Disapponting trends in Phone design

I think what should seriously be considered is making a more "universal" kind of phone or product

What about having something like removable RAM in a phone?

In this era the ram chips are very arguably small enough to fit into a phone quite easily these days... I agree on forgetting about thin or "good looks".

It is ruining productivity quite a bit - however there is a balancing act to be done with design.

Both are important if it is too chunky it will annoy people but too thin and it might also annoy people with strucultural durability.

I think what should have been done millions of years ago is adding a removable internal sd card for us who love to hack and play around!

It's pathetic that these manufactures have decided not to (refused?) to make these simple inexpensive changes.

They are anti of any modification to anything - it's just down right pathetic.

If I had my own company to make mobile gadgets and devices I would happily (and encouragingly!) add these features LONG AGO.

There is a huuuuuuuge market and I believe A LOT of potential to make such devices that lots of developers would love to get their hands on.

And it's easy - just tell the software house of your company to keep the original OS for download so nobody has to worry about anything.

All they want to do is make you buy the latest gadgets and thus WASTE your money!

HELL they don't want you to even change your battery!

("HOW DARE YOU think for yourself!!! WHO the HELL do you think you are!?!!")

Removable RAM is an interesting idea but it won't work because industry standards change all the times. Having a simple removable battery is already a luxury nowadays.

Dannydet said:

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lvt said:

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Too bad I have small wrists, so it probably will be a small screen size like 4" which is far from being practical.

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Is that Kit-Kat?

I personally find that to be a little creepy. Borderline hedonistic.

The infamous Project Ara was supposed to provide a lot of this, but Google have pulled the plug on that. Though RAM isn't the easiest one to do: even if you limit yourself to modules that are compatible with the particular processor, the demands of user-replaceability and the highest-speed & lowest latency connection to the SoC are not particularly compatible.

The headphone jack thing is bugging me today. Because if you provide USB-C audio there are two ways of doing it: analogue signals via the supplementary pins or digital. The difference is that in the first case it's much like a phone with a headphone jack, you just need an adapter. In the second it's like Apple, where the sound quality through your existing phones depends on the amp and DAC in the adapter (which, given that they sell it for $9/£9, are likely to be the cheapest they could get). And for the few handsets we have that are USB-C only (Moto Z, HTC Bolt, forthcoming HTC U phones) I don't know what solution they've adopted, because most reviewers are basically pretty shallow.

My current phone is almost 4 years old now, and I doubt I'm going to want to limp through to 5. I'm not buying new headphones just because the phone companies want to make the edges of the phones slim, and I'm not going to regress on sound quality. So I need information on how these devices provide output to analogue headphones, not just tests using the ones provided with the phone . Otherwise I can see the real possibility of my buying one of last year's handsets in a couple of months' time if there's nothing that suits me (audio output mattering a lot more to me than videos, digital assistants or indeed cameras - I've many cameras which are better than a phone, including one whose primary purpose is to be with me most of the time,).

Yes, I agree with most of you. Here is what I want:
1. A headphone jack so I can use my own headphones.
2. Removeable microSD storage. 128 GB of internal storage does me no good if it fails. Also, I want to be able to quickly transfer info between devices.
3. A choice of what I want the back of the phone to be (like StyleSwap on the Oneplus 2) because some people (especially me) like rubberized polycarbonate. I can live with metal, plastic, basically anything except glass.
4. Removeable internal components and modularity. ESPECIALLY THE BATTERY AND EMMC.
5. Standards so every ROM works on every device. (The way it is with PCs)
6. Download mode being in the PBL (hardware initialisation) rather than the SBL (/boot).
7. Preferably two USB-C ports so I can charge and use my accessories at the same time.
8. The phone being thicker to accomodate a bigger battery and no camera bump.
9. A removeable slideout physical keyboard.
10. I DON'T WANT TO PAY $700 FOR A DEVICE THAT COSTS OEMs $200 TO MAKE.

Now who is with me!

Pers0n said:

Yes, I agree with most of you. Here is what I want:
1. A headphone jack so I can use my own headphones.
2. Removeable microSD storage. 128 GB of internal storage does me no good if it fails. Also, I want to be able to quickly transfer info between devices.
3. A choice of what I want the back of the phone to be (like StyleSwap on the Oneplus 2) because some people (especially me) like rubberized polycarbonate. I can live with metal, plastic, basically anything except glass.
4. Removeable internal components and modularity. ESPECIALLY THE BATTERY AND EMMC.
5. Standards so every ROM works on every device. (The way it is with PCs)
6. Download mode being in the PBL (hardware initialisation) rather than the SBL (/boot).
7. Preferably two USB-C ports so I can charge and use my accessories at the same time.
8. The phone being thicker to accomodate a bigger battery and no camera bump.
9. A removeable slideout physical keyboard.
10. I DON'T WANT TO PAY $700 FOR A DEVICE THAT COSTS OEMs $200 TO MAKE.

Now who is with me!

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It will look like a PlayStation or Nintendo games console.

Removable physical keyboard? Sounds like wants a laptop. New MacBooks have multiple USB-C ports.

lvt said:

It will look like a PlayStation or Nintendo games console.

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Bring back the taco shaped Nokia N-Gage.

Pers0n said:

Yes, I agree with most of you. Here is what I want:
2. Removeable microSD storage. 128 GB of internal storage does me no good if it fails. Also, I want to be able to quickly transfer info between devices.

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And a 128 GB microSD does you no good if it fails - which is far more likely than the internal storage of a phone failing. And if the phone is lost or stolen it doesn't matter what the data are stored on.

If it's important, you need a backup that's not on the device

I want a new Nexus 6 only a tad smaller screen. Add in new faster 64bit processor, 4GB RAM, fingerprint scanner, a bit bigger battery and micro SD support. That would be ideal for me.
Until then, I have as close as it gets.

Headphone Jack is a must for decent headphones, removable battery also a must.
Removable (SD) storage also, UNLESS at least 128GB storage is onboard. As is at least 2GB, preferably 4GB RAM. ANy 5" - 6" screen with at least 300ppi.
Oh, and a non-slip rubberized back.

You asked too much, only a couple of large companies can make such phones but they won't do that because the phones could be too expensive.

So far the LG V20 has achieved what most of people wanted, but it's quite expensive for now.

lvt said:

So far the LG V20 has achieved what most of people wanted, but it's quite expensive for now.

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I actually am interested in the V20 because it still has a headphone jack, removable at least to me large capacity battery for a phone in its category.

But yes the drawback is price. The last flagship phone I ever bought was the HTC Sensation. My note 5 was a gift.

But with all the other competitors in the market now and I do hope to see prices drop. I am hoping. [emoji5]

lvt said:

So far the LG V20 has achieved what most of people wanted, but it's quite expensive for now.

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The V20 is also a niche device that's only available in a small part of the world.

Having a removable battery is not as important to me as I thought it would be. I originally liked the idea of having the easy access if the battery failed and pulling the battery as part of the troubleshooting process as with older Samsung devices.
Have never used headphones but like the idea of keeping the headphone jack.
Not a fan of thinner is better. Looked at the Pixels a few months ago and thought I would have to add a thick protective case to feel comfortable with it.
Plan on sticking with my Motorola XPE till it dies beyond my ability to rebuild.

lvt said:

Android is a multi-languages OS, having a physical keyboard in a small space could be a handicap because you can't switch among languages on the fly. The smallest full size physical keyboard itself is larger than a smartphone.

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I would have hoped someone would have found a solution to have a keyboard where the letters on the keys could change in order to support multiple languages.

Stuntman said:

I would have hoped someone would have found a solution to have a keyboard where the letters on the keys could change in order to support multiple languages.

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I would have hoped someone would have found a solution to have a keyboard where the physical keys could move around in order to support multiple languages.


Chimee Mongolian keyboard is very popular around these parts, a lot of my friends use it.....


Often one will need to type Latin characters as well using Chimee...



BTW what's for dinner tonight?

Trilingual KFC signage.

Project Ara, from what I heard, was picked up by Motorola. May or may not go anywhere from there (I agree, it IS a brilliant idea)

dontpanicbobby said:

I am so disappointed, HTC is following Apple/Samsung with the glass back trend that no one asked for and removing the headphone jack trend like Apple/Samsung which no one asked for in their new U series line-up. Thankfully though they are bucking one trend by keeping expandable storage as an option.

I'll be watching very closely for any Note 8 rumors now. Help me Samsung Note Team! You're my only hope...

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Amen brudder! amen! i agree. Note 8 for me!