• Elektrotechnik@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      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
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    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.

  • Zebov@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    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).

    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        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

  • ryan213@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    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!

  • Klaymore@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

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

  • Dylpickles@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    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.

    • knifer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      As a OnePlus 7 Pro owner, I absolutely love it. No front camera cutout was one of the reasons I bought it.

  • colonial@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    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.

  • 𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    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.

    • ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      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

      • phx@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        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

  • WolfhoundRO@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

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

      • Frankelton@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        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
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          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.

  • UESPA_Sputnik@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

      • UESPA_Sputnik@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        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)

      • jerb@lemmy.croc.pw
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Look into the app Repainter. It isn’t free and needs root or Shizuku access but does the trick.

    • Tywèle [she|her]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yes, it just looks so clean when everything has the same nice theme. I love it! I use Muzei as a live wallpaper app at the same time and it’s great to have different colors every hour because of the many wallpapers I have set in it.

      • UESPA_Sputnik@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        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).

  • pory@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    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.