Can I fit it in my pocket? Can I make a call? Take a photo?

The steam deck is great, but it’s not build for those things.

And there is no reason to cede ground on entire form factors. This behaviour will not stop at phones (or tablets, or smartwatches).

A gaming handheld isn't anywhere near as portable as a smartphone, and generally any general input complaints of a smartphone are even worse on such a device. They're great for gaming, OK for something like watching a movie on it, but otherwise they're pretty bad for even typing short things.

And they're far from pocketable. My Legion Go is in its case in my backpack when I'm on the go.

Honestly netbooks and ultra portable mini notebooks of yore were more portable and useful for a general on the go portable PC. The gaming handhelds are better from a gaming perspective with their far more powerful graphics power and built in controller grips but the general computing experience is pretty crap.

“If there’s truly a market” monopolies, monopsonies, and anti competitive behaviour would never be a problem.

A truly open phone is just a pocketable Linux laptop with an LTE modem. These already exist, companies like GPD make them.

Many banks in EU countries make it mandatory to have their smartphone app installed in order to validate operations clients perform in their web browsers :/

Tickets for public transport - mostly in the case of busses - can only be purchased via the app in my country. They used to have ticket machines but these have been phased out over the years at bus stations. Train and subway tickets still work via machines but busses are app only, in many cases you can't even buy a ticket with the driver anymore.

My bank is revolut and Im very happy with them. Im a digital nomad and I can't keep making new bank accounts when I move to a new country.

Their website is very limited and for account recovery only.

In Sweden banks require you to have the BankID authentication app to login on web page (and banking apps, and many other pages).

Banks may offer a physical device but that's another device you have to being with you, and it's not supported by all services anyway.

While not required the same way as water or air is required, it's super limiting and inconvenient to live in Sweden and not have access to the BankID app (either on Android or iOS).

> Ask if you can order/pay without using the QR code. I'd be surprised if venues didn't have a paper menu as backup.

For newer restaurants, I really wouldn't bet on this being a thing. Or if they do, it's the ones they had before they updated their menus to QR codes, and thus might not be accurate any more.

It's like being blind and asking for the braille menu. Sure, they should have one, but don't bet on them having one.

And even if you know what you want and can pay in cash, even if they're legally bound to take your money at that point, you're working against the current and on some level being a (principled) ass to the staff serving you, who probably had no say in the system they're now having to deal with. It wouldn't even surprise me if some of these places have gone no-cash to the point of not having any place to put your cash after you've paid.

The actual solution is probably 'go somewhere else', but we all how that might go.