Poll: Which abandoned Android phone features do you miss the most?

HEADPHONE JACK - I scream into the void

HEADPHONE JACK - I scream into the void
Then buy phones with them. They exist.
- The holy grail / unicorn of a phone would have:
  no notch / punch hole
  a headphone jack
  an sd card slot
  nfc
  a proximity sensor
  This currently results in Sony phones and one Ulefone one with outdated Android and a lack of updates. Sony's phone branch is currently dying and it's very much possible there won't be any new phones next year. They released a single flagship this year which they recalled because of issues.
  Next year phones might get a bit more interesting because of the new EU regulations coming into effect this June but almost no phones have been released just since then.
  I have no idea what I'll get but for now my current phone (Asus Zenfone 6, from 2019) just refuses to die.
- @bobby
  @supersquirrel
  For people in the US (in 2025) the headphone jack is still in the newest releases of:
  Motorola Moto G Power and Moto G Stylus
  ASUS ROG Phone 9
  ZTE Nubia Redmagic 10 Pro
  TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G
  Various HMD smartphones, though they are pulling out of the US
  https://www.androidauthority.com/hmd-global-leaves-us-market-3576404/
  Not too many options

IR transmitters

Miracast (in base open source Android, especially access to the ability to receive)

Scrolling notification text in the notification bar (seriously, that was sooooo much better than the obnoxious new default pop-up notifications)

A bunch of permissions that's been too locked down (stuff used by Tasker, networking tools, etc)

The core apps (like messaging, and calendar) being free software and open source.

I liked the little led light at the top that would blink for notification

I don't remember which phone, but one of mine had an rgb led that could be set to blink different colors for different apps. I really miss that!
- I remember my OnePlus One had that

I really miss USB Mass Storage mode. Back then you could plug in your phone into your computer and it would just expose the internal storage and SD card as standard usb storage devices. Nowadays you have shitty MTP which works barely if ever, so you're forced to use either internet or ADB for syncing files. Old way was better.

IIRC you can still enable it if you compile your own kernel but I wish more ROMs shipped with this feature by default.

Idk what phone you're using but I can do it no problem on my older S21 Ultra and my new Fairphone 6 by just clicking on the notification
If you can't do that, that's a manufacturer restriction. I've never had a phone that couldn't do that and my current one is only last year's model. I plug it in, it gives me a few options: charge, usb storage, i think something else also, and it works like it always has. I assume the OS files and some app files are protected but everything else is drag and drop as if it was any other storage device like it has been since my first Android in 2010.

no headphone jack is shitty but god i fucking loathe typing on a touchscreen keyboard

My first Android phone was Motorola Dext, second one was HTC Desire Z, which I held on to for a long time. By the time I had to replace it, there were no slide-out keyboard phones any more.
Then some time later F(x)tek X1 Pro was released. Looked like a perfect phone for me, but was too expensive, so I did not get it. But now that it's time is over as well, I look at the reviews and see that I did not miss much.
So now I am sadly on a glassy rectangle like everyone else, but I do carry a collapsable bluetooth keyboard around with me sometimes, so that I can still type some longer text in a proper way.
Also, I solved my no-headphone-jack issue by getting USB-C headphones. And there are USB-C to 3.5 jack adapters if you need to connect existing headphones or other equipment. So I don't really get how this "I miss a hole" is everywhere and lasts for so long.

Physical keyboards, easily removable backs and batteries

Control over it.

it is mindboggling how having root access is treated like an illegal thing to do, rather than the default. the phone should have the root password in the documentation you get in the box.
does the average user needs root? probably not.
however, it's a piece of hardware you legally own, you should have access to it.
it's like buying a car and not being allowed to open the bonnet and checking the oil voids the warranty.

Headphone jack.
Removable batteries.
Sidekick/Palmtop form factor with the full width keyboard.
MicroSD Card slot, and OS support for executing software and accessing data on the card.

I've been holding onto my Galaxy S20 because of the SD slot.

Non-pastel colors. My phone used to be fire orange on black and i loved it!

Really just personalization in general.

I'm still so salty about this. Making pastels the default pallete is fine I guess, making pastels the only pallete is infuriating.
Why did they lock it down so hard that nothing short of rooting my phone is enough to pick the colors I want?
Oh the horror, I might choose a vibrant shade I can see instead of a dull boring one that looks nearly identical to the 20 other choices I'm limited to.
- It's like picking between beige and off-white to give the living room a little 'character'. I was thinking of maybe going with a taupe accent but it was overwhelming. Don't want to offend anyone!

physical home button row.

give me those clickety clicks, i hate accidentally hitting back/home/whatever, whenever I'm typing or scrolling

Unimpeded root. You can still get it on maybe a handful of phones but apps are getting harder and harder to run with it enabled.

The triangle / circle / square (or back / home / app tray) navigation system.

I've had to re-enable it on my last phones because they come with the much less usable new gesture navigation, and I dread the day it's not an option anymore.

The classic app drawer.

If I wanted an iPhone (with their cluttered, unusable, and extremely user hostile design) I'd get an iPhone.

I don't want my screen cluttered with random icons, I want multiple sliding screens with widgets for the apps I need to be able to check at a glance, with a row of quick access apps / app folders at the bottom (slidable and hidable if possible), with an icon to access the list of less used apps on the top right, where it used to be back when android was useable instead of a cheap iOS clone.

Luckily third party launchers are still a thing.

Neither of these were abandoned

Being able to take out the battery so that I can swap it with a pre-charged one. Those were great times. Then you can just throw the nearly-dead one on the charger.

This is identical to having the super power of being able to restart your phone to get a full battery charge.

Even just being able to easily replace it with a new one was nice.

Ability to automatically turn wifi on and off with screen.

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)

Did I say replaceable battery already?
Fairphone, Samsung Xcover.
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 and I miss it dearly.
- OnePlus still offers this one on some of their phones.
Rounded screens have mostly fallen out of style. I kinda like them tbh
- They're only nice if you can afford to run without a case. All curved screen cases suck and add unnecessary bulk for questionable protection.

finger print scanner being on the back of the phone not under the screen. and headphone jack

Remember folks, What you know is protected. What you are is not.
Cops can force you to use the fingerprint scanner.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/cops-can-force-suspect-to-unlock-phone-with-thumbprint-us-court-rules/
- i use graphene os and have 2fa fingerprint and pin on stock android ifs bad
- Luckily you dont have to give up using the fingerprint scanner if you believe in your ability to shutdown/restart your phone before you are taken into custody (it should require the passcode again in this case).
Going from my old pixel 5 rear-scanner to an in-screen scanner ahs been a nightmare. I have dry hands and i have gone from a <0.5s unlock to a 3-10s unlock depending how many times i need to scan or lick my finger, wipe it off then scan, or usually failing scans/giving up and typing in pincode.
"Oh my child is doing something funny or i quickly need to gake a photo of something...aaaaand its gone". It is really fucking frustrating missing something, or even just trying to check a notification or timer quickly and having to stop and go through the whole dance of just unlocking the phone.
Seriously considering just going back to typing the fucking pincode 50 times a day.
- What phone do you have? I have literally never had any issues with the on screen fingerprint readers on any of my samsung phones. It literally still takes less than half a second if that to unlock
- While I fully sympathise and agree, most android phones have a camera shortcut that doesnt need you to unlock with fingerprint. just swipe up the camera icon usually bottom right on lock screen
I liked it on the power button more. My Xiaomi had it there and it was incredibly fast.
Just worked. Pixel 7 is nightmarish, plus blasts white light into your eyes late at night
Nexus 5 had the best finger print reader i've ever used. I still miss it to this day.
- Do you mean Pixel 5? The Nexus 5 didn't have a fingerprint scanner.

I just want the LG G5 back. It had a(n):

Removable battery
SD card slot
Infrared blaster
FM Radio
3.5mm jack
Compass
Barometer
Gyro
NFC
Fingerprint reader

And a ton of other stuff. Truly the best android phone ever made

Closest I can find now is the Ulefone line (no removable battery) but I have no idea if they're decent phones or not.

Think I had a LG G3 I miss it. Wish they would of kept making phones.
Samsung xcover 6 pro
Had one of those, but it eventually died. Great phone.
3.5mm jack, Compass, Barometer, Gyro
These things are still in most modern phones.--
- You'd be surprised at how many phones don't have enough accelerometers to know their full orientation in space. Compass, NFC, and barometer are also not givens.

Replaceable battery. No contest.

Blinking LED when I got a text

Customizable notification led color!
I miss my Google Nexus 5

The feature where you can hold the phone comfortably in one hand and without having to do any gymnastics to reach the top corner.

I bought a new phone somewhat recently. My main feature request was small. There were 0 options, so I ended up with one that's 50% larger than my last phone.
My eyes work fine. I don't need a huge screen. I just want something that I can hold.
I also don't need a razor thin phone. More battery capacity is an acceptable compromise for added durability and not hurting my hand.
I found my old S4 active the other day, it fit so much better in my hand than my current OnePlus. You basically need to use a pop or a ring or something attached to the case to use a phone one handed anymore. And they just straight don't make new small android devices.
4.7" screen is the ideal size for me. Big enough to see anything clearly, small enough that I can comfortably reach anything in the screen with one hand

At this point I am team "use phones less, use Linux PCs more" unless I am away from home.

I'm just chilling on my couch with my family. Having a nice ergo trackball and a monitor on an arm that can swing out in front of me is a game changer.

You know you can plug your PC into the TV right?
You ain't need swing out monitor
- Oh I’m well aware! The TV actually has a dedicated PC connected to it that’s hidden behind the wall. I’m going to move that PC out of there to a desktop for my kid, but I digress.
  I mentioned the family context because that’s what makes the swing-out monitor awesome. We can be watching a movie or even playing a game together on the TV, but in my field of view I have the monitor floating off to the side of the TV. It’s like playing on a phone, but it doesn’t occupy my hands, it has a 27 inch 144Hz screen, and it’s a proper open platform that’s running linux.
  Plus having my monitor in addition to the TV means that there’s already a 2-player LAN ready to go at all times. If it’s something cross platform where my kid can use phone or tablet (like Roblox which seems to have great cross platform support) then it’s 3-4 players with their own screens.

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 😭

GIMME THE FUCKING SD CARD SLOT 😭
https://www.gsmarena.com/fairphone_6-13955.php
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_xcover7_pro-13780.php

Open bootloaders, ir blaster, 3.5mm jack, sd card slot, replaceable batteries. The list goes on.

Don't forget the notification light.
- The most bullshit thing ever. I have a Moto 5g Ace, I was sad it didn't have a light, used it for a couple years before putting LineageOS on it. Low and behold it actually has a notification light that was disabled in the stock ROM! WTF
- Isn't having an OLED display and using it as an "always on display" the replacement for this?
- The notification light for me was never all that useful, i have unique ringtones for everything but i do agree they are an awesome feature for folks in spaces where their phones need to be quiet
Some chinese phones still have ir blasters
Motorola G series has 3.5mm + SD card slot
- Hmmm, that's deffo a contender for my next device, we'll see how many years i get out of my zf9 before getting one though lol
my xiaomi has an ir blaster and i love it
I was pleasantly surprised when my OnePlus 13 had an IR blaster.
Is any of that an android feature? It's mostly hardware, I think you can still get devices that have some combination of those (maybe not the IR blaser).
- Most manufacturers dropped all or most of those features.

USB mass storage mode. Some Android phones can’t do it anymore. I always thought the ability to select a disk 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.

Mass storage is a block level protocol, phone can't also use the storage while mounted via mass storage. This required a dedicated storage volume on the phone that could be locked to apps while connected by USB.
MTP (media transfer protocol) is a file level protocol, like a shared folder, that doesn't lock the storage for exclusive use. Phones use this now.

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...
- Not a universal solution for Android, but maybe it could lead your thoughts toward something useful. I know that Kodi has a toggle in the settings to stop that from happening. It works by constantly playing an inaudible low-frequency noise. Kodi runs on pretty much any OS, including Android, but since it's HTPC software, the UX is not optimal on a small touchscreen in my experience, though there are some skins and/or skin settings to optimise the UI for touch-based navigation.
- Bluetooth headphones do this, too. It's infuriating. Let me turn off battery saver mode, god damn it! (I assume this is on the headphones, not on Android, though?)
  For some reason, TalkBack triggers this, too, so most Bluetooth headphones are useless for that purpose. Something in a recent update broke TalkBack in the Kindle app so it won't read continuously the "old way" (that worked) and instead uses "continuous reading mode" that pauses just long enough to put Bluetooth headphones to sleep every sentence. And I don't think Google cares because Amazon has implemented their own TTS system in the Kindle app that's slow as fuck for anyone used to speed reading with TTS, but it's the way everyone is recommending now for Kindle. I've switched to pirating books so I can read them in Moon+ Reader instead, since it works.
- Aww geez man, that's even worse! I learned about adapters and figured I'd at least be able to tolerate (but resent) the switch. But that will prevent me using sleeping headphones at all... :/
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.
What headphones are you using? Are they comfortable when you sleep on your side?

Rear fingerprint scanner PLEASE

I'm hanging on to my pixel 5 for this reason. And the smaller form factor.

headphone jack mostly because it was the most consumer unfriendly decision removed purely to make phone companies more money

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:

Human coded Smart Keyboard. Ever since they changed to learning algorithms the spelling and grammar corrections have gotten much worse.

I straight up turn the autocorrect off wntirely these days. Natural rypos are so much easier to read than autocorrect switching out entire damn wprds...
(leaving in typos for example)
- Thats a good idea, i'll give that a shot.
- Hmm interesting i may do that

Animated and spanning backgrounds.

radio

The physical fingerprint reader on the back of the phone.

Curiously, why on the back?
I always found that a worse location than phones that had it on the side (usually paired with the power button), as you can't unlock your phone if it's lying flat on a table without picking it up.
(Also the way I typically hold my phone, the usually top centre sensor is absolutely nowhere near where any of my fingers naturally sit, and requires awkward bending to reach it)
I know a lot of people like it, but I've never been able to figure out what it was about it.
- I’d pull it out of my pocket with my finger naturally on the back side and it would be unlocked by the time I viewed the screen.
- Im not OP, bit i loved my old phone with a rear fingerprint scanner. It was perfectly positioned to unlock with my index finger AS I was pulling it out of my pocket. And you could scroll up/down with it.
- I do not like the power button fingerprint reader.
  Cases need a notch to expose the power button.
  Can't use the power button to lock the screen while fingerprint unlock is enabled, because it immediately unlocks itself with the fingerprint.
  Accidentally unlocks itself way often when putting it in my pocket than with the back reader.
- I hold my screen facing me so my hands are already resting on the back.

Stereo front facing speakers.

I have no idea why these terrible downward facing speakers took off, HTC had it nailed in 2012. RIP, king of smartphones. I'm glad to at least have 2 proper speakers on my Fold6 and 7, rather than an amplified earpiece speaker... But this is just not how sound works. I shouldn't have to cup my hand around the side to point the sound in the proper direction.

The Nexus 6P's front-facing speakers were pretty sweet; that device was near-perfectly symmetrical when turned sideways for watching media/playing games, and your palm didn't cover the speakers.
My current Pixel 9 Pro XL has stereo speakers, but one of them is the downward-firing speaker on the bottom. Makes for an odd effect if it's covered.
I'm certain I had that same htc one. It was the best phone i ever had. I really wish someone would make something like that again.
- I loved it too. The m7 was excellent, then the m8 managed to level up everything great about the m7. Amazing phone.
I used to care about front facing speakers but then I realized I hate the sound they make and if I am "listening" to something i will connect to Bluetooth
Probably because of edge-to-edge screens?
I had a Moto X Style and remember being quite fond of the speakers.
- Yeah - for years it was a primary deciding factor for me when it was time for a new phone - HTC One m7, HTC One m8, Moto X Pure Edition all had front facing speakers. I think by the end there were simply no longer any options though... And now 10 years later, they're still pointing the speakers at the damned ground. 😿

Gimmick features in general. So many android phones are just designed to be android flavors of an iPhone, removing all the character that used to be one of the benefits of not going with Apple.

I had a phone that had a built in kickstand. It was both useful for propping the phone up and as a fidget toy. My last phone had a camera that would pop up out of the top of the phone so they could put a better camera for the selfie cam while also not having a hole in the screen.

I liked the notification LEDs that some of the nexus phones used to have, you could customize the color / flashing pattern per contact.

I had a phone with this and I loved the hell out of it. Could tell at a glace if a notification was for an email, text, or voice call without opening the phone. Could also set a custom color for, say, a text from my wife.
I use AODNotify, which lights up a ring around the front camera. It's pretty configurable, maybe check it out.
- Thanks! Playing around with it right now
Nothing has these 'glyph' lights, but software support for them seems to be pretty limited (not that I've looked too deep, all these modern phones are just boring). I hope they can come up with more controls for them, hardware seems to support quite complex patterns.
Yes, I was gonna say this one too but it was like 2010 on a phone that had a physical keyboard. You could set it to flash for notifications - yellow for missed calls, green for texts, blue for an app. A simpler time
The trackball that had the customizable notification LED under it on the Nexus One was so damned cool. Since it was raised up and I had work emails, texts, personal emails, and GTalk all on distinct colors, I could tell from across the room whether it was worth even grabbing my phone.

don't be evil.

Blackberry Priv form factor:

The keypad doubled kinda like a touch pad as well. I could use keyboard shortcuts, typed way faster tha touch. All that without compramising screen space.

If that phone didn't have a first-gen 64-bit chipset that sucked power for lunch, I'd probably still be using it to this day. It was peak convergence, and even had a headphone jack, and an amazing camera. Only way it could've been perfect would be a user-serviceable battery.

IR blaster
Headphone jack
Expandable storage
Physical keys, especially a D pad (I loved my Samsung i7500 for this)

That's probably my top 4. Easily swappable battery I can do without, but able to replaced with basic tools would be nice (like a screwdriver, not a specialist kit that involves regluing the damn thing).

I have an IR blaster in mine (still using my PoCo F3 after 4 years, it is still pretty snappy and all) and used it from time to time but now it looks like my remote for my AV is bluetooth anyway

Every damn feature.

But most? Removable flipping batteries. Having a bomb in your pocket computer that you can't remove, and shortens it's effective life without often complex surgery is absolutely criminal.

Removable D batteries have existed since 1898. It was a staples feature of machines. Nobody wanted, needed, or desired the tech brah "disruption" of gluing lithium bombs into phones.

I miss just being able to take it out and have no phone for however long I want. Didn't drain the battery, didn't worry about the phone.
It does compromise the waterproofing to open and close phones, even cases. But fuck you, let me make my own mistakes, your job is to engineer things to be better and fit my needs, not just give up and charge more and strip features and invade my privacy and spy on me with psyops and try to control my life. I'm a customer, not a user.
- There were several waterproof phones with removable batteries back in the S5 era
- I miss just being able to take it out and have no phone for however long I want.
  That's the most telling thing about phones today, right? I have some older flip phones from 15 or so years ago. Removable battery, but even with the battery inserted for 8 years, I could turn one on right now and it would have whatever current state of charge is in the battery, only losing power from physics.
  It's obviously possible, as Samsung keeps making these XCover phones with a removable battery and a waterproof rating of IPX8 (SCUBA): https://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=7301
It's because the U.S. Government can make it seem as if your phone is powered down, but it's actually still on and spying on you, sending data to whatever alphabet agency wants it. Removing the battery is the only defense against that attack, so they 'encouraged' manufacturers to stop allowing it.
- Sounds like a dumb conspiracy. Especially since Fairphone sells in the US.
  More likely is that manufacturers want to make more money so they make their phones more difficult to repair so customers have to pay them to get a battery replaced.
  I blame Apple

None, I buy Motorola. Still have all the features.

This thread is just a reminder of how terrible phones have become.

Strangely it's usually only the cheap phones that include these premium features.

Strangely it's usually only the cheap phones that include these premium features.
Where they gimp the screen, CPU, RAM, etc and then point to their low sales to claim people dont want things like a removable battery, SD card, headphone jack, etc or else they'd be buying them more. I hate it so much.
Yeah like improved cpu, GPU, and screen is expected so not even noteworthy. But everything else has felt like a regression in features.
Of how spoiled capitalism has become.

Fuck, the freedom. Root & custom ROM, running your damn device that you paid money for the way you want to. Imagine that. I stopped after rooting your phone killed Snapchat (because 3 idiots use Snap Pay or whatever), killed your tap pay wallet, killed Pokémon Go, etc etc etc. Then they tried telling people oh bro, just hide your root bro Majisk hide root. Like I need one more thing to do. 🙄 If I need to hide it, and most of the benefits of rooting have gone away/are incorporated into smartphones & no longer needed...I'm just going to stop rooting.

Then the microSD card expansion slot. Some try to say it's for waterproofing purposes, but they can use the same pop-out slot as the SIM card & it's nbd. Others say it's because the storage can sometimes be "unstable" & glitch, but over the years I've only had problems twice: just once with a Samsung, and then constantly with a shitty Motorola smartphone but that's on me because I bought a shitty Motorola smartphone. I think they killed it just because they could, because everybody else was killing it off & they knew they were going to get your money regardless. And then either pay a premium for extra on-board storage, or pay $10/mo for the rest of your life for "cloud" storage. Or both! Money, money, money, it's all about the money.

These guys got rid of everything that made an Android an Android, and if I've got problems with mid-tier phones, to spend $1K+ on a flagship Android. For crying out loud, I'm not spending $1K on an Android that doesn't even have microSD expansion, at that point you might as well buy an iPhone.

As someone who currently has a new phone with root and an sd-card slot, this was a fun read.
- What phone is that?
killed Pokémon Go
I run CalyxOS and I tried again recently and it DOES work
- How recently? In May Google changed everything about root detection so it may have changed again.
  Plexus has a few people claiming it works from the last months though.

Sub 5" screen, 3.5mm jack, removable battery, 2-stage camera shutter button.

My old Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact had all of those, except for the removable battery.

Physical keyboard

I miss them nostalgically I think. I have four different styles of small wireless keyboards and other than responding to a quick text they are mostly infuriating.
Everything is swipe or speech now for me.

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!

AOD causes burn in on every single device I've ever seen it used on. I want my notification LED back too. Hell, use the OLED display, just flash a colored dot every ten seconds at the top of the screen. Could even move around each flash to prevent burn in. I really miss that notification LED

The smaller size phones (I hate these Phablets,) 3.5mm jack and back finger print reader, (although my Pixel 4a5G has them, it will be the last,) replaceable batteries, and selfie camera that doesn't take up screen real estate.

no but genuinely this. My phone has the same screen size as my nintendo switch, and I'm unironically supposed to fit that in my pocket and have it be comfortable
- I'm always shocked at how big the Nintendo switch was, and yet had such a small screen. I remember the first time I wondered, and held my galaxy s9 plus up to the screen and was like "holy shit it's the same size - how is the switch so much bigger and looks so much worse?"
  That being said, I do support the idea of multiple sizes of phones for people that want different things. Let there be iPhone 1 or 2 size phones for people that want something convenient and small, and give me a 10 incher because I like that and need it in my life :) Also, well-balanced, front-facing stereo speakers for fucks sake. Stop doing this weird one-forwards one-out stuff, Samsung, it sounds like shit.
Pixel 5 has a back fingerprint reader. Think it's the last Pixel with it.
- I miss that.
  My 5 died randomly one day. The 9 under screen sensor works nice, heard the 6-8? light sensors were bad.
Phablets, lmao. You invoke the ancient magicks.
I'm so far on the opposite side on this one though - I always have preferred large screen devices and today, I ADORE my folding pocket tablet most of all. 😍

I really wish IR blasters would come back into style. They're not even expensive to manufacture, and they're small enough that they can be incorporated into any modern smartphone design pretty easily. And almost everybody with a smartphone has SOMETHING in their home that they control with an IR remote. There's basically no reason to have stopped including them.

Ah yes, let me just pull out my phone, unlock, open remote app, switch to 'my tv/air-conditioning manufacturer' profile and press off.
The IR experience on a phone is not convenient for day to day, especially when (love it or hate it) most things can be controlled over WiFi without needing line of sight.
- Ah yes, let me scrounge around for the remote someone else in my ADHD household last had in their hand 45 minutes ago and has no idea what they did with it.
  Meanwhile, my small child is coming downstairs for a glass of water while we're watching Hereditary for the first time. The Roku app is a pile of garbage and won't connect to my device fast enough, it just shows loading animations. So I just have to cut the power to the TV while I look for the remote.
  Hypothetically, of course.
  Just because you can't imagine a scenario where it's convenient doesn't mean they don't exist.
- Lock screen widgets are a thing now.

IR Blaster, Headphone Jack, swappable battery.

Ultimately...

Less thin, I hate this constant race to be the thinnest phone - lighter I would maybe be for - but thinner, fuck off.

Why I didn't buy a Fold7 recently:

Too thin
Cameras slightly below other flagships
No S Pen support, because they wanted to make it thinner
Bad water resistance
Awful battery size and life
Overall, one of the more underpowered and under spec'd foldable on the global market - all because they wanted to be thin

I've been impressed by my Ulefone 27T. It's an armoured brick with a 10,000mAh battery. Waterproof, with IR and headphone jack. It also has a thermal camera.
- Holy crap.
Across the board, in product survey after product survey, consumers agree with you every time about thin phones. At best nobody cares beyond being briefly conceptually impressed (in a way that doesn't translate into sales), at worst people actively hate how fragile it looks (or actually is). They always would rather have more battery life than a thinner phone, and actually below a certain weight most consumers prefer a phone to be heavier.
So why do companies keep racing to make the thinnest phones?
I honestly have no idea. This isn't one of those things where I pose a rhetorical question and then answer it. The planned obsolescence of the battery seems plausible, but a thinner battery doesn't really correspond to a shorter lifespan, just a shorter duty cycle. Maybe it's just a vanity thing, like a competition between companies, but the bean-counters don't usually let that sort of thing keep going if it doesn't sell. Maybe it's marketing, but that never really succeeds either. I really don't know.
- So why do companies keep racing to make the thinnest phones?
  Because Steve Jobs' ghost still haunts and demands all designs to be as anti consumer as possible

Audio jack 3.5mm!!! I'm sick of buying USBC to audio jack adaptors! Just add a damn audio jack! IR for remote control.

Why do you need to buy more than one?
- Because they break.
  \ Whether is a Samsung or apple adapter, after some time it won't function, and it's always the cable.
  \ I have to buy be proper one, on plastic.
  Ps: they cost 10cad.
- Since they break

Yes, that one right there in the picture.

I miss the days when everything wasn't glued together. The biggest hurdle to battery replacement or screen replacement is all that damn glue.

I'd forgotten all about the notification LED. I wonder, could you flash a small part of an OLED display to achieve something similar while still being low power?

I loved it. I set up all these different colors to tell me what the priority was for checking. SMS was green, email was yellow or something, and FB (so cool back then) was blue. I really miss that, could just glance at it and know if it was worth risking pulling out your phone in school
- Miss this too. And you could customize the number of flashes so 3 rapid green flashes was so-and-so's WhatsApp message.
Samsung S21 absolutely has a multicolour notification LED, but the only time it gets used is POST.
My problem with that is that I use a phone cover. Flashing a light on the side of the phone however could be great.
Isn't that what the "always on display" is supposed to be? I never use it but every phone I've seen in recent years offers the ability to turn the screen on to show notifications.

At this time, the 3.5mm jack is top with 27%

It always surprises me that so many people still want this. I know it's representative of the anti-choice homogenisation of phones in general, but something like removable batteries or expandable storage seems so much more important than a dedicated old headphone connector.
I personally hate how annoying headphone wires are, but even if you like them then is it so inconvenient to leave an adapter connected to your headphones? And a splitter as well if you're desperate to charge simultaneously?
- Wired does not mean "old", it means faster, more reliable, better for the environment and cheaper too! In the time that some very affordable studio headphones last me, I'd have to buy about 5 or so similarly priced BT headphones or 10 pairs of true wireless ear buds. Turns out adding complexity to a device and powering it with a non replaceable battery makes it way less reliable and worse for the environment. On top of that, wireless almost always implies audio compression. (but in fairness that won't be noticeable for everyone) Imho a headphone jack should still be a "must have" for smartphones.
- USB-C ports get damaged over time by excessive unplug/replug in that use case
  There's a reason it's still the top requested feature in the poll.
- It is inconvenient to leave an adapter connected to my headphones, because I want to use the same pair of headphones for my tablet, computer, and Switch, all of which have a real headphone jack. I also need to buy an extra adapter for the aux cable in the car and constantly have to debug if it is the audio cable or adapter that is going bad.

I might be the only one, but KEYBOARDS!

I even designed my own keyboard attachment to get one back.

A lot of people miss physical keyboards actually F(x)Tec Pro¹ X has a physical keyboard. There is a modern clone of Blackberry Passport. There is the Clicks keyboard case for iPhones.
I think I'm one of very few enthusiasts who likes software keyboards better at this point lol.
- F(x)Tec Pro¹ X
  Super-weird formatting aside, that looks pretty interesting. Out of stock though.
I miss them dearly. Luckily there is some options, I currently using clicks but it is not without its flaws mainly that my phone feels like a tv remote.
I was watching this Janus Cycle video at the weekend, and god it made me wish I could buy a folding keyboard case for my Pixel 9.

Trackball

is there at least a 3rd party accessory?
- I don't know, you could probably find something that plugs in, but the trackball on the Nexus One was right below the screen and it made text editing easy. You could also scroll through text, web pages, home screens, sections of apps, and you could tap it, double tap it and hold it down to do things. It was so useful.

My first phone could play terrestrial radio. I miss that.

Came to this thread to upvote over the air radio and I had to scroll way too far!
There's an app iirc that lets you plug headphones in and it somehow uses them as an antenna..
Oh wait, no more headphone jack!
- The phone has to have an ADC hardware to allow that.
- It depends if the hardware is locked down or not

Everybody misses their IR blaster it seems. And why not? randomly turning off the neighbors TV is good wholesome fun.

🤣...guilty! Gawd, I forgot about IR blasters. I loved that feature.
I remember saving the day while setting up an event we had the TVs on stands but lost the remotes luckily the phone I had at the time had the ir and I was able to turn the TVs on and play the DVDs
Newer TVs don't have IR on them
It is all Bluetooth for the most part
- How do siblings argue over TV channels if you can't put your hand over the IR receiver to stop your sibling (who was quickest to get the remote) from changing the channel?
  I guess they all have their own screens now.

My HTC ChaCha had a full qwerty keyboard. Now I'm lucky if the on-screen one bothers to show up in some apps.

Restriction of Network access per app

GrapheneOS has this feature, and it's one I definitely couldn't go without.
You can still do it with third party firewalls

Open Bootloaders, 3.5mm jacks, SD Card readers.

I had a Google pixel 3a which had squeeze sensors, with lineageOS I had it assigned to my flashlight which was super handy. Also I enjoyed the heart-rate sensor on my GS5. Also really liked the DAC in my LGV20.

Agreed, I opened this thread just to be sure the squeeze sensor was mentioned.
What is a squeeze sensor? Isn't that just a button?
- Yes, but no. Squeezing the whole phone is recognized as a gesture.

• pressure sensitive pens on non-flagship models

Wish it was ranked choice voting. For me the list is: removable battery, expandable storage, ir blaster, headphone jack. I think repairablity is the most important and i never use the headphone jack but do use ir sometimes so thats the only reason its last. On phones with oled screens notification light is a software feature and fm requires the headphone jack.

My Motorola Moto Z had a shake shake flashlight feature. Not sure if this was Android or Motorola but it was very useful.

It’s a Motorola gesture. I don’t have a Motorola anymore, but I think shaking is the best gesture for turning on the flashlight.
- Doesn't it activate when it's in your pants and you are moving about in a rough manner?
  Holding the power button when the screen is off works pretty great and won't ever activate on accident. It is also a default Android feature I believe.
I loved that feature. Karate chop for torch, twist for camera, twist again to swap camera to selfie, flip face down for silent...
One of those things that should be introduced in to mainline Android, but no doubt patents are probably an issue.
My Moto G Power has it, super useful feature.
They still have it as a built-in feature. Had Moto Z, g 5g plus and now rocking g85. All of them have it. Too useful.

Openness

mass storage mode

A keyboard.

I would love a modern phone with a slide out keyboard like the old Droids. Never got used to typing on screen, no feel to it.
Omg yes, i miss Android phones with keyboards, i had an lg one and that keyboard got so much use that a few buttons died.
Yeah instead of foldables I'd rather have a keyboard. Or gamepad like the old Sony gaming phones.
Right? I hate touch screens so much.

Built in IR blaster

I've got a oneplus 12 which has it. Random thing for them to bring back but welcome

I bought a modern off brand with an audio jack and micro SD, because why would I spend 3 times more for less features?

Software festure, but I miss being able to turn on and off wifi and Bluetooth in the drop-down menu with one click. Latest android replaced it with another sub menu to select network or device, requiring another action to enable/disable.

LineageOS, CalyxOS and some other custom ROMs still support the old quick tiles if theyre available for your device :)
you can supposedly change it back with systemUI tuner
I actually prefer this method. I can switch wifi and cellular off/on and even select wifi networks from the single window that pops up. It's really handy. Stock rooted Pixel 9 Pro XL.
Thankfully OEMs use smart defaults and its the current behaviour as before.

Notification led that is separate from the display. Custom per-app colour and blink pattern.

I got Motorola with a headphone jack, and I use it surprisingly often. All my Bluetooth stuff has fallen apart faster than my wired stuff.

They are one of the few OEMs that still offers headphone jacks and they are overall decent midrange phones. If they weren't so damned big and had an unlocked bootloader for ROM support I'd be on one right now.
- Yeah, I've given up on bootloaders long ago. After I broke my last phone, finding a decent mid range phone with expandable storage, a headphone jack, stylus and nice colors was pretty nice. The cameras are decent, and the processing power is fine for most stuff. The only time it slows down is if I'm cropping and editing a video or screen recording, which is a pretty seldom thing.

Reading through this thread gives me serious nostalgia. My first smartphone was a Motorola Droid, which really had it all: physical slide-open keyboard, headphone jack, removable battery, configurable notification LEDs, shake guesture for the flashlight. Good times. Kept on running with CyanogenMod well beyond the official support.

Removable battery is #1. My old Galaxy S3 (not even my first phone-yes I'm old) has absolutely godawful battery life but I had I think 4 total batteries around to make sure I could always have it even on a heavy use day. That sucked, but at least it was doable with a really easy process (peel off plastic back, pull out and swap battery, snap the backplate back on).

I keep an old phone around and sometimes use it to play like a video for my cats to watch if they're laying on my bed when I'm not in there. But it has to stay plugged in because it loses the first 20% in about 15 minutes.

And that phone in particular (a pixel 2) is particularly a pain to replace the battery in the first place.

Screens without holes in them.

I'm a Xperia weirdo because the one I have still rocks a 3.5mm jack, expandable storage and a camera outside the screen. Not only are some of those gone from this year's equivalent, but it is 1500 bucks now, which is absurd. I went to a phone search engine and looked up that exact feature set and it turns out there are exactly zero phones that include those now.

I genuinely don't understand why people think the way to compete with Samsung is doing a worse version of their exact product. It's so dumb. Or maybe it's true and it's the people who are dumb. Because everybody says these things, but people seem to buy candybars with puncholes and no physical headphne support or expandable storage or IR blasters.

(also Xperia weirdo, checking in)
This year's 1vii - which I did unfortunately pay said $1500 for - still has all of those. Hole-puch free display, SD card slot, headphone jack.
It's lost the dedicated notification LED, but - aside from the change from a 21:9 to 19:9 display which I don't love, but is far from a deal-breaker - that's the only other outward change from the 1ii I had before.
Still the best waterproofing in the industry too, absolutely can't fault Sony there.
- Argh. Stop trying to upsell me on the stupid expensive phone. I'm tempted enough as it is, and I hate to reward Sony for stopping my software updates so soon by giving them so much more money.
  I was looking into Redmagic/Nubia as an alternative, but those are chunky and refuse to add wireless charging for some reason. The cameras are also of debatable quality, particularly software-wise.
I hate how the camera on my phone blocks part of the screen. Can't they just have the lens a bit higher up
- Because too many reviewers and buyers complained about "foreheads" and "chins". As soon as the big makers went edge-to-edge in all four directions with notches/holepunches for cameras everyone else hopped on the bandwagon.
- I have never understood this argument. The camera never blocked the screen. The screen moved up and around the camera. It's either that, or you get a forehead/chin.
  What do you people want? Pick one.

higher dpi/4k screens.
oled pixel layouts already have fewer subpixels than they should for say a claimed "1080p", leading to weird blur or aliasing in places.
My high dpi phone has made my eink reader redundant; the sharpness simply makes it way more comfortable to read, for me enough to be on par with print.

And now I can only await how long my phone will remain usable, knowing no new phones with higher dpi (600ppi+) are being made.

Rectangular screens without missing parts. I hate rounded corners.

3 way tie between 3.5mm jack, easily removable, and now that microSD Express is finally becoming mainstream, a microSD Express card slot. It'd be nice to see in a flagship or at least a Mediatek mid range chip like the dimensity 8400

Wild cards for number blocking. You could block whole area codes. Goddamn worthless fucking Nazi bastards took it off.

I think this is a One UI 7 thing, but the battery indicator for connected Bluetooth devices has completely disappeared. The only way to check the remaining battery life of my connected headphones or speakers is through a third party application, I can no longer find a way to do it in the OS itself.

I can see it on my pixel, but it might be because I have the app for my earbuds. I'll test.
- I have a pair of Galaxy Buds (1st Gen) and they are the only headphones that still display a battery icon. Not sure if I'm missing something obvious but it feels very much like the type of anti-consumer walled garden change Samsung would make these days in its "copy Apple" era.

I know they dont all remove it, but man audio jack phones were awesome. My usbc adapter sucks and bluetooth is spotty and low res.

I miss controlling the volume on a per app basis. It gets unwieldy, but it was nice sometimes.

Native SIP phone capability

In order, I'd say SDcard slot, notification light, 3.5mm jack

My Zenfone 8 has two out of those three features. ;p

I used to be able to ~~unlock~~ wake my phone and see what band was currently playing.

OneUI fucked that up.

Edit: wake

Wait, can you not do that anymore?
Edit: I just checked. I'm on oneui 7.0 and it shows Spotify and the details of the song - even album art.
- It only shows the song name and has miniscule controls which is awful when occupied (read: driving).

Kind of a weird poll when I still have all those features, except maybe the IR blaster. Like, yeah, I would miss those, but I don't currently...

Let me guess a Sony smartphone?
- Nope, it's a smaller manufacturer called "SHIFT". Kind of like a competitor to Fairphone, in terms of repairability, sustainability, Custom ROM support and being expensive AF. 🙃

Native (via adb) Immersive Mode. Still use it, but afaik support was dropped after Android 10.

Android 4.4 lockscreen widgets

Android Beam

project soli was so cool. I loved having mmwave radar in my phone

The ability to not have a lock screen.