Technology

They will have to pry my iPhone 13 mini from my cold dead hands! Small phone gang unite! ✊

I have a theory about small phones:

I see so many people asking for smaller phones, and, at the same time, the sales aren't very good when companies give it a try. How can both be true?

I believe (from my anedoctal observations) that small phone users tend to be people who don't want to replace their phones just for the sake of getting a newer one, and use their devices for several years, resulting in fewer sales than expected.

People have been saying this for the last 5 years and will continue saying this for the next 5 years. They make less smaller phones cuz people don't buy them

There was a time where 7" was a damn tablet (looking at you, my old pal nexus 7)

Personally, the Pixel 5 was the perfect size and weight for a phone.

No bulky cameras. No thick chassis. No glass adding pointless weight. Very usable as a one handed device. Symmetrical bezels.

Ooooh nexus..

My Nexus 5 and 5X were the best phones I had ever owned, period

I believe the (old but still decent) best small Android is the Samsung s10e

What irks me about the larger phones is that there is so much wasted screen real estate. The phone doubled in size, but can only show me half the number of items on my shopping list?

I'm currently in the market for a new phone because Samsung ended security updates for my current one, not because there's anything wrong with it. And I'm noticing that my choices seem to be buy a phablet or buy a total POS.

Remember when Samsung made a flagship phone in multiple sizes, and then also made a giant phone so big it had a built-in stylus? It wasn't that long ago. Now the flagship phone comes with a stylus.

I bought an unlocked pixel 7a because of lots of custom roms once it goes out of support

It's huge and doesn't have a headphone jack or SD card slot but it's very fast and has a good camera

My dream phone would be:

• Unlocked bootloader

• Replaceable battery

• Small

• Expandable storage

• Good camera

• IR blaster

• Updates provided for a long time

• Stock Android

• Very durable

I just want phones that are shorter. They keep getting longer, which means more risk of breaking, and means the keyboard is unusable in landscape since it blocks the textfield.

Agreed.

Manufacturers seem to think that we all need a massive screen to watch films and play games on.

I want a small phone with easy replaceable battery and a plastic sturdy screen.

I'm still on my pixel 3 which is line at the cusp of the size i can handle. I want smaller but every new phone is bigger. It's so infuriating.

I wanted small phone after 4 years with op7t and went logically for S23. But few years back it would be massive phone. Nowadays I found it like a perfect sweet spot of size, weight.. Performance, software and camera wise it's the only option.

My phone is about 15cm (~5¾ in) tall, and to me, that's the absolute maximum. It's slightly too big. The width, about 7cm (~2¾ in) is totally fine.

This (Galaxy XCover 5) was the smallest phone that seemed to exist (and I wanted one woth durability, removable battery, SD slot, headphones etc). It was very expensive though.

Trying to find cheaper ones for various people in the extended family, they all specified "oh, not bigger than my current one", but it was impossible. There's basically nothing less than 16cm tall, and most are even bigger.

I'm scared of this one breaking. The XCover 6 is 17cm x 8cm.

I remember the last time this got brought up and I complained about my thumb not being able to reach the other side of the iphone 3 mini. Well, I tried the Samsung Z Fold the other day and I really like how narrow it is to the point where my thumb can effortly reach the other side when the phone is folded. Perhaps I'll get that phone in the future when my current iPhone 13 mini dies. At the same time, I do enjoy my Apple Watch though and I appreciate the longetivity of the iPhone compared to other brands.

I think the main smartphone market is kind of like the market for cars. The only people that can afford to buy them, can afford to keep up heavy consumer traffic, are the ones who are convinced they need to swap to the top of the line model with some sort of trade-in payment plan, where they want every new trendy thing, and every piece of bullshit technology that's not going to last even to the next flagship model. Basically, stupid people who are rich and are insecure about it. I'm certainly vulnerable to that to, just as I'm vulnerable to the unbearable lag on even just like a 6 year old phone, which should really not be that old, and then security updates and support are always a concern, I suppose. I think maybe the solution, individually, might just be to root my phone, or install some linux alternative operating system, cause I don't wanna keep up with this bullshit anymore. I'm trapped in a world of large 19:9 and 21:9 smartphones, unusable with one hand, and with screen space that's useless 90% of the time. I'm stuck without aux ports, and without any physical style keyboard, no nothin. I also want stuff like the DS stylus port and the flip camera they had on the zenfone 7, that shit is cool.

The Z Flip is hard to wrap a hand around? Was this written by a toddler?

Asus, Samsung and Sony are still making some very handy phones. Apple and Xiaomi can go suck it. Admittedly smaller phones in 2023 tend to be on the premium side, but imo they also last longer...because you don't drop them as often.

Especially the Sony Experia 5 (I through V) is the perfect balance between an old school width where you can easily hold and use the phone in one hand but also have more space to scroll vertically. Its got a beautiful 21:9 display, so cinematoc content looks dope as well.

I found my old ipod touch (5th gen, 4 inch screen) in the closet and power it on yesterday. Can't believe how small it is. I swear the screen was a lot larger when I bought it years ago. I guess my perception is skewed by modern smartphone screen size which keep getting bigger.

Fake news! Unihertz sells the Jelly