I went through my late teens as the initial smart phone boom was happening. I had a Motorola q that could get TV channels and had a keyboard. I had the enV that flipped open. And many androids/blackberries that I loved for their unique form factor and functionality.
I have never balked at spending money on a phone and for a long time i felt locked into generic flagship devices. With the debut of folding screens I feel like my appetite for unique devices rekindled. I think the power of android lies in its diversity of implementation.
So what features and functionalities would you choose over the next flagship release?
E-Ink would be nice, whether integrated as part of an OLED/LCD screen, or a separate module that goes over the top.
Most of the things that I use my phone for don’t generally need the full colour display (text isn’t that expensive to display), and I wouldn’t mind trading that for vastly better battery life that you can get from e-ink, but having the option to use both is probably the best way to go.
An IR transceiver wouldn’t go poorly either. It’s not something I use much, but it was handy to have when I did, whether to send things around, or to just use my phone as a remote for televisions and things.
OLED or LCD + e-ink hybrid screens are probably quite a few years off yet, but I know there was at least one laptop with an e-ink screen on its lid
so many smart phone manufacturers are so gung ho about making the back of the phone out of glass (which I hate), I wonder if they could be convinced to swap it for an e-ink panel?
being able to just flip the phone around in your hand when you step into bright sunlight, instead of having to fumble with the status bar pulldown menu’s brightness slider, would ABSOLUTELY RULE
plus you know. like. eyestrain relief or whatever :)
I don’t know if having the phone be a touch screen on both sides would be that good of an idea, since it just seems like it would be an awful experience to accidentally fumble things because your hand was touching the back (or be unable to use a case with it).
Maybe if it was combined with some of the newer folding phones? You have an e-ink outer screen, with a regular LCD/OLED inner screen?
I assumed some sort of palm rejection would prevent taps registering on the side not in use, but completely forgot about phone cases 🥴