• Elektrotechnik@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • holoyolo@partizle.com
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • trubedour@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • phx@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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

  • Klaymore@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • epygots@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Adjusting the brightness with the fingerprint scanner sounds super practical, how’s that app called?

  • Zebov@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • colonial@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

      • Frankelton@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They don’t seem to exist much anymore, so must be a gimmick, right? Useful and popular features surely wouldn’t get removed

        • Omega@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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            1 year ago

            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.

  • pory@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Flax@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    FM radio. Also my old Motorola had a “karate-chop to activate camera” which was very useful

      • Ddhuud@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

  • Dylpickles@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • WolfhoundRO@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Nokia N95 flipping both up and down. I really liked those music player buttons when flipping it down

  • sab@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.