For me it’s the notification light you used to find on older phones, was particularly good to know if your phone was charged without picking it up
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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SD card slots, user-replaceable batteries, and headphone jacks.
Where did they go? Just vanished?
They realized they can charge inflated prices for an extra 128gb, battery replacement, and Bluetooth headphones
My personal conspiracy theory is, SD card slots were removed from phones so Google, Apple, and Samsung can more readily push their cloud storage subscriptions
This seems fair - especially when you start looking at how Google seems to be continually further hindering file access in Android in the name of Security. I use my file system a fair bit on my phone and it just keeps getting worse with every new android release.
There are several advantages to not having them: without all the extra parts needed to support these features you can make the phone thinner (thickness is traditionally a key marketing point for smartphones) and cheaper to make.
Additionally, it seems that a lot of people no longer need these features, making them prime candidates for exclusion: Bluetooth headphones have become very common, internal storages have become large enough, and people buy a new phone often enough nowadays that battery wear is not as much of an issue.
Of course, if you are one of the people who still do want these features you're pretty much out of luck. Which sucks.
I'd be pretty happy with a phone that's 1.5x thicker than normal if it has a 6000-7000 mAh battery.
Bluetooth headphones were very much useable when we had headphone jacks. Now your only option is overpriced Bluetooth devices that will not last.
Internal storage on your phone is not that big. What they want to do is sell you cloud storage. iPhone 15 Pro, to get 1TB of internal storage is $1500. The cheapest Samsung is 'Galaxy S22 Ultra, 1TB' @ $1600. And the Google Pixel 8, your looking at $1200. Each option basically costs about $500 for that 1TB option. But I could buy a 1.5TB card for $150 on Amazon....
Phone's being thinner is the dumbest marketing point. It's counterproductive to everything you want the phone to have. Like a decent sized battery, proper cooling, and features.... And make it so that the phone isn't flimsy. To say that people no longer needed these features is also just dumb. You know who decided people no longer need these features, someone in Apple's marketing department who realized you could sell $150 headphones instead of giving away quality $20 headphones.
You need to realize that the reason people keep buying new phones isn't because of the new features (which there are none) it's because their phone now sucks because it's aging out because they can't replace anything. Imagine being able to recycle the battery instead of creating just a bunch of e-waste every couple of years.
The idea that people don't need headphone jack seems pretty weird. Phones removed the 3.5mm jack, so people had to buy Bluetooth headphones, because now there is just 1 port on the phone.
And now, because of this change, you're looking back and saying that that's a not needed feature.
Does that sound right?
I mean, I love my bluetooth headphones but also bluetooth sucks. Anyone who says bluetooth is a reliable spec we should longterm trust our ability to connect audio devices together with is horrifically deceiving themselves. Bluetooth is an absolute train wreck of a technical spec, and it can be further broken at any point because it is just software that can be "updated" with "new features" that break backwards compatibility.
To call bluetooth a replacement of the 3.5mm jack which has a stunning, decades long established compatibility with other devices is a slap to the face of consumers even if most of those consumers don't use their 3.5mm jack anywhere as much as bluetooth audio. The point is there is NO good reason that device makers had to take away the option of a 3.5mm jack other than to take away an alternative option. How much does it cost to stick an audio jack in a phone? Does it add like.. what $1.25 to the cost of the phone all totaled? People are way to willing to believe tech companies removing features is an innocuous side effect of progress rather than a constant probing to see what bullshit they can get away with in order to introduce monetizable friction into the experience of using a device.
people seem to forget that external dacs exist. Every device manufacturer makes them.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU7E2AM/A/usb-c-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter
https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/usb-c-to-mini-audio-jack-adapter-3-5mm-18
Oh yeah, we just forgot. Because everyone loves adding a dongle between phone and cable.
It honestly isn't really noticeable. The better sound quality of the external dac is however.
I mean when phones had 3.5 mm jacks, the DAC was built-in.
Lots of times they are pretty bad though, maybe because of the interference they are subject to inside of a phone
I mean when phones had 3.5 mm jacks, the DAC was built-in.
The Galaxy S4 from 2013 has a removable battery, headphone jack, and sd card slot. Its no thicker then a modern smartphone.
I'd rather pay more for something that lasts me longer. If users can replace their own batteries easily and expand their storage, they can hold on to the device for longer. That way they'll buy less phones and won't care that the product was minorly more expensive.
And have flooded landfills with batteries. Wired headphones don't have batteries that will degrade or need charging.
Not really. I have a 64gb phone and need an sd card to store my music. If I wanted more storage I would literally have to buy a different device. I'd rather just have an sd card slot.
battery wear is part of the reason people trash their otherwise working phones. People buying phones more often is a symptom of not having right to repair.
Also, buying an extra battery and charger meant you could carry a fully charged battery in your pocket and if you were out hiking or something, you could just swap batteries instead of needing a power bank and a whole bunch of charging time.
I don't think the 3.5mm jack is the limiting spec on how thick phones are. The latest iphone (15) without the jack is 7.8mm thick, while my phone that has one is 7.9mm. The 15 pro is 8.3mm. Thickness may have been a selling point in the past but I don't think people care anymore bc essentially everything's pretty thin these days--size concerns are way more focused on length/width.
Excellent, I love when my phone is so thin it risks bending.
I guess people don't use sd cards to increase storage but to keep their data handy when device dies or somehow renderes inaccessible.
Also just to transfer pictures to a laptop for editing and to clear space for taking more pics on the phone. I know cloud exists, but I want to control my own data.
Oddly enough Apple still includes SD slots and headphones in laptops (my M1 Mac Pro has them). But not in their other devices…
That's not really that odd though, since laptops are gigantic compared to phones.
But I guess, iPads should also include them.
Wait iPhones have SD slots? I literally had no idea
The MacBook laptops have an SD card reader, not the iPhone.
Ah I misunderstood, I guess I assumed the OP was talking about phones.
Glad they finally put the SD reader back on the MacBook Pro a couple of years ago, I was wondering if I'd missed them adding it to their phones.
Add in an IR blaster, and that's my whole list.
bingo