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.
Can you, though
You can. The technology is good but like many things the implementations are often kinda shyte
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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
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).
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.
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 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.
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…
I’m still on a pixel 4a, and I am terribly disappointed to hear that those have gone away.
Pixel 2 XL here, the rear fingerprint scanner on this is the only fingerprint scanner on any of my devices that works flawlessly, every time. Why on earth would they remove this???
[waves arms in the air] INNOVATION!
😭
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.
You can choose it, get a different colored cat
Lmao i do have a calico and she’s my home screen bg. My orange cat is my lock screen.
You can choose from several colors, not just your background colors.
Go to Wallpaper & Style > Basic colors. (on a Pixel; it might be slightly different on other phones)
Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s an option in OxygenOS. I think I’ve tried LWP+ before and it didn’t work. I might give it another shot, though.
As for now, I’ve got a picture of my calico cat as my home screen wallpaper. She’s very white up front so it’s more bluish. I like it. My orange boy is my lock screen. So it works out.
I honestly just want it all pitch black because menus on an OLED look fantastic when the background is black. I believe I already had everything blacked out before the update.
Look into the app Repainter. It isn’t free and needs root or Shizuku access but does the trick.
Hey man, I know it’s been 3 months and idk why I’m only just now seeing this, but you’re a lifesaver. Thanks for the tip. It worked!
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.
I love it, glad Jerboa uses it
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).
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
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 feel like the implementation was a bit gimmicky. I first used an IR transceiver as a remote on a late-model palm and the interface was much better than most apps I found on Android.
I wonder if it would be possible to pack that functionality into a smart-watch
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?
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.
Don’t forget the twisting motion to turn on the camera!
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.
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.
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
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
if you haven’t tried it, the new pens are like three tines as good!
I’m not sure I can justify a new surface pen since I graduated and got a job that doesn’t allow PEDs onsite, but given how good my pen is, the new ones must be great.
Also, when browsing the Microsoft store just now to look at the pen specs, I was shocked to see a bunch of components listed for the Surface Pro 9. Did Microsoft embrace right to repair for that model.
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!
I use an old remote without batteries for that purpose.
Me sitting here wondering how you control your TV with a remote that doesn’t have batteries…
Lol. I have two.
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…
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.
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.
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.
Removable battery, micro SD, sim slot etc
Were those ever considered gimmicks?
They don’t seem to exist much anymore, so must be a gimmick, right? Useful and popular features surely wouldn’t get removed
I get your sarcasm. But I’d like to point out that the claim would be that it’s outdated tech, not gimmicky.
It’s still a lie, though.
In reality the manufacturers don’t have any new good ideas so they have to resort to cost cutting in order to increase profit. They’ll just slap a 13th camera lens on the back and tailor their marketing material to make people think they need more lenses over anything else.
My new Nokia G22 would say otherwise. Who has a Nokia in 2023? Me!
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
