I built my own phone because innovation is sad rn [video]

321 pointsposted 5 months ago
by Timothee
(youtube.com)

67 Comments

umvi

5 months ago

"I repackaged a broken zFlip 5 into a custom enclosure with a blackberry keyboard"

Still pretty cool though.

kjkjadksj

5 months ago

It would be interesting to see a phone made from various components hooked up to a breadboard. Maybe someone has done it already.

eloisius

5 months ago

https://zacstewart.com/tags/phonium.html

I did this a few years ago and got pretty far with a prototype. My idea was to get it to the point of being useful enough to call, text and allow me to leave my iPhone behind when I’m out doing stuff. Then I moved to Asia and we use LINE extensively for everything and there’s no (legit) way to use their APIs.

NooneAtAll3

5 months ago

what's LINE?

ProtoAES256

5 months ago

LINE is a communication software that is predominantly used in Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia(maybe others? South Korea?). It is clunky, buggy, files expire fast, can't upload for a lot of extensions, only login-able on 1+1 devices (phone+computer). And people still use it, also there is no avoiding it if you want to get anything official done around these parts. I do see youngsters using Instagram and Threads, and a bit of Telegram sprinkled here and there but that's it. You want to get the job done, you use LINE. It's THE communication app.

w-ll

5 months ago

Amazing work. I really do miss the OG Motorola Droids with the slide keyboard. Being able to ssh into a server with a nearly proper keyboard seems ahead of today.

roughly

5 months ago

The OG Droid remains one of my favorite devices I’ve ever owned - it’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being in the future, and the whole vibe was intensely cyberpunk.

Den_VR

5 months ago

And you could swap battery packs whenever you wanted.

abnercoimbre

5 months ago

And what do you use these days?

roughly

5 months ago

Nothing half as interesting - the same glass coated soap bar as everyone else.

kjkjadksj

5 months ago

I don’t think kids today know how nice it was to have a proper keyboard or even t9. You could text blind from within your hoodie pocket in class.

rainingmonkey

5 months ago

The FxTec Pro1 is the only sliding keyboard phone of the last decade. I have one, it's not perfect but it is quite good, and better than all the other recent keyboard phones!

Brian_K_White

5 months ago

I have one too (pro 1x actually) and it's complete dogshit.

The screen has some kind of streaking/ghosting effect that's so bad it would be instant wareanty in any other phone, exept it's not the physical screen but something with how it's being driven. It's worse an dimmer brighness leves, and it's worse with some kinds of images / screen contents.

The camera is simply garbage all around, pick any metric. Simple fucus, low light, motion, macro or fake macro by zoom, even simple outdoor daylight are barely ok compared to any other junk phone.

Reception sucks. All the receptions, lte, wifi, bt.

The open/close mechanism is the least convenient of any moving part I've ever used, the way there is no secure way to hold it to start the motion, then the loss of control during over-center snap. The laptop orientation with a camera bump so it wobbles on a table.

The cpu is slower than my pixel 4.

There is some stupidness with either the charging circuit or boot manager that if you ever simply allow the battery to die all the way, it can't start charging again and it's bricked unless you crack it open to access the cell itself.

All utter dogshit.

It has some checkboxes ticked like heaphone jack, removable sdcard, and of course the keyboard, but the thing sucks so bad to actually use that they don't matter.

I'm probably forgetting yet more things because even though I paid $700 or whatever it was, then waited 2 or 3 years for it to ship, and even though my pixel 4a5g died right before it arrived so I actually needed it, I still only used it for a few weeks and spent another 1300 importing an xperia they don't sell or support in the US. (to get a current flagship phone that actually has a headphone jack and removable sd and dual sim, and is at least rootable and you can modify the system apps if not run Lineage)

Oh yeah it's supposed to be an "xda phone" even with xda logo on the back, natively hackable... turns out no matter what os you want to run on it they all actually still have to use the same closed kernel. So you get to larp os control while still running under a kernel you can't replace.

w-ll

5 months ago

T9 texting in my pocket on a Nokia 330 is our generations Morse code

supportengineer

5 months ago

You can add a physical keyboard to an iPhone [0]

[0] https://www.clicks.tech

giveita

5 months ago

You can also connect a Bluetooth keyboard to any phone.

mapontosevenths

5 months ago

I have one of these. It's neat and does work well. However, it makes the phone incredibly long and awkward to hold.

If it was sliding case it would be perfect, but as it's stands the phone doesn't fit in my pocket if I use it.

0xbadcafebee

5 months ago

The product everybody wants in the form factor nobody wants

OccamsMirror

5 months ago

Gosh that looks as cool as it does awkward.

ProAm

5 months ago

I would love another slider keyboard phone. I had so many in the past they were great.

kjkjadksj

5 months ago

You’d think the slider would be fragile but it was really robust. I’d use my old samsung with no case. No glass all plastic. Throw it across the room and it would be fine. If I ever found it in my parents house again I bet it’s still sliding fine. So satisfying like a fidget spinner.

coffeecantcode

5 months ago

I was too young when it came out to actually get one, but I remember that red glowing eye, I actually ripped an ad out of a magazine for the original droid and hung it in my room because it looked so badass.

I remember being disappointed to see Android go the cute cuddly green robot route instead of the sick red droid look but overall it was definitely more palatable for the masses.

Timpy

5 months ago

This is cool, very much the hacker ethos. But I didn't see any evidence that it can make a phone call though?

MobiusHorizons

5 months ago

Yeah, I actually left a comment to that effect on the video when I saw it last week, because I’m pretty sure the placement of the mic / earpiece is incompatible with a traditional voice call. Although arguably traditional phone calls are the least important feature of smartphones for gen z. Even if it was important I would guess Bluetooth headsets are more common than actual holding the phone up to your ear.

grogenaut

5 months ago

I had stopped in the bar next to my gym after workout to grab a pint and watch a bit of the game while waiting for a Lyft home. My adult daughter called. I full on panic sprinted out of the bar cause I heard my name and call broke up. Several texts later realize she's ok and just asking about dinner. She never calls so it's obviously an emergency. Is she being attacked, car breakdown what?!?

Also phone didn't work in basic phone mode. These things are getting more useless without earbuds

cm2187

5 months ago

It's greatest quality seems to me that the whole screen looks accessible with one hand. I own an iphone 12 mini. Not sure what to replace it with when it dies.

mstade

5 months ago

I have an iPhone 13 mini to sell you :o)

coldpie

5 months ago

I'm in the same boat. I've been looking at foldables, especially the latest Motorola Razr series. The outer screen is about 4" diagonal, which should serve most needs for one-handed use; and it expands into a modern phablet size if you need the extra space. Haven't got one yet (my 13 Mini is still going strong), but when I need to upgrade, I'll probably give a foldable a shot.

cm2187

5 months ago

I read the apple’s response is a foldable which will cost $2000. I did queue in front of the apple store many years ago. But there is no way these days I will spend that kind of money for functionalities I don’t use. Even an iphone 12 mini is an overkill for what I do. I think I will stash a couple of 13 mini. That will give me a good 8 years!

coldpie

5 months ago

Hahah, personally I can't wait to go back to Android :) I've found iOS to be a pretty miserable experience. I only got a Mini because it was the smallest phone on the market. IIRC Motorola's Razrs run like $700-1200 depending on what spec you get.

RankingMember

5 months ago

I'm hoping Apple's "next big thing" in phones is a folder with the iPhone 12/13 mini form factor when folded. That was the perfect size.

d--b

5 months ago

I broke my iphone mini 12 last week. I bought a refurbished one to replace it. It cost me about 250€ with 128gb memory and a new battery.

Definitely the way to go.

arewethereyeta

5 months ago

Zenfone 10 is pretty cool if you chase the form factor

alpaca128

5 months ago

Zenfone 10 also isn't available anymore and its software support will end long before the iPhone's, if it hasn't already.

eep_social

5 months ago

My new-to-me iphone mini 13 arrived yesterday. Will be upgrading soon or when my 12 mini dies.

deltarholamda

5 months ago

I thought this was great, very much the sort of thing I would have done when I was younger and had the time (and patience!). I don't usually watch long-form videos (that patience thing again), but I watched all the way with this one. I like the understated humor.

I have no doubt that this phone will not be perfect. With all the things sticking out it will catch on stuff, and it will be awkward to hold up to your head to talk, etc. But who cares? He made it himself, and will have a lot of attachment to it if only for that fact.

And I agree with his main point: phones used to be interesting. We all stroke our plain black slabs like monkeys before the Monolith these days, and it's sad.

righthand

5 months ago

I’ve had this same idea, down to the functionality and even using a Samsung FlipZ (I believe it’s possible FlipZ phones support Linux) foldable chip to achieve it!

I was just revisitng the idea yesterday but building a foldable clamshell Gameboy SP like case instead.

IMO you only really need a 4-inch square screen. Now I know it’s possible. I would even take a 4-inch screen device without a keyboard or cellular modem.

8note

5 months ago

ctrl+c ctrl+d ctrl+v are all too important for me to drop any keyboard.

but, i did get me a tiny 6 key and a knob keyboard i can bring around with my phone, and it gets 95% of what id otherwise use my keyboard for

RandomBacon

5 months ago

Cool.

I suggest watching this on 2x playback speed.

joshstrange

5 months ago

It was interesting but at the end of the day the phone he created is not compelling in any way to me. He says "give us something other than a rectangle" multiple times (to phone makers) but the phone he cannibalized is a zFlip 5 which was already not (just) a rectangle. Also, I actually like my rectangle phone.

I fully expected this to be some kind of fully custom phone but it's just a nerfed android phone. No knock on what he accomplished, it's impressive as hell, but "built my own phone", eh...

It's cool but past making it for this video and maybe carrying it for a month or two I predict this is destined for a junk drawer.

ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7

5 months ago

its content to make the creator money based off interests they have, the subscriber audience they've cultivated, and the sponsorship deal they were offered, then turning 8 paragraphs of text into 30 minutes of confused interest for millions of viewers who aren't sure why they are watching what they are watching. in summary, youtube

user

5 months ago

[deleted]

0xbadcafebee

5 months ago

this vocal fry is peak genz rizz

krageon

5 months ago

I normally do not really watch videos I receive online through any channel, but this comment made me so morbidly curious that I did. The video was super worth it and you're very right

user

5 months ago

[deleted]

rafram

5 months ago

0:30: An AI-generated clip that appears to show people in Nazi prisoner uniforms.

What?

jonny_eh

5 months ago

They googled or generated a video with "sad workers making phones"?

Mogzol

5 months ago

Definitely just factory worker outfits. Why would you assume those were Nazi prisoner uniforms?

incr_me

5 months ago

The vertical strikes are pretty distinct. Either way you can't say "definitely". The AI probably wasn't even prompted in this way; without any specific investigation, and just because I exist in the symbolic world, I would guess that there is proximity between the embeddings for "factory worker" and "camp prisoner". That is the common rhetoric, isn't it?

Mogzol

5 months ago

Alright that's my bad I was watching in low quality and did not see the stripes, I thought they were just solid white.

rafram

5 months ago

Because factory workers don't wear uniforms that look like that, ever since they picked up a bad association circa 1945. Google it - you won't find any photos of factory workers dressed like that.

browningstreet

5 months ago

I think the clip is possibly (and hopefully unintentionally) problematic, but I wouldn't go so far as to say Nazi. If you google "Paddington prison" you'll see a similar striped outfit. So prison labor.. still not awesome, but not necessarily Nazi. And, well, maybe relevant to mass electronic goods manufacturing in certain countries.

That said, he works at Midjourney.. so it's a weird blind spot, if it's a blind spot.

latexr

5 months ago

> If you google "Paddington prison" you'll see a similar striped outfit.

Those are horizontal stripes, not vertical.

browningstreet

5 months ago

Yup, hence "similar". Benefit of the doubt.. as the creator is also young.

slightwinder

5 months ago

> If you google "Paddington prison" you'll see a similar striped outfit.

Horizontal Stripes were common in US-Prisons until the early 20th Century [1]. While vertical Stripes were common in Nazi-Camps. It's a very distinct difference, and I would think the source-material has more data about the horizontal than the vertical stripes. So it's fair to ask which specific prompt they had to get pictures from Nazi-labour-camps.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auburn_system

user

5 months ago

[deleted]

goodpoint

5 months ago

The title is clickbait, mods please fix it.