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I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

smallandroidphone.com

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Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#591

Post by thrwwmbkpr »

sm4rk0 wrote: post #560

Current phone: Samsung S10e (5.8" AMOLED, 142mm/5.6" long) and previous: Motorola Moto X 1st gen from 2013 (4.7" AMOLED, 129mm/5.09" long). Very happy with them. Both being flagship models (powerful CPU), the only drawback is shorter battery life than other phones.

I loved the original Moto X! It was one of the first true smart phones my wife and I purchased, and almost the best. It's a great balance of features and practicality that I wish a premium (or near-premium) phone would return. If there are any comparable current models, please let me know.

Hardware - Not premium, but a great combination of rugged, good looking, and practical. It was a pleasure to hold (and still was last time I pulled it out), with the soft, grippy, rubber back and "just right" size. Removeable battery was a plus.

Software - Lots of nice little touches by Motorola. I wish Google integrated more of them when they bought Motorola, like the "double flick" to turn on the flashlight. One of the first with lock screen notifications in white.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#592

Post by abvdasker »

magnio wrote: post #19
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #4

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…

Using the same phone. The glass on the back is a bit broken after I dropped it for like the 100th time, and the battery life is somewhat mediocre, but otherwise it is the best thing I have ever used. The S22 (standard version) has slightly bigger screen but is quite similar in size, so that is probably what I will use next.

I did exactly what you're describing. I like the S22 but it is a little bigger than my ideal size. My only minor nitpick is with the fingerprint reader being under the screen instead of embedded in the power button (which I loved about the s10e since holding it naturally would unlock the screen). Samsung should just make something like an S22e or 23e.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#593

Post by ufmace »

davee5 wrote: post #270

Hi Eric, I'm a hardware startup guy myself (our paths have crossed) with the distinction that my own "very specific set of skills" has been honed at smartphone megacompanies and smartphone startups. OSOM, Essential, HTC, Samsung, Apple. I've designed and built a lot of phones. I'm building one now. I think this is a noble effort, I personally prefer pocketable phones too, but I think there are nigh-insurmountable hur…

I suspect that part of the problem is that, as measured by actual purchases, people don't really prioritize small size and displays that much.

Look at how long all of the requirement lists posted around these threads are. Some people really want a nice camera, some a headphone jack, some a SD card or big battery etc. I would expect that it's a fact of life in a small phone that you can't fit everything anyone might want, but everyone has a different list of must-haves, making it much harder to make one device that all of the small-phone-wanter market will actually buy.

And price. If you really want some one-off thing, you've gotta pay more for it. Would you pay $2k, $3k, more for a great small phone? Seems likely that such prices would help a lot at getting them made. But in reality, people seem to refuse to pay more than a modest markup over the mainstream model with tens of millions produced. Sorry folks, I don't think it works like that.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#594

Post by bscphil »

davee5 wrote: post #270

Hi Eric, I'm a hardware startup guy myself (our paths have crossed) with the distinction that my own "very specific set of skills" has been honed at smartphone megacompanies and smartphone startups. OSOM, Essential, HTC, Samsung, Apple. I've designed and built a lot of phones. I'm building one now. I think this is a noble effort, I personally prefer pocketable phones too, but I think there are nigh-insurmountable hur…

> people who need phones will still buy something even if reluctantly

I'll be blunt: no I won't. I reluctantly bought the phone I still use (a moto X4) back in 2019, at which point it was already getting old. It was one of the smaller Android phones available at the time; I measured it diagonally corner to corner (including bezel) at 159 mm (6.26 inches). The screen size is 130 mm (5.2 in) according to Wikipedia. This phone is in fact much too big for me, and I'm not happy with it.

But I will be sticking with this phone into the indefinite future: until it breaks, becomes unusable, or a worthy replacement arises (a phone the size of the Nexus 5X or preferably smaller, with my must-have features). In the event I can't get this I will switch to a cheap feature phone since I need something for emergency use. I'll look into the mp3 player market to see if there's something I can use for playing music and audio books, maybe if I'm lucky there's something with a nice screen and an e-reader.

I'm sure you're right and some people are more willing to compromise than me. However, what also seems likely is that many people are somewhere in between and will wait until their current phone is unusable before reluctantly downgrading to whatever the latest model is. Surely plenty of sales are lost due to this.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#595

Post by pixl97 »

davee5 wrote: post #315
mgkimsal wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the component suppliers have also been looking at the trendlines so they are building bigger and bigger but... aren't they influencing the trendlines by doing this? if the only things manufacturers make are bigger and bigger, they then get to use the sale of those bigger items as justification to continue to make bigger items? Also seems a bit weird with more eco-awareness going on that some manufacturers would…

Yes, it is absolutely in a feedback loop. It's kind of bizarre to see up close. The consumer hardware duopoly of Apple and Samsung are the only ones who seem to actually drive manufacturing trends. There are also tons of devices being made for the Chinese market, but you can't buy those because they're usually locked up in supplier agreements and honestly they don't meet "flagship" specs for display quality. Componen…

"Yes, it is absolutely in a feedback loop. It's kind of bizarre to see up close."

So supply chains behave like ecosystems.

In the natural world we see insects and animals develop things like bright plumage and big horns because the animal before them was successful in doing the same thing. This behavior can go on for a long time too. Then an asteroid hits (tantamount to bad economic times) and the fast moving generalists seem to succeed better than the highly adapted specialist.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#596

Post by tablespoon »

reaperducer wrote: post #120
izacus wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These "slow iPhone 13 mini" sales are more than all Google Pixel phones sold in a year. Think about that. I don't understand when did the ability to choose a product fitting your preferences become a bad thing on HackerNews and modern American perception. Why is being able to buy niche products somehow not a worthy thing to be desired?

I don't understand when did the ability to choose a product fitting your preferences become a bad thing on HackerNews Because so many on HN have been indoctrinated into the "scale at all costs" mentality. It demonstrates the difference between HN and the real world. On HN, if you can't serve a billion people, your product is niche. In the real world, billions of people earn a very nice living making niche products. I…

>> I don't understand when did the ability to choose a product fitting your preferences become a bad thing on HackerNews

> Because so many on HN have been indoctrinated into the "scale at all costs" mentality.

HN also has many fanboys that slavishly celebrate the decisions of certain prestigious companies as the best possible ones, because that prestigious company made it. Other decisions can be assumed to be inferior because, if they had merit, the company would have picked that instead.

IMHO, a lot of technology has plateaued, to the point where the hip new thing is objectively a regression that just looks different.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#597

Post by rootusrootus »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #577

There are 120 Android phones with 4G that are 5.8" or smaller, since 2019. Of those, the best are probably the Cat S62 Pro, Pixel 4 or 3, Fairphone 3+, and Samsung Galaxy S10e. https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2018&fDisplay... Palm released a tiny Android phone in 2018, but the performance was crap so it didn't sell. Smaller phone means smaller battery and fewer cutting edge components, unless you fab e…

> The tradeoffs don't work unless you're the richest company in the world.

More accurately, I think that would be "unless you sell the most phones in the world." A niche iPhone still sells more phones than Google.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#598

Post by thih9 »

bscphil wrote: post #594
davee5 wrote: post #270

Hi Eric, I'm a hardware startup guy myself (our paths have crossed) with the distinction that my own "very specific set of skills" has been honed at smartphone megacompanies and smartphone startups. OSOM, Essential, HTC, Samsung, Apple. I've designed and built a lot of phones. I'm building one now. I think this is a noble effort, I personally prefer pocketable phones too, but I think there are nigh-insurmountable hur…

> people who need phones will still buy something even if reluctantly I'll be blunt: no I won't. I reluctantly bought the phone I still use (a moto X4) back in 2019, at which point it was already getting old. It was one of the smaller Android phones available at the time; I measured it diagonally corner to corner (including bezel) at 159 mm (6.26 inches). The screen size is 130 mm (5.2 in) according to Wikipedia. Thi…

> In the event I can't get this I will switch to a cheap feature phone since I need something for emergency use.

I tried switching to a feature phone and was surprised how often I use a smartphone; and how many people, banks, government organizations, restaurants, etc, assume that you have one.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#600

Post by vladms »

What's wrong with Samsung S22? It is 6.1 inches (author mentions 6' but I find this close enough), cameras are great and while not stock Android the OneUI stuff is not annoying for me at least. Plus it does have some of the other ideal/nice to have, although not a perfect fit.

I have to admit the S22 is one of the smallest high end Android phones that caught my eye.

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