The perfect phone
Sometimes I like to fantasize about what "The Perfect Phone" might look like. Many other enthusiasts do also. And most of us all want the same thing that no one makes. Much of the industry has evolved purely for the purpose of removing value for the end user and clawing it back for the OEM. For example, SD cards were removed for the purpose of deriving revenue from wildly overpriced storage upgrades and cloud subscription services. Headphone jacks were removed for the purpose of selling more Bluetooth headsets. Theoretically any particular OEM can bring these back (and some do) but that means turning away larger profit margins in what is already a highly-competitive industry with small margins.
Materials
Plastic. Plastic is terrible for the environment. Why? Because it doesn't degrade (among other reasons), which is also great for something you want to keep for a long time. There are also recyclable plastics. Plastic is also much more durable and lighter than glass, which brings me into my next topic:
Aesthetics
Literally could not care less. It's going to get a silicone case over it anyway, which will also function to make the camera bump less bumpy.
Weight
For some reason so many people equate heavy phones with being "premium". "It has some heft to it" they say. I have the opposite opinion.
Biometrics
For years I used rear fingerprint readers. LG V20, LG V30, Pixel 3a, Pixel 4a, Pixel 5, and Pixel 5a all had a similar system. It was inexpensive and it was nearly-flawless, which is not something you can say of modern biometrics. The rear fingerprint reader also worked as an interface you could use to pull down the notification shade, which was just nice.
For some reason we've moved away from this nearly-flawless technology in favor of having a giant hole in the display, or using less-reliable, more complicated, and expensive readers under the display or facial recognition that doesn't even function when you put on a pair of sunglasses or are laid on your face in bed.
So yeah, this hypothetical device would also have one of those old-school rear fingerprint readers.
Operating System
Ideally it would run on Linux, however unrealistic that does seem at this point. So realistically the hardware would have to be designed in a way that supports GrapheneOS.
Physical Size
There seems to be a strange situation where "enthusiasts" prefer smaller phones, where virtually everyone else seems to prefer carrying around giant tablets on their person. I remember back when I had a Galaxy Note 2, I was teased relentlessly by my friends. I specifically remember one guy asking me if it played DVDs. Today that thing is positively miniscule in the realm of modern smartphones. And I think that's awful.
The ideal size, in my opinion, would be 5.5-6"
In order to accommodate the variety of hardware features and simultaneously small size, the device would probably need to be a bit thicker, which is completely fine. I mean you could literally double the thickness of a traditional smartphone and I'd be very content.
Battery
It's hard to say what size the battery should be, based on size, consumption and other necessary components. I probably would leave that up the engineers just to fill whatever space is available when the other hardware and overall size requirements are met. I will say it absolutely must be rated in watt-hours, because milliamp-hours is a stupid and useless metric.
It also must be swappable. As in old style phones where you popped off the back cover and slapped a new battery in, that way you're never tethered to an outlet, can carry as much power as you need anywhere you go, and they can be easily replaced as the device ages so that it's not so expensive that you decide to just throw it away.
Ideally the battery would just be connected securely with magnets and pop on and off the back with ease, with a small battery or capacitor internal to facilitate hot-swapping.
Protection
The exterior case is modular, allowing for replacement with different designs that give it some personality. There are also modules you can attach to the case, similar to Apple's MagSafe system but with actual mechanical connectors instead of lame magnets that just fall off when pressure is applied along the wrong axis. It's also replaceable, should it become damaged from dropping, etc.
3D models are made available for everyone to modify.
The case is raised ever-so-slightly above the display to give it a layer of protection from drops.
Headphone Jack
Again, this is a hot topic among enthusiasts (although decreasingly so as more and more people grow into acceptance) and I'm going to get on my soapbox for a moment.
Why were headphone jacks removed? Well OEMs would have you believe it was for:
- waterproofing
- space-saving
- Make the device thinner
But those things aren't true, as demonstrated by the many models both before and after the removal that retained those features.
You'll find that all smartphones are significantly thicker than 3.5mm. The world's thinnest smartphone (Oppo N5) is 4.21mm thick. Theoretically you could make them thinner but...why? You make them inherently more fragile and significantly limit the size and capacity of the battery, and what do you gain? Discomfort in the hand? Even harder to grip? The actual headphone jack component itself is smaller than the size of a pea.
Okay but why did they do this then? What's the real reason? Well what else happened at the exact same time that Apple removed the headphone jack? Oh, that's right, Airpods. Products that, on their own, produce enough profit to be on the Fortune 500 list, despite not being special. The magic of Airpods was in the software. Software that they lock all other OEMs out of.
What happened at the exact same time that Fairphone removed their headphone jack? They introduced Fair Buds. Hmmm.
Could it be that all these phone companies are removing headphone jacks with the sole intention of increasing revenue by upselling BT headphones? Hmm. Which explanation makes more sense based on the facts?
I've been using my Koss PortaPros literally since the 90s. Your Airpods will last 2 years. They are intentionally designed (in Apple style) to be completely irreparable and die within a couple of years, because the batteries are completely sealed.
But Brooks, don't you hate wires!
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. That's the beauty of choice. Sometimes I want to sit at my desk and wires don't get in my way. Sometimes I want to go for a walk or bike ride, and they do. Sometimes I travel on long trips through the airport and don't want to worry about yet another item to keep charged...
But Brooks, why don't you just use an adapter!?
Because adapters get lost. And while they're cheap, I don't want to buy a dozen of them to leave attached to each pair of headphones.
But Brooks, just buy USB-C headphones!
Again, I already have a dozen pairs of headphones. I am not about to go out and replace them all. Also many many other devices only have a headphone jack for audio. It used to be a standard for all audio devices before Apple ruined that.
But Brooks, I hate using wired headphones!
Great. Don't use them. You sacrifice nothing. Bluetooth has been around as long as smartphones have.
When we gave up headphone jacks, we gave up the choice of using wired buds and the only thing we received in return was more consumerism.
Anyway, moving on...
AI
Ohhh boy, another hot take. I actually would love some sort of local read-only AI on my device that actually functioned but I've never seen a useful one.
SD card slot
This is exceptionally useful for storage of lots and/or large files, like music. Streaming music is always nice if you want to explore or hear something new, but it's also dependent on a network connection that's not always available or reliable, and hearing breaks in music is incredibly jarring.
LoRa
This is probably going to be the most "out there" component. If you're not familiar with LoRa, it's essentially a long-range radio system that can carry extremely small amounts of data. Enough to power a long range sensor or send a text message. As you might expect with radio, range can vary widely, but this technology has been used in the past to send a peer-to-peer message upwards of 500 miles (line of sight). This system is independent of cellular and Wifi networks. They can be extended further with a mesh and support E2EE. The antennas can be quite small, much like cellular, wifi and Bluetooth antennas.
This is not mandatory and would be subject to the available device space.
NFC
NFC is an under-utilized technology, much like QR codes were pre-pandemic.
Mechanical switches
For power, internet (WiFi and cellular), camera, and microphone (like Purism Librem 5 phone). The power switch, specifically, should be located somewhere that it's not easily flipped accidentally, like behind the rear cover.
Nextcloud Integration
This device would integrate seamlessly with NextCloud for contacts, calendar, files, notes, news, all that good stuff.
IP
There is none. Hardware and software is all open-source. All schematics are published publicly online. Other OEMs are free to manufacture the exact same device if they wish.