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

smallandroidphone.com

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

#661

Post by VoxPelli »

NoGravitas wrote: post #503
VoxPelli wrote: post #305

The Mudita Kompakt ( https://store.mudita.com/store/mudita-kompakt-global ) is a 4.3” e-ink Android based phone that's about the size of an iPhone Mini. It doesn't have the Google Play Store but one can sideload Android apps onto it

My only gripe with the Mudita Kompakt is that one of the reasons I need a smartphone is to run those little apps without which you cannot navigate the modern world - 2FA, corporate proprietary 2FA, parking, bank (my bank lets you deposit checks through the app, but not through the website, else I would only use the website). And a lot of those require the Play Integrity API at some level, unfortunately.

Yeah, same here :/

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

#662

Post by RichardCA »

karel-3d wrote: post #341
crossroadsguy wrote: post #317

> $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…

There is no "stock android" btw. There is no such thing.

It's turned into a generic term that usually means the ability to remove all corporate branding from the UI. A lot of it is in the ability to apply themes. For example the Icon style for Android 6 (Marshmallow) is now considered retro.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Marshmallow#/media/Fil...

I particularly despise the way Samsung wants to use impose a "bulging squircle" icon shape and I always find a way to override that (Nova Launcher still works well for this use case).

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

#663

Post by throwawaymaths »

rickdeckard wrote: post #584
throwawaymaths wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does Fairphone exist?

The main features of the Fairphone are ethical and sustainable production, repairability and longevity. Of all the people who prioritize those features when buying a new phone, only ~100k users end up buying a fairphone every YEAR. A company like Samsung needs to produce roughly 10x this volume BEFORE launch just to fill their sellout channels, so their financial risk for a global ramp-up is much higher.

exactly. the market for Fairphone is likely smaller than the market for SmallPhone.

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

#664

Post by ungreased0675 »

garyfirestorm wrote: post #559
rickdeckard wrote: post #422

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…

It’s ironic that the author is comparing to iPhone mini which was killed just because of low demand.

They still sold millions of them.

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

#665

Post by theendisney »

derefr wrote: post #215
theendisney wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What fun comment. You are mistaken in so many ways :) When idle GSM uses a lot of power. Listening for a wakeup signal doesnt seem expensive at all. It even seems one could pull off the trick for free. Free There shall be e-paper ofc The brick can have a battery like that of a quality powerbank. For emergency charging the display snaps on top with some magnets. There will be heavy cpu loads with lots of reads and wri…

To be clear, I meant that, when running your average (i.e. mostly-idle, not-very-graphically-intense, yet smoothly-animated) interactive-UI application, with the CPU+GPU module needing to stream vaguely-realtime updates wirelessly over to the display module, the display module would end up using nearly as much battery to receive and display the updates as the CPU+GPU module would be taking to generate and send them.…

I read that as to say one should do both. Let the client render simple things, do the hard stuff on the portable server.

No offense but it sounds like you simply refuse to look for anything interesting in the concept. Or you forgot to mention it. HN the tech website where we collectively try to shoot everything down. haha

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

#666

Post by Nursie »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #550
Nursie wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's meaningful. There are not enough people who would buy such a device to make it profitable to design and manufacture. Your priors - "You have ... people who want them to fit in your hand" Are incorrect. The number of people who will actually buy small devices is ... small. The number of people who are so interested in small devices they'll overlook things like a lower battery life and whatever other…

Unless you're asserting the number of people who will actually buy small devices is zero (which I would hope you aren't given the evidence to the contrary in this thread), his priors are in fact correct. If there exists any number of people willing to buy small phones, then the statement "you have people who want them to fit in your hand" is true.

> If there exists any number of people willing to buy small phones, then the statement "you have people who want them to fit in your hand" is true.

But the subtext is that this is enough of a population to make a viable market, that in fact any number of people, however small, make a viable market. It's just not a reasonable prior.

So I'm asserting that it may as well be zero as far as the big manufacturers are concerned, that with such a small audience it's not profitable. Further, that this dynamic does indeed play out in other markets.

OP is looking for a conspiracy as to why phone manufacturers are leaving money on the table. The truth is they aren't. This situation is exactly what you'd expect when there's no real market - a few niche providers making a few niche products for die-hards (without the scale, support or quality of the majors) and not making a lot of money at it, while the rest of the market ignores them.

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

#667

Post by roytam87 »

sensen wrote: post #522
nextos wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unihertz sells some decent Android phones that have 3 and 5 inch displays, respectively: https://www.unihertz.com AFAIK, these are similar to the iPhone SE? The SE form factor was great in terms of size and thickness. Easy to use with one hand. I miss that.

The Jelly Max looks really tempting, but I'm a little apprehensive after running the Jelly Star for a while and dealing with constant dropped calls and bad call quality all around.

It looks quite good, but I missed 3.5mm audio jack.

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

#669

Post by hulitu »

rickdeckard wrote: post #422

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…

> But whenever someone answered the call and built a Smartphone with QWERTY keyboard, the product failed commercially, simply because also to people claiming they want such a phone, at the point of sale they were less attractive than their slimmer, lighter, all-screen counterparts.

No. They were a) rare and b) much more expensive. AFAIK only Blackberry had a phone with QWERTY keyboard.

Buttons are much more expensive than a touchscreen (see cars for examples).

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

#670

Post by cx42net »

Reason077 wrote: post #604
rickdeckard wrote: post #422

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…

Eric is now using the Lightphone 3, and apparently he loves it: https://www.thelightphone.com/lightiii Although, it's not exactly what he wished for in 2022 since it doesn't run standard Android and obviously doesn't have industrial design like the iPhone mini.

The Lightphone seems great on paper, but price is far from light unfortunately, which is a bummer as I would have been interested if it were at 300$ selling price.
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