The Evolution of Smartphones: What We've Missed Out On

In recent years, smartphones have undergone significant changes that have shaped their design and functionality. One notable trend is the shift away from replaceable batteries. The power was once easily accessible by whipping out the battery and resetting it, a simple solution that has become increasingly rare with modern devices.

However, as batteries naturally degrade over time, this solution is no longer viable. In fact, phones are now predominantly made of metal and glass, making it difficult to design removable batteries. To address this issue, manufacturers have developed specialized cases or external battery packs to provide an additional power source. While these solutions exist, they often come at a premium price, limiting their appeal.

Another aspect of smartphone evolution that has been lost is the ability to customize our devices to some extent. In the past, many smartphones allowed users to choose from various materials and colors, making each phone unique and interesting. The Moto Maker program, for example, allowed users to build their phones to order with a wooden back and colored accents. These options have largely disappeared in modern smartphones, leaving users with limited choices.

Fingerprint scanners are another feature that has become less prominent in recent years. Capacitive fingerprint sensors were once ubiquitous, but they have been largely replaced by in-display fingerprint readers. While these solutions offer convenience, some argue that they are slower and less accurate than their capacitive counterparts. The shift away from traditional fingerprint scanners is a clear example of how smartphone design priorities have shifted towards aesthetics over functionality.

Physical buttons, such as trackpads, keyboards, and volume controls, were once essential components of smartphones. However, as screen sizes increased and bezels decreased, these features became less practical. Today, many phones rely on software-based alternatives or haptics to provide tactile feedback. While haptic feedback has improved significantly in recent years, it is no substitute for the tactile experience provided by physical buttons.

Another aspect of smartphone design that has been lost is the inclusion of useful accessories in the box. In the past, top-tier smartphones often came with a headphone dongle, USB-C adapter, TPU case, and even a pair of earphones. Today, these extras are largely absent from the packaging. Samsung is one of the few manufacturers that consistently includes these accessories, but it's clear that this approach is no longer widespread.

Finally, there is the lack of compact and rugged smartphones on the market. These devices were once popular among outdoor enthusiasts and those who required a device that could withstand rough handling. However, as smartphone sizes have increased, these options have become less common. While some manufacturers have attempted to revive this trend with limited success, it's clear that compact and rugged smartphones are no longer a staple of the market.

In conclusion, the evolution of smartphones has led to a number of compromises on design and functionality. From replaceable batteries to customizable options, physical buttons to useful accessories in the box, there is a sense that we've missed out on some essential features in our pursuit of smaller, thinner, and more powerful devices. As smartphone technology continues to advance, it will be interesting to see if manufacturers return to these lost features or find new ways to innovate.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enas the industry has progressed over the past few years we've seen more and more impressive tech crammed into our smartphones but at the same time we've had to say goodbye to a whole host of fantastic phone features today we wanted to discuss some of them talk about them why they had to go and if we'll see them return the first one is obvious and most of us are sick of hearing about it but the three-and-a-half millimeter headphone port could not go without being mentioned it's been a staple in the smartphone game for well over a decade now and has only recently started to be phased out the impact this has for users is still pretty major and whenever I get handed the aux cord I still have to do the awkward yeah my phone doesn't have a headphone port kind of thing which is awkward but I suppose it's not the end of the world as for headphones I've transitioned emotionally over to wireless options but not everyone is going to want to make that compromise when their trusty wired hands work just fine I don't see this coming back just as a trend in general however there are a few smartphone manufacturers who have opted to keep the headphone port including LG and I praised them for that the slow death of the microSD card slot is one that I feel make sense because the migration to online storage and media streaming services has left not much for the physical card to do I barely keep any of my data locally on my smartphone anymore and the same goes to my friends and family but that isn't to say that the microSD card slot is extinct Samsung LG Sony Xiaomi and honor' have devices in their lineups that still sport the micro SD card slot but it's becoming less common and that's going to invent some users next up is the removable battery and yes to some degree batteries are still removable now but not anywhere near the same level of convenience that they once were no we're talking about what we saw with the LG g4 and Samsung Galaxy s5 not only was it can be need to take a couple of Charles batteries out with you or hike or a camping trip that you could swap out but if your phone ever crashed or boot loops you could cut off the power by whipping out the battery and resetting it and when the battery naturally degraded over time as batteries do you could easily pick up a replacement for like $10 and replace it yourself really quickly with phones now being predominantly made of metal and glass and having ip68 or 6-7 ratings it would be tough to make a removable battery work and so that's why we have the fix ELLs that we have today it's a shame but it's the future you know how most smart phones these days look pretty say me well it isn't always used to be this way handsets used to be made from different materials and shaped in different ways I distinctly remember the Moto maker program in which you could build your phone to order with a wooden back and colored accents and in other parts of the industry you could get different colored backs different textures different materials and you could have a phone that no one else in your town had in that configuration which made the phones more unique and more interesting sure phones feel brilliantly made and have some pretty cool colors in 2020 but it's not quite the same and you can't really make the phone your own proper fingerprint scanners you remember those it doesn't feel that long ago that every phone had a replaced capacitive fingerprint scanner and sometimes we're cool gestures to bring down the notification shade they were faster and more accurate than the in display ones we have stay and in my opinion more ergonomic as well but the people have spoken in the transition over to in display finger it's kinda cz's all but complete let us know what you think about this one in the comments because it's divided me and my friends leading on from that those replaceable in buttons from LG or missed at least by me LG did a great job with its g3 and g4 that sported the rear buttons and many of my friends who owned LG devices really liked them sure they took some getting used to but they were different and unique and I think we were missing a lot of that in the smartphone industry today true stereo speakers are rarely found on any smartphones these days smaller bezels have taken priority over a great sound setup and I'm not sure if I disagree with that most phones have an amplified earpiece to go along with the bottom speaker and they sound good enough some sound outright awesome it's a decent compromise and one that most are more than willing to make for the sake of aesthetics so I'm not too sour about it the same goes for physical buttons like the track point like the keyboard and so on they all took up space where the screen could go and got canned as a result of it I'm not saying it's the end of the world but they were really nice to have and at least options on the market were convenient sure haptics have got better over the years and especially in the pixel series you get some of the crispest vibration motors possible but with that physical keyboard you just cannot be typing out an email or a message or anything like that on one of those nowadays when you buy top-tier smartphone it's unlikely that you'll be receiving everything that you want in the box you tend to get the charging brick a USB cable and the phone itself but how about a headphone dongle USB c2a adapter TPU case or even a decent set of earphones some smart phones still have some of these things Samsung's probably the most consistent across the board but you'd be hard-pressed to find any other smart phone that comes with all of those accessories in the box two types of smartphones that we barely ever see these days are compact and rugged editions the latter is all I can personally get over since they never really looked all that great and a lot of users tend to put cases on their phones anyway but the former yet that one I'm offended by compact smartphones are also having something that fits in your hand and your pocket without feeling unwieldy that has all of the features and specifications of the top model that's awesome we don't tend to get that these days and it's only kind of did the more recent one with the ex-head compact and z5 compact but those are a little bit in the past now I suppose the closest thing we have to is the pixel 4 but that's still like a 5.7 inch screen so I'm not sure if I can really count that as compact that's it for our list but if you want to read more into it then do check out the link in the video description which will take you to the full article written by my always awesome co-worker Andrew crush once you're down there hit like and subscribe to never miss a video like this one and so in the comments what you think we missed off of this list we'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on the matter anyway I've been Ryan Thomas with the Android Authority and I'll see you later peaceas the industry has progressed over the past few years we've seen more and more impressive tech crammed into our smartphones but at the same time we've had to say goodbye to a whole host of fantastic phone features today we wanted to discuss some of them talk about them why they had to go and if we'll see them return the first one is obvious and most of us are sick of hearing about it but the three-and-a-half millimeter headphone port could not go without being mentioned it's been a staple in the smartphone game for well over a decade now and has only recently started to be phased out the impact this has for users is still pretty major and whenever I get handed the aux cord I still have to do the awkward yeah my phone doesn't have a headphone port kind of thing which is awkward but I suppose it's not the end of the world as for headphones I've transitioned emotionally over to wireless options but not everyone is going to want to make that compromise when their trusty wired hands work just fine I don't see this coming back just as a trend in general however there are a few smartphone manufacturers who have opted to keep the headphone port including LG and I praised them for that the slow death of the microSD card slot is one that I feel make sense because the migration to online storage and media streaming services has left not much for the physical card to do I barely keep any of my data locally on my smartphone anymore and the same goes to my friends and family but that isn't to say that the microSD card slot is extinct Samsung LG Sony Xiaomi and honor' have devices in their lineups that still sport the micro SD card slot but it's becoming less common and that's going to invent some users next up is the removable battery and yes to some degree batteries are still removable now but not anywhere near the same level of convenience that they once were no we're talking about what we saw with the LG g4 and Samsung Galaxy s5 not only was it can be need to take a couple of Charles batteries out with you or hike or a camping trip that you could swap out but if your phone ever crashed or boot loops you could cut off the power by whipping out the battery and resetting it and when the battery naturally degraded over time as batteries do you could easily pick up a replacement for like $10 and replace it yourself really quickly with phones now being predominantly made of metal and glass and having ip68 or 6-7 ratings it would be tough to make a removable battery work and so that's why we have the fix ELLs that we have today it's a shame but it's the future you know how most smart phones these days look pretty say me well it isn't always used to be this way handsets used to be made from different materials and shaped in different ways I distinctly remember the Moto maker program in which you could build your phone to order with a wooden back and colored accents and in other parts of the industry you could get different colored backs different textures different materials and you could have a phone that no one else in your town had in that configuration which made the phones more unique and more interesting sure phones feel brilliantly made and have some pretty cool colors in 2020 but it's not quite the same and you can't really make the phone your own proper fingerprint scanners you remember those it doesn't feel that long ago that every phone had a replaced capacitive fingerprint scanner and sometimes we're cool gestures to bring down the notification shade they were faster and more accurate than the in display ones we have stay and in my opinion more ergonomic as well but the people have spoken in the transition over to in display finger it's kinda cz's all but complete let us know what you think about this one in the comments because it's divided me and my friends leading on from that those replaceable in buttons from LG or missed at least by me LG did a great job with its g3 and g4 that sported the rear buttons and many of my friends who owned LG devices really liked them sure they took some getting used to but they were different and unique and I think we were missing a lot of that in the smartphone industry today true stereo speakers are rarely found on any smartphones these days smaller bezels have taken priority over a great sound setup and I'm not sure if I disagree with that most phones have an amplified earpiece to go along with the bottom speaker and they sound good enough some sound outright awesome it's a decent compromise and one that most are more than willing to make for the sake of aesthetics so I'm not too sour about it the same goes for physical buttons like the track point like the keyboard and so on they all took up space where the screen could go and got canned as a result of it I'm not saying it's the end of the world but they were really nice to have and at least options on the market were convenient sure haptics have got better over the years and especially in the pixel series you get some of the crispest vibration motors possible but with that physical keyboard you just cannot be typing out an email or a message or anything like that on one of those nowadays when you buy top-tier smartphone it's unlikely that you'll be receiving everything that you want in the box you tend to get the charging brick a USB cable and the phone itself but how about a headphone dongle USB c2a adapter TPU case or even a decent set of earphones some smart phones still have some of these things Samsung's probably the most consistent across the board but you'd be hard-pressed to find any other smart phone that comes with all of those accessories in the box two types of smartphones that we barely ever see these days are compact and rugged editions the latter is all I can personally get over since they never really looked all that great and a lot of users tend to put cases on their phones anyway but the former yet that one I'm offended by compact smartphones are also having something that fits in your hand and your pocket without feeling unwieldy that has all of the features and specifications of the top model that's awesome we don't tend to get that these days and it's only kind of did the more recent one with the ex-head compact and z5 compact but those are a little bit in the past now I suppose the closest thing we have to is the pixel 4 but that's still like a 5.7 inch screen so I'm not sure if I can really count that as compact that's it for our list but if you want to read more into it then do check out the link in the video description which will take you to the full article written by my always awesome co-worker Andrew crush once you're down there hit like and subscribe to never miss a video like this one and so in the comments what you think we missed off of this list we'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on the matter anyway I've been Ryan Thomas with the Android Authority and I'll see you later peace\n"