What niche phone features would appeal to you?
I went through my late teens as the initial smart phone boom was happening. I had a Motorola q that could get TV channels and had a keyboard. I had the enV that flipped open. And many androids/blackberries that I loved for their unique form factor and functionality.
I have never balked at spending money on a phone and for a long time i felt locked into generic flagship devices. With the debut of folding screens I feel like my appetite for unique devices rekindled. I think the power of android lies in its diversity of implementation.
So what features and functionalities would you choose over the next flagship release?
A fucking headphone jack
How did we end up in a world where this is a niche feature. 😭😭
I feel like I wouldn't mind the lack of headphone jack so much if they just gave us another USB-C port on the bottom instead so you can charge and listen to music without a dongle.
I've really tried hard with these usb-c headphones / adapters and they just don't work very well for me. They function mostly, but much more often come unplugged or slightly ajar.
Because the audio jack is the perfect connector for its purpose: It's omnidirectional, the connection is as wide as it comes, and it locks the plug. The point for using a USB-C connector would be that it's more versatile as you can use it for data transfer and power as well.
HEADPHONE JACK.
GIVE ME THE GOD DAMN HEADPHONE JACK BACK
Hit the road, bc Jack won't come back home no more
Ironically enough the headphone jack is more common on cheaper phones. Honestly though the mid grade phones are so good now that I can't see myself buying a flagship device unless there's some incentive.
lol yeah the last phone I bought was the Pixel 5A because of that.
...But they better keep it that way >:(
The pixel 6a doesn't have a headphone jack unfortunately.
I second that
Pixel 3a FTW!!!
Apparently most of my requirements/desires fit this. I require an unlocked bootloader, because I need root to not throw my phone through a window. An amazing camera would be needed as well.
I REALLY, REALLY would like a removable battery, IR blaster, small form function, a headphone jack, and a rear fingerprint reader.
I miss the IR blaster on my Galaxy S4. I remember when I finally upgraded to the S8, I was using it for several months before realizing it was gone. I tried to change the channel on the TV at work only to find out that they removed that feature from their Galaxy line pretty much right after the S4. Needless to say, I was disappointed, but it makes sense to remove a super niche feature from their mass-marketed device line.
I miss having a notification LED. It used to be super common to have a "breathing" effect with a given color when an app had sent a notification.
So a Snapchat for example would show the breathing as yellow, etc. Super convenient to check for messages without going and grabbing the phone.
I think the galaxy s9 was the last that had that for the galaxy seriesm. When I got my S20U I handed my s8plus? The flagship to my mum. I still miss the notification light and it's such a shame that we can't even use the AMOLED screen to emulate the notification light.
Yea I only ever had this on a Samsung S9 and I did find it helpful. Snapchat as you said did a good job using it.
Headset jack and let me replace my damn battery. Also default option to uninstall non-OEM apps
You're in luck for the battery thing. It's basically going to be mandatory in the EU which should hopefully help push change everywhere
I really hate that it is becoming mandatory. I would have preferred the option to either have a reasonably priced service to replace the battery or have it user replaceable. Forcing one solution just seems not very consumer friendly.
I don't like the compromises they have to make to make them easily replaceable and I never had a battery fail on me.
Well, what we've seen this far is not making it mandatory just means that the battery will not be user-replaceable on 99% of devices, because that's the most profitable way of doing it even if it results in a lot of extra waste
I'd like a phone with no camera facing me, and physical hardware switches to completely disable the mic, camera, battery, and entire modem. Not some software interrupt and lock. I mean, the switch is circuit ground for these circuit blocks. When I select OFF, it means real world "this thing does not exist any more ever" until I turn it back on.
It would be interesting to have a modular rear camera with a removable lens, removable IR filter, along with public documentation and the full API for the sensor. This would open up an enormous range of applications. I would mostly mess with astrophotography more.
The modular rear camera idea makes a lot of sense when you consider that camera bumps have become an industry standard.
There is one, the Librem 5.
Warning: Usability is not great last I heard. Runs on a linux distro so no android apps.
Edit: nvm don't bother checking it. They just raised the price to $1299 and it's 32 gb storage with 3gb ram. I mean at this point, just get a google pixel and slap on graphene os.
sideloading is a requirement for me and unlockable bootloader, otherwise, some things like an IR blaster, headphone jack, removable battery (thx EU), RGB notification LED, front facing speakers would make a "good" phone become "great"
Add on an SD slot and you and I have an identical list.
Man, I forgot all about notification LEDs. My list is practically identical to yours.
I know some phones had already did this, but I always liked the idea of support for using your phone as a TV remote. The phone has replaced so many pieces of hardware that it feels silly that TV remotes haven't been replaced yet.
I also specifically wish Chrome supported extensions on mobile. Firefox does it. Why can't the biggest browser do it?
I miss the innovation of early 2010s phones. Using the IR blaster to mess around with bar TVs was a ton of fun. Not to mention headphone jacks, SD card slots, and removable batteries.
I wish Firefox mobile supported desktop extensions. I know its doable with Nightly builds, but that's a pain to set up.
@CoderKat I'm pretty sure there are apps that let you do this. In my experience they tend to be buggy and slower than the dedicated hardware.
@Rdan33l
Through wifi. They used to have IR blasters that work just like the real remote
Xiaomi phones usually still have IR blasters at least.
I was looking into smaller form factor phones awhile back, and an interesting feature I noticed some of them had was a programmable button.
I don't know that programmable buttons on phones are that niche, but it's certainly not common either so far as I'm aware, so this super simple feature would be wicked imo. I'd also really like if more phones just stole Motorola's gesture interactions (e.g. quick twist for camera, firm double-shake for flashlight, etc.).
Also, uh...Speaking of small form factor phones, I don't know if that counts as a feature, but it's one detail I'd like to see come back, or flip phones with separate screens (clunky, sure, but better than the screen eventually creasing imo).
A good well implemented button anywhere is a joy and I think there would be a lot of interest in smaller phones with interesting features.
Headphone socket. They are taking away what was a universal feature and replacing it with inconvenient crap.
An open bootloader and a removable battery.
I want a Galaxy Fold style phone, but the external screen is eInk. Have it set to always show the book I am reading. This will let me read in bite sized pieces.
That would be awesome, although it might make the camera experience worse since you usually use the camera folded. I saw a prototype for a phone a while back that had a regular screen on one side and e-ink on the other, I always thought that was cool.
There are some niche phones with a thermal camera, would love to see more of that. Thermal modules are getting smaller, cheaper and better all the time and the main producers like infiray or guide are offering modules that seem to be clearly targeted at the smartphone market.
I'm still discovering new uses for my thermal camera and I wish I could have it in my pocket all the time. The obvious uses are finding gaps in your house's thermal insulation or finding devices that draw a lot of standby energy. But you can also use it to find studs in your walls, find things that have recently been used, like cars in a parking lot or chairs in an office.
Thermal cameras are also really handy for electronics repair and spotting invisible water leaks in ceilings.
A microsd card slot and a headphone jack
E-Ink would be nice, whether integrated as part of an OLED/LCD screen, or a separate module that goes over the top.
Most of the things that I use my phone for don't generally need the full colour display (text isn't that expensive to display), and I wouldn't mind trading that for vastly better battery life that you can get from e-ink, but having the option to use both is probably the best way to go.
An IR transceiver wouldn't go poorly either. It's not something I use much, but it was handy to have when I did, whether to send things around, or to just use my phone as a remote for televisions and things.
Slide out physical keyboard, notification LEDs or some form of cool lights, a dedicated camera shutter button, and a scroll wheel / touch pad like what used to be on the blackberry or like the LG KE970 I really liked that.
I really miss notification LED's though, always on display is good, but a little light is going to use far less battery and be immediately apparent from across the room by the colour what app it came from.
I'm so annoyed that my Moto G60 has a sign of life LED that can't be used for notifications.
That sounds infuriating, I really miss these features, its not like there isn't even space to put them in, screen real estate isn't everything.
I miss the IR blaster. Being able to control my TV and other set-top boxes was amazing. Now that functionality has been replaced by each manufacturer having their own control app that needs an internet connection and all your information. Bring back the IR blaster!
Came to say this. I had one with an IR blaster and thought it was gimmicky until I remembered my wife has ADD and we lose remotes constantly
Whenever I buy a phone there's two function I look for that is getting phased out: LED indicator and a 3.5mm audio jack. It's why I have a Sony Xperia. The thing is there's no user configuration for the LED indicator. You either need to pay for a third party app or unlock the bootloader and install a custom firmware. I would love if a flagship phone had an LED Indicstor that was customizable. i.e. Blue for a text, Red for an email, Green for battery at 80%+, etc.
I was actually writing up a big thing about how I'd gone out of my way to get a used Note 9 with the headphone jack, which also has the LED indicator, and how you could set the LED colors for individual apps. But after spending about 20 minutes Googling and looking for the settings in my phone, I'm not sure it's actually possible. Maybe it was my Note 8 that had LED indicator options? Or maybe I just imagined it entirely. Hmm
Late to the thread but here's my thoughts on everything I'd like in a phone. Having just a few of these would make a huge difference in how much I'd want the phone.
Hardware:
Software (here lies my hopes and dreams that will never be manifested):
An ir blaster, great as a universal remote
OMG great question! I want:
Modular everything. I really wanted Project Ara to come to market.
A phone without the actual phone part. Just SMS/MMS. Maybe a notification that someone tried to call
that's called having a Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact and living in the US where they shut down all the 3g towers and all the carriers, including MVNOs, blacklisted its VoLTE capability >:[
—passive aggressively typed on the dinner plate of a phone that i had to replace my nice tiny XZ2c with
I miss my keyboards
Me too, I still suck at typing on a touchscreen. Nothing beats a good physical keyboard; I still miss my Treos.
Me too. I have the Unihertz Titan and Titan Slim, both have keyboards, but they are really low spec devices that don't operate well with modern wifi and no 5G.
I would pay premium price for a Galaxy S24 with a slide out keyboard.
I am looking at picking up a Pro OneX hopefully its keyboard is good. The Titan was my other thought
Niche or not, I want an SD card slot that actually fucking works. Like, yes, I can move files to it, but I can't actually install apps to it. There's the "move to SD, but that doesn't matter when the app files are still stored on the internal storage.
Honestly, headphone jacks are number 1.
Then also, FM radios. Most Android phones had them up until a few years ago, when Apple stopped shipping iphones with the feature, to push more people onto iTunes. I'm not a huge radio listener. But having the functionality during an emergency is invaluable. There was a really bad storm in my country a few years ago. Me and my family had no power and no internet for nearly a week. I would listen to my battery powered radio to get weather updates and to find out what the situation was like elsewhere. I don't understand why that same functionality can't be implemented in phones.
Besides that, removable batteries, sim card and SD card slots.
More phones like the Fairphone/Framework Laptop. Easy to repair and upgrade in a modular manner, as well as install what ever OS I choose.
I miss my IR blaster.
My poco has that feature, plus large batteries, headphone jack, nfc, fm radio and a low price of 300 cad when i got it several years ago
I had that phone. Aside from some UI stuff and that whole 4k Netflix licensing stuff it worked pretty well.
Mine is still chugging along without much hiccup but i just blame miui
A phone built somewhat like a desktop PC. All parts replaceable or even upgradable. Choose the components for your needs and budget, or buy a pre-built.
But let's get to more standard smartphone concept.
On software side, no bootloader locks, or easily unlockable bootloader (not requiring internet) and root access that could be enabled in developer settings.
On hardware side:
IR blaster - Control your AC, TV, etc.
Front-facing stereo speakers - could give a better stereo sound. And bezels aren't a big problem. Actually they can be positive as you can hold your phone better with them.
Headphone jack - Obvious. Would be cool if it had mode for composite output, but that's quite extra.
Dedicated fingerprint scanner on front - I had this on Moto G5s Plus. It allowed awesome gesture navigation, much better than using whatever on-screen.
Trackpoint - Early Androids used to have that. Would definitely be useful with large screens.
FM, HD Radio, DAB, DAB+, DVB-T2 Lite receiver - Radio is pretty useful. AM would also be nice, though you would need external antenna better than cable from earphones. I think FM radio is the minimum here.
TV Receiver - Just like with radio, except now you're saving much more on mobile data.
Camera with optical zoom - We've been there with Samsung in the past. But I understand it makes things too large and heavy.
Projector - We've been there with Samsung in the past, again. I think it was done pretty nicely on the projector part with Beam 2. It didn't even add much thickness. Just the rest of the phone was meh.
Basically an Asus Zenfone 9 with a removable battery and an Sd card. Also, make the front like Sony phones - larger bezels on the top and the bottom of the display and house stereo speakers and front camera there instead of a cutout.
Larger, swappable battery. Squeeze for assistant
+1 for the battery. I turned off squeeze for assistant when I had it, lol. It kept going off by accident.
IR blaster
What about an external, optical camera lens ? I would 100% pay for a phone that looks like a brick but that has an optical zoom
Does the alert slider counts as a niche feature? Very few brands provides this.
IR emitter . Super handy wen you use old stuf like me like VHS dvd combo crt ect .
Slide out controller, like the Xperia Play. I've gotten super into (at least the idea of) SBC handheld gaming, and there's just nothing quite like the Xperia Play now. Sure, there's bluetooth controllers, but I'm not a big fan of bluetooth, and the majority of the bluetooth controllers make portability a pain rather than it being a sleek package.
Really would love a dedicated camera button that acts as a soft shutter release. Or a button in that position that's programmable.
Oh I forgot, a clamshell folding phone but with only one screen and the other side is a physical keyboard, like a mini-laptop.
Nobody seems really know how to do a folding screen well, so why have the screen fold at all?
Like the sidekick? Motorola really knew how to make phones back then!
Yeah, that'd be pretty cool, but I'm thinking something modernized, like the Lenovo Yoga but smaller, that they can fit a bunch of USB-C and even audio jacks to. Modern phones are big enough to fit a real keyboard anyways, and you can probably do something even crazier like have mini-OLED screens inside programmable buttons a la one of the Mac Pros.
Plastic back and a removable/user replaceable battery.
Yeah yeah I know it "feels cheap" but honestly I LIKED when phones were made of more plastic. Now they're heavier and both sides are breakable. Like, the metal backs were fine, but apparently metal backs suck for NFC and wireless charging so instead of giving us some classy Nokia Lumia style plastic they went with glass backs.
Also I keep my phone in a case because otherwise the back is so smooth it shoots off the couch if someone walks across my apartment. It's legit only in the case to add some friction.
I really miss the feel of my Nexus 5. It's still one of my favorite phones.
It's the rear fingerprint reader for me, I use the pulldown action constantly. That and stereo front-facing speakers.
An OEM FM/AM transmitter. I would love to be able to playback music directly to any old ass car. Or even use it as a very short range walkie talkie with the right program.
Native Bluetooth GPS support. I do mapping for OpenStreetMap a lot and the built in GPS modules are just too bad for that. Currently I have to use an app to get my Bluetooth GPS connected. But sometimes this app fails and the built in GPS takes over and ruins my logs.
I enjoyed the squeeze to activate assistant on Pixel 2 XL..just felt right. I even configured it to activate flashlight when I needed a quick light.
Something interesting. Like 2 USB-C ports, also a nice hard plastic back, since they are so hard to find now.
Oh boy do I have the phone for you Margot. Check out the ASUS ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. It has a USB-C port on the bottom as you'd expect but also one on the side for when you're holding the phone horizontally but still want to charge.
Yeah, I knew about that one, it's too gamer-y for me though.
@MargotRobbie @Astigma@feddit.uk yeah that's fair, you could just be gamer-girl Barbie and lean into it 😅
p.s. my lemmy instance is being slow to federate so using mastodon instead.
Max 4 inch screen, IR blaster, physical keyboard with speed dial settings for buttons, form factor like the Xperia x10 mini pro, headphone jack, cameraless, LED with customisable lights for different notifications, bonus - built in projector, satellite phone capability,
Out of curiosity, why would you want a phone with no cameras?
And do phones with built in projectors exist? That sounds amazing, even if I would almost never use it
I never really use the camera for anything meaningful, and prefer video call on the laptop.
Don't think projector phones exist, just a wishlist for something cool!
Afaik there used to be a smartphone with an inbuilt (shitty) projector. You could show off pics and video clips from a distance of around 30 cm (that's around 1.3 medium sized standard bananas in imperial units). It was only enjoyable in a dark room, but nevertheless, the tech existed 10 years ago. I think it was called the something-bee-something-phone.
Hackability
Better system font/typeface selection and a way to install new ones. I know it's a petty gripe, but the default android options are few and terrible.
Today my wish is for an internal pihole instance running on the device.
Foldable display - They are still way too expensive!
Metal case - I just loved the heavy Samsung Omnia 7 metal case. It made it unbreakable and grippy!
duck duck go tracker blocking that doesn't use vpn technology
Check iodéOS, an Android-based OS that has a built-in ad/tracker blocker as part of the OS.
Phone upgrades.
Battery.. Non lithuim. Flexible and new. []
Flexible screen. Wrist strap or just flexible. []
Fitness/health capabilities. []
Usb 3.1 reversible.. Proper specs [x]
Wireless charging. Using new WiFi microwave to charge phone without mat. Wattup []
Better nfc/Google pay [x]
Smaller screen oled,s than 5.5 []
Better speakers none conduction or ceramic
Encryption []
Bezelless. Screen to screen hole cut out. 2018 []
Solar panel in screen. Sapphire glass. Smudge and germ
This list was created a few years ago.
Some things have been implemented but not all.
I want a phone with an ultrasonic fingerprint reader, those are apparently a niche feature nowadays. The optical readers are terrible by comparison.
Samsungs use ultrasonic. Definitely way better than any optical I've ever used.
I'm on a Fold 4 now and I do love the novelty/oddity aspect of having a folding tablet.
But I would love to see the return of IR blasters on most phones and sliding phones for physical keyboards.
Lots of Xiaomi phones come with IR and an app called Mi Remote with many devices/brands to control.
Yeah there are still options out there that offer an IR blaster, but I'd really like to see it return as a mainstream feature. Now it's more of a niche thing you don't see often.
Keyboard. I want a damn keyboard. I'm a blackberry refugee hiding out on a unihertz titan/titan slim
The debut of the Google Pixel Fold got me interested in foldables. If Google is joining the game then android hopefully will become better optimized for foldable screens.
Removable dual display like in LG G8x, V60 etc. When you need it you can have a beast of a phone with 2 screen or a slim normal flagship.
This is going to be such a stretch and I doubt this would ever happen, but if you could get a decently sized camera sensor on the back of a phone and a mirror less style lens mount...I would sell my DLSR in a heartbeat.
Why not just go for a compact camera?
Ability to use the screen as a display through the USB port so I can debug a lot of my systems at home without needing to carry a monitor around.
sounds like more of a software feature
Actually I doubt it, video in and video out likely needs totally different wiring, so most phones probably couldn't do it without hardware changes
The ability to easily unlock bootloaders, IPS screen and removable batteries.
Headphone jack, apparently..
Niche feature....
By Apple's standards a headphone jack.
By Android's standards IR blaster. Had them in my last 2 phone and man is it nice to turn the volume down on a TV which is too loud in a public place like a Hotel Lobby or a Restaurant
Officially supported rooting! Makes this less complicated.
Keyboard and not every phone looks like a black slab
@Rdan33l DAB Tuner!
I've had 3 Motorola's where the charge port stopped working just past warranty. Now I always look for wireless charging.
Not really a feature of the phone, but a design theory. I want my small phone back. Not this "zenfone 9" size small. Like HTC One size small.
Make it bifold wallet sized, and ~1/2"thick.
These hugely tall phones where you can't reach the top third if the screen without dropping the thing are just annoyingly huge. Then they make them so thin they can't fit a big enough battery for a full day use.
Beyond that would like an under display fingerprint sensor. Rear and side mounted always have issues with cases for me, and make it more annoying when using the device while it's on a desk.
A full physical QWERTY keypad on my 3rd hand Blackberry Bold (in 2013) was the best thing I had seen on a cell phone. I wish full physical QWERTY keyboards would make a comeback.
I liked the physical toggle for silent mode on iPhones. Flip/slide-out keyboards were also kinda cool
As far as apps though... I really loved having a good programmable remote app on devices with an IR transceiver. The best one was actually on Palm of all things, and you could add custom icons to a layout and then record inputs from your actual remotes to replay.
One without a damn camera, I swear to God most of the price goes into having "quality cameras" I never end up using.
I got a Samsung flagship mostly for DeX, even tho I'm enjoying the whole thing, I really wish desktop mode on Android was more easily accessible. Like 99% of the market doesn't even use the required USB C version for it.
As well as better app compatibility when going on a big screen, a lot of android apps just don't scale well.
I loved the IR Blaster on my old Galaxy S4, was really fun to mess with the TV's in public places with it sometimes and was also pretty useful at home as well!
true background process management and battery
Headphone jack. 5in or less screen size.
IR Blaster, Headphonejack, SD Card Slot, removable battery
A swappable battery. I could buy a few batteries and never be out of power. I could replace the battery on an older phone without pretty much having to replace the phone itself.
Unlocked bootloader by default
Aluminium back instead of plastic or glass
The literal only thing keeping me on iOS/MacOS is the system wide glass transparency, continuity, and the battery life. I wish to Christ that Android/Windows/Linux would get their shit together.
My ideal system would be Android + Ubuntu with full glass UI and continuity between them.
So, your killer criteria are glass UI? I do agree on Windows Laptop battery life.