Your smartphone feature wishlist – Which features do you wish smatphones had?

[Ertio]

Let me start with mine:

 

Hardware

• User-replaceable battery. Let's get the obvious one out of the way. This would eliminate dependence on external repair services and eliminate the need for slow and careful charging. Just blast the power in, charge to 100% guilt-free, and then replace it carelessly and cheaply when it stops working. Batteries are meant to be replaced like car oil. It is basic maintenance, as Louis Rossmann said (video).
• Pro-repair design. It shouldn't be too difficult to replace, for example, a broken charging port at home.
• Dedicated Micro-HDMI port. This allows for presentations while charging is possible at the same time, without bulky adapters that also slow down charging.
• Full-sized SD card slot. Can add up to 2 TB, and has a write-protection switch unlike MicroSD. Worries about running out of space will be a thing of the past. Memory cards also protect against data loss since they can be retrieved if the phone breaks (example, with auto-translatable subtitles) or is remotely disabled because the phone vendor feels like it (Louis Rossmann video). Not implementing this amazing technology in mobile phones would be a wasted opportunity. It was made specifically for portable devices, so it should be implemented.
• Dedicated camera shutter button. With customizable shortcuts like "double-press to start recording video as soon as possible (horizontally of course!)".
• Notification LEDs and real proximity sensors. These have been removed in recent years in favour of a bezel-less design. I don't mind a small bezel for these benefits. I don't really need a bezel-less design; I was satisfied prior to it. The bezel size of, for example, the Note 3, was fine to me. It seems people started started being unhappy with their current phone designs as soon as Justin Denison told them so on Unpacked 2017 for the S8 (video, at 17 minutes, 32 seconds). However, the small S8 bezels could still fit a proximity sensor and a notification LED. Now, we have completely bezel-less phones so there is no space for that anymore. The front-facing sensors and LEDs had to go.
• 8K 4320p at 60fps. But that is going to come soon anyway, and (hopefully) eventually cascade from the flagship phones down to the affordable phones. Strangely, the transition between 2160p 30fps and 2160p 60fps on smartphones took four years, between 2013 (Galaxy Note 3) and 2017 (iPhone 8), much longer than the two years between 1080p 30fps (S2, 2011) and 1080p 60fps (Note 3, 2013). We saw the first 8K video cameras in phones in 2020. 2024 is over and the 8K 60fps smartphone cameras aren't a thing yet.
• Temperature and humidity sensors. As far as I know, those only existed on the S4 and Note 3. I am sure people will find uses for those, for example a smartphone can be repurposed as a remote thermometer or weather station in a remote location. Not that essential, but a neat extra.
• Floating touch. Also known as self-capacitive touch screens. This allows detecting a hovering finger over the touch screen and allows for previews and tooltips on websites and various software such as the seek bar on video players. These existed only on the Sony Xperia Sola (details), Samsung Galaxy S4, Note 3, and S5. Interacting with the phone without touching it seemed so futuristic and impressive back in the day, but little did we know, it would not even take two years for Samsung to get rid of it again.
• Bootloader unlockable without delay. This is necessary for getting root access, in other words, true ownership.

 

Software

• Start the camera in horizontal orientation by default. On some smartphones, taking a picture or starting a video recording too soon after the camera software launched will result in misrotation. This could also be fixed by saving the video file horizontally if the phone was held horizontally for the majority of the time, not just at the beginning.
• Option to always launch on the rear camera. It is annoying if you miss a moment because the smartphone launches the front camera because you forgot to switch to the rear camera before exiting. Having to not forget about this is annoying too.
• Separate high frame rate and slow motion options. Some smartphones (currently Xiaomi and Apple, formerly Samsung) store videos recorded at a high frame rate in real-time, some slow (currently Samsung) down the file they create. I prefer the real-time one for editing purposes and versatility (can be treated as ordinary real-time video), but I also acknowledge that the slowed-down file has the possible benefit of being played as slow-motion by default on every device, which is desirable to some users (example). So both options need to be available.
• Continuous flashlight (torch) in photo mode. This is a feature Xiaomi and Sony thankfully have (Sony had it for a long time), but Samsung still doesn't, making third-party apps like OpenCamera necessary. This helps aiming the camera in low light.
• Ask for screen unlock credentials before deleting more than 5 files at once or a different number set by the user. This means a password, passcode, pattern, or fingerprint. This also applies to folders which contain more than 5 items. This would protect both against tiredness accidents and against malicious actors. Of course, this behaviour should be optional but preferably activated by default. Android already has an API that apps can use to ask for authentication.
• Store saved pages in the download folder. Chrome thankfully does this, but Samsung Internet still stores saved pages in a private folder which is inaccessible from file managers, so they can not be backed up.
• Ability to export bookmarks and session and history to text files. Desktop web browses on Windows and Linux already have extensions for this, but extension support is very limited on mobile browsers. These should be built-in features. A session export should also contain page titles, not only URLs, to make them searchable. This would prevent tab hoarding, since a user can start with a new session without losing opened tabs.

Now, let's hear yours.

But please be realistic. No "transform into an airplane" type of stuff like in that iPhone 4 vs. HTC Evo video (at 1 minute, 7 seconds).

 

[I hereby release this post into the public domain, as described in CC0 1.0. You can copy and paste it wherever you like without asking me.]

Edited 22 minutes ago by Ertio
added temperature sensor, humidity sensor, floating touch, bootloader unlocking, added continuous flashlight in photo mode, separate software section

[porina]

Optical zoom camera equivalent to 30x with optical stabilisation at high quality 4k60 video output. This might stretch the laws of physics a bit to not give it a power bulge. The sensor shouldn't be too big a problem, but the optics could be. I'd settle for a stepped zoom not continuous if that helps.

[saintlouisbagels]

I really missed having the flashing notification LED when I switched over to iPhone back in 2016.

That's really sad that they've been phased out in recent years.

[Drvulcanlord]

1. SD Card Slot
2. Headphone jack
3. Good Camera
4. Replaceable battery
5. LoRa built in
6. programmable button
7. no camera bump.
8. sacrifice wireless charging for all metal construction

Even though I have what are considered large hands, I tend to like smaller phones so preferably this would all be in a iphone mini sized package.

 

And lastly the most unrealistic feature on the whole list: it runs on side loadable ios  

 

[Ertio]

  On 1/10/2025 at 5:59 AM, Drvulcanlord said:

LoRa built in

And people should be able to send peer-to-peer PictoChats like on the Nintendo DS using it!

[Drvulcanlord]

  On 1/10/2025 at 6:05 AM, Ertio said:

And people should be able to send peer-to-peer PictoChats like on the Nintendo DS using it!

That would be so Cool!

[TempestCatto]

Bezels to avoid hole punch or notch. Physical home button with fingerprint sensor. 3.5mm headphone jack. Under $500 max price. OS, security, and app support for 5 years minimum. Also no ai bullshit.

[OhioYJ]

1. Unlockable Bootloader - this can solve the OS update issues.

2. Headphone Jack.

3. Flat screen, can we stop with curved edges, these suck for screen protectors.

4. SD card slot.

 

What I don't need:

8k, 240hz screens, other battery eating stuff. It's a phone. It needs a decent camera, that doesn't mean 100 megapixels, they are getting ridiculous. All this unnecessary stuff is just making devices more expensive. 

[emosun]

1. Fixable

2. Battery 2-3 times the size

3. Turn off updates

4. Everything unlocked

[KodokuJ]

  On 1/10/2025 at 5:41 AM, Ertio said:

Let me start with mine:

• User-replaceable battery. Let's get the obvious one out of the way. This would eliminate dependence on external repair services and eliminate the need for slow and careful charging. Just blast the power in, charge to 100% guilt-free, and then replace it carelessly and cheaply when it stops working. Batteries are meant to be replaced like car oil. It is basic maintenance, as Louis Rossmann said (video).
• Dedicated Micro-HDMI port. This allows for presentations while charging is possible at the same time, without bulky adapters that also slow down charging.
• Full-sized SD card slot. Can add up to 2 TB, and has a write-protection switch unlike MicroSD. Worries about running out of space will be a thing of the past. Memory cards also protect against data loss since they can be retrieved if the phone breaks (example, with auto-translatable subtitles) or is remotely disabled because the phone vendor feels like it (Louis Rossmann video). Not implementing this amazing technology in mobile phones would be a wasted opportunity. It was made specifically for portable devices, so it should be implemented.
• Separate high frame rate and slow motion options. Some smartphones (currently Xiaomi and Apple, formerly Samsung) store videos recorded at a high frame rate in real-time, some slow (currently Samsung) down the file they create. I prefer the real-time one for editing purposes and versatility (can be treated as ordinary real-time video), but I also acknowledge that the slowed-down file has the possible benefit of being played as slow-motion by default on every device, which is desirable to some users (example). So both options need to be available.
• Start the camera in horizontal orientation by default. On some smartphones, taking a picture or starting a video recording too soon after the camera software launched will result in misrotation. This could also be fixed by saving the video file horizontally if the phone was held horizontally for the majority of the time, not just at the beginning.
• Dedicated camera shutter button. With customizable shortcuts like "double-press to start recording video as soon as possible (horizontally of course!)".
• Notification LEDs and real proximity sensors. These have been removed in recent years in favour of a bezel-less design. I don't mind a small bezel for these benefits. I don't really need a bezel-less design; I was satisfied prior to it. The bezel size of, for example, the Note 3, was fine to me. It seems people started started being unhappy with their current phone designs as soon as Justin Denison told them so on Unpacked 2017 for the S8 (video, at 17 minutes, 32 seconds). However, the small S8 bezels could still fit a proximity sensor and a notification LED. Now, we have completely bezel-less phones so there is no space for that anymore. The front-facing sensors and LEDs had to go.
• 8K 4320p at 60fps. But that is going to come soon anyway, and (hopefully) eventually cascade from the flagship phones down to the affordable phones. Strangely, the transition between 2160p 30fps and 2160p 60fps on smartphones took four years, between 2013 (Galaxy Note 3) and 2017 (iPhone 8), much longer than the two years between 1080p 30fps (S2, 2011) and 1080p 60fps (Note 3, 2013). We saw the first 8K video cameras in phones in 2020. 2024 is over and the 8K 60fps smartphone cameras aren't a thing yet.
• Temperature and humidity sensors. As far as I know, those only existed on the S4 and Note 3. I am sure people will find uses for those, for example a smartphone can be repurposed as a remote thermometer or weather station in a remote location. Not that essential, but a neat extra.
• Floating touch. Also known as self-capacitive touch screens. This allows detecting a hovering finger over the touch screen and allows for previews and tooltips on websites and various software such as the seek bar on video players. These existed only on the Sony Xperia Sola (details), Samsung Galaxy S4, Note 3, and S5. Interacting with the phone without touching it seemed so futuristic and impressive back in the day, but little did we know, it would not even take two years for Samsung to get rid of it again.
• Bootloader unlockable without delay. This is necessary for getting root access, in other words, true ownership.

Now, let's hear yours.

But please be realistic. No "transform into an airplane" type of stuff like in that iPhone 4 vs. HTC Evo video (at 1 minute, 7 seconds).

 

[I hereby release this post into the public domain, as described in CC0 1.0. You can copy and paste it wherever you like without asking me.]

Expand  

I’m basic as hell. I just want touch-id and I actually like the iPhone X-12 notch more then the 13-14 one or the Dynamic Island. The iPhone X camera is my favorite one they’ve made visually.

So basically an iPhone XS which I have now LOL

[Commodus]

  On 1/10/2025 at 6:05 AM, Ertio said:

And people should be able to send peer-to-peer PictoChats like on the Nintendo DS using it!

Fun fact: the OnePlus 13 has a Bluetooth voice chat feature that works when there's no data service. Only works between 13/13R devices right now, but if you go all-in it'll help your family during a hike or a trip to the theme park.

[Donut417]

  On 1/10/2025 at 5:41 AM, Ertio said:

Dedicated camera shutter button. With customizable shortcuts like "double-press to start recording video as soon as possible (horizontally of course!)".

Technically the iPhone 16 has a button that kinda serves that function. It's nice to have when you want to take a photo. 

 

While I didn't use the feature a ton, my LG G3 had a IR blaster and that kinda came in handy in some situations. I also agree on the replaceable battery. The only other feature Id like to see is better foldable phone tech. I know with each iteration of the Galaxy Fold it gets a bit better. But Im waiting on Apple to release one, as Im an iPhone guy. I think having a foldable phone could be cool. 

[Lurking]

  On 1/10/2025 at 5:41 AM, Ertio said:

Let me start with mine:

• User-replaceable battery. Let's get the obvious one out of the way. This would eliminate dependence on external repair services and eliminate the need for slow and careful charging. Just blast the power in, charge to 100% guilt-free, and then replace it carelessly and cheaply when it stops working. Batteries are meant to be replaced like car oil. It is basic maintenance, as Louis Rossmann said (video).
• Dedicated Micro-HDMI port. This allows for presentations while charging is possible at the same time, without bulky adapters that also slow down charging.
• Full-sized SD card slot. Can add up to 2 TB, and has a write-protection switch unlike MicroSD. Worries about running out of space will be a thing of the past. Memory cards also protect against data loss since they can be retrieved if the phone breaks (example, with auto-translatable subtitles) or is remotely disabled because the phone vendor feels like it (Louis Rossmann video). Not implementing this amazing technology in mobile phones would be a wasted opportunity. It was made specifically for portable devices, so it should be implemented.
• Separate high frame rate and slow motion options. Some smartphones (currently Xiaomi and Apple, formerly Samsung) store videos recorded at a high frame rate in real-time, some slow (currently Samsung) down the file they create. I prefer the real-time one for editing purposes and versatility (can be treated as ordinary real-time video), but I also acknowledge that the slowed-down file has the possible benefit of being played as slow-motion by default on every device, which is desirable to some users (example). So both options need to be available.
• Start the camera in horizontal orientation by default. On some smartphones, taking a picture or starting a video recording too soon after the camera software launched will result in misrotation. This could also be fixed by saving the video file horizontally if the phone was held horizontally for the majority of the time, not just at the beginning.
• Dedicated camera shutter button. With customizable shortcuts like "double-press to start recording video as soon as possible (horizontally of course!)".
• Notification LEDs and real proximity sensors. These have been removed in recent years in favour of a bezel-less design. I don't mind a small bezel for these benefits. I don't really need a bezel-less design; I was satisfied prior to it. The bezel size of, for example, the Note 3, was fine to me. It seems people started started being unhappy with their current phone designs as soon as Justin Denison told them so on Unpacked 2017 for the S8 (video, at 17 minutes, 32 seconds). However, the small S8 bezels could still fit a proximity sensor and a notification LED. Now, we have completely bezel-less phones so there is no space for that anymore. The front-facing sensors and LEDs had to go.
• 8K 4320p at 60fps. But that is going to come soon anyway, and (hopefully) eventually cascade from the flagship phones down to the affordable phones. Strangely, the transition between 2160p 30fps and 2160p 60fps on smartphones took four years, between 2013 (Galaxy Note 3) and 2017 (iPhone 8), much longer than the two years between 1080p 30fps (S2, 2011) and 1080p 60fps (Note 3, 2013). We saw the first 8K video cameras in phones in 2020. 2024 is over and the 8K 60fps smartphone cameras aren't a thing yet.
• Temperature and humidity sensors. As far as I know, those only existed on the S4 and Note 3. I am sure people will find uses for those, for example a smartphone can be repurposed as a remote thermometer or weather station in a remote location. Not that essential, but a neat extra.
• Floating touch. Also known as self-capacitive touch screens. This allows detecting a hovering finger over the touch screen and allows for previews and tooltips on websites and various software such as the seek bar on video players. These existed only on the Sony Xperia Sola (details), Samsung Galaxy S4, Note 3, and S5. Interacting with the phone without touching it seemed so futuristic and impressive back in the day, but little did we know, it would not even take two years for Samsung to get rid of it again.
• Bootloader unlockable without delay. This is necessary for getting root access, in other words, true ownership.

Now, let's hear yours.

But please be realistic. No "transform into an airplane" type of stuff like in that iPhone 4 vs. HTC Evo video (at 1 minute, 7 seconds).

 

[I hereby release this post into the public domain, as described in CC0 1.0. You can copy and paste it wherever you like without asking me.]

Expand  

• Agree on replaceable batteries. and by replaceable i don't mean you need a heat plate and risk destroying the screen. Like the old phones where any idiot could safely replace the battery in a minute. 
• Disagree on HDMI. They could just send the video through USB-C (like laptops do). Use that space for an additional battery size.
• Agree on SD card. I'm just not sure if full size is needed/possible. it would be more important that minimum storage on a phone would be closer to 200GB to begin with.
• I never had an issue with camera orientation on my Pixel 6Pro. it starts int he orientation I hold the phone. Yes to almost always horizontal... but for some pictures (NO video) vertical is better. Like pics of tall towers etc. 
• Don't need a shutter button. i get ready for taking a video, then push the button when the action actually starts
• Don't need notification LED. Turned off notifications anyway and will see message notification symbols once I actively look at the phone after unlocking. 
• 8K video will be limited market. I even only take videos in 1080 since they look the same (especially low light etc.) as 4K. If 8K, you also want to have efficient compression or you run out of storage quickly
• Temperature sensor is pointless on a device that gets hot on its own or in my hand/pocket. Humidity sensors aren't accurate and need calibration. Remote sensing also is pointless. Are you saying you store your phone outside to track the weather? There probably are remote sensors you could tether to the phone. 
• Why would a phone manufacturer be willing to give you access? 99.9999% of people wouldn't use it or screw up the phone. 

 

  On 1/10/2025 at 5:50 AM, porina said:

Optical zoom camera equivalent to 30x with optical stabilisation at high quality 4k60 video output. This might stretch the laws of physics a bit to not give it a power bulge. The sensor shouldn't be too big a problem, but the optics could be. I'd settle for a stepped zoom not continuous if that helps.

Would be nice. But I suspect 30x zoom and good quality will be impossible in a small phone.

[porina]

  On 1/10/2025 at 12:12 PM, Lurking said:

Would be nice. But I suspect 30x zoom and good quality will be impossible in a small phone.

I did try to lower the demands by "only" specifying 4k output, equivalent to 8MP. Looking at a current example of what is available, I believe the Samsung S23 has 10x zoom at 10MP. 

[Lurking]

  On 1/10/2025 at 5:41 PM, porina said:

I did try to lower the demands by "only" specifying 4k output, equivalent to 8MP. Looking at a current example of what is available, I believe the Samsung S23 has 10x zoom at 10MP. 

S23 has a fixed lens 3x zoom.

The highest I know of is the current Pixel Pro at 5x. 

 

At 30x, you also would need adjustable zoom. Unless you want separate cameras for 5x, 10x etc. All that would be hard to fit, and be in good optical quality.

[porina]

  On 1/10/2025 at 9:37 PM, Lurking said:

S23 has a fixed lens 3x zoom.

My mistake, I meant S23 Ultra.

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s23_ultra-12024.php

 

  On 1/10/2025 at 9:37 PM, Lurking said:

At 30x, you also would need adjustable zoom. Unless you want separate cameras for 5x, 10x etc. All that would be hard to fit, and be in good optical quality.

We are using ever more digital correction, so optics could be a lot simpler than they were say 10+ years ago. The wider end could be taken care of by a separate camera, so the zoom range that needs to be implemented would be smaller easing the design somewhat. A folded light path into the body could avoid part of the bulge. Think they call it periscope design. The main problem will be the minimum aperture size needed to avoid excess diffraction limiting, as that will determine the maximum width of the light path. It will be challenging for sure but someone would need to math out the physical limits to determine what sizes are involved.

[emothxughts]

A friggin 3.5mm jack. That is all.

 

Cmon phone makers, not everything that Apple does is a good thing, and removing the 3.5mm jack is the absolute worst friggin thing you can do. Some of us still use wired earphones, especially fans of high fidelity music.

[Ertio]

  On 1/10/2025 at 11:32 AM, Donut417 said:

Technically the iPhone 16 has a button that kinda serves that function. It's nice to have when you want to take a photo. 

Other phones had it too. For example, the Samsung Omnia series had it as early as 2009. Sony added it to the Xperia Z1 (2013). The "Z" without number didn't have it. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S series, Sony didn't skip the "1".

 

The Sony Xperia S and P from 2012 have one too.

 

Apple was the last vendor I would havve expected to add one. Apple is  usually minimalist.

 

  On 1/10/2025 at 12:12 PM, Lurking said:

it would be more important that minimum storage on a phone would be closer to 200GB to begin with.

Agreed, except maybe for budget phones. For example, the lower Galaxy A series start at decent 128 GB + MicroSD.

 

Samsung in 2016 embarrassingly released a flagship with 32 GB of internal storage, the S7. But they soon realized 32 GB just "don't cut the mustard", even with MicroSD, and increased the base model Note 7 to 64 GB in later 2016.

 

Even more embarrassing: The iPhone 6s (late 2015) with 16 GB and of course, because it's Apple, no MicroSD. But at least it had a 64 GB and 128 GB option, unlike the S7.

 

  On 1/10/2025 at 12:12 PM, Lurking said:

I even only take videos in 1080 since they look the same (especially low light etc.) as 4K

In low light, the camera has to dial up the light sensitivity, which creates noise. So 4K 2160p (or above) isn't much of a benefit there.

 

  On 1/10/2025 at 12:12 PM, Lurking said:

Temperature sensor is pointless on a device that gets hot on its own or in my hand/pocket.

The one on the Note 3 was quite accurate.

I think the humidity sensor was used by S Health app for something, but at the S5, Samsung decided it wasn't necessary anymore.

 

  On 1/10/2025 at 12:12 PM, Lurking said:

Why would a phone manufacturer be willing to give you access?

Because I paid for it. I get to decide which operating system I run on my property that I paid for.

 

Also read:

 

  On 1/10/2025 at 5:41 PM, porina said:

I did try to lower the demands by "only" specifying 4k output, equivalent to 8MP. Looking at a current example of what is available, I believe the Samsung S23 has 10x zoom at 10MP. 

2× digital zoom = 1/4 available resolution.

 

This means a 16 megapixel camera doing 2× digital zoom only has four megapixels of effective resolution remaining.

 

Late 2000s Sony Ericsson phones also lowered the resolution of the output JPEG file accordingly, but modern smartphones still deceptively upscale the pictures.

 

  On 1/10/2025 at 10:07 PM, porina said:

We are using ever more digital correction, so optics could be a lot simpler than they were say 10+ years ago.

Both matter: good optics and good processing.

 

Processing usually combines many pictures taken in quick succession into one very good image. "Night mode" on modern smartphones extends the time available for this because the user expects to hold their phone steady for a few seconds.

 

  On 1/14/2025 at 2:59 PM, emothxughts said:

A friggin 3.5mm jack. That is all.

 

Cmon phone makers, not everything that Apple does is a good thing, and removing the 3.5mm jack is the absolute worst friggin thing you can do. Some of us still use wired earphones, especially fans of high fidelity music.

Or at least a variant with one, and then let the user decide.

 

Samsung ditched it with the A16. Besides that, hardly anything changed from the A15 to the A16. The A1* series was the last surviving series of Samsung with the audio connector. The A5* series had it until 2021, with the A52 being the last standing one.

Edited 47 minutes ago by Ertio
punctuation

[NadiaMayer]

My requirements, I gonna sound a bit funny, but

 

Longest battery life possibly attainable Minimum four to five days.

 

Tablet-sized screen format factor. Without folding screens or other. weird, stupid technology

 

Open source bootloader with. Linux and alternative kernel supports with full compatibility and drivers. weird, stupid technology.

 

Indestructible and High durability at the cost of thinness and weight.

 

Decent amount of io. multiple usb ports.

 

USB webcam support in the native camera. application and interfaces Shockingly, how little support that is in phones.

 

Use a repairable and serviceable relatively easy replace battery. I honestly don't know why we even bother glueing batteries that a sandwich between a screen and a back case in the first time.

 

Ironically with some research, I recently found my dream device and it's currently on order.

 

ulefone power armour pad 4 Feels most my spots.

 

 

[ToboRobot]

A classic little Nokia candybar that does nothing beyond calls, texting, and GPS, but works with Starlink everywhere.

no camera, no apps, no BS.  just global communications.