this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023

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Interested in Hardware Features we want to see (startrek.website)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

My first Android phone was the HTC One M8. I got it because at the time it made my iPhone 5 look like a chump. Bigger screen, unrivaled stereo front speakers, much more internal storage you name it.

I also got the LG G series after that because I loved that the battery was removable (I ended up with an enormous aftermarket battery pack that lasted 3.5 days of constant use) and the buttons were all on the back of the phone.

I got the Essential PH1 because the ceramic body was nice and the promise of the 2 pin magnetic accessory port was really neat (only a 360 camera was released for it but still).

I got a Pixel 4a because every Android phone at that point was a 6 inch rectangle with side buttons and a fingerprint reader but at least it was cheap and still had a headphone jack.

I'm glad to see flip phones returning because I think it is giving Android back what has always been its biggest advantage to me which is unique hardware features.

Personally, the HTC M8 speakers with the button layout of the LG G4 would be an intsa-buy for me to this day.

What kind of hardware features have you guys fallen in love with over the years and what do you value or would like to see return?

top 49 comments

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Here's a short list of things I personally want

Change hardware parts
Extendable storage
3.5 mm jack

The fact that the whole phone is a unit is both absurd and stupid. It makes it nearly impossible to repair or replace anything but the screen. I cannot even remember how many phones I have been forced to recycle due to the fact that the battery no longer hold charge over time.

Storage might not be a big thing, most of us probably use cloud storage, but I don't want cloud storage with a subscription fee, when it would be easier (and cheaper) to have storage directly in my phone.

I'm going to say it - fuck bluetooth! Every day it's: will it connect? Do I have to re-pair? Is the sound really coming out of my headphones only or do everyone around me here what I hear?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Counter argument: I get frustrated when people complain about the lack of SD card and headphone jack on every phone that doesn't have those. I get it some people really want those features but do they really expect manufacturers to add them after they've gone? Sony's the only manufacturer that changed course and they only did it because they're a niche brand with an audience that appreciates those features.

I feel it's foolish to expect someone like Google to suddenly change their mind because someone on the internet said they wouldn't buy their phones without those features. They've not had expendable storage on any Nexus or Pixel phone except for the Nexus One and the jack has been gone since the Pixel 2. I know the A series had it longer but it's been two generations since it's disappeared from there as well.

For whatever it's worth, I would like to have the headphone jack personally but it's not a dealbreaker if it's not there. Don't care about the SD card and wouldn't use it anyways since it's extremely slow compared to internal storage and I've had a bad experience when I've used it on previous phones when it got corrupted and I lost a significant amount of pictures. Didn't use it for apps because I knew it would result in slower load times so was really disappointed when it got corrupted. I'm not the only one who thinks this way, app developers hate the SD card too. Linus Sebastian also said that someone in the industry said it has gone away because of performance concerns.

Note: this isn't aimed at you, it's just a rant against the "no SD card, no 3.5 mm, no buy" crowd that always posts those comments whenever some phone doesn't have it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I like expandable storage, as I usually keep the SD card as a secondary partition. If my phone dies for whatever reason, I just pull that card out and stick it into a new phone.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

From my experience it's been the opposite, the phones have survived but the SD cards have died twice. Haven't cared about it since then.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

@Positronic well, anything dies on this world. But you know the saying: never put all the eggs in the same basket.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Well yeah NAND has a certain amount of read/write cycles but it's always going to be an issue with SD cards because they're using the cheapest form of NAND. As a result of that they're not going to get some of the complex safety mechanisms that are built into internal NAND. So I think we'll have to disagree here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'm not against expandable storage at all, I wish more phones did have it as an option to be clear.

I am curious what exactly is going on these SD cards that everyone wants though. I personally haven't gotten close to my storage limit since the default internal memory was 32GB.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I travel quite a bit, both for work and because I like going places. Often, internet is somewhere between unavailable and shitty. I keep a mess of music, movies, and tv shows synced/cached from Plex (which keeps fresh content via downloaded smart playlists that update as I watch episodes, etc.) and usually a couple of audiobooks in case I find myself making a long drive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

@xyguy Yea, tbh, 32 GB is the minimum usable on a phone in 2023 imo (if you play no games). But for this you need an SD Card.

And yea, it's always better to have the ability to add extra storage imo, even if that would make you a data hoarder 😁

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's not really a counter argument, you're just complaining about people talking about hardware features they want in a thread about...hardware features we want.

A counter argument would elaborate on why these features aren't relevant anymore, but you didn't include that. A counter argument would offer superior alternatives that should be used instead of SD cards or 3.5mm jacks, but you didn't include any of those. A counter argument would have addressed the initial arguments of cloud storage being an unnecessary expense and a wired jack being more reliable than Bluetooth, yet you didn't do that either.

Every thread about hardware has at least one guy bitching that phones should still have 3.5mm jacks and expandable storage, but the guy whining about him is just as consistent. Congratulations, you're a different layer of the exact problem you're complaining about.

RE: OP, 3.5mm jack and SD card, of course.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

My comment mentioned why the SD card was removed. To paraphrase Linus, they're the cheapest form of NAND storage and are extremely unreliable. When they fail, the average consumer blames the phone and not the cheap SD card they put into it. I'm not a fan of cloud storage but most people do not need anything other than the base variant now since it comes with 128 GB out of the box. Some manufacturers are even offering 256 GB.

I also mentioned that I'd like having the jack but it's not a dealbreaker that it's gone. Also doubt we would have seen as much progress with truly wireless earbuds if more manufacturers did not remove the headphone jack. I know some people detest them and think they're a cash grab but they're a game changer when it comes to exercising and moving around. However I'll agree that removing the jack also opened another revenue stream for manufacturers which could be construed as a cash grab.

Additionally I stated my point wasn't directly at the OP but was a rant at the senseless "no jack, no SD card, DOA" comment which can be seen at the launch of a phone who's manufacturer hasn't included those features for 5 or more years. It's just beating a dead horse at this point. It is like expecting CRT TVs to be the default instead of flat TVs. CRTs also had advantages but the market has moved on. Additionally I think it might be better to actually comment about a phone having a headphone jack or SD card slot or both of those since that's a much more positive way of looking at things since not having them is the default now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

When they fail, the average consumer blames the phone and not the cheap SD card they put into it.

I remember I received a notification about a card that was about to fail or something, because it was too old. That was on an older Huawei phone but still. So I don't think it's this usual for people not to be aware that their SD cards would soon go away (instead of thinking they have a problem with their phones).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not sure if all manufacturers do this, there are also instances where the user might set up the SD card as adoptable storage which would make it hard to differentiate between internal storage and the SD card.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

@Positronic The system does explain every option when first inserting the card, though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

How many people are going to read that properly? We're not just talking about enthusiasts, regular users will do it if they get the option and think they can store their apps on there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

My comment mentioned why the SD card was removed. To paraphrase Linus, they’re the cheapest form of NAND storage and are extremely unreliable.

Your comment mentioned why you personally don't like using SD cards, though I disagree that it's a reason to remove the functionality completely, which is why I wouldn't buy a phone without a slot. If you're having such reliability issues, you should buy a higher quality SD card. They're objectively more reliable than cloud storage though, should you ever go somewhere where network connectivity is an issue. And 128 GB is almost nothing, kinda proving my point that this is more of a use case point than an argument against the feature.

Also if they hadn’t removed the jack I doubt we would have seen as much progress with truly wireless earbuds.

Given that they're still using Bluetooth, which is still terrible with any interference, low bandwidth, and has the same tedious connectivity problems it's had for the past decade...I'd argue we have yet to see that progress where it matters.

the market has moved on.

If that were true, there wouldn't be so many people vocally expressing why new products aren't adequate without these basic features.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

My initial comment also mentioned why developers hated the SD card slot. To quote Koush

The SD card needs to go away. It's a nightmare for developers. There's too much variability here. SD Cards can be slow, resulting in poor app performance. They can come and go, or be swapped, and that results in unpredictable behavior if an app was expecting an SD card. One contiguous block of data needs to become the standard here (with different OEM SKUs for more/less storage), as it has been on iOS since the first iPhone.

The comments from Linus came from an industry insider he said he trusts. I would be inclined to believe him since he used to carry a Note9 and was a massive advocate of SD cards.

Also don't think the reliability of the cards was an issue when I got them, they were high rated Samsung and Sandisk models.

And 128 GB is almost nothing, kinda proving my point that this is more of a use case point than an argument against the feature.

You're looking at this from the point of a power user and not the average person. Most normal people just get the base variant when they see it has 128 GB and are happy with it.

They're objectively more reliable than cloud storage though, should you ever go somewhere where network connectivity is an issue

I mentioned I dislike cloud storage but with USB-C ports I can actually use my external SSD or a USB drive to backup my phone if I want to although it's not something I do often.

Given that they're still using Bluetooth, which is still terrible with any interference, low bandwidth, and has the same tedious connectivity problems it's had for the past decade...I'd argue we have yet to see that progress where it matters.

When was the last time you used a Bluetooth headset? I had issues initially in 2018 and 2019 but things like the Galaxy Buds+ and newer generations of truly wireless earbuds have fixed the connectivity and interference issues. Some Bluetooth headphones support LDAC and LHDC codecs which allow for high bandwidth. LDAC is part of AOSP so it should be on every Android phone running Oreo or newer unless the OEM has removed it for some reason.

If that were true, there wouldn't be so many people vocally expressing why new products aren't adequate without these basic features.

That's because there are a small group of enthusiasts who are extremely vocal. Most people have moved on, they may want one or both features but they aren't dealbreakers for them. Also wouldn't say a bunch of enthusiasts complaining means it expresses the sentiments of everyone. Look at the outcry about the iPhone mini, it didn't sell very well but online communities would have you believe it was the most popular device of that lineup.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

You don't need to pay a subscription fee for cloud storage when it's super simple to host your own, and Android allows the mounting of different filesystems too.

SMB on a rasp pi + cheapo storage + Tailscale, all the way to paying £$€ for a dedicated NAS enclosure with as much storage as you can afford also with Tailscale?

Yup, fuck subscription fees.

You also can then use the corporate cloud storage providers like G/ProtonDrive etc to use their free offerings for off site backup of the most important data.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'd love to see those features in phones today; all of those are basically dead in the US market (Xperia 1 V gets two out of three, Zenfone 10 at least gets the 3.5mm jack...might be some cheap Motorola something that still has a jack, as well?).

Me personally, I could even live with just the 3.5mm jack. The whole argument of "it's for waterproofing/making the phone thinner/insert BS excuse here" falls flat when my Galaxy S9 has a 3.5mm jack and the same IP68 rating as the Pixel 8, yet manages to be thinner.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have maintained for a while that if phones came with 2 USB ports instead of just 1 you could have your cake and eat it too. My biggest gripe with the lack of a headphone jack is that I can't charge my phone and listen at the same time. 2 ports, one on each side for right and left handed people to pick their favorite charging location and you get a ton of other options for peripherals that way.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

At this point, I'd honestly be fine with that too. Unfortunately it looks like one of the only ones around that has two USB-C ports is the Asus ROG Phone 7 & 7 Ultimate, which both already have a headphone jack too, lol.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Amen! The only thing keeping me from upgrading from my Note 20 Ultra is the lack of options for SD card slots! The idea of having to pay a premium for storage each time I upgrade my device is insulting and terrible for personal finances. And with all the recent headlines about cloud storage being hacked, or how it was inaccessible, I wouldn't trust it even if I always had access to an internet connection (which I don't always have, especially when out and about).

Hell, they could upcharge this "feature" and have it available only on the Ultra models to help justify the exhorbitant cost and I would pay it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

@xyguy the M8 was indeed top notch. A friend in highschool had it and those speakers were really great. It also had a slow motion camera which he used to create amazing videos. That was something I craved for every phone to this day (my current phone now has it fortunately). Not to mention the aluminum body and its relatively solid design. I accidentally stepped on it while with screen down and it had nothing. By the time I was able to get my first phone though, the M8 was no longer on sale. They had the M9 but I didn't know if it would be the same experience.

I also had a great experience with the Lenovo Yoga Tab 8. It also had an aluminum body and a kickstand which proved itself really useful. I don't remember watching a movie on it this way, but it was useful in college. And the battery could last me for about a full week! Also plenty of space, as despite having only 16GB of storage, the system had only 2-3 at most. I don't remember ever hitting the threshold, even though I did install some games here and there. Also, it came with a free version of Kingsoft Office (now rebranded to WPS Office) that had no ads. And it could connect to Google Drive. I kept using that version for as long as I could. And it also had front-facing speakers.

I think the hardware of the Yoga series is the thing that I cannot live without. I know there are ways to attach a keyboard to a regular tablet and keep it in an upright position as well, but the fact that the Yoga can be placed in so many positions makes it extremely useful imo. Not to mention the slightly bulkier base can be fitted with a larger battery and can also be used as a handle to hold your tablet when reading. If I'm getting a tablet again, I think it will surely be another Yoga (I see they still produce the model). I wish it had a removable battery as well though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

From what I remember, the M9 had some issues with processor overheating and didn't live up to the M8 legacy. Id love to see a tablet with a proper kickstand come back around. I got a first generation Microsoft Surface when I went to college and the kickstand on it just wasn't good. Plus the battery life was awful. I ended up selling it and just buying a regular laptop. That Yoga sounds like what I wished the Surface would have been.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I will not buy a phone without wireless charging anymore. It is just too convenient and with proper OS support it can be configured to not drain your battery life too much.

Also I miss the smaller screen sizes. My HTC Legend was such a nice thing to hold in your hand with unique features. Smaller phones today usually lack a lot of features so they often aren't an option.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The LG Second screen case. That was by far the most practical way to add a second screen to a device.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Funny you mention that, I had the M7/8 like OP and also had one of those Dot Matrix cases for mine which gave you a second screen so to speak. You could even use custom apps with it.

Another thing I bought at the time was one of these for the headphone jack. Never really caught on thou :/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For a while I had one of those jack inserts that was a micro-usb that had a mag-safe type of charging cable that went with it. It was cool but I always had to keep my own cable with me or id have to remove the little dongle thing and it would get lost.

Something kind of like this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Aye, me too and like you say it's hard to not defeat the point of one if you're unplugging the bloody thing all the time.

The one I've got thou did come with three cables of different lengths and for a while I used the short 0.5m at work since I could just jam it in small cargo pants pocket, medium length stored in locker and the longer 3m one at home. Still unplugged the adapter and is now in a drawer.....somewhere.

Saying this, they do have the bonus (including that 3.5mm button thing i have above) of making the device more water resistant 👀

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

More telephoto cameras on midrange phones. It seems like they're returning on some Chinese flagship killers. Would be great if Samsung and Google followed suit. Would be especially nice if we got periscope lenses.

I'd like to see LTPO on more phones, seems like it's limited only to the highest end flagship now. Would be nice to save battery when the screen is not being touched.

Something I don't like on a lot of Chinese midrangers - those rubbish 1/4" 8 MP ultrawides, don't think it would cost much more to have a 12 MP ultrawide and the difference in quality would be big enough to justify using it. Samsung do it on the A2x and A3x too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think the 8MP ultrawide is probably a deliberate attempt to ensure they don't cannibalize their higher end phones. The poco x3 that was released 3 years ago had a 13mp ultrawide. Similarly priced phones released later downgraded the ultrawide cam.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

They were using the telephoto as a point of differentiation too. I'm not sure why they even bother with that awful 8 MP ultrawide since it's unusable. The images have no detail at all. Might as well just have one good camera instead of one useable and two unusable cameras.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Telephoto seems like something Google could do to really set the next Pixel Xa series apart from the competition. If they care to that is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I doubt they'll do it since it's not on the regular Pixel 8. I think that's a feature they'll keep for the higher end. Pixel Xa series already has a faster processor and better cameras compared to their competition in North America, Australia and Western Europe.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I want a phone with vanilla Android, no OEM crapware, and a 4" screen.
The first 2 points I can do myself with ADB (I just hope it stays that way) but small screens are probably forever gone. The only option left is Unihertz, but the only phone I ever bought from them didn't work that well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I know it's not the same thing but the new flip phones from Motorola and Samsung have 4-ish inch screens on the front. You can run all your apps on the front screen too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Relockable bootloader and hackable hardware

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Would like to see a full featured phone like the Note 9.

[–] ICastFist 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Give me fucking physical keyboards, Moto DROID 4 style, with a screen under 5.5". Fuck you, Steve Jobs, and fuck every company that desperately tries to copy Apple

And, something that would be extremely useful that I've only seen on small number of Samsung phones: an easy adapter to output to a TV or something similarly big. Bam, instant computer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

My dad used to have a phone what had a legitimate micro-hdmi output on it. I can't remember the exact model Some kind of DROID I think.

Edit It was the DROID X.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

You can get USB-C to HDMI adapters that serve this purpose. I bought one a while back for like $15 on Amazon along with a cheap HDMI switch, and will use it to flip a spare monitor to watch video sometimes when I'm not working especially hard.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A laser. Nothing too powerful, maybe 10w. I don't need a death ray, just enough to burn stuff.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Breaking news: number of arson cases by teenagers had skyrocketed 10000%, experts have no Idea why

Lol seems pretty risky. Also 10W would drain the battery pretty quickly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

BigClive on youtube talked about his new work phone made for engineers. It had a FLIR infrared camera!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I really like face unlock on the P4XL. It works pretty reliably. When it does, I'm only slightly aware my phone was locked.

I've heard meh things about the camera-based face unlock on subsequent Pixels.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I wish more phones had different spots for power buttons. On my MOTO G60s there are 4 same size buttons, volume is in the middle top is the dumbest assistant button and blow vol is the power button. Guess which 2 buttons I end up hitting instead of the vol keys?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

It's not hardware on Android I want. I want pure Android on these phones. All these overlays and additional OS bits from these companies highlights why they aren't good software companies.

Back in the day Microsoft cracked down on overlays like HP Personal Page. Some bitched about it, but it was absolutely necessary. Google needs to do something similar.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I'd like a telephoto lens on a regular Pixel (not the Pro) and video out.