
Ask HN: So what do you want in a mobile phone - virmundi
I&#x27;ve been watching conversations about phones here for years. Most of it is the normal iPhone vs Android debate. Little of it has been innovative.<p>Recently Amazon came out with the Fire. Reviews here were tepid to say the least. Tizen, by Samsung, seems to be viewed as nothing more than a cudgel. Even in the best comments it&#x27;s met with Fire-like apprehension.<p>So what does the community want? Some time ago there appeared to be a small faction of WebOS cohorts. Many panned that idea too. I realize that there is not a single, unified view of phones. I hope that this question provides a touchpoint for startups in the hardware&#x2F;os space to reference for future ideas.<p>Thanks.
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GFischer
I'm not happy with the lack of physical buttons, I had a Nokia N86, and I miss
several features a lot:

\- slide-to-answer

\- one-handed operation for calling with no need to look at the phone

\- the camera button (something Windows Phone does right)

[http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n86_8mp-2713.php](http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n86_8mp-2713.php)

for some time I thought the perfect form factor would be a slimmer Blackberry
Torch with Android:

[http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_torch_9800-3203.php](http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_torch_9800-3203.php)

However, I think I'm a very small minority.

One group I do think isn't being adequately addressed is nearsighted 50 years-
old (baby boomers in the U.S.?)

My relatives in that age group struggle to use their latest phones (both
iPhones and Android flagships) because of the tiny font sizes, and the lack of
physical buttons hurts as well - I have an LG G2 mini, and the power button in
the back and software buttons are a no-no for them.

That age group still has the money and motivation to buy a high-tech phone,
and aren't well-served by the market.

Edit: however, you have to be very careful in your message, old people don't
like to be called old :) or think of themselves as "old".

~~~
msh
I would also like a torch formfactor with android. The closest I have come was
my old experia pro.

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Zigurd
First, I second the call for totally open client code for all core
functionality. I think it's find that Google keeps some apps like Maps closed
for competitive reasons. But there is little or no secret sauce in the GMail
client, it ought to be open and support web-of-trust and strong encryption.

Second, I would like a phone that actually takes advantage of what the network
can do. I should be able to set up virtual PBX-like groups, for example, have
rolls for automated and human attendants, and have call control functions for
moving calls around the group. I know that's boring old telephony stuff, but
_some_ people still dial and answer calls on these things.

And I want an audio path for phone calls that the app processor can access and
encrypt.

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dutchbrit
I want a 100% open source solution (hardware + software).

The OS itself should have a flexible permissions system for applications - why
would an app need access to all my photo's or text messages for example while
they only need a specific item?

Interface should be as simple as possible.

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gregcohn
Better network QoS and noise canceling. It's odd -- and somewhat appalling to
me -- that there's all this innovation to which call quality (the point!)
seems to be inversely correlated.

