My ideas match some that others had, sorry if I cant remember who.
Okay, so cell phones are basically useless, but not completely. You most likely still kept yours. If you have a generator you can keep it charged to take pictures, use the clock/alarm/calendar, keep notes, use its flashlight, use the calculator, and maybe play an offline mobile game (games that would require interwebs might be there, but they would fail to launch if you select them).
Haha, Yes. We need to take a selfie to expand unturned’s screenshots community /s
In all seriousness tho. The clock and date system are “somewhat useless” the flashlight seems good. But have to degrades faster than a regular flashlight. (As for the communication part. It’s useless. Group chat is way better imo. I kbow you didn’t mention it. But that’s what phones do.) I like the offline game thingy tho. But… why?
Anyhow. I think the “how long you’ve been survived in 1 life” should be a built-in feature. (Like mincecraft) instead of requiring a phone to do it. Again, it’s just imo.
I’d personally like an in-game calculator. It’d make many activites a bit interesting and easier, e.g. building or crafting, for an exact calculation of the materials needed and the resulting products.
I always try to do plenty much of math at almost any game looking towards efficiency, which in many games resides in numbers.
An in-game calculator would be kinda useless if it’s not accessible in the same menus and interfaces it would be relevant to. If it is accessible while in the inventory and crafting menus, it might make the design too cluttered.
if we had to use math for crafting stuff tho…
.
in all seriousness that idea that I just said is terrible I do the like the ideas you have for phones tho!
I am very hard fought on this subject. There are a number of reasons that would make this feature fit, but there are also reasons that won’t.
For example we all know that kinda everyone nowdays has a phone, so this could justify it’s presence in the game but we also all know that their batteries won’t last 3 days in a row.
Assuming that the scenario is again a world wide apocalypse, then I think that phones just won’t be able to call or send messages, and also won’t be able to access the internet (so no whatsapp either).
Hoping that for some reason electricity is still there, well yea it might be fun to have to recharge the thing from time to time.
Now in some grocery, now in someone’s house, or even in the military bases server room:
“Insert nuclear activation codes. . . . .”
"No thanks, I’m just gona plug my phone for a while"
Yea well it might be a bit of a stretch, but might work. As it’s suggested, the phone could actually become some sort of unturned’s version of fallouts pipboy, maybe giving (not very) usefull infos like the time.
The date as someone said could be usefull in case of ingame seasons, so that it will help the player to know when it’s winter time (in case he really can’t notice that 3 meters T H I C C wall of snow just outside of his base).
The calculator thing is kinda meh.
For crafting you say? Ok I know Nelson said “more realism” but I think that someone might low their expectations for UII. A thing is making guns more realistic, but really would you have to go through equations and math processes to be able to make a pine floor? Don’t you have enough of math at school?
Taking pictures? honestly Idk, like who would take selfies with zombies (stop raising your hands, Ik you would) but still there is actually no real use for this imo (F12 people). I mean I like the idea, might be something fun but on the other hand it seems something useless.
If we are really gona spawn naked with a phone (that doesn’t work as we are now used to), the only thing that it could be usefull for is its flashlight.
Haha, Yes. We need to take a selfie to expand unturned’s screenshots community 
/s
I do the like the ideas you have for phones tho!