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Comment by dimva | Hacker News Reader

I would gladly buy a new phone if they stopped taking away features. I currently use an iPhone SE, and I treat my phone as an extension of my brain - I use it 5 hours / day. For me, the pros/cons of an upgrade to an iPhone XS are:

Pros: better camera, faster processor, water resistant

Cons: no headphone jack, too large for my hands

It's not obvious that upgrading would make my life better - it's more likely to make things worse, actually. I'm not paying $1000 for that.

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They’re also making phones that are less comfortable to hold. But taking away the headphone jack is a non-starter for me. The FaceID “only” thing is a deal breaker for professional reasons. I also can’t stand the notch. They clearly don’t like the notch, either, since they hide it in all of their marketing. I’d rather they removed the selfie camera and relocate the speaker to the top of the phone.

Love my SE. The size is crazy portable. It’s even a little too thin for my comfort. But it’s so thin that a battery case isn’t a problem.

> I also can’t stand the notch....I’d rather they removed the selfie camera and relocate the speaker to the top of the phone.

I agree, although note that on many phones the proximity sensory, ambient light sensors, and/or face-recognition sensors are also located in the notch. Moving those to the edges of the phone, or putting them below the display, introduces additional engineering headaches.

I'd rather they just cut off the display about 5 mm from the top of the phone and put whatever sensors they need in that narrow strip. Turning ~60% of that 5mm strip into display is pointless, ugly, and adds significant software complications. Hopefully it's just a fad like the rounded display edges.

I think that’s what they will eventually do. I saw somewhere a paint had been patented that matches the black of the edge of the case but that lets the camera see out (or something like that). I do understand that there are legitimate uses for the front of the phone real estate. But I think they’re already willing to experiment with removing features for design so a perfectly edge to edge display sans sensors and camera makes sense-if only as an option amongst a couple options.

> I saw somewhere a paint had been patented that matches the black of the edge of the case but that lets the camera see out (or something like that)

Note that iPads already have some sensors behind the seemingly opaque white paint. (Purely for style reasons, I think.) And it's already pretty hard to see the front-facing camera on a black cell phone.

> Hopefully it's just a fad like the rounded display edges.

Edges or corners? I doubt rounded corners are a fad - if you think about the geometry of corners, assuming you need some minimum distance between the edge and the display, and your physical corners aren't a perfect 90°, you need rounded screen corners to maintain the minimum physical bezel size around the entire display.

I meant edges, not corners. They are sometimes called "edge displays" because they go "edge to edge"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.androidauthority.com/best-p...

(The silly part is the curve in the display, not per se that there is no bezel.)

In the SE boat as well. Great chassis - durable and fits in small pockets. Wish they'd keep squeezing newer gen parts into it. Every time someone sees it they're astounded at its tiny size, but I have no trouble reading on it.

I’ve had male relatives comment on the size of my phone like it’s an extension of my ego. Totally bizarre.

I think it’d be awesome to have the same form factor with an actual edge to edge display.

That's bizarre. I have a feeling that anyone who would make that connection and feel the need to say it out loud is projecting their own insecurities.

One of the things that frustrated me about the notch was the general public so deeply offended about the use of the top and bottom of a screen? The whole universe had to adapt to this weird non rectangular design for some dumb reason but I liked when speakers pointed at me and weren't muffled by my hand.

I think it’s just that compared side by side bezels look like unused space. Going full bezel-free is an extreme reaction. People easily leap from “too much X is less attractive” to “any X is too much.” It also seems the only trick Apple design is capable of these days.

The headphone jack is the biggest thing for me that comes up in the comparison shopping. I appreciate that some people enjoy their wireless headphones but to get 100% coverage for me I would need two or three pairs to charge on rotation. Or I could have one set that lasts me in every situation basically forever

I was hoping that one plus would have kept their jack but it feels like 2018 is the last year to buy a flagship grade phone with headphone jack? I have an HTC One from a while ago that recently got patched to android 5 which is good enough for today.

It's absolutely impossible to find a "small" phone -- ~4" screen -- with a high-quality camera. (I say "small" because even these phones still dwarf the easy-to-hold, easy-to-carry dumb phones.)

Plus, any phone that size would have a good shot at improving battery life without being too bulky. I'd love for someone to take my money another good 4" phone, but there's no options regardless of budget.

That goes for either Android or iOS.

As a user of wireless noise cancelling headphones for half a decade I couldnt subscribe to this criticism

There is also a lightning adapter to use aux cables, thats not supposed to sway you just letting you know thats its not a real limitation

Wireless headphones are great in a lot of situations (I have some) but they have latency issues that make them unacceptable in others.

They also move the problem of "using headphones" from "just plug them in" to "are the headphones charged, and can I pair."

Dongles move the problem from "just plug them in" to "do I have the dongle, does it fit my current phone."

None of these things are insurmountable obstacles, but they're an unnecessary annoyance.

The latency has been seamless for my use case for headphones on a phone

And as you already know, it was also already how I was using these devices

I am very content with the quality of my particular headphones but for the nuance you highlighted are you listening to sound or listening to your sound system

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