finger print scanner being on the back of the phone not under the screen. and headphone jack
Yes, that one right there in the picture.
Replaceable battery
AUX plug
Expandable storage by SD card
Did I say replaceable battery already?
Edit: oh and non-edged screens (the roundings on the side, don’t know the official name… But it sucks and almost all flagship phones have them, or at least when I bought mine 3 years ago, don’t know about now tbh)
Don’t forget about the IR blaster Most useful gimmick on a phone ever. I never had to deal with an annoying TV in public throughout most of the 2010s. It was nice; it was one of my most-used features I miss it dearly.
Rounded screens have mostly fallen out of style. I kinda like them tbh
USB mass storage mode. Some Android phones can’t do it anymore. I always thought the ability to select a dock image your phone would offer up to a of to boot off of was the coolest feature one of the things that made this iPhone user envious but it’s becoming less common for such a feature to still work in Android.
Native (via adb) Immersive Mode. Still use it, but afaik support was dropped after Android 10.
I need my expandable 1TB SD Card storage. 128 default is lame
I want to have 10 TV shows, 50 movies, a offline wikipedia .zim file, bunch of photos, etc…
I don’t want my phone to just be a phone, I want it to be a Pocket PC.
GIMME THE FUCKING SD CARD SLOT 😭
Samsung had a little pressure sensitive area at the bottom of phone screens in the S9 era. It was handy and I had it set up like a hidden home button.
The S9 also had a variable aperture camera, which I feel like could have been developed a lot more.
I also miss notification LEDs. Sure, AOD mostly replaces it, but it was fun setting different colors for people, situations, etc
The Essential phone had a ceramic back that was very comfortable and cool in the hand. Though it was slippery. Another idea that could have been developed further.
The different back materials on the Moto X were very satisfying. The customization of that phone was unmatched!
Replaceable battery. No contest.
Definitely the jack. I have special headphones for listening to white noise while sleeping. The Bluetooth version have a chunky panel, and don’t last long before they get that Bluetooth whine. That whine is a deal-breaker is a sleep aid.
So I use the 3.5mm version… if I use the charge port converted to a Jack, I can’t charge my phone while I listen to white noise and I’ll wake up to 6%. Rhe loss or the jack is why I haven’t upgraded my phone in years.
I thought I’d be okay without a headphone jack but I’m now learning that USB-C to headphone adapters will enter a power save mode after a few seconds of silence, and quiet moments in shows or music can cause that, then it takes a split second to power back up, so the end result is choppy sound if it isn’t constant. Maybe it’s better with a better adapter, but also how the heck do you search for such things on Amazon and the like? It’s not exactly a specification they list…
You can get split cables that have jack and a USB C. But yes it sucks.
Although… One silver lining I’ve found from being forced to convert the USB to 3.5 is that I now get to pick and chose different dac cables, and there are some pretty big differences.
Trackball
is there at least a 3rd party accessory?
Blinking LED when I got a text
The feature where you can hold the phone comfortably in one hand and without having to do any gymnastics to reach the top corner.
About a month ago I lost outlined text. Currently I can only do highlighted text, which looks awful everywhere. I can’t believe I need to post this in 2025:
radio
In the US, carriers colluded to disable phone radios to sell more data.
damn, that’s messed up.
Physical keyboard
