you can still find phones with headphone jacks, but never all of those features in that image. Removable batteries I never see anymore
Removable batteries were the best. I used to always have an extra battery on me so that if my phone charge fell too much I would switch it out. I even had a tool to let me charge the batteries on their own. Haven’t thought about that in forever
yeah i remember all of that. simpler times
The only two brand new models I know of with removable batteries are the Fairphone and the PinePhone.
I love how they tried to tell us removing the 3.5mm jack would enable thinner phones, but somehow phones are thicker now. My Nexus 6P was half the depth of my Pixel 6.
Also, it’s 3.5 mm! How much thinner can you possibly need?!
I’m not an expert, but I think they wanted to get rid of it because it costs more in manufacturing to keep it:
You have to account for the jack in the molds of the phone’s case.
You have to constantly keep stock of said connectors.
Connectors probably need to be installed/soldered by someone, increasing the amount and time of labor.
Since most phones today only have an USB type C connector (or even a proprietary one) you’re forced to buy extra dongles if you want more interfaces.
3.5mm plugs are literally 1950s technology, the manufacturing cost is virtually zero, instead now they’re including up to four cameras on some phones which are way more expensive and complex to install, take up more space and might be used less often than a headphone jack, so I don’t buy it. This is capitalists we’re talking about. The idea is that you’ll buy an overpriced adapter or more expensive wireless headphones instead. And you’ll replace those headphones more often because the BT Audio codecs will keep getting better (to achieve the same lossless sound quality as a wired pair) and the battery will die out.
I am at a point where I am contemplating a feature phone for calls and text. Then get a non-phone gadget for my other needs like camera and audio feeds. Everything you can do on a phone is something you can do at home on your computer so why this whole urge that I must respond to an email on phone 2 minutes after it in my inbox?
I’ve been practicing this exact lifestyle for many years now. Except, I don’t even have any kind of cellular device at all! So what if I can’t immediately respond within 2 seconds? I always tell people that if I don’t respond, then that means I’m either busy or away somewhere.
Fascinating. Question – do you have a phone number? It sounds to me that a phone number linked to your legal ID is a MUST in most societies to allow you participate in everyday life (banking, taxation, schools etc)
I do, it’s a landline.
My kneejerk reaction is to say “oh how inconvenient” but the more I think about it, the less I feel that way. The only major inconveniences I can think of are MFA and texting and I don’t text that much anymore, I use messaging apps but not SMS. I would love to hear more about why you do this and what general impact it has had on your life. (not out of idle curiosity, but because I want to see how I can improve my approach to technology).
Multiple reasons. For one I don’t feel comfortable having a device in my pocket that keeps pinging cell towers. The thought of it just makes me somewhat paranoid, especially in the current imperial sphere. But my main reason was I find it really irritating when I’m outside and suddenly my phone rings or vibrates, whatever. Also the knowledge that I have my phone in my pocket makes me want to check it all the time. Honestly I’d say it didn’t have that much of an impact. Sure it was change which may not be fun at first, but I still feel like it was the right decision, at least for me. I’m way less stressed and distracted now while going grocery shopping for example or even just taking a walk. Because I know full well that I have peace for the moment and I can fully focus on what I want to do.
Also as a personal sidenote; I’m probably a minority but I just can’t stand using touch screens.
Interesting! P.S. I thought I was the only one who was annoyed by touch touch screens.
Aha. Never thought of landlines that accept text messages (some MFAs require a text setup) but if this was to work, it would be a practical solution to this cellular leash.
This was exactly my thought as well, but I think some MFA can call you instead of texting, no?
There are hardware keys for 2fa. I know there’s one called YubiKey and you can use it for OTPs.
The issue is largely the authentication source – a bank may not support hardware keys, even when you have one, insisting on SMS.
Which is insane because SMS for 2fa isn’t the better choice
I’d just get an old Samsung Galaxy or something (back when they had removable batteries) and flash Postmarket OS on it. Probably cheaper than a new feature phone, and you can still have smartphone functionality in case you absolutely need it.
That makes sense. Infact I found Graphene on handmedown PIxel4 a very practical option. However, it is the update creep that worries me. Every few weeks you have to update PostmarketOS and the fatigue may lead you to give in and join the mainstream Android stuff. So, instead of going the route of minimizing software surface, I think it makes sense to reduce phone dependency by adopting a more practical hardware option.
I hate the camera bumps I would rather have some shit camera than these camera bumps
Non-removable batters are debatable because it helps with waterproofing. SD cards are debatable because of read/write speeds (although with newer cards it’s really barely noticeable). It’s the fucking 3.5 Jack for me. Like I don’t want to have to carry around some fucking adapter just in case I want to plug my phone into a standard audio device.
People tell me it’s the only way to move forward with getting more companies using usbc audio or whatever. Because it’s supposed to be better or some shit. This is yet another problem with capitalism. Since there’s a billion different brands making a billion different devices it’s takes decades for some simple change like this and in the meantime the transition period involves making a trillion little adapters that will just get tossed in the garbage eventually because either they will be obsolete or just break because more planned obsolescence.
And don’t even get me started on fucking glass back phones. Dumbest fucking idea in the history of phones. Just make me a phone where I don’t have to go looking for a case to protect it.
And no, I don’t fucking care how thin it is.
Counterpoint: The Samsung Galaxy S4 had a removable battery and also was waterproof. It simply had a gasket on the back cover.
The S4 active was water resistant for 30 minutes up to a meter but lots of reviews say that’s questionable. I know for a fact the original S4 was not. It was my first phone and the back was nothing more than plastic that clipped on. I’d pop it off and clean the dust and pocket lint out of it every now and then and I had that bastard in an OtterBox.
At any rate, not saying you can’t make water proof phones with replaceable batteries, but it is far easier and cheaper to design them as fully enclosed. Rubber gaskets can wear out over time and they will never be as leak proof as something permanently sealed. There is, at least, a potentially logical argument for it. Even if it’s based on taking the easy way out that also happens to serve there planned obsolescence. Of course the next problem is battery tech has improved to the point where even that’s not good enough for these fuckers so they have to fuck with your software updates to slow your phone down for no other reason than forcing you to upgrade.
Edit: I kind of really miss that phone now. Had an app on it caller “glitcher VR” that was pretty cool to mess around with but it doesn’t work on newer android models and the developer never updated it.
This is yet another problem with capitalism. Since there’s a billion different brands making a billion different devices it’s takes decades for some simple change like this and in the meantime the transition period involves making a trillion little adapters that will just get tossed in the garbage eventually because either they will be obsolete or just break because more planned obsolescence.
I think this is going to change because of China. The US/capitalist ecosystem might be ponderously slow at adopting new tech into the mass market, but nothing is going to speed that up more than confronting the Collective American Ego with the fact that it’s a distant second best at something.
Having said that: high speed rail would say otherwise. It won’t change while they can keep people from noticing I guess.
They keep people from leaving work and the country. In their free time amerikans watch China bad media.
I feel the opposite. I’m more okay with the headphone jack being gone because there’s a way around it. There’s no alternate way to insert an SD card.
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Same. At least my recent Xiaomi still has two of these 3 features (not the removable battery sadly, but also it has a plastic back). It seems like smartphone design already peaked some time ago, and now it’s time to start making them worse and worse for the sake of more profit.
The headphone jack thing is especially infuriating because it’s a $1 part which once removed requires you to buy more expensive and worse-sounding Bluetooth headphones which also have a consumable battery which requires continuous charging and will die one day. I guess the memory card slot is also a $1 part which once removed forces you to overpay for storage when you buy the phone, so that’s really awful too.
Have you used wired headphones recently? Jesus’ name.
I use a wire with my hand-me-down bluetooth headphones all the time, as I often forget to charge them.
My only pair of headphones is wired, I’m not rich so I only replace them when they break. These have a really flat response which is what I was looking for, and they were only $80 back then (still the most expensive pair I’ve ever bought, but way cheaper than wireless solutions).
If possible, I’d recommend buying an older, used Android phone and flashing some reasonably up-to-date OS to it. It’s cheaper and you don’t directly give money to Apple/Samsung/…
How many years has the removable battery been gone? Anyway, I don’t care about the 3.5, but the microSD is just another good reason for me to think about a FairPhone.
I’m tempted to switch to Huawei next time I buy. Especially with them being barred from using Google Play Store. If there’s going to be a line in the sand I want to be on the Huawei side sooner rather than later… it’s just gonna be a massive effort decoupling from my reliance on Google account stuff, but I have a feeling it’s going to happen sooner or later living in Hong Kong.
Huawei doesn’t really solve the headphone jack and battery issues, although I guess that’s another perk of living in a country that invests in public infrastructure: it’s like listening to Americans complain about the cost of owning a car. If you live in a country with good public infrastructure, you don’t need a car. If you live in a country where wireless or USB-C headphones are affordable and good quality and there’s wireless chargers built into cafe tables and USB power ports on all the buses…
Try f-droid
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I’m actually fine with my mid-range phone. (it has a 3.5mm jack and memory card tho)
My main complaint as a consumer is that its hardware is more powerful than my old potato PC, but it’s being wasted on mobile apps that often lack features. Running Linux (or even Windows apps via box86/64+wine) is technically possible, but user experience is very inconvenient and issues requiring troubleshooting will inevitably arise. Also, in my case, peripherals like screens can’t be attached due to hardware limitations. :(
I don’t think it’ll ever take off, but IMO what companies like Purism, Pinephone and Jingpad are attempting to do w/ convergence is less wasteful, even if pure mobile experience their devices provide is not very polished.
Actually, an improved Jingpad w/ a dock and better software support seems like a perfect device for my needs, as it even comes with a pressure-sensitive stylus. (it’s a bit expensive IMO tho)
tl;dr: phones are getting powerful and I want an option to maybe run desktop apps when you have a separate screen and peripherals attached
There should be a curated awesome list on github of android apps that aren’t unnecessarily resource intensive, so I could happily stop buying an even more powerful phone just because app makers want to use more resources.
Not on GitHub. Please not on GitHub.
What’s bad about GitHub?
A lot. There’s more reasons if you search for them.
https://www.zoobab.com/github-sucks https://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/linus-torvalds-views-on-why-github-sucks/
GitHub blocked the U.S-sanctioned countries Iran, Syria, and Crimea.
GitHub is owned by Microsoft too. M$ is trying to take control of the architecture so that they can recuperate the open source philosophy.
Damn. Is there a better alternative for collaborating with a team? The issue is that at this point it’s almost a requisite for programmers to have a “github portfolio” with tons of commits.
- Codeberg
- SourceHut
- A gitea instance.
What about Gitlab?
I went from a midrange to a flagship phone and the difference was almost unnoticeable to me. Worst money decision. Smartphones have gotten too good, most new models are useless upgrades.
I’m planning to downgrade to a Chinese rugged phone that I put linux on. It’s cool I want a good camera and decent screen/battery. Edit: Oh and need expandable storage of course.
for my next phone im gonna try to go as featureless as possible. Im tired of having a device that has the access to cumulation of man’s collective knowledge, but also advertises to me nonstop. Man was not meant to have this power.
I also hate how they got rid of the home button
They’re pricey, but check our Sony’s phones. I ready drove their 5 IV back in March and it’s a very compelling option. Big ass battery for the size (5000 mAh) SD card slot work support up to 1 TB I think Audio jack Dedicated shutter button for the camera 21:9 aspect ratio OLED screen Record video at 4k 120Hz (though only for like a minute)
I didn’t go with it for other problems that others may be able to overlook. But I really wanted to keep it because of the pros I listed above. They have other options, so they may be worth checking out.
Again, they can be pricey. And they only officially support them for 2 years which is also a big problem.
