One should be at the bottom one at the top. I understand space on the phone is a premium but a second port would make the phone so much more usable. Wired headphones, flash drives, camera modules, speaker modules, keyboards, even connection to a TV, all could be used while charging. It’s a shame it’s not a thing, USB is extremely versatile port, but you only get one and it’s used for charging half of the time. (I am aware dongles exist)
are you also aware that some phones do have 2 ports ?
just buy one of those
ROG phone
More likely dedicated camera shutter button.
Double press power button to start camera, use volume up/down to take image.
Should work on almost any Android phone.
Double pressing power pulls up Google assistant on my Motorola…
On my Pixel, I have long press of the power button for Assistant. Volume Up and Power brings up the power options which are rarely ever used.
You can probably change that in settings.
If you have a Motorola phone then you should just be able to twist your wrist to open the camera instead. Also chop to turn on the flashlight. I miss chop to flashlight the most when I switched away from Motorola.
Yes. Those actions work.
I wasn’t really looking for how to do it though.
I was just pointing out that the previous comment about double pressing power does not just work on any Android .
I jiggle my wrist to open my camera app. And chopping motion turns on the flashlight
Why? The volume button does this
The two-stage shutter button from Sony cameras and phones is something I miss dearly.
Half press focus?
Sounds neat, but phone sensor is so small and focal length is wide so even if you just mash the shutter immediately, pretty much everything is in focus anyway. I can see why they did away with it.
This is what life is when all viable phones are made by two giant tech companies.
Wireless USB never took off. Essentials company was promisimg with PH1, it had wireless USB port. only released two wireless USB compatible devices for it though.
Well modern USB is great because of decent throughput, high power delivery, multiple protocols over it, and good compatibility.
Of course removing all of those didn’t work out.
You shouldn’t be using your phone while it’s charging. It’s bad for battery health.
More and more phones have a mode that is using only the needed power to do what you’re doing without charging the battery, like if your battery were disconnected.
What about when using it as a hotspot? There is no internet where I am, but I have data, so I use it for laptop use. It’s actually my primary ise if data. The hotspot uses a lot of power, tho. Can the os not regulate charging? I thought that was the case now. No need to cycle to lower %s for battery health.
How do I not do that when my battery is at 2% tho
Switch to second phone I guess?
thank god user replaceable batteries are coming back
If this is anything like the first EU decision and how it is worded, people are vastly overstating what it actually means. The important part about that one decision is that devices with water protection should only be serviceable by certified professionals, which should include the manufacturer’s repairmen and third parties, but not the end user. On the removable batteries part, having pull tabs already suffice the requirements, the batteries just can’t be glued down requiring alcohol or other prying methods to remove.
The devil is in the details
That’s fine, third party repair is good enough for me. Right now third parties can’t even do battery swaps because Apple signs batteries to the phone and you lose features without that signature.
The bit you’ve referring to was about devices designed FOR use underwater. Not devices that can operate under water. The OEMs will try and interpret it as you said and will end up getting fined.
Can USB hubs even allow the phone to be charged and simultaneously control things through the same port? I know I tried that back in the USB2 days and found it infuriatingly false, since had set up a wired USB mouse and game controller to my tablet for portable shooters. One particular hazard is I’ve found that combining bluetooth headphones and game controllers can result in unplayably-bad latency on Android, so wired options would be nice.
I think yes. USB-C docks are the proof.
Yes they can and do. The pins are separate and power delivery is both faster and more efficient than it used to be.
You can plug a USB hub into your phone. That’d give you more ports.
I’m fairly certain there are hubs out there with a pass-through for charging as wellThat’s what I use to connect external storage on my Chromecast w/ Google TV, kinda useful while traveling and the Internet sucks… Shame it only supports FAT32 for external drive tho…
i know, but it’s an extra thing to carry in my pocket
Am I the only one who uses magnetic cables?
I use them too! My phone usually fast charge at 30W, but with the magnetic cable it is capped at 5W (thanks God). I’ve seen drastic improvement in term of battery life because it charges slower and do not stress the battery as much as at 30W
Indeed. But it also makes the USB being very unwieldily to use for anything.
Dongle-life!!
Having something built in is so much better than needing a dongle. There’s a reason why even Apple brought back ports like hdmi and sd card slot to their Mac book pro line to eliminate even the needing a dongle for some people.
Yeah I’m not saying it’s ideal, but it could be a solution to the specific problem that OP was running into
I can’t relate at all. My phone is a PHONE, with options of short-term entertainment. I have other devices for other “computery” activities. I personally almost never use even my single USB-C port, thanks to wireless charging and wireless headphones. Sounds like your phone is your main device.
Many countries not so well off like us in the West do not have the luxury to have a smartphone and a computer. So options with 2 USB ports would be interesting. The bastardisation of the smartphone is a disgrace.
What exactly is getting bastardized? Phones never had 2 USB ports. And there are still new phones with headphone jack (Zenphone 10 comes to my mind). Yes, many brands dropped it, but it’s not a conspiracy (or at lest doesn’t have to be), it’s just basic economics.
What I call bastardisation is the many steps stopping us from using our phone as general computing platforms. Our phones have no reason to be confined by software locks like locked bootloaders, root login, etc.
As for the lack of 2 USB ports, it pictures that phones where never thought as general purpose computers. Maybe two ports is not the way to go but the lack of an interface which can act as a display output and a USB connection like what we have now with Thunderbolt on the desktop is a shame. The inability to turn my phone, which is more powerful than my current laptop, into a normal computer unencumbered by software and hardware restrictions is a shame.
The path taken by Pinephones and their Linux ecosystems is a step in the right direction. It shows that smartphone companies can do better.
As you said, it’s basic economics, it’s more profitable for them if we buy a new phone every two years, so they lock us out of our properties with software and hardware restrictions because they can.
For what current flagship phones cost they should absolutely be capable of general purpose computing.
Maybe come with a usb-c dock and screen as well for convergence.
Well, it depends what you imagine “general purpose computing” is. Android OS is primarily targeted at phones, with specific set of requirements, so I don’t think it can ever match desktop OSes, without major sacrifices from the both worlds.
The main reason why Android cannot work as a general computing OS are the many barriers and restrictions it has compared to traditional desktop operating systems.
Linux for example, which Android is based on, works fine* on the desktop but also on tablets or phones.*as in most modern apps scale properly and are usable on the desktop, tablet or phone. Support for the hardware, especially on phones and tablets, varies greatly.
I have a desktop i use at least 50% of the time and a couple of laptops i barely use because i don’t like to carry them, so when i need to do something away from the PC I’ll do it with my phone if at all possible. Sounds like you don’t use your devices in different places often.
I want a side port.
The usb c port on my 2 year old phone is still virgin…never plugged in a cable, ever. My dash mount charges wirelessly, my overnight charger charges wirelessly. I have a wireless charger on my desk if I need it (but never use it). I cannot imagine needing a 2nd usb port.
Damn I’ve never heard of a Virgin usb port on a phone before, good going
i shudder to think about how how much electricity has been wasted for wireless charging…
If you actually took the time to run the numbers you wouldn’t shudder, because it is so miniscule that it could be confused with rounding error.
And the 2nd one could go full thunderbolt too
Weird headphones don’t use ucb-c, there is already a standard for headphones and it’s the 3.5mm audio jack.
That’s not the only standard though. There is also 6.3mm jack, XLR and many other open and proprietary connectors.
I want XLR my next phone! 😀
a) I have a USB-c headset at work
b) the 3.5mm headphone jack can’t be used to transfer data (at a good rate)
Not sure what exactly you mean by headset. But headphones and IEMs will use a 3.5mm or 1/4" jack. My sennheisers use it, my beyerdynamics use it, my audio Technicas use it. Even my KZ IEMs and moondrop IEMs use it. This is a universal standard for a reason.
And not sure what the data rate has to do with anything. It’s an audio connector, it’s not used to transfer data, it’s used to move the drivers in a set of headphones. As usb-c doesn’t output line level audio, any headset you have that uses it needs its own DAC and amp which is problematic for e-waste reasons.
Headset, as in headphones with a microphone. I use it for MS Teams meetings and a bit of music and it works fine.
The point OP was trying to make is that you can use USB-c for other things besides listening to music.
Since you seem to be an audiophile with a list of fancy headphones (don’t ask me, my Cardo combined with earplugs is fine for the level of listening I want to do) then wouldn’t an offboard DAC / amp that you could keep far longer than a phone, and isn’t restricted by size constraints going to be better than a built-in version?
Also, if you’re worried about e-waste maybe you shouldn’t buy so many headphones. My partner’s Sennheisers have lasted 20 years so far.
I think you’re crazy 🤣
Soon you’re gonna feel lucky that your phone has even ONE port.
Give it 5 years and Apple will have removed their lightning and/or USB port and gone wireless on everything.
On the plus side it’ll make waterproofing way easier. And ports are often the first thing to break on phones in my experience. Honestly my biggest disappointment will be the loss of the SIM slot, since e-SIMs give me the creeps. I like that my relationship to the cellular provider is on a part I can pop out.
Yeah gadget makers were able to water proof Walkmans back in the 80s and these were devices with probably a dozen real physical buttons, a headphone jack and battery compartment, and hinged wide open to let a cassette tape inside. Waterproofing as well as durable buttons was something that was solved decades ago regardless of what Apple’s marketing bullshit has led people to believe.
Oh I agree but it’s obviously easier to waterproof a phone with ports. Besides that ports and buttons are the most common point-of-failure (I’m looking at my kid’s headphones on my desk where the power button was crushed in and my to-do list is to open it up and see if it’s repairable). Honestly my biggest complaint comparing the old Walkmen to modern phones isn’t the buttons and ports (I remember how miserable the buttons were on my 100-meter waterproof Casio watch back in the '80s) but rather the screws. I hate that glue has become a standard tool in electronics assembly. If I never have to do the gamble of the “hot enough to loosen the sealant but not to hot to damage it” dance with a heat-gun again it will be too soon.
Never stop from moving the heat gun. And getting a touchless laser thermometer can help to know what temp youre at.
Is wireless charging even possible?
To give more details since somebody else gave you the short answer: Not only is it possible, most mid-to-high-end phones and all watches have that feature today. Google “Qi charging”, which is the modern global standard (although many devices are still on their own incompatible standards – Galaxy Watch, I’m looking in your direction).
Yes but it currently wastes a lot of electricity and doesn’t charge the phone as fast in general.
I’ve been wireless charging for a long time now. Does Apple not have wireless charging?
Yeah, you set your phone on this pad, and it charges without being directly connected.
The worst part is AirDrop sucks. BT audio is still mediocre at best too.
I’m sure Apple is working on some new wireless standard called “magic connect” or some shit like that. It will be 13.8% better but make all previous devices obsolete and incompatible pushing people to trash their old stuff and buy some new overpriced, proprietary stuff.
Then when they introduce this new standard, their next presentation slide will pat themselves in the back because they are such a “green” company.
Agree on Bluetooth audio but what are you on about, AirDrop works fine and I use it to push large files between my iPhone and my Mac all the time.
Apple is going to be compelled to offer USB-C as a wired charging connection in Europe if it offers a wired charging option.
Apple itself or rumors have already shown they have thought about removing the port altogether.
Which means bye bye charging port
Well, if they are forced to bring back removable batteries which may be seem the case in a few years (unless they befuddle the EU authorities), they might have to bring back X if they remove it as well…
I’m disappointed Moto Mods didn’t take off. They would’ve been a great way to provide a hermetically sealed phone with all the optional stuff you wanted slapped on the back. Beefier battery, better controls, all the ports you want, etc. Like, a phone with a weak internal battery but then a magnetically attached external one so you don’t even have to open open the back of the phone to hot-swap.
Wireless is the future 🔮
“Brave”
random thing, the newly released Tab S9 series have 2 ports
