Not even what it was once close to being unfortunately on the android side either.
Android users have also been losing features every year.
Flagships have seen the removal of:
-SD card expansion - what we could once count on to use phones like mirrorless cameras is now gone so they can rip you off for higher non expandable storage (128GB SD? $10. 128 -> 256 GB base? $200)
-
3.5mm - why buy cheap wired headphones when you can force people to spend 10x as much on wireless! Coming up with a solution to a problem they invented.
-
IR blaster - yes I used it since it worked on TV, receiver, DVD player, air conditioner, etc. Also super convenient if you have used stuff you bought without the remote
-
FM radio - yes I used it again since no data needed! Can also be fun to listen to campus radio or when travelling
-
notification led - The RGB led was pretty good when you had binds foe each app to know who texted you and why. Always on OLED draws substantially more power than the LED did
-
Always unlocked bootloaders - the custom ROM scene was pretty big at one point, but has shrunk as more manufacturs have begun locking bootloaders ‘for safety’
-
removable battery - phone no longer holding a good charge? $15 fix. Was also super convenient since I bought a spare that I kept charged and in my bag, meaning I could go 0% to 100% in 2 mins… better than fast charge!
List could go on for longer. Maybe it’s just nostalgia but I do miss some of those days.
This is what Android users get for pining after Samsung despite them being first in line after Apple to remove most of these. JFC they made a phone that exploded and they STILL lead the market.
(yes, I use android too)
JFC? I don’t know that brand.
They make jicken
no no, they come from jentucky
Jeantucky?
it has free children
yeah thats why we dont buy samsung. isnt it great that we can just not buy a flagship and just get a better phone for less money.
I’m conviced LG (do they even still make phones?) and Samsung removed the IR blaster so you connect their ACs, TVs and other shit to the internet
- Losing SD Expansion sucks; they should bring this back. Only reason they stopped this is greed.
- Yet another Nice-To-Have that is gone; but I’ve never seen any phones that weren’t Samsung with this. This one doesn’t really even affect waterproofing; or phone size so they have no excuse.
- I certainly miss this one; but the FM Radio was present back on my 2020 Moto G6 Power. It was present on my 2020 Moto Edge. This one got stolen from us because we lost the 3.5mm Jack too…they used the wire from your wired headphones as an FM Antenna lead.
- This is nice; but I ended up having to root my Nexus 6 to make this work properly and use all the colors the LED could perform. I don’t really miss it with Bezel-less phones.
- I hate that bootloaders are frequently locked; but it’s been less necessary to root Android as it’s improved over the years. There are still a few pain points; but not quite as many that require root.
- This is another case of greed. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have removable batteries for phones that aren’t IP67 or higher. If it ain’t waterproof; there’s no reason to seal the battery in…and replaceable batteries is a benefit when they accidentally ship units that become “spicy pillows” when the batteries swell due to bad batteries. It also simplifies disposal of phones; which don’t need disassembly if they’ve got a removable battery.
My old HTC one had an ir blaster. It was great.
The newest HTC phone had a headphone jack and expandable memory. Hopefully they keep going down that route and keep up the software support and I might have to consider them.
IR blasters are very common on Chinese brand phones even today. It’s easily the feature I miss most from my Huawei.
Ah; I don’t use Chinese branded phones at all. Never have.
Phones in the US market do not usually have them, unless they’re Samsung branded, and since I don’t include Chinese made phones in that “group”, what I’m saying is true for the US.
I’m based in the US and that’s where I used my Huawei phone until recently. OnePlus is among the manufacturers that still do IR blasters, and it looks like the OnePlus 12 has one and is easily purchased from their US store page.
As far as I can tell Samsung hasn’t released a phone with an IR blaster since 2015 either. Essentially, IR and Samsung hasn’t been a thing for a long time. If we are going by total volume then I would agree that the most common manufacturer in the US that has/had IR is Samsung. If we are going by new phones available today, then Samsung isn’t even in the conversation.
I’m not entirely sure what this comment is in relation to yours, I don’t think I disagree with you, I think I’m just adding some context or nuance.
- Losing SD Expansion sucks; they should bring this back. Only reason they stopped this is greed.
Fuck that noise. SD expansion was a terrible idea and I’m glad it’s gone. There are so many problems introduced by removable storage, it was a terrible PITA to deal with as a developer. One of Google’s dumbest ideas in early Android. Good. Fucking. Riddance.
Uh, No. Hell to the fucking no. Bring back SD expansion. Treat it like the data storage device it was.
Your beefs with Google are misplaced; because they were trying to mess with what folders were used; and with trying to protect user privacy because applications were misusing storage to violate their user’s privacy.
I have honestly never heard this take but it makes sense. If you feel like elaborating more on why it’s a pain for developers I would be interested. But like, I also have google if you don’t feel like typing it all out lol.
Several things that made the SD card annoying to developers.
First: you could not install an APK on the SD card (probably due to DRM reasons). So if you had a larger app and you wanted users to be able to take advantage of the additional storage offered by the SD card you could not do this simply by having a large APK. (Note that this also was true for phones that had no removable SD card but had internal memory that presented itself as ‘external storage’).
On some phones the normal storage was so small that any larger app had to leverage the external storage to be able to even fit (we’re talking 10+ years ago). The way to do this was using so-called ‘expansion files’. These were additional data files, up to 2GB a piece, that could be installed on the external storage. These came with some additional difficulties.
- They were pure data files, so they could not contain any executable code. They were just big binary blobs, so none of the Android built-in mechanisms for loading assets depending on screen density, screen size and all that stuff worked. You had to do it all by hand.
- Since they were just binary blobs, you had to do any organization inside the files yourself. For example, they could be large ZIP files but you had to do all the ZIP handling yourself. Compared to normal APKs that are also ZIP files but where you can just load stuff from the APK archive and it’s all handled by the framework.
- The expansion files were separate from the APK. The Play Store did try to automatically download them if your app had expansion files, but this was not guaranteed. Furthermore, because they live on an SD card they could disappear at any moment. Your app needed additional logic to deal with this, code to re-download the files if they were missing, code to handle errors during the download, UI to show the download progress, etc.
Another problem with SD cards was the huge variety in quality of SD cards. Phones internal storage is reasonably fast, but you never know what kind of cheap-ass yanky SD card the users installed in their phone. This caused all kinds of performance problems in more demanding apps and as a developer you had to deal with the fall-out (bad reviews, support requests, etc.)
Thanks for all the info. That’s really interesting. I remember those phones that had like 2GBs of internal storage and 1.5GBs was taken up by the OS so you could have like 5 apps and 1 video on there before you needed an SD card. Those were a huge pain.
I also remember not being able to move certain apps to an SD card as it was restricted by the software. I used to wonder why, but that actually makes a lot of sense now lol.
Also, are you saying my SpamDisk 150TB SD card I got on wish for $0.93 is not good enough for you? Elitist.
Yeah @[email protected] - this is a first! Also curious to hear more.
Bought a new phone and still find myself searching for the audio plug every time i pick up my headset…
-
“The soulless corporate brand is like is better than the one you like.”
That Sony retailed for $1300 when it launched
The iPhone goes for $800
The 13 Pro which released around the same time also had USB 3.2g2 and 120hz display. The Pros are clearly a better comparison.
That’s not to say Apple’s done good or anything, just a super expensive Android device vs the entry iPhone doesn’t seem like the best comparison
Was gonna ss with the 16 as comparison but it doesn’t show pricing. 15 is still $eu600 or greater REFURBISHED. The xperia is $eu 400 REFURBISHED. (SS shows the cheapest on amazon for both.)€
Ty
So, iPhones retain their value better?
in 2021
The iPhone 13 was 2021.
op’s post was making the point that a lot of specs of the 2024 iphone 16 were already found on the 2021 sony xperia 1 III. I don’t really care about either, and you could use a lot of different 2021 android phones as a comparison. I don’t even think the comparison is entirely fair, but to ignore the fact that apple is clearly lagging behind android on certain aspects while hiding behind marketing is just misguided. Also, their phones are just overpriced because of price, and the innovation argument is getting old.
Thanks for the clarification!
goteeeem
As a person who has worked in telecom for over 15 years…shhhhhhhhh…
You like android better? Cool. You like IOS better? Cool. They do essentially the same thing in different ways with different pros and cons. What works best for one person may not be for someone else.
In 2024 if you’re arguing on the internet (or perhaps worse, in real life) about which phone is better you need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and take an assessment of your priorities.
Also, because I love downvotes apparently, this also applies to windows/linux/mac OS. Unless I’m on my Mac like “Gee I sure wish this was more open source, if only there was an alternative.” I don’t need you telling me to switch to linux bro.
It’s a relevant topic to talk about. You wrote so much yet said nothing except I don’t like seeing people talk down to apple users. Which i agree with a little but people will talk about relevant things like smart phone choice whether you like it or not.
Also have you tried switching to linux?
What about the need to tell others how to and what to discuss in their free time with their social circle? Can I do that?
It’s comparing hardware, not OS
So do you whip out this copypasta anytime people try to have a fun discussion about something or?
I’m invested because higher adoption of my preferred platform causes prices of said platform to drop, making the platform economically attractive to develop for.
Fewer users causes less effort to go into the platform by larger corporations due to lower revenue streams, diminishing updates and feature count over time.
Eventually, users leave due to pain points not being addressed. Shrinking user bases causes independent developer talent to focus on other platforms since the economics no longer work in the marginal case.
The shrinking independent developer contributions to the ecosystem make the required effort to develop for it that much higher, since the tools and apps that would have been built weren’t.
Higher development costs slow down feature pacing, due to the increased effort needed to substitute the efforts of missing ecosystem developers.
Lack of feature cadence drives users to other platforms, shrinking the user base, bringing us back to step 1.
I would have shared the hell out of this meme on Facebook when I was ~18 years old.
Someone should saw off the legs of the techbros that came up with the idea of removing the headphone jacks from phones. Just like the headphone jacks, legs are technologically “superseeded” by cars and electronic wheelchairs.
Think they do it to save like 10 pence on tens of thousands of phones, but that’s what happens when you are legally required to chase profit and the only way to do it is to enshitefy your product
And then you can sell USB-C -> Jack converters (which break after a while - I’ve dismantled one for recycling for my Raspberry Pi, later I might make one epoxy potted for my phone), easy to lose wireless earbuds, etc.
If the fucking usb c audio was at least consistent, but no, the dongles are different and the phones are different, good luck trying to not blow up ypur phone by buying the wrong accessory (I blame the spec, not that I’ve read it)
Best if you get one of those USB DACs. Those even work on a PC with a converter.
They did it to improve water resistance and to sell the more expensive wireless earpods.
which don’t really matter unless the difference allows your phones to survive a full cycle in a washing machine. So far many phones which removed the headphone jack still does not.
That is an added benefit or apple and google
I wouldn’t mind if they replaced TRRS with a better connector. I get that the jack is a large part and it’s difficult to seal against water ingress. The wiper contacts on it are also unreliable, and the plug doesn’t release well when your cord snags.
Multiplexing headphones with my one and only charging port is absolutely the worst possible answer.
(Did i forget to mention that I want it to be an open connector? One that any vendor can make without Apple’s permission?)
(Did i forget to mention that I want it to be an open connector? One that any vendor can make without Apple’s permission?)
Apple ditched Lightning last year. All iPhones from the 15 forward are USB-C.
Lightning and USB-C are both equally terrible headphone plugs.
Sure, in that the port is far more versatile than it needs to be for audio output. I’m not arguing otherwise.
I don’t remember the last time I needed/missed 3.5mm
Meh, I haven’t really missed it as much as I expected. The one and only (pretty minor in my case) issue I’ve run into is not being able to charge the phone while connected to the car’s stereo. Though it wouldn’t surprise me if you could just use a usb-c splitter to do that.
Fair point, at least they should give us two USB-C ports, at least on the flagship models.
I did a arm chair calculation and the money saved on not having a headphone jack at 0.10pence per peice, and found that they didn’t spend 200,000 quid on headphone jacks. (I read that since iphones after 6 don’t have it, so that’s 28 models of phone, that’s millions of phones, so I guessed 2million phones multiplied by 0.10 which gave me 200,000.)
I’ve literally never used the headphone jack on a phone in 10 years.
And I wonder how many would still want it back if they realized the phones then were bricked after getting submerged in water like they used to.There are many phones with a headphone jack that have an IP68 rating which invalidates your whole point. If the headphone jack was so compromising then Apple would have needed to remove the charging port as well.
many phones with a headphone jack that have an IP68 rating which invalidates your whole point
Typing on one right now.
A sick and twisted part of me wants to see charging ports removed too. Every port! Make it IP69+ compliant. Maybe then the careless kids I know might keep a device alive for more than a year. Ultimately all that would do is barely solve one problem and introduce a whole lot of other problems.
Phones became waterproof before removing headphone jacks became a trend. You’re talking nonsense.
Headphone jacks can be waterproofed, manufacturers are just lazy.
About 10 years ago I used headphones daily, now I do so just frequently enough that it’s irritating to realize I need to purchase a dongle just to do so and go “well I guess I’m not listening to music/podcasts right now”
What I learned when working for a phone manufacturer is that the headphone jack usage varies by product segment. Cheaper phone users use the headphone jack far more frequently than premium phone users, so they’d keep it on the budget models but drop it on the higher end models. They also did similar with NFC and wireless charging which was interesting…
I’ve literally never used the headphone jack on a phone in 10 years
We understood that as soon as you said “literally”.
I’ve not used on*star, a fire extinguisher or a #2 pencil in a while either, but I bet they’re important. Beware false consensus.
I do. I don’t use wireless headphones, and the dongle sucks. And hate having earbuds with a proprietary jack I can’t use elsewhere. Plus I used my iPhone as a synth/drum machine and needed to charge and play at the same time.
Most people don’t use them and never did, all the people downvoting are just salty because they’re not the target audience.
People are downvoting because the comment is flat-out wrong.
There is no right or wrong, it’s all subjective opinion.
Nope.
if they realized the phones then were bricked after getting submerged in water like they used to.
This is not subjective, it’s objectively false.
it objectively depends on the design of each individual phone
So we agree, you were wrong about it “all being subjective opinion.”
Most people don’t care, don’t use it and it saves cost and thickness. I think they are smarter than you on this.
You are not their target audience, they know there’s not enough of you for it to make a difference.
It saves an amount of money so minuscule it literally makes no difference.
As for thickness, the iPhone 15 is 7.8 mm thick. You cannot in good faith believe that a 3.5 mm headphone jack can’t fit in it.
Wouldn’t they have to sacrifice like three* minutes of battery life or something though? Everything packed sooo tightly.
*or 10 or 30, somebody here probably can make a really good educated guess
Depending on the internal design of the phone, maybe.
But batteries are rectangular and they can’t put them EVERYWHERE. There are places (such as near the USB port) where you can’t really put battery no matter what because there have to be things that would interfere with the rectangular battery.
So it might have an effect, but not necessarily, depending on design, and it might be smaller than you’d think.
Phones are so thin now that people are crying back the thicker ones…
Wouldn’t be surprised if they have trackers on the iPhone to survey if ppl use the headphone jack 😂
S24, Pixel 9, iPhone 16: 7 years of is support
Sony: 2 years
Confirmed: my six year old iPhone gets the new version of iOS this month. Runs amazingly. Battery lasts all day still. No complaints.
Kernel source code released so you can support it indefinitely yourself?
Only Sony.
Google and Samsung do this too
But good luck maintaining the kernel by yourself.
It’s actually 4 years now. Still terrible for the price, of course.
How does this belong in memes??? thete isn’t a single meme able thing in this image, it’s not funny or interesting either. It’s brain dead fanboy fullshit, as many in the comments have shown.
Lame as fuck
Why doesn’t this post mention the price? It is an extremely important factor.
Imagine thinking about price on a new iPhone, app charge a lifetime savings for the shitest phone
Buddy if you think the entry iPhone is expensive you should take a look at the price of an Xperia flagship
This looks like one of those PC/Console comparison memes from the early days of pcmasterrace. I like it!
Where meme?
Both of these are way too expensive for me.
60 Hz in 2024 is crazy, aside from the fact that iPhones have been the same for the past 6 generations.
60 Hz in 2024 is crazy, aside from the fact that iPhones have been the same for the past 6 generations.
iPhone Pro has been 120Hz for a while now. Also
bigger base level storage andUSB. If you want the fancy specs you get the fancier phone.Just stating we shouldn’t have to pay over $1000 usd to get a 120hz display. This doesn’t justify it when you can buy phones with high refresh rate for $300
So buy the $300 phone! If the iPhone isn’t your cup of tea you don’t have to buy it. You’ll sacrifice some stuff to get the price point that low, but if they’re things you don’t want or need, awesome!
That Xperia 1 iii pictured? $1300 new in 2021.
both 16 and 16 pro have 128 GB base storage
both 16 and 16 pro have 128 GB base storage
I stand corrected.
That said, if you up the price to match the pictured Xperia 1 iii ($1300 when new in 2021), the iPhone Pro (13 in 2021) will have 512GB (256GB for the Pro Max at $1200). Fancy price for a fancy phone.
At the end of the day people should just buy whatever phone fits their needs and their wallets, and let others do the same. Android phones are great. iPhones are great. We’re living in the future and other than the dystopian tendencies, it’s pretty awesome.
What are y’all doing on your phones that 60hz isn’t enough. For the power user I guess but your average user. Makes no difference
I mean usage wise sure you still see the display either way. But high refresh rate is better for your eyes, especially when it’s a quality display with high PWM rate. There is a huge difference between an S24’s display and an iPhone 15’s. I can use the S24 without my eyes getting tired for hours, while my eyes get sore after viewing the iPhone for a while.
My ~230$ android phone has 120hz screen and very similar features. However, I had to turn the refresh rate back to 60 cuz it was chewing through battery. (5kma)
The “physical capture button” sounds ominous.
You throw your phone at someone like a pokeball and capture them.
Well, that’s not too far off from what certain groups of people think happens when you take a photo of them lol
