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I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

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Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#381
post #358

The Samsung S10e was probably peak Android. Small, high-end, SD card and 3.5mm jack. There are some decent small Android phones, if you're willing to buy non-mainstream brands. Take a look at: https://www.reddit.com/r/smallphones/

For me, it would be the Samsung Galaxy S5 but with modern hardware. In addition to being small, with SD card and 3.5mm jack, it is water resistant and has a removable battery. It is also one of the most robust non-hardened phones. It has an IR blaster too if it matters to you. It was a time when Samsung was known for its gimmicks, the one for the Galaxy S5 is "Air View", where it recognizes your finger hovers over th…

I've held on to my S8 as long as possible, because even if the battery wasn't removable any more, it lasted the lifetime of the device, despite heating up considerably during the summer.

My current Xperia 5 maintains battery temperature around 10°C above ambient during fast charging and since it easily lasts the whole day in the 30-80% charge regime, I believe it will outlast other components.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#382
post #8

My cynical take is that small phones don't exist because they are not the product. Similar to vape pens the product is the addictive substance the device loads. In this case its apps and ads. A smaller screen probably negatively impacts KPIs on many levels, at Google/Apple/Meta/X and on down through the ecosystem. I understand that Apple did not make enough money to make it worth their while to continue the iphone mi…

That makes no sense. The only phone companies that make money from how often you use your phone and buy apps on it are Apple and Google. If there were a market for it other companies would make them. As far as the mini phones - because physics - the battery life is atrocious. That was one of the main drivers for me to get a larger phone. Well that and because I can pull down the Control Center and use the widget to m…

But Apple and Google (Pixel) are a huge portion of the market..

The other manufacturers are forced to go along with the market leaders, but sometimes also side-load apps for post-device-sale revenue.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#383
Samsung's S-series (without plus or ultra or edge or whatever) is basically this. Not quite as small as an iPhone mini, but just about small enough to be ok for me. Shouldn't be any bigger though (especially not wider!). For me the width is the big issue with big phones. It just feels uncomfortable in the hand then.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#384
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know I can’t claim to be “the norm”, but all I want is a smaller phone with 1–2 day battery life. I don’t need a better screen, a better camera, or ever more compute. (It’s a freaking smartphone, not a game console!) All I need my phone to do is run a web browser, messaging apps, maps, my banking app, and random little apps some organisations force you to use – like my university’s app, my city’s public transport a…

Did I read it right, are you installing "resstaurants apps"?

Yep, in my area a couple of dining places only list their menu in an app [1], a bunch of places have some kind of membership program accessible through the app, and one standup club requires (!) an app to order drinks and food.

[1]: There’s a paper one in the restaurant, of course, but I like to choose beforehand.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#385

I'm writing this on a Unihertz Jelly Star which is tiny, and I consider it my "protest phone" at the lack of decent small phones. A friend jokingly calls it my "microphone", another a "prison phone" (due to its size allowing for more easily smuggling in body cavities). Occasionally I go to mobile phone shops and ask if they have a case for it just for the fun of seeing the look on their faces when they see it (I don'…

The Jelly Star's battery life is surprisingly decent for its size - I get about 8 hours of moderate use, but it requires a mid-day charge if you're using GPS or watching videos.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#386

I'm writing this on a Unihertz Jelly Star which is tiny, and I consider it my "protest phone" at the lack of decent small phones. A friend jokingly calls it my "microphone", another a "prison phone" (due to its size allowing for more easily smuggling in body cavities). Occasionally I go to mobile phone shops and ask if they have a case for it just for the fun of seeing the look on their faces when they see it (I don'…

The jelly star has got junk in the trunk though

What sort of junk?

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#387

I'm writing this on a Unihertz Jelly Star which is tiny, and I consider it my "protest phone" at the lack of decent small phones. A friend jokingly calls it my "microphone", another a "prison phone" (due to its size allowing for more easily smuggling in body cavities). Occasionally I go to mobile phone shops and ask if they have a case for it just for the fun of seeing the look on their faces when they see it (I don'…

The lack of updates/general software sketchiness is what has me turned off from the Jelly. I know a product like that never has a chance in hell of running Graphene, I’d be way more interested if it could run Lineage.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#388
post #8

My cynical take is that small phones don't exist because they are not the product. Similar to vape pens the product is the addictive substance the device loads. In this case its apps and ads. A smaller screen probably negatively impacts KPIs on many levels, at Google/Apple/Meta/X and on down through the ecosystem. I understand that Apple did not make enough money to make it worth their while to continue the iphone mi…

I feel that the problem with small phones roots in software. Obviously you would need to run smaller resolution. My sweet spot was iPhone 4S. It has 3.5" display with 640x960 resolution. If you would try to run modern Android with this resolution, you would hit multiple obstacles, from popular apps to popular websites scaling badly.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

non-OLED screen I'd consider that an advantage: No burn-in.

Is OLED burn-in really something people still care about? I have a handful of OLED devices, some of which I've used daily for nearly 10 years, and none of them have any burn-in. I've never even seen burn-in on anything other than a signage TV, and that happens even on some LCDs.

> I've never even seen burn-in on anything other than a signage TV, and that happens even on some LCDs

AFAIK, the hardware still suffers from that problem, but it's been fixed in most devices by software fixes. Instead of displaying the exactly same content 24/7, it has "cleaning programs" or similar to runs once in a while to prevent the burn in from happening. Our OLED TV does the same I think too.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

#390

6" doesn't register as small to me at all lol. The HTC 8X was 4.3" and that was a "normal" sized phone for me. I used the Palm Phone (PVG100) (3.3" screen) (basically the size of a credit card) [ https://www.ricklohre.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/dsc_097... ] as long as I could until it became too slow to use as software got slower and increasingly battery-hungry and I had to give it up last year. Right now I have…

> https://aiphor.com/products/bluefox-nx1-4-0-android-smartpho...

Huh, for some reason, this page loads properly and I can see it for 1-2 seconds, but it seems like as soon as it's done loading, it redirects me to google.com. Based in Spain, so guessing it's their way of turning away EU or European customers I guess?

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