The 5 functions of mobile phones that have disappeared and still miss

The evolution of the smartphones that has been seen in the last two decades (although they have been with us longer) has shown that, in the end, the design and manufacturing trend makes the vast majority of brands end up opting for technological solutions that make it Most models look great. Some more than 10 years ago in Spain there was still a kind of option to be able to buy mobile phones with physical keyboard, or with rare shapes, but that is already a thing of the past.

At this time they have been popularized technologies that were not common a while ago, such as NFC chips for mobile payments, periscopic teleobjectives in the cameras to have powerful zoom systems without penalizing the thickness … but we have also seen how Technologies that were used even the last century have been put aside. Among the ones that are missed are the headphones jack, the microSD tray, the removable battery, the FM radio or the notification LED.

Some of them, like physical keyboards, do not miss. At least not massively, since the advantages that its elimination has brought are superior to the inconveniences. However, Other technologies even today are missed by many peoplealthough technically there are still mobiles that have them. But a few years ago the vast majority of mobiles, except those of Apple, bet on all of them.

Notifications LED

Before the smartphones became popular, the way to customize a mobile was limited to the call tone we could put. At that time having the mobile with sound was normal. Not currently. It is still doing, yes, but not everyone has it with sound. The change began to occur when the notification LEDs appeared.

These small elements that illuminated in different colors They allowed us to know, without having to turn on the mobile screen, if we had a notification or not And, in some cases, even the type, depending on color. With the arrival of smartwatches this need has been decreasing, but even today many miss it.

It is practically impossible to find a mobile today with this function With a curious exception: Nothing. The English company has used the characteristic LEDs of the rear area of ​​its mobile phones to function in different ways, and one of them is to serve as a notification LED.

MicroSD

Another characteristics that we see little by little is the Memory expansion using microSD cards. It is true that in the entrance range this is still very common, since the internal memory of mobiles is limited, at least compared to that of the most expensive proposals.

In the high range it is almost impossible to find a mobile with expansion slotbut since it is normal to see mobiles with 512 GB or more memory is something that seems expendable. But not for everyone. Many still like to use these cards to transfer data, to be able to make backups in a simple way … the greatest change we are currently seeing it in The mid -range, with mobiles of 400 euros or something less that do not have microSD slots either because they begin to offer amounts of memory that can be compared to those of the high range.

Jack of headphones

The way of listening to music has changed in recent years since streaming has positioned itself almost as the only way to do it. From the hand with this change, the Cable disappearancewith all the industry betting on TWS headphones, much more comfortable and with better technology than cable.

This has made it possible to eliminate headphones jacka benefit that occupied space in mobile phones and that practically only had a use. In spite of everything, the Z generation has returned to the headphones with cable in a kind of nostalgia of past times, but it does so using cables with USB-C connector since its mobiles rarely allow the use of headphones with Jack of 3.5 mm.

FM radio

The elimination of headphones jack comes hand in hand with the disappearance of another function: FM radio. The mobiles have incorporating this characteristic much longer than we believe. Even in the twentieth century it was common to see people using their phones as transistors. And for this it was necessary to use the headset cable as an antenna.

At the moment, In the streaming era, all that information can also be heard through web applications or apps installed on the mobile so a chip that is capable of receiving the radio signal is not necessary. In spite of everything, many users, especially those of a certain age, miss this function when buying a new mobile.

Removable battery

The last characteristic of the first smartphones we have lost is the Possibility of replacing the battery. Currently we have become accustomed to loading the mobile daily and with the new carbon silicon technology maybe even every two days. In addition, fast charging systems are better.

So why do you miss? Well by the Batteries degradation. Since now the mobiles last us more, it is not uncommon to see users who simply change the battery of their mobile to endure one or two more years instead of changing terminal. This would be much easier if we could simply change it at home without taking it to a technical service.