Ask Lemmy

3.5mm audio jack - unfortunately, most smartphones no longer have this.

Unlockable bootloader.

Maybe that's not underrated on Lemmy, but mainstream reviews never even mention it.

Scanning WiFi signal strength and channel.
Can’t do this on iPhone, because Apple. You need an Android phone for doing something as “technical” as this. I guess “pro” here refers to people who never touch their WiFi settings.

Who needs this?
Anyone who thinks their WiFi sucks and is willing to put a little bit of effort into picking a better channel.

Smartphones small enough to hold and operate with only one hand.

In spite of what ~~Apple~~ Tim Cook seems to believe, my hands are the same size they were in 2007. I constantly need to hold and operate my phone while moving and holding something or using my other hand for something else. It’s non-negotiable. I would suffer tremendous productivity loss and literally miss connections if I needed two hands to hold or fully use my phone.

So unless the next guy promptly undoes the damage Cook has inflicted on Apple, the SE3 is going to be the last iPhone I ever buy.

“Why don’t you buy…”

No. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, “If they have to buy an accessory just to use the phone, you’ve already blown it.”

The off button

Notification priority

There's loads of apps I want notifications from, but I want to go to them at my leisure. Apps don't get to decide to interrupt me, that's my decision.

99% of my apps are set to not display the notification icon and not buzz my phone. If I open the draw they show up under any notifications I've deemed important enough to still be allowed to interrupt me.

Edit: caveman typo

headphone jack

I had a mechanical tech demo I regularly did for work and I used to use an accelerometer bubble level app to level the base.

You can also use an app to get a 3D magnetometer reading to tell the orientation of a magnet, which I sometimes use for Warhammer models.

I use a free photogrammetry app (3 models a week) to make digital references for large 3D printed cosplay parts.

Silence Unknown Callers and Filter Unknown Sender

Sounds nice, but half the time the unknown callers are the most important ones.

Like someone from kids' school or daycare trying to urgently reach me, or a doctor, or health insurance verifying my banking details to send me a huge amount of money (actually happened the previous week...).

I don't especially like it, but by now realized that it typically is in my highest interest to answer those unknown callers...

• Scheduled messages - in case you realize you want to say something but not today
• Flashlight - let there be light
• Lockdown mode - in case you are at a rally and for some reason don't want to turn off the phone
• Sensors off, developer quick setting - to turn off sensors in addition to airplane mode in order to save battery even more
• MAC address randomization - for privacy
• The ability to attach a USB or wireless keyboard to type longer texts

• The ability to use the radio when connecting wired headphones. I believe most modern phones do not support this even if they have a 3.5mm jack
• Pin app. You can hand someone your phone to play a game or something without worrying they will mess with anything else
• Samsung also has a similar feature that blocks touches to part of the screen and takes you to the lock screen when you turn it off. So you can be playing a video with a locked screen
• Multiple profiles on a single phone. I've given my old phone to a friend whose phone broke until they could get a new one without having to remove any of my stuff

LineageOS lets you randomize the lockscreen number positions. Sometimes people watch you unlock your screen in the subway and bus to steal your phone, so this helps a lot.

shake for flashlight

In some Samsung phones there is a voice control for the camera. You can hold it up and say "shoot" (or cheese and a couple others) and it takes the picture. Best thing ever. So many times my hand is in an awkward position and I can't hit the button. Like sticking the phone into the engine compartment to see what's broken or something. All phones should have this.

Just a simple one, but the Calendar app. Being able to see and add to my schedule any time and place is invaluable.

Call recording.

I barely use my phone (as a phone, no apps, no nothing special installed on it) but up until a couple days ago my answer would have been easy:

The flashlight. I've been using it since there has been one on my smartphone.

Since a couple days ago, since I switched from iPhone to android (Pixel 9a) after having been an iPhone user since 2007, I have a second favorite feature.Not sure about its exact name but it allows Google to block all suspected spam calls. It's not like the 'filter unknown callers' we have on the iPhone since it allows Google to actively filter out whatever Google identifies as spam calling, while letting other unknown numbers reach us. This is great... so far (only one call spam managed to ring my phone), but I will need more time to see how well it really works. If it works as well as it seems to be working, this alone would be a good reason to switch from the iPhone... had I not just done so ;)

Accessibility tools

Silence Unknown Callers and Filter Unknown Senders on iPhone.

Doesn't iphone have a "auto silence spam callers" function? The one Android is amazingly good.

If turned off, turning itself on shortly before the next alarm rings.