Debate: What's the best phone feature you want back?

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pimpin83z
pimpin83z
Arena Legend
• 1y ago
↵TBomb said:

I used to think physical keyboards needed to come back.. but the problem is I've started swiping to text just about everything that's longer than 3 letters. also, with the expansion of emojis, gifs, and other texting tricks, it would be impossible to have a physical keyboard and still have those features be easily accessible. Unless the keyboard was dynamic like the Samsung Alias 2.


If you could capture swipes on that, I could see it working.


But that's still not the feature I would bring back. I'd still probably bring back the headphone jack. I lose my wireless buds and dongles way too much.

As a person who's been swiping since 2010, the physical keyboard was the only thing I didn't like about my OG Droid. I'd only used it twice: one time to install Froyo & the other for the one time the digital keyboard wouldn't populate. As soon as I could get into the Droid X I was all over it.

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meanestgenius
meanestgenius
Arena Legend
• 1y ago
↵TBomb said:

I used to think physical keyboards needed to come back.. but the problem is I've started swiping to text just about everything that's longer than 3 letters. also, with the expansion of emojis, gifs, and other texting tricks, it would be impossible to have a physical keyboard and still have those features be easily accessible. Unless the keyboard was dynamic like the Samsung Alias 2.


If you could capture swipes on that, I could see it working.


But that's still not the feature I would bring back. I'd still probably bring back the headphone jack. I lose my wireless buds and dongles way too much.

The physical keyboards on the BlackBerry KEYᵒⁿᵉ and KEY² allowed for swipe gestures, and other features, among them Keyboard shortcuts, when you can assign actions to keys.

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meanestgenius
meanestgenius
Arena Legend
• 1y ago

Physical Keyboard for me. One as feature rich as the ones on the BlackBerry Key devices.

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Mariyan Slavov
Mariyan Slavov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 1y ago
↵meanestgenius said:

Physical Keyboard for me. One as feature rich as the ones on the BlackBerry Key devices.

I've been wondering about that... I tried an old Nokia E71 a couple of months ago, and the keyboard wasn't great. I type faster and more accurately on a virtual one... Maybe it's our memory playing nostalgic tricks on us?

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tyger11
tyger11
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

Microsd slots in flagship phones


Also the ability to move apps to the card like we used to be able to do.

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poptart
poptart
Arena Master
• 1y ago

I'd like for the waterfall display to come back. Come on Huawei and vivo. Give us another solid phone with that display.

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Brewski
Brewski
Arena Master
• 1y ago

Combination SD card/SIM card tray located under the volume rocker with water-tight seal and removable with fingernail, not tool. Had this on a Motorola phone a few years ago. A good update to this would be dual SIM. I go to Brazil and being able to put in a second SIM in the airport without a tool is very valuable to me.

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DudemanBrochief
DudemanBrochief
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵MariyanSlavov said:

The feature I miss the most is, hands down, design variety. I want crazy-looking, crazy-shaped phones with different display shapes and sizes, slides, swivels, rotating phones—you name it. It was so much more fun in the 2000s :))

...the FlipShot and the Switchblade come to mind... GREAT fidget-phones!

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DudemanBrochief
DudemanBrochief
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

IR Blaster please! Why oh WHY cant my phone also be a universal remote?! It already senses/connects to every stinkin source it pleases. I should be able to control my stinkin tv/player/sound-bar whenever the stink i want! ...just sayin :-)

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Charlie2k
Charlie2k
Arena Apprentice
• 1y agoedited
↵Charlie2k said:

They don't use it because they have already passed that stage, about 15 years ago while Symbian was still nice. We have the ability to schedule mute/un-mute... I never ever ever ever touch the sound-scheme of my phone because its all done automatically, and that's on an old Huawei P30 Pro.

Much easier? ? With android you can choose schedule connected to your calendar, control it by geolocation, specific actions (eg different persons calling etc) OR a one tap on a shortcut / twofinger-combination (volume up + power).


On iPhone you can... uh... none of the above. But you can silent it with a physical button.

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