- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
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They suck and also the higher capacity batteries take up too much space now.
this is definitely a trade off. batteries are either small, tall, or thick. my phone with a 3" screen is quite bulbous.
I prefer that to it being thin and having like 3 hours of use time though
Making a small phone is harder than making a big phone.
If they’re going to make only bog phones they could at least bring back all the hardware features they’ve removed over the years.
Because every time a manufacturer releases a small phone, nobody buys them.
Here’s my dilemma:
- Been without cell service since the pandemic (eventually stopped using the smart phone altogether)
- All my digital needs are satisfied, devices and functionality in every room for every purpose I need
- Have multiple forms of solid and satisfactory communication channels (don’t need a cell number)
I’ve thought about buying a model I could jailbreak, but again it’s just to use a system that’s abusive. “Download our app!”, “Use our digital coupons!”, “Link your phone number!”, “Scan our code!”, “Let us track your location for your convenience!”.
I’m really a niche subgroup though, I already need other devices while at work that a phone wouldn’t suffice for. I kinda see more people going this route though. If your transportation has a computer, then what’s the endpoint in carrying a phone? If your job requires digital devices, the phone is basically reduced to a large brick of a communication device. I see more and more equipment being specialized and having added communication aspects for more complicated machinery, cell phones are not going to keep up with it in a general sense.
tldr: cell phones are just a fad with an abusive system that will die out one day and be remembered like rotary phones. They’re generally subpar for any specific task and are only a place holder till we figure out better systems.
Seriously.
I don’t want a tablet in my pocket all day.
I bought my current phone because it was small and the options I had when looking for small phones were extremely limited.
I’m not trying to seriously game on a smartphone. I’m not trying to watch full length movies. It’s in my pocket 90% of the time. I want it to be small.
I don’t see why we don’t already have an iPod size device. I just need something for music and if a phone call happens to come in - great! It was so simple then.
Phones became more frequently used for apps and posting which is a pain on a tiny screen. I built a pi zero powered retro console but actually using the tiny screen of about 3" makes it near impossible to read anything.
I would like to see things return to having replaceable batteries, headphones jacks and maybe slide out keys, but if I have to type and read on the same screen it’s awful nice to have some room to work with.
I was small phone enjoyer until my Sony Z3 Compact. I really liked it, but after it died, I tried bigger phones and I couldn’t go back.
Because apparently people want big phones.
For the last 10-15 years it’s been a boiling frog situation really - .1 or .2" increase every generation until 7" somehow becomes the norm (for a phone, not a tablet, mind you).
I wish there were more small hi-end phones too.
Even for the government you need apps nowadays. Yes you can try doing things in person but wait times aren’t reasonable. I’ve been trying to get a dumb phone for myself but still find I need a smartphone for specific apps a couple of times a month…
Well, I can’t speak for everyone else, but I can’t go back because they don’t sell any small phones.
I upgraded to a Sony Xperia XZ2 compact last year. It has a 5" screen and decent capabilities, the only down side is it doesn’t support 5G. For a phone that’s over 5 years old, it’s probably the most recent usable phone available which actually fits in my pocket.
Seriously, don’t show me a damn tablet computer and try to sell it to me as a mobile phone. If you can’t make a compact phone then you’re not really advancing the technology, are you?
If I can’t use it one-handed (using ALL physical buttons and ALL parts of the screen), then it’s not a phone.
Seriously, this is how we used to define the difference between phones and tables - one-hand or two-hand use.
Right? I mean I’m still lamenting the loss of slider keyboards, typing on a screen is so damn unreliable that I was forced to turn on the auto-correction, which itself is highly unreliable and constantly changing real words while failing to fix the words where I hit a number instead of a letter (the word “9f” gets typed a LOT!). I use my phone for phone calls and sending texts, with a secondary usage as a GPS in my truck. If it can’t perform one of three basic tasks then what good is it?
I picked the Pixel 8 because:
- it runs GrapheneOS
- It was a little smaller than the Pixel 8 Pro
If there was a smaller version available, I would’ve gotten that instead.
I picked the Pixel A because:
- It runs GrapheneOS
- It’s slightly smaller and slightly cheaper than the normal version
- The back is plastic and not glass
Glad I can use it and type on it one-handed, can’t imagine using a bigger phone.
I almost did, but I found the 8 used for a good price and the size difference was minimal.
The only A series Pixel phone smaller than the Pixel 8 was the Pixel 4a.
Pixel 8, even now that 9 is out, is still around $400 compared to 7’s already huge $300.
That point absolutely still stands.
It’s just strange that since the 4a, the 2 smallest phones Google released were both not in the a series.
I picked the Sony Xperia 1v because:
- 71mm width (similar to pixel 8)
- Flagship specs (*for 2023 - Snapdragon 8 gen2 / 12gb)
- not Google Samsung or Apple
- Decent cameras
- SD card expandable
- Headphone jack 3.5mm (though I haven’t used it yet)
- No glass back (and solid build quality allround)
- LineageOS support (for when vendor support runs out)
- I got a good refurb deal in 2024
I was considering a Zenphone 10 or Xperia 5 v when i found this for £650
I picked the 5ii for similar reasons at the time.
The problem is it only gets 2 years of support, so I haven’t gotten an update in years. Sony is living in 2010.
The fingerprint reader slowly stopped working 6 months ago via a prolific software bug that is all over forums for xperias that will never be fixed.
The battery (even ONLY charging it to 80% using battery care) is horrific and the standby time is shit. It loses 1.5-2% battery per hour not being used at all now. I get maybe 4h SOT browsing (much less with video).
The default camera app is crap and not even worth using…
I want to try lineageOS when I get the time to see if it fixes the battery and fingerprint reader, but here in Belgium we really need access to our bank apps because almost everything is done through there.
I can’t trust anything made by google. It’s a company that literally makes its money capturing everything everyone does on the internet…and yet the phone they make is the ONLY phone immune to having everything captured…
Sorry. Not buying it. There will be a chip in there phoning home we’ll find out about in a decade.
I doubt that, but I respect the skepticism. I happen to trust the GrapheneOS devs to reveal if that was the case.
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Is there an 8a? Those are usually the smallest model
There is. The screen is smaller, but the actual phone is bigger 🤦♂️
Wow, dumb. The last a I had was the 4a, which was notably smaller.
I’ve been using the “A” branch of the Pixel line for years now.
But I use CalyxOS so I guess you and I have to be enemies now. My name is Inigo Montoya, you use a different OS, prepare to die.
Ah man… I just installed graphene to try it … (turns around and runs)
.
Seriously though, would be nice if they could get along and share code and efforts, I’d love to try a graphene-hardened OS with sandboxed microg (instead of gsf) and datura firewall :) Maybe even have the option to have microg in one profile and google play in another. One can dream
Graphene and Calyx are two different paths to two different destinations. Graphene is for security, Calyx is for privacy.
Yep, that’s what I gather as well. I just wish we didn’t have to choose, and could get both
They do, but service providers don’t like selling them. There isn’t as much of a return on smaller/ dumb/ cheap phones. I used to work at spectrum, and we’d speak of the cheap phones in hushed tones like they were the boogeyman. It felt horrible because I was using my cheap android while selling people iPhone 15s.
So once again instead of providing choice the market is simply phasing out things with smaller profit margins as if they planned it together in some kind of cartel.
Not really, even the cheap phones have large screens now. There’s no correlation anymore between price and screen size, the cheap phones just have lower quality panels.
Demand also isn’t there. The iPhone SE sold ok, but the other thing to keep in mind was that it was the cheap iPhone too so it’s supposed to sell.
If it was outselling the main model every year then they’d keep making them small. But they didn’t so they got dropped.
If it was outselling the main model every year then they’d keep making them small.
Why would they do that if they make more money on the main model? It’s not like you have a choice in iOS manufacturers.
I’ve been maining a Unihertz Jelly Star, I quite like it.
I want one. Can you put a custom ROM on them?
per @ilmagico@lemmy.world in another comment here:
The old jelly pro had a decent modding community, and I definitely was able to unlock the bootloader and root it, though not sure about degoogling.
Yeah, I can’t ever find modders using the new one and I’m not willing to get an old used one.
I am using Unihertz Jelly Star for more than a year now with custom LineageOS ROM. Works well with it. I used this guide to flash it: https://www.reddit.com/r/unihertz/comments/16sviga/unihertz_jelly_star_running_great_with_lineageos/?rdt=36027
Nice. Actually logged in to save that post. Thanks
I’m clinging to my SE. It’s the last small phone made by anyone other than Chinese no-names. I will be sad when it’s no longer viable as an option.
my Chinese tiny phone has a name, it’s the Unihertz Jelly Star. they even have a subreddit, not sure what makes you think it’s a “no name” they make a lot of phones for niches in today’s world including one with a physical qwerty keyboard.
now the fact that they’re the only company filling those niches sucks, but it’s better than nobody doing it.
But can it run a degoogled Android rom well?
not sure. stacking niches means there’s a good chance the answer is no though.
if it’s just a matter of specs it should be up to it, the hardware is pretty beefy for a phone, but I figure there’s more to it than that.
personally I don’t have the spoons to pour in the effort required to degoogle. the fact that the algs and few ads I see are completely irrelevant to me suggest that I have thoroughly confused them by how non-standard my internet usage is. I’m not overly concerned about the data they do get or what they do with it.
there are enough Man-Made Horrors Beyond My Comprehension™️ keeping me up at night but you do you
The old jelly pro had a decent modding community, and I definitely was able to unlock the bootloader and root it, though not sure about degoogling.
Seems to not be supported by Lineage… I wonder if a more privacy-preserving OS can be installed at all? I don’t teust stock ones.
Well, how’s it supported? This is usually what kills these phones. Even brand like Xiaomi dump their non-flagship model really soon. I have one, bought as a new model, was officially supported for like a year. Great.
I’m not really sure. what happened when it was no longer officially supported?
It just stopped receiving updates, even security ones.
There was the iPhone 13 Mini. It’s adorably small. But it didn’t sell well so they stopped making the Mini line.
I’ve got a 12 mini and bought it just because it was small. Had nothing else from the apple ecosystem (altho I did buy airpods with the phone cause it had no 3.5mm jack), and still bought it just because it was small. People like to point out and laugh at how tiny the phone is, but I don’t care cause at least I don’t have to carry around half a tablet everyday. Sad to hear they discontinued the mini line, even tho I wasn’t planning on buying apple again.
I’ll use my 13 mini until I literally can’t anymore. Sadly it seems like maybe Apple will release a clamshell to get back to the pocketable size but never a mini phone again. Wish the 16e used a mini chasis
Why is the article using diagonal screen size as their measurement for phone size? In that case you could have a phone the exact same size get “bigger” just because bezel sizes have shrunk over the years.
there is one option.
well and a couple others that are also made by Unihertz depending on your needs/wants
more companies making them would be cool but the general consensus I’m reading here is that there are 0 and that is incorrect.
I have their old Jelly Pro, awesome tiny phone, replaceable battery, fits easily into any pocket, was my daily driver for a few months, but then again, it’s just a bit … too tiny. Also, battery life sucked, camera quality forget it, speaker not loud enough, low res screen, etc. I’d be curious if they improved on these things with this new version.
Still, one thing is still missing from the specs is 5G support. I mean, 4G is plenty fast, but not very future proof, carriers are starting to shift more towards 5G, 3G is already being phased out, and it’s just a matter of time before 4G follows.
yeah the screen is very small but that’s kinda the point for my use case. I didn’t want all the limitations of a dumbphone (i.e. I wanted banking apps, gps, useful browser) but I wanted to add friction to my phone use to encourage me to use it less.
battery life is great, lasts me almost 2 days without a charge and will typically go from almost dead to almost full if I plug it in while driving to work. part of the battery life being so good is that I use it less and keep it in grayscale 99% of the time I figure though.
camera is great, it’s 48MP the same as an iPhone 14 Pro. the pictures don’t look great on the device because of the tiny screen but when I look at them on my computer or the pixel 6 I still use at home they look great.
speaker is pretty awful, it’s fine for calls but music, fuhgeddaboudit! I have a Bluetooth clip on speaker that’s great and I don’t really watch videos on it so non-issue, for me at least.
screen res hasn’t bothered me but again that might just be use-case. most of what I do is reading text and it’s fine for that esp with high contrast on, looks ugly but again that’s friction and I want that.
Yeah, sounds like they improved quite a bit, I might consider it, thanks! Still, lack of 5G means not so future proof
Didn’t Apple just come out with one or am I mistaken?
I have an iPhone 15 Pro and a recent Pixel (just because I’m a dev and want to know both ecosystems). I use the iPhone as my daily driver, though, not because it’s necessarily better but because I cannot help myself when it comes to tinkering with Android devices. I have semi-bricked several over the years and then had to install Windows in a VM to run some sketchy-looking factory reset program.
Basically, it’s not an Android problem. It’s a me problem. I’m the one who needs a walled garden so I don’t do science experiments.
Good to know that about one’s self.
I can’t imagine using a phone that I can’t even use adless Youtube on :/
Safari + AdBlock + Vinegar makes for a great YouTube experience.
That said, Freetube on my Pixel is wonderful.
Yeah, fair. I picked this as an example, but overall I’d consider a phone unusable if you can be denied apps. Especially when it comes to important things like censorship evasion tools, which are very likely to be deleted from App Store on request.
