Freddie
I seem to need a quite different phone to what is being produced:
1. Stereo loudspeakers on the front side, top and bottom.
2. Easily removeable battery so that I can carry one or two extras with me.
3. Software where all the apps I don't want can be COMPLETELY deleted.
4. The best GPS receiver chip/aerial that there is.
5. A phone that doesn't stop working after 3 years.
6. Mechanical switches instead of screen switches so that the phone can be handed around, or simply moved, without the screen changing/camera disappearing/taking an unwanted picture etc. etc.
7. Doesn't need to be fantastic looking - I don't need a glass back, plastic is quite OK.
8. Don't need face/finger recognition and lots of other fancy stuff.
9. Brightest screen available, high resolution.
Avril Craighead
I want a water proof phone that rolls up into a bracelet that won't make me sweat, preferably charges while being worn and that can quickly be changed in form from a bracelet to a usable flat surface for web browsing etc should be able to act for communications while in bracelet or flat form. Should also automatically do all the health tracking, exercise tracking etc and be able to show date and time. I don't really want much just something user friendly :)
WB
I want a phone or just Android feature where I can charge the phone to 80 percent because that fixes the running out of battery in two years. Charging to 100 and let it sit all night at that reduces 20 percent capacity per year ... But neither Google nor any other mfg add this simple software feature so they can sell u a new phone
Grunchy
I got exactly what I want, a cheap phone with good battery life and innovative features. I got a 64GB iPhone SE for $100, a FLIR one camera for $50, and an ifixit battery (since Apple refused to honour their warranty).
Kicks the butt of everything made today.
P51d007
What I look for in a phone.
Affordable price, battery life, ok camera. If I want "real" photos, I use my d-slr. My phone is just for
snapshots. I use my phone, more for a phone, than I do as a "computer" anyway.
Anything over 500 bucks is just too much for me to waste on a phone.
Folding phones, sleek, sexy, colorful & stylish with super duper fast processors, 4k screens and
2-3-4 cameras are to me, just a waste of money.
Brian M
Would like a practical phone rather than one dreamt up by the marketing department!

That means waterproof, changeable battery, headphone socket (not wireless - stupid idea!) and a phone that doesn't need to have an additional case to live in the real world.

Strangely some of those are just the features that have been removed!

Glass backs and other senseless ideas are not required for a practical phone, most users first task on getting a phone is to purchase a case, so why spend money on getting 'look' features when they are immediately covered up, same applies to thinness, an add on case removes any few mm savings on thickness, use it for a bigger battery and give the phone a hard shell.

Lot to be said for the flip phone style, built in screen protection, size, plus it allows you to pretend to be Captain Kirk on an away mission!

christopher
Google are the WORST. (well, 2nd worst after Apple anyhow). The number of blatantly stupid things their O/S does is mindboggling. Take Maps for example - they have managed to maximize the number of times you need to take your eyes off the road to get it to do the most basic of navigation tasks. It's incapable of comprehending basic sentences. It steadfastly refuses to understand that a two-word suburb is not the name of a non-existent person in your address book. It refuses to do assorted things (like reboot when confused). It randomly decides not to point north. Zooming still leaves the road-names in unreadable microprinting. And they *still* have not used their brains and figured out that you can normalize magnetometer data without forcing users to stuff around doing a figure-8 in mid air...

and that's not even starting on the other pile of apps that all do dumb things too. Seriously - does every google programmer use an iPhone or something? How the heck can anyone who works on that stuff never bother to notice "Hey, that's stupid", and fix it!!!

Oh yeah, and Apple is 2x worse - I gave away my $1600XR and went back to my S7 Edge after 2 months of hair-pulling.
Mac Sinclair
After years of battery frustration, my iPhone11 is proving to be a revelation. Mated to a Mous cover and screen protector and it is pretty much indestructible... so basically for me, it's job done. Yes I am sure they'll continue to get better still, but as this article says... battery life matters more than the odd millimetre for most.

What this article misses though is anything for those who want something smaller like the trusty iPhone SE

Signguy
One of the best things is the ability to change a battery; BRING THAT BACK!
Douglas Rogers
There is a plethora of $40 Chinese watch phones that are trying to address a market. They leave hands free and get rid of the uncomfortable pocket. Phones are so big because of the big battery. This gives plenty of real estate for a big screen. The watch phone could actually use a belt battery, which could be both large and comfortable. If you are using your phone as a computer, you will need the big screen.