6 ms·

I admire the gumption of making a new phone. But controlled obsolescence kills me. The real feature that improves in phones the past few years for me is the so

• fhood 9y ago
  All I want is to get google fi on an iphone. Ok battery, reasonable lifetime (I can usually get 3.5 years out of an iphone) and cheap international data.
  • msabalau 9y ago
    I have a Fi data SIM in an iPhone, and it works great. Not certain if you can sneak a voice SIM in.
    • subway 9y ago
      You can, but it first has to be activated on a supported device, and can only connect to T-Mo.
  • dmitrygr 9y ago
    You can insert a Fi sim into an iPhone. Officially this isn't supported, but you'll get reasonable service. What you won't get: auto switching between us cellular, TMobile, and Sprint; support; wifi calling via fi; and the Fi app. What you will get: TMobile service; International roaming at Fi rates; voice, data, and text.
• davemp 9y ago
  > And physical keyboards. Something for SSH'ing with. Biggest thing I want is no aux port but __two__ (or more) usb-c ports instead. That way you can do stuff like plug in a keyboard/monitor or other standalone usb devices. I don't want to be forced to use weird all in one hubs for specific use cases. I want the UNIX philosophy with my hardware.
  • zeppelin101 9y ago
    Bluetooth keyboards work great with Android devices. No cables required.
    • CaptSpify 9y ago
      Heavily disagree. Especially when using ssh. I always have alt/ctrl issues, and I've tried a handful of them.
      • mst 9y ago
        The lenovo thinkpad bluetooth keyboard w/built-in trackpoint has been working very very well for me, originally with the thinkpad tablet 2 it was designed for and these days with my second gen nexus 7.
        • CaptSpify 9y ago
          Thanks. Ill give that a shot
    • davemp 9y ago
      I'm sure they are fine, but I don't see why I have to deal with bluetooth pairing and managing another device's battery. Plugging things in works great and is an overall more efficient protocol.
  • tjoff 9y ago
    Just buy a usb hub instead?
• skykooler 9y ago
  Related to the last one: there's a keyboard mod for the Moto Z Play, which Motorola has officially approved, which is coming out next month.
  • jshevek 9y ago
    Very cool! I wasn't aware it was Moto approved. I look forward to 3rd party reviews: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-keyboard-for-the-moto-z#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-k...
  • Karunamon 9y ago
    115% funded, too! For a phone addon. Take that, "there's no market for it" doomsayers!
• joelrunyon 9y ago
  Agree on the battery life. Also - give me the new iPhone 7 camera without having to get the "PLUS" size. Also - for international carriers. Take a good look at t-mobile. International data+texting on their plans means I don't tough SIM cards ever anymore.
• swiley 9y ago
  At this point I would buy any phone that shipped their OS as a buildroot or openwrt fork with a mainline Linux kernel. At that point you /know/ it's going to be updated. I wouldn't even mind using FBterm for everything and not having a "modern" webbrowser, I don't think I've ever gotten anything usefull done on a mobile browser anyway.
• feld 9y ago
  > - And physical keyboards. Something for SSH'ing with. There is no market for this product. Nobody wants it except a tiny fraction of the market who work in IT.
  • fiatjaf 9y ago
    Which is the people who make software for the rest of the users, so they'll buy this phone and write software for it, making it desirable for others.
    • soapdog 9y ago
      As someone who has numerous Palm/HP devices running webOS and BB10 based Blackberry Passport and is a complete sucker for hardware keyboards, let me say that this assumption is false. People don't care about physical keyboards, it is not worthy the factory/design/maintenance costs. I still love them but I understand why vendors are not investing them anymore. If "people who make software" could really influence the market, Linux dominance would have happened between the 90s and 00s.
      • kbenson 9y ago
        Not to mention, why take the reliability gains we've made with these devices, likely because of the massive reduction in moving parts, and erase all that with a keyboard. An accessory seems like the right way to do this for those that really need it, and those accessories exist.
      • fasquoika 9y ago
        >If "people who make software" could really influence the market, Linux dominance would have happened between the 90s and 00s. Er, the vast majority of computers run linux
  • fiatjaf 9y ago
    Apparently you should give that advice to Google Chrome, which spends hundreds of thousands of money into making their developer tools better, a feature only a tiny fraction of their users want.
• izacus 9y ago
  > - Give me a lighter, snappier OS. Not something clunkier and slower and uses more ram, gpu/cpu (aka battery life). Well, Moto Z Play easily survives a day with 70%+ battery left. Of course Lenovo decided that that's untenable, and had to make Moto Z2 Play thinner and reduced battery capacity to be the same crappy one that we know from iPhones and other Android phones. (It also has/had dual sim tray, SD card tray and the ability to add an additional battery package if three days weren't enough for you). The current mobile phone "market" is downright terrible. Calling a market is perhaps an overstatement - you have a choice of marginally different 5,5" slabs with pretty much the same capability, battery life, screen. Want smaller display? Nope. Want more battery? Nooope. Want keyboard? Naaah.
  • jshevek 9y ago
    The Moto Z Play has amazing battery life, and the Z2 play reduced the battery less than 20%. While not as good, the Z2 play still has amazing battery life.
  • martinald 9y ago
    Agree, I have a Z Play and it is an amazing device. Not having to worry about charging your phone makes it a totally different experience. And it supports QC3 so when you do need to charge it takes <1hr.
• phonon 9y ago
  > - And physical keyboards. Something for SSH'ing with. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-keyboard-for-the-moto-z#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-k...
• er0k 9y ago
  Have you seen the Nokia 6? Pure android with dual SIMs
• schraitle 9y ago
  Not a physical keyboard, but Hacker's Keyboard on Android is my favorite for SSH'ing https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketworkstation.pckeyboard&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork...
  • cheald 9y ago
    Agreed, I don't really feel a pressing need for a hardware keyboard with Hacker's Keyboard available.
• dTal 9y ago
  You might be interested in the Pyra, though it's rather chunky for a phone - it nails every feature of your wishlist except dual SIM. It won't come with Android (that's the "lighter, snappier OS" part) but porting should not be a problem. Worth noting that global carrier support is an extremely difficult feature if you include all the wacky US carriers that don't use GSM. In the Pyra's case, there are actually two versions - the "US" version and the "everywhere else" version.
• givinguflac 9y ago
  I'm not trying to be snarky, I swear, but iOS checks all your boxes except "be android" along with dual sim and removable battery. And iOS hardware is still top of the pack when it comes to raw power in the majority of real use cases.
  • kuschku 9y ago
    And you pay at least thrice as much, get far worse app support outside of the US (for example, in Germany > 85% of users are on Android, so that’s where the apps are), and you basically can’t develop at all for iOS (who’s gonna pay 3000$ to get a Mac and stuff AND 99$ a year just to build apps in their free time? Yeah, me neither).
    • Shank 9y ago
      > who’s gonna pay 3000$ to get a Mac and stuff AND 99$ a year just to build apps in their free time? Yeah, me neither The Mac complaint is fair, but you can build and run your own apps outside of the store with a free developer account as of a couple years ago. Edit: Also, a capable Mac development machine is closer to $1500 than $3k.
      • kuschku 9y ago
        > but you can build and run your own apps outside of the store with a free developer account as of a couple years ago. That doesn’t really help when you want to use the apps with a few friends. Honestly, Apple and Google can have whatever they requirements they want for their stores, but they should be forced by law to allow alternative stores. And you’re right, the cheapest MacBook at 1499 EUR is around 1800 USD. That’s not nearly 3000 bucks, but an entirely different story than the 600€ I paid for my thinkpad or the 700€ I paid for my desktop. And I don’t want it anyway, I’d only use it for Apple development. And I’d already have to pay extra for the iPhone.
        • atomicUpdate 9y ago
          I bought a used 2012 Mac Mini for $450 and added some RAM and an SSD for $100. It probably wouldn't work great for large projects, but has been good enough for something a single developer can create on the side.
• jasonlaramburu 9y ago
  This sounds like a terrible business with a minuscule market. The cost of designing, manufacturing and shipping something as complex as a phone is huge. By making the battery user-serviceable, and the software updates free and indefinite, you would eliminate any possibility for recurring revenue.
  • plaguuuuuu 9y ago
    Make the batteries degrade really quickly and just charge $300 for a new one
• nearmuse 9y ago
  On top of that, I would add "make it 4.7 inches". When it comes to Android that is. The only current line of phones with specs I like is Xperia Z5/X Compact. First one is great, but overheats and is no longer available, the second one has a weirder design.
• jjrh 9y ago
  I understand physical keyboards aren't really a thing for most folks. What I wish though is that someone would make sliding keyboard cases for either more models (only one I saw was for iphone) or something generic that I could clip onto a existing case. There are some small pocket sized keyboards but with no way to attach to my phone they are not very useful. ---- For battery life I have been pretty impressed with my phone (xiaomi redmi note 3 pro) I only plug it in at night and can easily go 2 days without charging. It also charges extremely fast. First phone I have owned since my nokia flip phone that I almost never think about battery life.
• suenyoj 9y ago
  You should consider eSIM. SIM data will be stored on your smartphone without any SIM card and you can use multiple SIMs at the same time. Much better than Dual SIM.
• kllrnohj 9y ago
  > Give me a lighter, snappier OS. Not something clunkier and slower and uses more ram, gpu/cpu (aka battery life). The apps you[1] install are what use up all your RAM & battery. The OS itself is light, fast, and efficient. [1] Well, that either you installed yourself or that your carrier/oem "helpfully" bundled for you.
  • jiggunjer 9y ago
    There are apps in aosp that are needlessly bloated too. Not that you can see much of source nowadays.
• majani 9y ago
  That phone already exists and I'm using it right now: the Gionee M6 Lite. Everything in your wishlist except the physical keyboard, for $130. Since it's a Chinese phone it doesn't get much hype.