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

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431–440 of 702 posts

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

#431

> $700-800 I can. Nothing will make happier than ditching Apple and get a smaller Android phone. In fact the size of iPhone 5s was the only reason that had piqued my interest and I had migrated to the iPhones. Then I stayed for other (and important) reasons. > Stock Android OS Ah, no. I take that back. That is not going to be worth 700-800 just for the size! In fact take more and put it to a fight which tries to forc…

"Stock Android" usually means "what runs on Pixels" in Android user circles, not actually AOSP. It's a comparison between Samsung/Huawei/Xiaomi/... and Google/OnePlus/Motorola/...

“Stock Android” means where Google does inside it what I have listed above in less savoury words. The ones you’ve listed are basically compromised devices in your pockets — so a notch higher or lower, depending upon how you look at all this :)

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

#432
I wish there was a phone, preferably with buttons (bb q10 like), that can run WhatsApp, banking app and Apple Pay (or whatever android version is). Also it should be running these stupid government apps. And music please... preferably with 3.5mm jack so I can connect my nice headphones. This phone can have mediocre camera.

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

#433

Larger phones have better battery life time. Screen power draw and battery capacity scale as the square of the linear dimension. They largely cancel out. However, all the other hardware are a fixed size so proportionally large phones have longer battery lives.

Chinese manufactures has been using silicon carbon batteries with larger densities for long time, for example 6.3" vivo X200 FE has a 6500mAh battery which should solve small phone-smaller battery problem

Ya but manufacturers believe, rightly, that folks will always prefer battery life to pocket confort.

I say this as someone who clung onto his 1st gen SE until I got my current 13 mini

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

#434
post #415
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just get a larger phone and you don't have to carry bulky battery packs.

but I can have a smaller phone and also use the battery pack to charge my spouse's phone, not just my own

only if she prefers also smaller phones

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

#435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Stock Android" usually means "what runs on Pixels" in Android user circles, not actually AOSP. It's a comparison between Samsung/Huawei/Xiaomi/... and Google/OnePlus/Motorola/...

“Stock Android” means where Google does inside it what I have listed above in less savoury words. The ones you’ve listed are basically compromised devices in your pockets — so a notch higher or lower, depending upon how you look at all this :)

Of course, but that's why the bootloader is unlockable. A production device will ship with either a close-to-stock (== close-to-Pixel) ROM or a heavily customized one. If the ROM is closer to stock, it's easier to develop and maintain custom ROMs, so it makes sense to want that as opposed to the alternative.

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

#436

The hard reality is that there is no PAYING market for such a device, because when it comes to the point-of-sale, most people still choose the normal-size device with better screen/battery/camera. This is equivalent to something I called the "QWERTY paradox" more than a decade ago: Back when the Smartphone market exploded, people disliked typing on a touchscreen and repeatedly stated that they want a device with a ph…

Even if was a small % of the Apple lineup, the iPhone mini was one the best selling smartphones all brands considered. I for one switched to iPhone in 2020 specifically because there wasn't a single current-gen small form-factor Android phone anymore. I have a few friend that also made the switch with the 12 / 13 Mini for that reason.

The real reason the iPhone mini failed is not related to screen size, it's because its segment was canibalized by the cheaper alternative, the SE. The 2020 and 2022 sold like hot breads, wherehas their screen was almost an inch smaller than the iPhone mini. This is the proof that there a significant market for people who don't care about size and would gladly take the smallest option at a $100 discount from the regular one.

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

#437

The hard reality is that there is no PAYING market for such a device, because when it comes to the point-of-sale, most people still choose the normal-size device with better screen/battery/camera. This is equivalent to something I called the "QWERTY paradox" more than a decade ago: Back when the Smartphone market exploded, people disliked typing on a touchscreen and repeatedly stated that they want a device with a ph…

Exactly. Stated and revealed preferences are sometimes very different. Interestingly, preferences can also change slowly over time. For example, the Dell Streak in 2010 had a 5 inch screen size, which was considered ridiculously large at the time (people called it a "phablet"), and it didn't catch on initially. But years later, average phones did actually reach and even exceed that size. Nowadays the Dell seems relatively small.

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

#438
post #365

We are unfortunately a neglected part of the market. I used to have a Pixel 5. As somebody who uses phones minimally ( I had two of them. The first one lasted 2 years before the battery swelled up and I had to dispose of it. Google replaced it for free with another. Then eventually Google Pay stopped being supported on the second, since it was a few years beyond security updates. After that I found no alternative wit…

I'm using a google pixel 5 with google pay right now.

Just a heads up, when I contacted Google Support about this, they insinuated that this is something slowly being rolled out across Pixel 5 devices, so while it may work now, it could stop at any moment.

The issue I received when tapping to pay was "Your phone doesn't meet software standards". It did mention it can be due to rooting (my phone wasn't rooted) or "uncertified software" (of which I didn't have any).

I'm sure you might already do so, but I'd advise not to rely on the phone to pay going forward. For me, I was caught off guard in a shop without any other payment method. There was no warning or notification about the change until I tapped to pay at the card terminal.

I tried a few more times afterwards with another payment method as backup, and it never worked again, even after rebooting, toggling NFC off and on. I never received an email, notification or warning in the app itself. It was quite disappointing as I reckon I could have run that phone for a few more years as a minimal phone.

Google did offer me about £100 off of a new Pixel. So if this happens to you and the lack of Google Pay is a dealbreaker, I'd give that a try.

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

#439
post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and I also remember how Apple fans said "this is ridiculous, nobody needs a screen that big that doesn't fit in your pocket easily", and here we are 15 years later mourning the iPhone Mini/SE.

The Pro (non-Max) feels like my sweet spot. Fits in most pockets pretty easily but Max is just too big for me.

I am 6ft tall and feel like my hands are above average in size. I have a regular iPhone 16 pro. I still don’t understand how people use bigger devices.

Do they like using two hands? I can’t single hand a phone any larger without having to shift it in my hand.

I don’t want to use two hands on my phone outside of typing.

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

#440
Man this hits home. I'm a reasonably sized human, but there are almost no devices on the market outside of iPhones where I can reach from bottom right to upper left with 1 hand without shifting the phone around in my hand. I hate it.

I'd be willing to take less battery life to get something like this, but nearly everything that's anywhere close either has no NFC (which means mobile payments are out the door) or doesn't have 5G or just has such an awful camera/processor as to be basically unusable for many every-day tasks.

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