Easily notification light. People always say "oh, it's totally obsolete with always on displays". But with a notification light I could focus on other stuff and the blinking light got my attention better. With the AOD, I always catch myself glancing at my phone. Also, the light's color clearly indicated which app caused the notification. I had White for calls, Green for Whatsapp, Yellow for the ebay app, Red for GMail and so on. "You can do all that with an OLED screen! It only lights up the pixels that-" Can you, though? All apps that I tried were utter garbage. Buggy performance, very battery hungry and very cumbersome to configure. I don't know if custom firmwares actually have that feature in a usable state nowadays, as I cannot root my phone anymore without losing core functionalities like online banking.
Yeah, everything tends to go to shit with time. I miss my Galaxy S2.
Can't believe I forgot all about this. It was the one thing I was sad to lose when I upgraded from my Nexus 5 to the Google Pixel. So simple but so useful.
even going from my xperia 1 iv to xperia 1 v, i'm so sad I don't have a notification LED anymore, when it's plugged in to charge I have no idea if it's charging, fully charged, or what.. without enabling my AOD which I don't want to do, i have no way of knowing if there are any notifications without turning on my display
Can you, though
You can. The technology is good but like many things the implementations are often kinda shyte
I use an app called pixel pulse. it's not as good as the notification light, but it works pretty well for me, might be worth a shot for you if you haven't tried it.
With a simple glance of the light I can tell if the message is an important email, spam, or a text. I miss using my Redmi Note 4x but the GPS on it was baaaad
I have the old Mi Mix 3 which still has it and I love the feature. I had no idea new phones don't have it anymore.
Not so much a gimmick, as much as something that seemingly went extinct that I miss: rear fingerprint sensors. I loved them on my Nexus/Pixels, and the in-screen one on my 6a is way less consistent and convenient.
Also it flashbangs me when I try to unlock my phone at night.
I had a side/power button fingerprint sensor on my S10e. The S22's in-screen one is cool and all, but I really miss how my phone would be unlocked before it even came out of my pocket.
My Samsung Galaxy S9 had that, at least until something happened to the sensor. It was in my phone holder in the car, and the holder fell while I was driving. It's possible my dog hit it with his claws, I don't know what actually killed it, but it definitely happened during that drive.
I got a new sensor but never installed it, because I never got around to getting the double sided tape I would need. Then I cracked the screen...
My latest phone has a sensor on the power button and it's not too bad but misreads happened way less often with a rear sensor.
Apparently nearly everything I look for in a phone. Others have said IR blaster, side squeeze, notification light, and pop-up front camera, all of which were amazing.
I'd add an unlocked bootloader (I bought it, it's my phone to do what I want with), removable battery (hello instant charging), and a small form factor (so sick of needing two hands to do anything).
Edit: Forgot one, on the back fingerprint reader.
Good news on the battery front: the EU is mandating that smartphones have user-replaceable batteries by 2027. It's not clear if "readily removable" will mean "hot-swappable," but... hope springs eternal, I guess?
Even if it requires some screws to swap that's still good for breathing extra life into old phones.
I just miss a quick battery change giving full power. No need to hang out by a cable, just swap and go. I miss it so much.
I just miss a quick battery change giving full power. No need to hang out by a cable, just swap and go. I miss it so much.
Oof, so true. They remove more and more features that are important to me each generation. Still rocking a 4a for the headphone jack and recently, my fingerprint sensor has shit the bed. Well now that I've gotten used to having the sensor on the back, Pixel phones use a crappy under the display one.
Oh you just reminded me how much I hate my P6 one and miss the one on the back (can't remember which phone it was). Fingerprint gestures were the bomb.
You read my mind
It's been gone for a while now, but I really liked the IR blaster to use as a secondary remote when you can't find the remote because your toddler was playing with it. Dammit Susie!
Does IR sensor count? I loved that on older phones so much.
Not a gimmick. It was great to control TVs, air conditioners, audio receivers, and even electronics projects using something like an arduino and an IR sensor. Such a shame that our smartphones have been stripped of so many features as companies have run out of good ideas to increase demand.
I have one on my PoCo F3 (not old, 2021, a bomb phone when it went out, powerful as a S21 but half the price. It is still way faster than dozens of new cellphones.)
I'm using the IR blaster for my AV receiver 🙂
Material You. I wondered why they wasted resources for ... colors. But it's so nice to have a consistently colored UI across apps and across dark/light modes, and I wished that more apps would support it. Also, those pastel colors are less stressful for the eyes than the previous grey/blue.
I know it's not everyone's taste but I really like it.
I have to respectfully disagree here. I would like to be able to choose what that color is. I HATE when I use a picture of my orange cat for a background and all my apps are brown.
If there's some way to override it and choose your own color, I haven't found it.
That's my problem with it. It's nice but they wash the colors out and it feels truly impossible to get a good color out of it.
Also it's pretty cool when apps change colors based on wallpaper.
Didn't know some see it as a gimmick. It's very good
Over on /r/Android there was a very vocal crowd that saw it not only as a gimmick but actively detested it. In their opinion an UI is only good when it has an AMOLED black background (and 0 px padding between UI elements, but that's a different topic).
Yes, it just looks so clean when everything has the same nice theme. I love it! I use Muzei as a live wallpaper app at the same time and it's great to have different colors every hour because of the many wallpapers I have set in it.
Agreed, I also thought it was very gimmicky, but after I started using it I realised it was very well made and good looking
I love it, glad Jerboa uses it
Idk if this is a gimmick but I love swiping on the rear fingerprint scanner to pull up/down the notifications and quick settings. I also got an app that lets me swipe left/right on the sensor to adjust the brightness.
Adjusting the brightness with the fingerprint scanner sounds super practical, how's that app called?
That pop up camera on the OnePlus 7 pro.
That thing was cool as fuck. My roommate got the phone and I was VERY jealous even though I had a OnePlus 8T at the time.
As a OnePlus 7 Pro owner, I absolutely love it. No front camera cutout was one of the reasons I bought it.
OP 7 Pro is my current phone, I don't use the selfie cam often but it's always neat looking at how they designed that feature
I think it's the best implementation of a front facing camera. Beautiful full screen with nothing hindering it, and camera only coming out if you want it. Zen phone flip is cool too.
I just switched away from my OP7P after several years of owning and loving it, and I do miss that pop up camera. You never had to worry you were going to take a selfie you weren't ready for. 😂
On my motorola: quick shake side to side to enable flashlight. So easy to use, it's become second nature. I'll have to find a way to replicate that on the next phone I get.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arlosoft.macrodroid
MacroDroid! I love my Pixel6a but losing the flashlight motion was rough. Pretty easy to set up with MacroDroid.
And twist to open camera. I miss my Moto
Tasker can do it!
Holy crap, I forgot about that feature from my dark-ages G4. That thing was a piece of crap, but I do miss that (and the twist to open camera.)
Gosh remember how that phone didn't have a compass
Don't forget the twisting motion to turn on the camera!
I switched to a Samsung because I got annoyed with Moto mid-range phones not having fairly standard features like NFC as well as getting tired of the ever increasing screen sizes. Those things aside I LOVED my Moto phones and the gestures were one of the best features.
Front facing stereo speakers were nice.
This. I got a Xperia 1 III for the speakers and headphone jack.
I miss the HTC One family, such cool phones…
the IR Blaster, absolutely loved it and still do
I cannot recall which phone it was, but going to sports bars in college and changing the channel on the TV to the games I wanted to watch was so cool. Probably pissed a whole lotta people off, but I was a young college shithead and didn't really register that at the time.
To show how old I am, a phone without a physical keyboard.
Really loved this about the Palm Pre coupled with WebOS which I still dearly miss. I found it so much more functional than Android in ways that mattered to me.
Which is, like, every smartphone?
now
Not in 2007
I think he meant to say "touch" keyboard.
Fingerprint sensors
My phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor and I am never going back.
Rear power and volume buttons.
To this day my favorite phone remains the LG v10. It has nice metal rails on the side, a rubber removable back, sd card slot, aux port with a high end dac, wide(er) screen, and buttons on the back of the phones right where your indexed finger would rest when holding it.
Figure print sensor on the button didn't work all that well, but worked better than this shit on screen reader. The buttons being on the back meant your could just grab the phone in anyway with out worrying if you're gonna Power the phone off, turn the vol down, take a screenshot, etc. This also meant getting it knot phone holders was almost never an issue.
That was the closest an android phone got to perfection. After that they started trying to follow tends and phase out the good parts to the point of leaving the Android market entirely.
Still to this day my favorite phone was the LG Leon. Cheap, durable, small, and the button were on the back!
I absolutely loved my V10, it just felt so nice to hold. Plus it was built like a tank and could withstand a lot.
Agreed. So many new phones are taller than they are wide and I dislike thst. The v10 and v30 I had were phat bois and I miss that.
LG G series lured me away from Apple. Those were some great phones for the time.
IR blasters. They were nice as a little pocket universal remote.
The air gestures that Samsung put in the S5. It was a gimmick, but a useful one, since you could use it to control things without having to fiddle with the screen.
Also the screen-off gestures on the Oneplus 5. It was great for turning the torch on or opening apps without having to faff about as much with the screen.
I used to work in a call center that had some TVs placed sporadically throughout the call floor. It was up to the manager what they wanted to have play on the TV of their row. Some would play the generic company slideshow that showed random stats and quotes and corporate rah rah BS, but others were fine with normal TV like EPSN or whatever. My manager was the head of the department and said he was fine with us putting whatever we wanted on the TVs. Unfortunately, me and the people around me couldn't see our row's TV from our desk, but we could see the TV of the row next to us; however, that manager was a complete power-tripping asshole and only wanted the company slide-show.
I would always use the IR blaster on my phone to change the TV to ESPN when his back was turned and see how long it took him to notice. Whenever he did notice, he'd walk around super mad trying to figure out who did it but he never suspected me. Eventually he just gave up and just let the TVs stay on ESPN.
And that's the story of how I used the IR blaster on my phone to slowly bully the asshole manager into being slightly less of an asshole.
It used to be fun going to superstores with their mega walls of TV's and running an app on the HTC One M7, and see how many TV's would react to the power down signal from the phone's IR blaster. They also made a good backup to your TV's remote in case you misplaced your old one. :)
I still keep my S5 around to control the telly and Kodi, can't even remember the last time I used the physical remote. Nice to just carry with me to another room and then use the same "remote" with that telly too.
I was so salty when my LGv20 died the big die. 3 days past its warranty... ugh. IR blaster was life.
I also had the LGv20 and loved the idea of it, but had a really bad experience with it. The IR blaster was a huge plus for it though, still miss that function, could only imagine the great stuff you could do with one on a modern phone
Power button fingerprint sensors. I had one on my S10e, and I loved it - with the way I held the phone, my thumb naturally rested on the power button, so it was pretty much auto-unlocked.
Now they seem to have fallen by the wayside in favor of in-screen sensors - which are cool, but ever-so-slightly more cumbersome. Ah well, still better than facial recognition.
This is why I loved the fingerprint sensor on the back of my pixel. I would be able to unlock it while taking it out of my pocket.
The bacj fingerprint scanner is what I absolutely miss most from my pixel 3a xl. The front scanner just sucks sooo bad in comparison.
Samsung is using them still on the Folds. I've got one on my Fold 4. Love it.
S10e was still one of my favourite phones. Right size, waterproof good fingerprint scanner placement. And a headphone jack! Now I've upgraded to an S22 which isn't terrible, but it's missing the headphone jack.
I had a Flip 4 and an S10e before and I have a S23 now and I wish still had the side key fingerprint, the inscreen scanner often misreads my thumb for some reason.
This is one of the big reasons I got a Galaxy Fold instead of one of the flagship slab phones, which all have under display readers at this point. It's so much smoother.
Tablet computers. My thoughts on the first iPad were that it does everything a laptop, an iPod, and a Kindle all do, but worse. Next thing I knew, they were everywhere. I think traditional laptops are making something of a comeback, though.
My wife has an iPad and after using it for a bit, yeah I get it.
Tablets are great for anything that doesn't involve typing
I used my Surface Pro all through college, and that thing is amazing. I took all my notes with the pen in OneNote, but it also has has a full desktop OS, so you're not missing any functionality. Mine is even powerful enough to run some basic CAD modelling, which was a treat for when I didn't want to have to deal with finding an open computer lab
I had multiple models of Surface Pro. The first several generations ran great on Linux, but the later models got hella expensive without offering much new for the price. I ended up with a Lenovo X12 which is similar in turn factor but had more storage/RAM/power for less price
I had the same sentiment toward tablets until a couple years ago when we got our S7+ and they're pretty awesome for home use, playing games, watching movies, etc. Totally changed my opinion of them. Previously I thought they were trying to be more like a blend of a laptop and smartphone without doing either one well, but they definitely have their use case.
I have a samsung flip. I cannot tell you how much I love this phone.
I have it's bigger cousin in the fold. And with my eyes being bad the ability to go from slim ish phone to a full on tablet has been amazing. Especially for things like Slack or texting. Fold it for phone calls for a nice and comfortable form factor. Unfold it for reading and texting.
IR blaster, removable battery, MicroSD slot, analog headphone jack, unlocked bootloader, stylus. The Note 3 was the peak of android phone design. I'm using an S22 Ultra nowadays because of all those features I'm a huge slut for the S-Pen, even to the point of sacrificing all of the others... But I'd love for the rest of those to make a comeback.
I'm sorry but everyone knows the Note 4 was the peak of Android phone design. Definitely my favorite and most functional phone. I still have it even!
Aw man, such a phone existed? Sounds like a dream at this point, honestly...
I'm suprised how much i like my s-pen, but would totally sacrifice it fora headphone jack.
Insane to have a phone this big, and not have something so simple as a 3.5mm barrel jack
Workspaces in Linux window managers. I thought it was a dumb idea at first but I tried it and found workspaces are great.
On pixel phones, the squeeze for Google assistant feature. I used it all the time on my old pixel 2xl.
I miss that feature a lot :l
I use the side squeeze everyday. My pixel 2 is still going strong. I will be heartbroken when it finally gives up.
You can do something similar with the knock/tap feature. I have mine set to activate assistant and drumming a finger on the back twice about 1" below the camera works pretty consistently
The active edge squeeze feature on the pixel 3. I loved being able to gently squeeze the sides of the phone to trigger google assistant.
It only got awkward when you needed to put your phone in a side-clamping holder.
Nokia N95 flipping both up and down. I really liked those music player buttons when flipping it down
I loved this phone, was my first 'smart' phone
Mine too. And it worked so smooth it didn't even feel like a "smart" phone. That was peak Nokia
FM radio. Also my old Motorola had a "karate-chop to activate camera" which was very useful
I'm using "double chop" to activate flashlight and double twist turns the camera on.
That movement is so ingrained in my muscle memory, and I'm so absent minded, that I have to admit that I have used my phone's flashlight to try and find my phone in the dark... for several minutes.
I, out of pure self reflection, can't laugh at the TikTok trend of "you forgot your phone" message anymore.
That movement is so ingrained in my muscle memory, and I'm so absent minded, that I have to admit that I have used my phone's flashlight to try and find my phone in the dark... for several minutes.
I, out of pure self reflection, can't laugh at the TikTok trend of "you forgot your phone" message anymore.
I still use a moto partly for the shake on flash light, such a great feature
My old LG phones had power and volume controls on the back, rather than the side. Great for picking up the phone with either hand, and it was easier to mount in a phone holder (no buttons to accidentally mash).
I had an LG G2 back in the days, a great phone and the button on the back made for a really clean phone when put down on a table. It was very neat for the time to unlock and lock the phone only by using the touchscreen.
Stadia, I had great internet and it worked great.
Man I loved stadia…
Allo was the best messenger. So many useful features
My friends and I still talk about how much we miss the big/tiny text feature of Allo.
It was a simple messenger but it made it fun
Can't say I love the feature but the front facing camera getting "integrated" into the screen isn't nearly as annoying as I thought it would be.
Folding phones.
I was so skeptical at first, and even now it seems most people still are. It's a complete game changer though. There's almost nothing I can't do on my phone anymore, due to the multitasking and the larger screen. I can comfortably use desktop websites when necessary for banking etc. I have watched many dozens of movies and tv shows on it. It's just nicer for reading and browsing the web, and makes your phone feel so much more powerful to have the tablet form factor. I've actually been travelling for over a month with no laptop, just my Fold and a Steam deck.
I'm also appreciating having what is essentially a 5G-connected tablet where in the past I've always dismissed the LTE-connected ipads as a gimmick. It's hard to justify paying extra for the device and then a monthly fee, but now that I have it I can definitely see the appeal of a tablet that just works anywhere you go. Except since it folds you can put it in your pocket too.
I've been considering getting one but I've read too many horror stories about them breaking
You need an extended full coverage warranty, otherwise it's too stressful. That said, it's not nearly as fragile as you'd think.
I've dropped my Samsung Flip (the og) on solid tile so many times, and my screen and phone are perfectly fine. My partner had his drop on cement, and while it has a slight bend, no screen break or anything else. I've actually found them to be durable than the other normal phones I've had.
I'm on iOS. In 6-7 years I will have the chance to buy the iPhone 20 Pro Mega Butterfly - one of the first folding screens in a phone [with: insert apple technicality] at barely a 40% markup over the Android versions and with some fatal flaw that will be my fault for noticing. I'm just giddy with anticipation.
Hardware navegation buttons.
Boy what I would do to have a home button again
100% this, the touch screen buttons just don't give that immediate response when needed
I'm old... the internet.
Idk if this counts as i dont really involve myself in a lot of discussion, but MAN do i miss two button navigation. it may still be present in some other Android distros but on Graphene an update removed it for me a while ago.
Android 13 QPR 2 broke it so Google temporarily remove it. Honestly why do you prefer it? To me it's combined the worst of 3 button and gestures.
It felt easier for me to reach on my gigantic phone lol, and i enjoyed having a home button that i can just tap vs. A gesture bar that requires more motion to operate. I also appreciate that tapping to go home, swiping up for recents was more distinct than swiping up to go home, and swiping and then holding to access recents. Its definitely something i can live without, and i expected it to die, but a part of me was just hoping that my little pill button would live on forever
Democracy in the US.
It was never implemented properly. Way too prone to hacking.
To be fair, it's still in Beta.
As far as I’m concerned, FPTP barely counts as democracy.
With gerrymandering and the electoral college, we’ve seen very clearly how it can achieve the exact opposite of the will of the people.
Doggy style and x-files
You n me, baby!
I have a OnePlus 7T Pro, and I love the pop-up front camera. I don't have an annoying notch or hole in the screen, and the screen is the full height of the phone. I've never had any issues with reliability.
They only used it on the 7 range, and moved to a hole punch camera for subsequent models. I'm holding out as long as I can before upgrading phones because of it.
I feel the same about my Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 (one of the last phones that still fully supported google/android) - it too has a pop-up camera. Recently I started looking at phones again and I was shocked that nearly everything out there has either a pinhole or notch on the screen.
It feels surreal that this was normalized. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. It's both crazy and frustrating. Sigh... these are the same companies making decisions about our future in so many little (and big) ways.
The pixel pinch phone body for the Google assistant. Boy how I want that feature badly when I was using OnePlus 3T. It felt like one of those double tap at the back of iphone little niche thing.
I really like since it give the user different kind of input to interact with the phone quickly. We have the double tap and holding for power button, double tap the top of the screen, the screenshot combo button and etc. Same like the interface for controlling your wireless earbud.
The pain for installation/maintenance/replacement for that input must be a nightmare though.
Probably the Quick View Window case on the LG G-series phones. The overview on notifications was great and allowed answering calls without opening the flap while protecting most of the screen. Also the reduced visible screen space did not blast you with light when checking time in the middle of the night.
Apple’s 3D Touch on iPhone. Force Touch or whatever they called it. The ability to hard press to get something like a right-click. Wish they’d kept it. Used it every day for placing my cursor.
PIE navigation control
Oh man, I forgot that even existed! I used an app for it for quite a while, I didn't realise how long it must have been since I used it
Still using it myself, in fact! LMT is still going strong, though I imagine it would work better if I were able to root the phone I'm using at the moment.
Keyboards, optical scroll, and IR blasters.
The RadioShack Cuecat. At the time I thought it was the coolest free thing ever.
Retractable fountain pens. I could never afford one though.
Can you now? Looks like they are 6 for $10 on Amazon, and you get 10 refill cartridges.
WAT
The ringlight on the bottom of Xperia U.
The internet
Pfft, the internet. That little things not going to be anymore useful than faxes.
My old Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 had magnetic sensors in it that would shut off the screen. How it worked is you would put a case on it with a cover that would fold over the screen, and the cover had magnets in it that would activate the sensors and turn off the screen when you closed it.
Anyway, it got old and unreliable and I had to replace it. The new ones don't have that feature.
All my Samsung tablets, and my samsung phone S21 Ultra have this.
The Timex Sinclair
My Samsung Omnia was generally terrible in hindsight (old-school windows mobile) but it had a little optical touchpad that was actually pretty handy to use as a mouse and scroll wheel. The HTC Droid Incredible had one too!
The Galaxy Nexus had a gently curving screen that was pretty nice for when you were holding the phone against your face taking calls. Wish curved screens would make a comeback.
The original Moto X had a nice curved back and dimple that was super satisfying to lay your finger against. And the unconventional materials were fun: bamboo, wood, leather! Similarly, the ceramic of the Essential Phone felt so cool and smooth, though it vibrated itself right off a table one time.
I wish webapps would make a comeback. WebOS, Firefox OS, the original iOS tried to live that dream of an open mobile web, but now we're stuck with all these web companies pushing us to their locked-down apps.
I miss a lot of Google features that got killed off like Google Now, Now on Tap, Driving Assistant.
