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I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

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Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#161
post #152

I have given up: the iphone mini (which I own) is gargantuan. There are a few glimmers of hope around the edges. Palm was interesting but too small (the primary problem was the battery, not the screen size). Unihertz is doing some interesting stuff in the small phone arena, but their stuff is either too small and thick (the jelly) or too big (titan). Their styling is also a bit funky in a 90's tech vibe sort of way t…

I'm with you! The litephone 2 is the closest we've gotten but at our market-size the software stability will likely be lacking.

a market of two, then

i have a litephone for my kids and it's too minimalistic, I'd still like maps, etc

if we could combine the styling of the palm, but a bit bigger and with much better battery w/ and e-ink display and decent battery life, I'd be in heaven

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Missing microSD card support could be the major dealbreaker And for the other guy a 3.5mm jack and for a third a physical off switch and look at that we have too many dealbreaker features for the form factor. Power users tend to have more dealbreakers than the average consumer. Anecdotally, it seems power users prefer smaller phones. This might be what kills the small phone factor.

The Moto G (2013) had a microSD slot, a 3.5" port and all of it in a 4.5" form factor. Why can't we just get an updated version of that?

I started with one of those, and every two-three years I upgrade to the most recently available one.

Over time the MotoG phones have been getting larger - to the extent that now the one I have doesn't fit in my sporran, if I go out wearing a kilt.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#163
post #2

I’m a long-time small phone Android user. But after the Pixel 5, I have not been able to find a suitable small Android replacement. The Pixel 6 is gigantic, and the Pixel 7 looks like it is also destined to be huge. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve resorted to using an iPhone Mini, biding my time and hoping desperately that some Android OEM would step up. But it’s increasingly clear that a small premium phone is not on t…

One of the reasons I want a small phone is because I already have other devices with a larger screen: computer, laptop and tablet. That's why I want it to be cheap, I have already spent a lot on different devices and for the little use I give it I want it to be cheap and small.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But admittedly here in Germany SUVs are also on the rise, even though we have that "environmentally conscious" reputation.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk of Germans as environmentally conscious. Car culture is usually one of the first things that comes up when someone talks about Germany.

I have lived in Germany for five years and this is absolutely true. Even many students have cars, which was completely surreal/absurd to me, since I didn't have any fellow students in The Netherlands with a car (only bikes). I'd cycle to work every day (22 km for the round trip), I'd regularly get comments from Germans that I was crazy to cycle that distance through all weather.

Watching German politics more closely during those years, I have seen that choices between: is better for car owners, is better for something else, gets decided in favor of is better for car owners 90% of the times. Heck, even some members of the Green Party are very cozy with the car industry (e.g. Kretschmann).

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t call 10 m a year „doesn’t sell“. It might not sell like the bigger ones but there’s definitely a market for it

Clearly not enough to warrant a production line, otherwise there would be some offerings for it from some Android maker.

Clearly? Are you sure?

Paraphrasing Contact: First rule in cell phone building: why build small when you can build twice as big at twice the price?

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#166

The Galaxy S10e is my current phone, and I'm not sure what I will do when it stops receiving security updates. It's basically perfect. It still has an SD card slot. It still has a headphone jack. It has wireless charging. It's reasonably sized. And it had flagship-for-the-time specs (albeit slightly less than the mainline S10 or S10+). Samsung doesn't make anything comparable to this anymore. The only drawback is tha…

I'll see your Galaxy S10e and raise you a Galaxy S7. Just the right size for me and still going strong, in spite of the fact it was second hand already, when I bought it off eBay about 4 or 5 years ago.

I really don't know why people think they need a new phone every year. I've had 2 in the past decade. Both bought cheaply second hand [previous one am HTC One M8] and I got years of use out of each. In fact the One M8 is still working fine, apart from the degraded battery life.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#167
post #6

“matching size and design of iPhone 13 Mini” So, by all accounts, the iPhone mini has been an extremely slow seller. https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopula... Why would that form factor succeed in the Android space? --- I see these meme on tech sites all the time: “oh phones are too big I just want something simple”. That is a valid sentiment that I think is shared by basically no average consum…

There are two big issues with SFF, really: - people tend to correlate size and price, and by default the correlation is direct (for some things it's inverse), so at similar capabilities (and thus prices) consumers will tend to go with the larger version - for a smartphone specifically, there's a direct relationship between battery size and device size, and battery life is a really valuable convenience The iPhone 13 m…

> The iPhone 13 mini has a 2400 mAh battery, the 13 has 3200. 33% more battery capacity is a lot, and at 2400mAh I don't think the mini doesn't survive an entire day of relatively heavy use without a charge.

So make it 3mm thicker?

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#168

A problem is that even within the niche of small phones, not everybody has the same wishes. Compared to your ideal specifications, my wishes are: support for microSD card storage; battery that easily and reliably lasts a full day with moderate phone usage; fingerprint sensor, not necessarily on the power button; camera decent, not necessarily great (I don't care that much about low light performance, for example). I'…

> Missing microSD card support could be the major dealbreaker And for the other guy a 3.5mm jack and for a third a physical off switch and look at that we have too many dealbreaker features for the form factor. Power users tend to have more dealbreakers than the average consumer. Anecdotally, it seems power users prefer smaller phones. This might be what kills the small phone factor.

I believe the bit about power users is the HN effect at work, the main customers for small phones are people with small hands and/or pockets, who are disproportionally women.

Women are also overrepresented in the Really Big Phone market, and wield them two-handed.

They also trend heavily iPhone in the US market, but that leaves plenty of alpha for the manufacturer who serves the actual market for small-form-factor Android phones.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#169

Has anybody tried the $32 SOYES XS11 or $70 or UNIWA XS11 It's a 2.5 inch 3G Android phone. http://www.cwell-hk.com/products/SOYES_XS11.aspx Lots of small Android phones are in the recommended section on cwell-hk in the $40 range.

I wouldn't recommend them. Almost every single one is using a very old version of android.

Which is surprisingly usable, but there are some apps that don't work.

I also wouldn't actually log into anything unless you're ok being pwned. No security patches, plus sketchy cheap as dirt chips running it.

You can also not type on it. Maybe a sentence, but it'll take you 3x as long if not more trying to correct typos. If you do any text based communication, you're going to have a bad time.

Overall, not worth it.

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