Phone makers have come up with all sorts of ideas over the past decades. Some devices and their features have brought breakthroughs, while many others have not. The ever-evolving technology, changes in design trends and the obsolescence of old technologies have caused even the things that were once considered attractive on phones to disappear at some point.
Here are some things that were once common on mobile phones and are no longer needed or prevalent today.
Physical QWERTY keyboard
Phones with a physical QWERTY keyboard have played an important role in the past and have been the dream of many people. From the Palm Treo 650 to the Nokia E71, Nokia E63, BlackBerry Bold 8800, BlackBerry Bold 9900, and many more devices have provided users with physical computer-like keys for them to compose texts, messages, and emails. , … in a very professional manner.
There’s no denying that physical QWERTY keyboards have so far had their advantages, simply touching the glass of a smartphone can’t feel as good as a real key. Some people can even type without looking at the keyboard, the shortcuts also help a lot in the process of using the machine.
However, with today’s needs, the weakness of the physical QWERTY keyboard has completely overwhelmed the strength. That is, it takes up the screen area. This is something that Steve Jobs was absolutely right when he introduced the first iPhone, focusing on the touch screen.
It is easy to see how large screen smartphones have been loved by users over the years, it is not wrong to say that users value the screen size higher than the physical QWERTY keyboard and gradually do not. few people remember a thing that used to “storm” anymore.
Proprietary charging port
Charging a phone is simple these days, when nearly every new smartphone uses USB-C, or an iPhone has a Lightning port. Before that, however, things were not so easy.
Before USB-C, there was micro-USB, and on some devices even mini-USB. But even those standards are not universally adopted by all device manufacturers, and often mobile phones and their accessories come with completely proprietary charging cables and ports. Nokia prefers to use a small charging port, Motorola uses a large charging port, and Apple has a 30-pin charger for early iPhones. It was a real mess then.
With USB-C becoming the standard for accessories and smartphones, this nightmare is almost over.
Defective screen
Missing screens have never been appreciated, but have been a trend for a while on smartphones.
Essential was the first to introduce a smartphone with a notch, the Essential PH-1. Essential may have been the first, but Apple is the company that made the notch so popular. Most iPhones since the iPhone X have had a huge notch at the top to house the selfie camera and Face ID module. And many Android companies have also joined this trend.
Thankfully, most Android smartphones have abandoned this design, especially large models like the iPhone. Some low-cost phones still have waterdrop-style screens, but most Android devices these days use old-fashioned punch-hole designs or bezels to house the front camera. Even the iPhone 14 is rumored to switch to a punch-hole camera.
Removable battery
In the early days of smartphones, removable batteries were commonplace, with nearly every device having a removable back cover so users could access and replace the battery inside whenever they wanted. This was once considered a strong point, when users could buy an extra backup battery and “hot change” to make the phone full again immediately.
While the iPhone has never had a removable battery, smartphones from Samsung, Nokia, and most Android device makers have. Research In Motion has even used removable batteries on its BlackBerry devices as a marketing gimmick against the iPhone.
Smartphones are getting more powerful and users can use one for many years, non-removable batteries can become a problem in the long run when it no longer holds the same capacity as before.
However, current users prefer high-end designs from materials like metal and glass over plastic. Moreover, people want the phone to be dustproof, water resistant. These require sacrifices, and that sacrifice is the removable battery. Changes in purchasing trends will lead to changes in hardware design.
Today, instead of removable batteries, we have high-capacity backup batteries, fast charging, to recharge smartphones when needed. Power banks not only charge phones, but also can be used to charge many other accessories such as headphones, smartwatches.
At this point, there is nothing left to complain about the disappearance of the removable battery.
Reference: AndroidAuthority
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