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Meanwhile me, a 6'4" man with big ass hands, is finally happy that most phones actually feel big enough for my fucking hands for once
Have an older iPhone we use at work and I almost can't type on it with how small the fuckin screen is lol
But yeah, options are nice, make small screens more often ya nerds
I just want a small screen and a physical keyboard like phones had when BlackBerry was still a thing. I had absolutely no trouble blind tiping on those even tho I have sausage fingers.
These days I depend on autocorrect and it betrays me fairly often
Man I have enormous hands. I can barely fit into most XXL gloves. I still prefer 6" phones.
I don’t get what the obsession with big phones is. Is it that most people really want big phones or that companies can charge more for them?
It's not that people want big phones, it's that people like big screens.
Two main reasons I think:
People generally just want the biggest screen they can hold in their hands comfortably.
For most people that seems to have settled into the 6.5-6.7" range, depending on aspect ratio and bezels.
I'm old and my eyesight requires them now. Lol
Second option.
Most of the issues people have with Android are one and the same. Compared to a decade ago, there isn't any choice any more
Years ago, there was almost too much variety at times, and manufacturers would experiment heavily alongside Google. Some phones had physical keyboards, some had no headphone jacks, some had no physical buttons at all, and they came in either stupidly small or (at the time) freakishly large.
Now, for some reason Android feels very sanitized, even the shite that manufacturers stick on top of stock to make it feel like it's their product and not Google's. There aren't even that many manufacturers any more, and unlike the past when Android embraced being a bit different, it all feels like everyone is trying to follow Apple instead of Android leading the pack....
It's all become so bland.
I have small hands and I hate that I have to jerry rig my phone with shit to just reach the upper part of it.
also, interesting side-by-side comparison of the Zenfone 10, the iPhone 15 and the Pixel 8 from the article:
i want a smartphone, that i can hold securely
while still being able to reach the entire screen.
i have pretty big hands, and even i cant reach the upper left quarter of my phone (pixel6a) without letting go of the left and bottom edges.
its ridiculous
Oh yes, to top it I have small hands - I can't reach almost any of the opposite edge without using two hands. Sigh.
My favourite phone ever was my first android phone in 2010, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini (e10i). Every time I’ve had to buy a phone since, I’ve looked around trying to find something similar, but it feels like no such thing will ever exist.
Loved that phone. Check out the Jelly Star (I have the Jelly 2) if you want a small, full featured Android. Compromises for the size and price of course, but it has a headphone jack, sd card, IR blaster, and usb-c - everything I need.
Unihertz phones are really cool. My main phone is an S20 but I use an Atom with downloaded podcasts for hikes and runs.
You just brought back fond memories of mine
I loved sliding that keyboard
This is what is pushing me towards a flip phone. I just don't have a need for a 6.7" phone or bigger.
I'm a cyclist in the city so for me, a smaller size phone is ideal to keep it secure in a pocket. I got gifted a Pixel 6 about a year ago (wanted to stick with the Pixel 2!) and now I always need to bring some sort of pack to put it in.
Thank for bringing this up. I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy S10e. I mostly use the smartphone from my pocket:
So as long as the basic version of the SG s-series is sold in the above dimensions, I'm not worried 🤞
I’m on the iPhone mini and I wish I could get a smaller phone. It is way better than the tablets my family carry!
I was disappointed when they discontinued the mini.
On the other end there doesn't seem to be any phablets either. they are all weirdly long screens.
They're all phablets. People used to make fun of my Note 4 endlessly but it's practically tiny by modern standards.
Width has to still fit in hands to be mainstream.
Almost all popular mainstream Android phones are absolutely phablet sized to the point that it's now the standard, and not the outlier. Your perception has just changed.
and one of the driving forces behind the design of the Palm Pilot was that it had to fit in a shirt pocket …
There was actually a meme I saw a while back where a guy was wielding a sword and shield. Except the sword was an iPhone and the shield was a samsung phone.
I just want Sony to make another XZ1 Compact but with updated internals. Keep the screen size, camera shutter button, 3.5mm plug and make it thicker to squeeze in either wireless charging or a slightly bigger battery.
It's not really that complicated, people expect high end phones to have all day battery, which is hard to do with a small phone.
It would stand to reason that a smaller screen would lend to less power draw both for the screen's power usage and being able to use a lower resolution keeping the CPU draw lower too
75% of your battery cycle, the screen is off. So a smaller screen can only win battery in that 25% window. A bigger battery on the other hand can be applied to 100% of the cycle.
Unless you go oldschool lcd, a smaller screen does not gain as much as a bigger battery for battery cycle time.
However, the 25% on-time use a lot more than 25% battery.
If only high end smartphone chips focus more on efficiency rather than performance, which for most people is already powerful enough for day to day use.
My zenphone is small and has good battery life. Wish more would shoot for this type of form factor
the sad reality is many people will say they want a small phone like this, but then not buy it for some reason or another, then they sell less, and so companies abandon making them.
I am a very happy owner of a ZF10 too, lovely device.
"Won't buy it for one reason or another" meaning the manufacturer intentionally builds the device so shittily that the feature you want is drowned out by 15 year old hardware and high prices. I've seen it happen a hundred times already.
I really hate this argument since it implies every phone is a 1:1 copy of the next and the only difference is the headphone jack, or SD card slot, or removable battery and "see! nobody wants this one feature anymore because ObscurePhone 22 had it and nobody bought it!" Never mind the fact that ObscurePhone 22 was built by child slaves using secondhand parts from old recycled Gateway computers, the screen is CRT, and they cost $5000 each, but yeah, "nobody bought it because people hate headphone jacks now."
I'm currently using a Samsung flip 5. I have it set up to use all my main apps on the outer screen, so I can just have a small screen. Then I have the option to open it for apps that I might want to be on a larger screen.
It's working out pretty well. Some days I never even use the inner screen.
I might have to do this for my next phone. How's the battery life?
Not just small phones actually big phones as well. Remember the Huawei P8 Max, Sony Xperia Z Ultra or Mate 20X?
Phones these days only seem to exist between 6" and 6.8".