> I like the idea of using old phones for infrastructure-lite applications, taking advantage of their low power requirements and built-in UPS (which, yes, has its own drawbacks which can only be mitigated to a certain degree).

I'd love to see a..."serverization" kit for some mobile devices, like the "consolized" kits developed for the game boy advance[1]: Extract the mainboard from your phone and extend it by directly interfacing it with external storage, a better power supply and a physical network interface.

[1]https://fingercramp.com/portfolio/gba-consolizer-play-your-f...

approximately 0% of phones can be easily opened up, or have any way to extend their hardware other than usb