The Perfect Phone™ (because the best is not even close to being passable)

Last update : 8/9/2023

Introduction

Since every phones released nowadays sucks, I might as well drop some personal insights on what kind of cellphone I would consider "perfect". Obviously I don't see any manufacturers that would like to manufacture this because it would probably go against their agenda (even Fairphone, who greenwashed their lack of headphone jack in Fairphone 4 (and refuses to re-add the jack) by claiming that's another port that breaks - so does the USB-C, especially since there's no other ports on the latest Fairphone), but if there's anyone literally making this exact cellphone I'm probably glad to buy one (assuming there's no quality issues & I can access it easily). By the way, this is for a gaming phone (for big-handed guys such as me), so for those who needs my "perfect" phone insight but need a smaller size... please adapt it to your desired phone size.

Hardware

To start, I'm going to base this perfect phone off the X3P (Poco X3 Pro for short; for those who are unfamiliar with my site). Sure, there are better phones for the base (LG V30, Poco F1, Asus 6z), but here are some things that would steer me towards the X3P:

• First off - the size. It's almost perfect, though I could use some extra thickness (the phone's 9.4mm, with a camera hump that bumps it up to around 10mm).
• The power button & fingerprint scanner is combined, but at least they're mounted on the side, so using it doesn't need as much forethought as the V30's back-mounted fingerprint/power combo.
• 120hz 20:9 LCD with decent colors. There are stuff I don't like, but I'll get there.
• microSD is present, allowing storage expansion. Too bad we couldn't install apps to microSD, but we're blaming Goolag for that one.
• Virtual A-only partitioning, with dedicated recovery partition (unlike A/B that replaces TWRP with inbuilt recovery every clean flash) in case things go wrong. Granted, it's dynamic partitions, but we already have a workaround for that.

However, here are a few flaws that could be fixed:

• Previously, I said there's stuff I don't like about the X3P's display. Welp, there it is.
• The asymetrical top & bottom bezel, which isn't ideal for landscape grip because 1 hand has less place to hold on.
• Overly elongated aspect ratio that tries to cover the front display. Believe it or not, the notion that the front should be 100% display is problematic (even though I ironically agree there shouldn't be wasted space especially up front), since it's more fragile, harder to successfully implement, and makes the entire device more awkward to hold.
• The display's corners are curved so much it's not even a circle.
• The hole punch, of fucking course. It hurts to look at once it cuts into whatever content you're currently viewing. Blacking out the row where the hole punch is helps to a degree (assuming the ROM even provides an option for that), but it screams waste of display space especially since touch is still active there. It also leaves behind a thin shadow around the hole.
• Headphone jack is at a position where it interferes with landscape usage (bottom-left). It's also combined with the USB-C board, which means replacing one will result in the other being replaced as well.
• Battery isn't user-removable unless you remove back panel with heat & unscrew some plastic covers. And even after all that, the battery is also glued in tightly (though there's a static pull tab that you could probably use if it wasn't broken), adding further complications to removal.
• Two... much meaningless camera modules (pun not intended unfortunately), with a camera bump too undeservingly oversized. At least it's centered so there's no wobble, but still.
• The X3P's chassis is not built to handle flagship-grade thermals - which contributes to its overheating issues.
• No support for installing custom AVB keys, preventing its bootloader from being relocked for added security (and also making it incompatible with official CalyxOS & GrapheneOS).
• Xiaomi's absolute garbage of bootloader protocol that forces a wait for no reason whatsoever. It also demands the user's phone number.
• Speaking of Xiaomi, might as well tackle one extra issue where they add NFC to global units & leave Indian units without NFC. In the Indian X3 (non-Pro), at least the battery gets bumped to 6000mAh, but Indian X3P gets none of that extra battery. Of course, we can't forget that Xiaomi uses some inferior lead-free solder for Indian models (which doesn't seem to handle heat cycles well enough).
• Some common theme among Xiaomi phones : their firmware is allergic to some background tasks (including listening to music, where input is ignored until the phone gets re-awakened). No custom ROMs (let alone apps) has ever managed to remove this behavior, by the way (either they ignored it or couldn't do it).
Not sure if this behavior is exclusive to Xiaomi phones or all Chinese phones (according to my man Bob the OnePlus 3T with unofficial LineageOS is free of this behaviour).

Mandatory additions

Now that I've got the entire "perfect phone" base out of the way, here's some mandatory additions to make them desirable for me, at the very least.

• Make the entire phone thicker by 1mm - 10.4mm. This will reduce the camera bump (or hopefully delete it altogether), as well as allowing us to put our modifications.
• Instead of curved sides, let's make the sides flat (with an added notch close to the charging port to ease back panel removal).
• Instead of having a separate model with/without NFC, remove the NFC altogether in lieu of an additional heatpipe on the top board cover, like the BlackShark 4. Contactless payment might be a questionable prospect (especially without NFC to ease that tap & pay thing), but I don't put my economics in a single hand-sized computer so... yeah.
• Make the back panel hand-removable (and reattachable with clips instead of adhesive), since we need it to replace the battery ourselves. Also, in relation to the previous point, make some vent holes on the back panel above the top board's heatpipe, to further support its thermals.
• Make the non-removable 5160mAh battery hand-removable. The IP53 tag is definitely moot at this point, but you should not be using phones in the shower in the first place. Of course, the connector between battery & board should also be replaceable like the charging port (in the likely case it wears out though I haven't heard any news of such).
OK, so I've imagined an issue where the bottom modules won't be able to connect if we're making the removable battery the same way the X3P's battery is positioned. I personally vote for a solid battery bracket that can be removed along with the battery-board connector, and the cables for the bottom modules routed underneath it.
8/9/2023 Update : Fairphone 5 works as a good example for how this issue is fixed, minus the missing 3.5mm jack.


• BUT...BUT... WHAT ABOUT WATERPROOOFEEENG?!!!! Welp, I'm half glad you asked, because the other half of me groans in how obvious the solution is. Fucking gaskets, especially under display & back panel. Shoot, it's probably splash resistant at the VERY BEST, but at least it's better than nothing... right? RIGHT?
If you think adhesives are the way to go, take that shit to your dearest Samsung, Asus ROG, or ZTE (or go back to 2018 & give LG some of that shit) - I heard they're willing to concentrate 3 entire phones worth of adhesive just for their batteries and/or displays.


• For the rear camera, instead of 2 useful modules (48MP main & 8MP ultrawide) & 2 useless trash (2MP depth & macro), make it just 48MP main & 16MP ultrawide (or just the 48MP main if you don't want to let the price blow over a camera). Add OIS to both (or just the main at the very least) to make the camera performance as competent as it could be.
• Cut the display panels in a way it would be 18:9 with symetrical top & bottom bezels & minimum corner curve (or, even better, fully squared), like a gaming phone (or the LG V30 without that nasty curved side bezels). While we're there, delete the hole punch off the display as well; we're moving the front camera up that top bezel, in the top-left section while moving the top speaker to the middle (again, like the LG V30 without that nasty curved side bezels).
Granted, I prefer NOT having any front cameras whatsoever, but I'm probably going to be forced to hear someone whine "why no front camera aaaaaaAAAAAA", so I'm going to have to concede on this one.


• Since the display's now 18:9 might as well give the front panel some small dual front-facing speaker slots on the top & bottom bezel corners, and erase the speaker holes in the body at the process. That's right - we're making the speakers front-facing like the Sony / ROG phones.
• By the way, the display must retain all of the X3P's previous specs - 120hz refresh rate & 240hz touch sampling. Make sure the touch is actually responsive (unlike what the default Poco X3N/P used to be).
• Instead of display glued to the phone's frame, take a page from Fairphone & have the display and its frame removable by several screws at the phone's corners. Sorry for missing such an obvious way to make the display easily repairable.
Failing that, at the very least take a page from Pixel 7a & make display removal not a mandatory step for replacing everything else (but the motherboard I suppose...) but keep the back-first repair procedure. (31/5/2023 update : In hindsight, fully copying the 7a doesn't seem like a good idea - it allegedly uses some heat-resistant adhesive.)


• Switch the headphone jack & bottom speaker's position - former in the bottom-right, latter in bottom-left. The speaker won't be blocked since it's now front-facing anyway. Also, make the headphone jack a separate module that connects to the USB-C port board instead of being fused with it. Also, make sure neither are soldered to the motherboard.
8/9/2023 Update : In the possible event the headphone jack cannot be applied for whatever reason, at the very least include 2 USB-C ports - one at bottom-right (speaker still at bottom-left), one at bottom-center; both must not be soldered to the motherboard or to each other. Sure, this isn't ideal since I prefer headphone jack over 2nd USB-C port, but at least users could still do something else with that 2nd port (OTG, media, whatever) while charging.


• Make the microphones a removable module, separate from motherboard, daughterboard, and input ports. That way, it'll be easier for paranoids to remove them.
• Make all removable components' connections not close to capacitors (or other stuff, chips included) that's prone to get pried out by accident.
• In case it's not obvious already; use quality solder joints (actually resists shocks, impacts, & thermals well), not fragile ones that randomly breaks. We want our "perfect" phone to last long (or at least outlast our children's schooling years).
• Make its schematics publicly available like Fairphone did for their Fairphone 4. Sure, we're not going to take our soldering tools to fix up our phones (for most of the time), but for those who needs it (particularly Louis Rossmann if he does board-level repairs to phones or Rico Cerva upgrading phone storage, idunno), they'll definitely need it.
Mentioned samples aren't the best, with the latter done without schematics. But still, here's one for right to repair.


• Replace the bootloader unlock protocol to the default fastboot flashing (or oem) unlock - no accounts, emails, and/or phone numbers required. We don't want a bootloader unlock protocol that relies on servers we don't own.
• Give it the ability to install custom AVB keys, obviously. Sure, it won't make our perfect phone immediately supported by CalyxOS and/or GrapheneOS (if at all, especially since our "perfect" phone is currently imaginary) but at least it's a step towards better security, as small as it is. Of course, don't change up the already ideal virtual A-only partitioning. Sure, we won't have seamless updates, but let's leave updates at bedtime because that's when you're not using your phone anyway (if you can rely on the updates that is).
Seamless updates are a neat concept, but not when we have to reflash our preferred recovery every single time we had to flash our preferred custom ROM.


• As for the base operating system... stock GrapheneOS is cool, but invert navbar must be available by default. Don't want to reset an entire phone (or have it essentially softbricked) over inverting navbar after all.
• As soon as the "perfect" phone is released (assuming someone's doing it), publish its kernel source.
• Isolated modem for extra security.
• Last, but not least (especially since we have optionals) : Remove the part in the firmware that makes our "perfect" phone allergic to background music playing, at the very least. Making the firmware 95% similar to Pixels (with necessary additions for the hardware) is better, though optional.

Optional additions

Here's the optional addition - the niggles that I'm cool not having, but very welcome if it's there.

• Separating the volume rocker into 2 separate buttons (just like Razer Phone) would be neat. But still - this is optional.
• Move the fingerprint scanner below the rear cameras, and separate the power button from it, just like the Poco F1. But then again, extra module, so it's optional.
• Adding in an audiophile-grade DAC would be nice, but I'm not sure about it if it sends the price to flagship levels. We're sticking the price in budget flagship killer category.
• A well-documented root-of-trust chip (like what OpenTitan should be) might be nice. It won't matter for daily use, but for those who need the extra security, there's that.
• Maybe add support for the non-universal American network bands and/or 5G for more unwarranted hype? Optional since this increases price to budget flagship (or higher).
• Alright... since some of you "tech enthusiasts" might be screaming "LCD in 2023?!(or any year beyond) nuooOOOOOOOOOH!!!" you freaks can just try & switch up the display to OLED (or even miniLED if there's one). I don't care what's the display details, I just want my display smooth, responsive, & look good. But seriously, don't do this. Don't make repairing the display so expensive you might as well buy a new shitty phone.
8/9/2023 Update : Moved this one to optional additions to make it seem I'm cool with OLED (to be honest I'd prefer LCD before saying "whatever, as long as display's not shit.").


• USB 3.0? But still - 2.0 is usable enough for me, so... yeah, optional.

Forbidden additions

Additions I don't want to see at all in the "perfect" phone.

• Hardware killswitches sound cool, at least until you realize that they're either redundant (microphone and/or camera; especially since they should be easily removable), easily forgettable (wireless connections like Wi-fi, Bluetooth, cellular), and/or a prank waiting to happen (everything).
• Moving camera modules (pop-up, flip-up, etc.) might sound cool & all, at least until its mechanism stops working & it adds into the phone's price (both in implementing it & repairing it).
• If you think removing front camera for a second display on the back sounds neat, it probably is... at least until I realized that it's only possible if the battery is not user-removable to begin with. Even if it's possible to make a secondary display with user-removable battery, it'll be more complex to implement & repair, thus potentially raising the phone's price.
• Personally, I don't really appreciate having a fully bezelless display - they're more fragile & complicated; and sometimes prone to accidental touches. So, yeah... don't even think about stretching the phone's screen to mostly match its body. Especially if we have to add in a front camera using questionable means such as a notch, hole punch, and/or under-display.
• Speaking of under-display, what about under-display fingerprint scanner? ez. Fucking dump it. A fingerprint scanner that needs re-calibration after replacing a related component (in this case, display) is trash, even if the re-calibration tool isn't garbage.
• Double-counts in case anyone forgets:
• No A/B partitioning bullshit, especially if recovery partition is absent (aside from A/B Type IV which kinda acts like A-only).
• Bootloader unlock must NOT depend on any servers and/or accounts. Fastboot flashing (or oem) unlock, or fuck off!
• Don't add any notches and/or hole-punches in the display. And don't even bother trying to implement under-screen front camera and/or fingerprint scanner.
• Do not remove the headphone jack and/or microSD. I repeat, DO NOT FUCKING REMOVE THE HEADPHONE JACK AND/OR MICROSD! At the very least, if the jack is not available, include a second USB-C port.
• Do not solder the USB-C and/or headphone jack (and/or the 2nd USB-C port) directly to the motherboard; let alone to each other.

Specifications

Currently a stub & meant only to be a very rough guideline.

• SoC : Using Snapdragon 860 is definitely the way to go especially if we think this is a refurbished & remodeled X3P. However, we could go a bit higher & go with Snapdragon 870 (assuming we went in the route of fresh manufacture). This is meant to be a budget flagship killer (i dunno, $400?), not a full-fledged flagship.
• Battery : Same 5160mAh as the one on OG X3P, but actually user-replaceable. Fast charging relies on USB PD up to 45W (and none of Xiaomi's magical proprietary ultrafast charger). Also, a dedicated battery charger should come with our "perfect" phone so we could have a fully charged backup battery ready to go.
• Dimensions : TL;DR - X3P with flat sides & 10.4mm thick.
• Ports :
• Pro pog : 2x USB-C 3.0, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, hybrid SIM/microSD
• Pro? : 2x USB-C 2.0, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, hybrid SIM/microSD
• Ideal : 1x USB-C 2.0, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, hybrid SIM/microSD
• Alternative v2 : 2x USB-C 3.0, hybrid SIM/microSD
• Alternative v1 : 2x USB-C 2.0, hybrid SIM/microSD
• OS/Software : Whatever mentioned above, though ideally starting in A12 with updates up to A16 or something... though we're gonna have to fix upstream Android beforehand.
• RAM / storage : Starts from 8GB LPDDR5 / 128GB UFS3.1; top-tier 12GB LPDDR5 / 256GB UFS3.1.

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