Greentext

While I do miss those things, my S23 Ultra takes fucking amazing pictures.

I must be a fkn weirdo because I just don't care about any of these things.

Replaceable battery is an exception - but that's coming back anyway.

I don't have any devices that use infra red

I don't need a microsd because the on board memory is so much I don't even have to think about capacity any more

I much prefer bluetooth

I much prefer a larger screen instead of buttons.

They didn't really cut a hole in my screen, they expanded my screen around my front facing camera. You can disable that expanded portion of the screen on most phones ?

I use the rear camera on my phone all. the. time.

Unstoppable full screen ads you have to watch before you can answer a call or view a text on your own phone

I hate both phone types horribly. On screen keyboards are complete trash. Not only did Android take the SD Card, but even if you happen to have a manufacturer who still includes it Google has made it horribly inconvenient to use so you buy their shitty cloud storage that loses people's data. Among many other issues.

1. If this hasn't been done already, being able to unlock the bootloader
2. Adding "AI" integrated into the OS with vague benefits even though the processing is done on the cloud (like Windows) just so the OEM can spy on you better
3. Forced volume limiters: The phone won't let you stay at max volume for more than 5 minutes a day, even if connected to a BT device set at substantially under max volume
4. Making it take more clicks to disable Internet, Bluetooth, other connected features
5. DRM built into Android itself
6. Being able to sideload
7. Ads within the OS

All of these are already on their way to being implemented:

1. Already the case with the vast majority of phones
2. Pixels already have this. Samsung is focusing on this in 2024. Several Chinese OEMs already have some version of this.
3. This was an idea Google attempted to implement in Android 14. Seems like it didn't go through that year, but there's always this year.
4. Google already made it harder to do this in Android 12. Apple also does this with the toggles only disabling WiFi/BT until tomorrow. Other OEMs are good for now.
5. After widespread disdain for Google's Web Environment Integrity BS, Google is quietly pivoting to this stupid change.
6. Google is now making it harder to do this on all Android phones. Now, you can only sideload apps targeting an Android version at most 8 behind the current one. This disables lots of little FOSS projects that were light on system resources.
7. Most Chinese OEMs already do this, although you can usually turn it off. Samsung used to do this, but backpedaled. Also bloatware exists.

You can still remove the micro sd, it's just hidden now.

Most of these gripes are solved by simply not buying the flagship and instead purchasing the $200 unlocked version.

Now the battery, that's the one that pisses me off the most. But at this point we've been doing it for 10 years.