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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.
You see so many people asking for smaller phones in the forums and places you frequent.
They do not necessarily represent the views of the common public. I personally could do with a slightly smaller phone because the compact size allows for easier holding with single hands. But, sadly, I have not seen folks around me deciding which phone to buy based on their screen size. Neither is that a priority for them. Simply put, our Venn diagrams do not fully overlap.
I see a lot of people around me asking for smaller phones, from my family to work and friends. Perhaps it’s something cultural, I don’t know.
But I’m well aware that our perception can trick us in so many ways, and can’t speak for itself. I would love to see atual data on phone size preferences around the world.
Still, I doubt that there aren’t enough people wanting smaller phones to sustain a market niche.
True, geographic diversity is a thing. Smaller phones like iPhone mini or Zenfone didn’t caught up in the Indian market. But, should demand exist for them, atleast some companies ought to be making them in some parts of the world. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be happening and that presents one less choice to the customer.
I’m a staunch and unyielding small phone user and this does, admittedly, describe me. I used my LG Optimus (4.75" or 120mm) for something like 6 or 7 years and I loved it. I don’t use my phone for games or video and just want something I can always tuck in a pocket (on women’s clothes this means tiny). It was the perfect size for my hand. When it stopped working because of the 3G/4G change over I upgraded to the smallest, most decent phone I could find: a Samsung Galaxy S7. I am still using it something like 5 years later and I would never go bigger than this, it fits comfortably in one hand, is light, and the battery is replaceable and lasts me all day. It sticks out of pants pockets but fits in a coat or jacket pocket. I would be willing to pay a higher up front cost to get a new phone if it was exactly what I wanted though, about 5" with no bloatware, replaceable battery, headphone jack, and a great camera.
You’re just like me hahaha. My first smartphone was an LG Optimus too, the L70 model. I used for almost the same amount of time, until 2020. It still works, but I stopped using it due to the lack of storage space (2GB only) and older android version. I still think that phone is the perfect size, and would love to have the same model, but with upgraded specs. Then I had to get another one, and moved to Samsung too, but the A01 core.
Yeah the older android version is what killed it for me really, as I would have even kept using it as a wireless device. I couldn’t install my preferred browser, email app, reddit is fun etc on it after enough years. I even rooted it and looked into installing a new version of Android on it but couldn’t haha. It was compact, comfortable to hold, but big enough to browse and read text or to use an onscreen keyboard without much trouble. I was really disappointed to learn that there just were no phones compatible with 4G/LTE running Android 8 or higher that size, not even cheapie ones.
I managed to install lineageos on mine and extend its life for a few years, but the storage limitation was the bottleneck, as I had about 600mb for all my apps and data. I still used that device for a good while, even after buying another, because that size is so comfortable to me. It was so sad when if stopped working after emmc wear :(
You meet them online, but they’re a vocal minority. Especially when a smaller phone means a smaller battery and worse camera system, two of the consistently top priorities for consumers.
Could be a larger demographic thing. Tech enthusiasts tend to have lots of devices(tablets, portable computers, etc.), so they tend to like the smaller form factor phones since they can always use their tablet/laptop when the small phone is limiting. Those people are also the ones you see in these kinds of online communities. For a lot of other people though, they’re getting the big phone and then not having a personal tablet/portable computer at all. Those aren’t the kind of people that hang out online and talk about tech stuff though.
I think you may be on to something. I keep hearing podcast ads for a t-mobile phone upgrade service that brags about offering 2 year upgrades, which sounds bizarre to me because I want my phones to last at least 3 years.
I prefer smaller phones but none of them have the specs I want. I’m never looking for bleeding edge flagships either. I just want a good enough camera, good enough screen, goddamn micro SD slot damn it, and flat glass edges with a bit of a bezel so I can put a case and tempered glass on. And whatever the maker needs to make available for custom roms to be possible because I’m damn well going to keep using it after official updates end.
They wouldn’t even need to make a new model as frequently, maybe minor revisions to replace no longer available components. USB port update shouldn’t be needed for a good chunk of time since c seems pretty great. There’s probably a shitload of tooling and supply chain issues to work out even ignoring the likely toxic workplace politics though.
I also believe it’s usually high(er) end model being smaller and people who want smaller phones want something cheaper. At least that’s what’s going on in my social bubble.
On the other hand I was genuinely torn between the pixel 7 pro and the pixel 7a when I lost my Pixel 5 because I wanted the pro features but the smaller size of the 7a. Ended up getting the pro because the size wasn’t so far apart to make much of a difference, both were massive anyways compared to the 5.
But I bought second hand open box so maybe I’m not in the demographic that matters to Google.
Yes. I was shocked at the price of the iPhone mini.
Maybe it’s about perspective. When smaller phones were the default, other phones were more of an exclusion. When bigger phones became the defacto default, smaller phones started to seem smaller in spec in comparison (mostly battery) while being at about the same price.
I don’t want smaller phones, I’m just having a hard time growing my hands and pockets to keep up.
The point I feel is that small phones have a small but vocal userbase and is not lucrative for smartphone manufacturers as more R&D is involved in the packaging for product which has a small audience
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?
That sounds more like an iPhone problem than a large phone problem. You have complete control over both text size and display scaling in Android.
Google and Android aren’t perfect but fuck man I love Android.
Buttfuck Man, my favorite super hero of all time. Can’t wait till he gets his own movie.
And this wasn’t just any but fuck man. It was the “perfect but fuck man I love”!
I just wish phones would get thicker, instead of longer. So they can fit beefier batteries.
I’d love to be able to charge my phone like twice a week
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.
Conspiracy part of my brain wants to say thats by design… To artificially increase sales by replacing broken ones.
Same reason they sealed up the phones so you couldnt replace the batteries/repair them.
as far as conspiracies go I think you could probably do better
not everyone is bold enough to artificially slow down the phone to frustrate you into upgrading like Apple did.
Just saying, we need a sub called “inconspiracies” where every post is literally just a known (or assumed) fact that sounds like a conspiracy
Months ago my coworker and I were joking that something similar would be a funny podcast, then we both went no. No one should ever do this….it would not end well.
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:
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Unlocked bootloader
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Replaceable battery
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Small
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Expandable storage
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Good camera
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IR blaster
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Updates provided for a long time
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Stock Android
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Very durable
I’d add NFC to that list because mobile payments are awesome.
ir blaster gang gang
The closest you could get is the fair phone, its not perfect but once its available where I am I’m thinking on getting it.
The Samsung flagships (s22, 23) are the only “small” phones, but they’re actually pretty good. I’ve been using Samsung for a few years now and it actually improves on the things that annoy me with stock android.
Nah personally I would trade SD card support for headphone jack any day, but hey I get why they got rid of it, something to do with the environment
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I’d really like Google to make smaller phones again. The Nexus size was the perfect size.
There was a time where 7" was a damn tablet (looking at you, my old pal nexus 7)
7" plus an inch of bezels on each side. A Nexus 7 was nearly 10 inches.
Using diagonal screen size to measure phones doesn’t work because of bezels and taller aspect ratios. The 5.5" iPhone 6 Plus (2014) is pretty much the same size as the 6.7" iPhone 15 Pro Max
Still using an S10e, & getting around 7-8 hrs SOT, great phone, perfect size, good cameras & screen, with the bonus of SD card support & a headphone jack…
If you have been using that phone since it was launched, I doubt SOT is still that long.
Have the s10e as well. Got it 3 months after launch and I håbe the same battery experience. I’m very impressed by it, even if the phone is starting to get a bit sluggish.
Oh. Well nevermind then
Agreed.
Manufacturers seem to think that we all need a massive screen to watch films and play games on.
man I just miss being able to type and reach all corners of the screen with one hand without having to be a contortionist or accidentally clicking on the one-handed keyboard that I never actually use because I’ve already resigned to always using two hands anyways
I’ve since realized that you can turn off the one handed keyboard completely but the fact that it has to exist at all still annoys me
It’s not the manufacturers fault that your and my hand sizes haven’t kept up with demand. /s
I think it’s part of a push of making your smartphone your “everything” device. I love small phones but I will say that some tasks are just impossible with them.
Also agreed. However the manufacturers know how many of each device they sell and seem to think the smaller form factor devices aren’t very popular. I imagine there’s multiple reasons, like the smaller phones tend to also have lower battery life and lack other features due to size and they tend to appeal to people on tighter budgets that upgrade less often.
I guess most people browse the web and that’s why bigger screens work better. I happily bought bigger phones. Some people like to pretend phones are for calls but that’s just not true IME.
I just find a smaller screen easier to operate.
The size of the pixel 7a was a good compromise.
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
That will be a side effect of them locking abitrary features behind the bigger and thus more expensive models, if there was feature parity smaller phones would probably still be the norm.
There are some features that just can’t be equal between a bigger phone and a smaller one (or would require gimping the bigger phone) like a bigger screen (obviously), bigger battery and more size for larger camera sensors
Not true. Many of the smaller phones on the market have additional features that the bigger ones don’t. Or at least they used to when they existed.
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Sure, just make it fatter.
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Rejected by who though? And has it really? All phones used to be fatter
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Is this bait?
No, I agree with his point. Features do take space. Maybe we can make space for a headphone jack (🙄), but consumers demand more cameras, with a larger sensor, faster and more power hungry processors, bigger batteries. With any space limitation (even the Pro Max comes with a space limitation because it can’t become an iPad…) there are feature tradeoffs, and obviously a smaller phone will fit fewer cameras, less cooling, a smaller battery, etc.
Of course they do. The S23 for example is smaller than the iPhone 15, was the same price on release (came out Feb 2023) and has features beating the iPhone 15 Pro Max, a much bigger and more recent device. Most features/hardware on the bigger phones exist in smaller phones, most of the extra space on larger phones is usually just taken up by a larger battery anyway. They can go watch some teardowns, look into all the software locked features like with the recent Pixel 8 phones, instead of blindly jumping to the defence of these mega-corporations who only want to upsell.
But yes, obviously some features are a lot harder to fit in a smaller space, but I thought that was the obvious asterisk to my comment. Perhaps they should spend some R&D on figuring that out though, rather than rehashing the same devices year after year which is just leading to e-waste.
(I’d love the 3.5mm port back too, but they all want to sell their wireless ‘buds’ now, so not going to happen for that reason alone :c)
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So yes, it was bait.
I feel like hopefully with a potential paradigm shift, maybe one SIM card and number shared between several devices, one large phone or tablet for work or movies and a smaller feature phone for on demand urgent communications, we’ll hopefully see the market for OEMs open up a bit wider and allow for further competition/collaboration across the whole portable electronics sector
As a woman: I’d love to use bigger phones - as soon as they give me pockets I can fit them into.
It’s one of the reasons I find foldables so interesting. The Google Pixel Fold has the perfect form factor. If only it wasn’t so expensive…
As a woman - I don’t have a problem with pockets, I usually get them enlarged. The problem is with our small hands, which would make using a large phone one-handed impossible. The older smartphone I am still sometimes using as a modem/mp3 player is 7x14 cm, and this is absolutely my maximum. I mostly use a dumbphone, it is smaller than my palm and fits even in a shirt pocket.
Absolutely untrue. It’s a heat dissipation issue. iPhone minis had so many issues with heat they can’t make em anymore.
Apple wants you to think that bigger phones are better only because they can’t make them smaller.
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.
Pixel 3 and Samsung S4 and j series were good
Pixel 5 is great, but 4a was perfect
Nexus 5 was a good size for me, this 4a is too big to be comfortable. If rather have the bezels back, too. Much easier to use without 100% screen coverage.
Yeah, its super annoying that you can’t grab phones without touching the screen
Puts the virtual keyboard uncomfortably low, as well. I didn’t mind the buttons having a dedicated space.
Currently using an Essential Ph1 running Lineage (Android 13) and I’m about to switch to a Pixel 4a of all things, because of size, weight (its plastic), cheap as hell (so I can keep a hot spare around and do testing for a low cost), and it has one of the highest NIT ratings of any unlockable phones.
The 5 looks good too, just not as bright, slightly larger, and a little heavier.
Edit:spelling
My son has the 4a and it’s a great phone. Same size as the Pixel 5 too.
From what I’ve seen online, the 5 is trivially larger (like 1mm each way).
What drives me to the 4a is the brighter screen, slightly lighter, and plastic. So when I drop it (not if), it’ll bounce better.
Also, they’re cheap as hell from Walmart of all places, about $100, lol. So I can afford 2 or 3 of them for the cost of a newer phone that has performance and features I really don’t care about.
God I loved the Nexus 4, I had iPhones from iPhone 3G to 4 moved to a Galaxy S3 which I absolutely despised due to the bloatware… sold that on eBay and bought a Nexus 4 16gb for £280… Had Nexus/Pixel branded phones ever since.
I love my iPhone mini 12. I’m a smaller person with smaller hands than average and the Mini just sits in my palm perfectly.
It’s a real shame they got rid of it. It’s just felt “right”.
I feel you, I am 6ft tall and the mini was just the perfect size for me and wasn’t bulky. I just went with a 15 Pro Max, just to give a huge phone a fair shot I figured I’d try one for a year… and I do a lot of photography so the better camera was enticing. We’ll see how it works out, maybe next cycle there will be a new mini or I’ll just downgrade to the standard pro size if I doing like the size of the max.
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.
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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.
