reaching across a 6 inch screen with my thumb is bullshit and uncomfortable as fuck. I miss my iPhone 4S
On android I recently learned about quick cursor. Changed my life 😂
What is that? I have tiny hands, you may be about to change my life lol
It’s an app apparently
What is that? I have tiny hands, you may be about to change my life lol
Yeah I’m glad that some series (Pixel AFAIK) are now releasing slightly smaller phones, because the growth was getting ridiculous and highly impractical.
One of the features I miss dearly from when I used the iPhone, was the ability to double touch the home button, and it would bring the whole screen down by half so that you could reach stuff. There’s probably a way to do it on Android, but idk
I feel the same way, but with one little problem: small phone, small battery.
I basically flip back and forth between small phone and big phone because I can’t stand one aspect of each.
Hardware keyboards on mobile phones
Yes! God I miss my old Droid2.
The Samsung Alias was my.fucking JAM back in the day. Had a two-way hinge that opened in portrait for a standard phone, or landscape for a full keyboard.
The T-Mobile G1 was my favourite phone ever.
There are still some smartphones that have hardware keyboards. Unihertz makes a few (I have the very unwieldy OG Titan). There’s also the Fxtec Pro1 X.
Thanks, I’ve looked at all of those but they either have substandard, Microtek CPUs that are so far below adequate that the productivity hit would impact me more than the loss of physical keys (Unihertz) or have problems delivering actual phones altogether (Fxtec Pro1) or aren’t really phones but more micro-laptops (Planet Computer).
I’m just looking for a nice, mid-ranged phone with a mobile keyboard. Actually I think the closest to achieving that goal is the Fairberry mod which fuses a surplus BlackBerry Q10 keyboard on to a Fairphone with a 3D-printed case, but that requires electronic assembly and soldering.
It really depends on your use case. My Titan’s MediaTek is enough for me as I don’t do super intensive tasks on it. In a pinch it does the job. If I’m away and need to quickly SSH into my servers, I can do that, no problem. I can make calls and text people and it has a huge battery. Right now it’s as de-googled as it can get with the stock ROM.
The drawback is that due to the wonky 1:1 aspect ratio display, a lot of apps either have bugs or bad usability, because they were created for taller scrrens. To me, it doesn’t matter, as I cut down on smartphone usage and just have a handful of apps.
I’d rather have that return than have a foldable.
Bluetooth keyboards
Not the same thing :(
Physical buttons. Sometimes an app or the OS itself will fuck up and not show you the home or back button for example.
I would miss headphone jacks but any phone worth buying still comes with those… for now
Charging once a week.
