For me its the ‘Knock Code’ that LG had on their phones (I really wish LG still made at least the V series phones)

Basically there was a four-square area and you set up a sequence of where you would tap to unlock the phone. That set of squares was only shown when you set up the code

Then, to unlock your phone, you would tap those areas in the sequence you set up (even with the screen off).

Fingerprint readers are nice, but I really do miss the knock code

Edit: did find this article with a way to do the knock code, but if done wrong, could brick your phone I guess.

Plus, article is from 2014. When I looked at XDA’s info on it (they also being the developers) it looks like development on it is over, but individual modules may or may not still be supported by their devs

    • Final Remix@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 year ago

      The Samsung Alias was my.fucking JAM back in the day. Had a two-way hinge that opened in portrait for a standard phone, or landscape for a full keyboard.

    • tsuica@lemmy.ml
      1·
      1 year ago

      There are still some smartphones that have hardware keyboards. Unihertz makes a few (I have the very unwieldy OG Titan). There’s also the Fxtec Pro1 X.

      • ramjambamalam
        1·
        1 year ago

        Thanks, I’ve looked at all of those but they either have substandard, Microtek CPUs that are so far below adequate that the productivity hit would impact me more than the loss of physical keys (Unihertz) or have problems delivering actual phones altogether (Fxtec Pro1) or aren’t really phones but more micro-laptops (Planet Computer).

        I’m just looking for a nice, mid-ranged phone with a mobile keyboard. Actually I think the closest to achieving that goal is the Fairberry mod which fuses a surplus BlackBerry Q10 keyboard on to a Fairphone with a 3D-printed case, but that requires electronic assembly and soldering.

        • tsuica@lemmy.ml
          1·
          1 year ago

          It really depends on your use case. My Titan’s MediaTek is enough for me as I don’t do super intensive tasks on it. In a pinch it does the job. If I’m away and need to quickly SSH into my servers, I can do that, no problem. I can make calls and text people and it has a huge battery. Right now it’s as de-googled as it can get with the stock ROM.

          The drawback is that due to the wonky 1:1 aspect ratio display, a lot of apps either have bugs or bad usability, because they were created for taller scrrens. To me, it doesn’t matter, as I cut down on smartphone usage and just have a handful of apps.