First and foremost I love the detector NOW! But it can evolve into an even better unit.
OK I'm a tech nerd and have been professionally for more than 30 years so I have an excuse.....
1. Time to take advantage of touchscreen technology and ditch the buttons. It would allow the pod to shrink and/or change locations, and the screen could also grow with the replacement of the buttons.
2. Bump up the processor to a more modern dual or quad core to speed up processes and save battery power. Things have changed considerably since this unit was designed and built.
3. Time to waterproof the unit to open up other frontiers to this fine detector.
4. A wireless auto mode switching in-line probe would be nice, but my DX-1 is still getting the job done.
5. A faster connector may slow down the cordless coil chatter. For example a half turn connector instead of the current threaded ring connector. I shutter to think of the performance losses and weight added to get to a cordless coil - no thank you.
6. I almost went with a detector from "down under" because of the USB interface. Whites needs to rethink this strategy NOW! A device as complicated as this detector deserves a USB interface and programming software for at least the PC. (the largest computer market) The buzz created by program sharing and swapping between users will help to promote future detector sales.
7. The headphones are awesome, but I would like a lighter summer choice as well. I sweat far to much in the summer to do the current phones any good.
8. This one will be hard to believe but I am deadly serious - bluetooth audible call notification and caller ID for my phone. Stop laughing and listen folks. I personally wear a fishing vest while detecting and my phone rides in a zipper pocket. With the wireless V3i phones on I am in another world and miss ALL CALLS on ring or vibrate. Bluetooth tech is a slam dunk to add to anything these days and the V3i is 90% there already with the current screen and headphones. I'm not talking about adding a microphone, or the means to answer the call, just let me know it is coming in and who it is. That is easily done by bluetooth, it can be done now, and cheap!
My 2 cents....