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Well, I can’t speak for everyone else, but I can’t go back because they don’t sell any small phones.
I picked the Pixel 8 because:
- it runs GrapheneOS
- It was a little smaller than the Pixel 8 Pro
If there was a smaller version available, I would’ve gotten that instead.
I’ve been using the “A” branch of the Pixel line for years now.
But I use CalyxOS so I guess you and I have to be enemies now. My name is Inigo Montoya, you use a different OS, prepare to die.
Ah man… I just installed graphene to try it … (turns around and runs)
.
Seriously though, would be nice if they could get along and share code and efforts, I’d love to try a graphene-hardened OS with sandboxed microg (instead of gsf) and datura firewall :) Maybe even have the option to have microg in one profile and google play in another. One can dream
Graphene and Calyx are two different paths to two different destinations. Graphene is for security, Calyx is for privacy.
Yep, that’s what I gather as well. I just wish we didn’t have to choose, and could get both
I picked the Sony Xperia 1v because:
- 71mm width (similar to pixel 8)
- Flagship specs (*for 2023 - Snapdragon 8 gen2 / 12gb)
- not Google Samsung or Apple
- little to no bloatware
- Decent cameras
- SD card expandable
- Headphone jack 3.5mm (though I haven’t used it yet)
- No glass back (and solid build quality allround)
- LineageOS support (for when vendor support runs out)
- I got a good refurb deal in 2024
I was considering a Zenphone 10 or Xperia 5 v - mainly for size and brand reasons as above - when i found this for £650
Is there an 8a? Those are usually the smallest model
There is. The screen is smaller, but the actual phone is bigger 🤦♂️
Wow, dumb. The last a I had was the 4a, which was notably smaller.
I’m clinging to my SE. It’s the last small phone made by anyone other than Chinese no-names. I will be sad when it’s no longer viable as an option.
Still using mine too and it’s awesome, all my coworkers also notice and compliment it. I do think there is a market for small phones
They do, but service providers don’t like selling them. There isn’t as much of a return on smaller/ dumb/ cheap phones. I used to work at spectrum, and we’d speak of the cheap phones in hushed tones like they were the boogeyman. It felt horrible because I was using my cheap android while selling people iPhone 15s.
Why can’t we go back to small phones?
I think this is correlation, not causation, as this was also when touch screens started being made
it’s also when mobile media in general was available on your phone. tv, movies, YouTube, games, everything. not everything is about porn.
I definitely was looking at porn on my 240x320 Nokia screen.
240x320
One boob takes up 76000 of your 76800 pixels.
You overestimate the resolution of porn back then. 90s kids needed some imagination to fill in the gaps…
Oh, I remember. Full res pic above the collar bone, then that weird speckled rendering for a couple lines and then… grey.
Sexy sexy nibbles the snake
I don’t understand why so many people here keep saying that it’s too hard to make a small phone when all these companies literally make watches with 5G connections…
They always lean a little too hard into making the small one the “budget” phone and end up gimping it into something nobody wants, and yet they still don’t make it cost attractive.
Compared to the SomePhone Pro, the SomePhone Mini has:
- 6GB of RAM rather than 8. (I mean, okay, what do I need that much RAM for?)
- 128GB onboard storage rather than 512GB (Those chips are the same footprint so that wasn’t done for miniaturization, but I don’t store a lot on my phone so ok)
- No SD card slot. (I suppose you could argue that IS for miniaturization but it’s still a kick in the pants)
- 1080p display rather than 4k. (fine, the PPI is still finer than my eyes)
- 3100mAh battery instead of 3600 (You know the reduced resolution on the display will probably make up for that anyway)
- No NFC (really?)
- No fast charging (fucking sigh)
- No wireless charging (pegwarmer says what?)
- 5.9 inch 9:21 display (so it’s 89% the size of the Pro model anyway?)
- a laptop grade VGA camera (you’re actively trying to make this product fail, aren’t you?)
- Locked bootloader, locked carrier (because of course)
- $899 instead of $949 MSRP (Okay just stop saying words and drown yourself in the septic tank)
This is exactly the problem. I don’t need a budget phone, I need a small phone
The latest pixel pro is available in both the regular size and the XL. In previous models the pro was only available as the XL.
Yes they should put HUGE batteries into small phones!!!
/s
i don’t think it’s “too hard” to make small phones. but i bet it’s easier to sell bigger phones with more profit margin.
Seems like a straw man, because I can’t see a single comment claiming that.
Because every time a manufacturer releases a small phone, nobody buys them.
Well yeah, the people who want a small reliable phone are unlikely to replace them every year for no discernible reason. Cue more articles and comments about how there’s no sale data to support the idea that people want small phones! The odds are stacked against us.
Plenty of people want small but powerful phones. The iPhone Mini line, for the 12 and 13 generation, offered the same features and processing power as the regular sized iPhone. But they didn’t offer as much as the “Pro” model, which came in both normal and “Max” sizes.
So if you wanted the latest and greatest in CPU/GPU, camera sensors/lenses, display tech (not necessarily size), you tended to opt for the phone that just happened to be bigger.
Basically, there’s never been a side by side comparison of the latest tech that actually happens to fit within the size of the first 5 generations of iPhone, versus the standard size of a flagship today.
Idk, I don’t care about powerful, I care about convenient size and convenient battery life. Websites should be websites and text messaging should be text messaging. I hate that every time battery capacity improves there’s a new bloated web experience that breaks real scrolling and new animated Memojis that scan every pore on your face to properly convey how anxious you’re feeling or whatever.
“Why can’t we go back to small phones”
Company releases small phone
“No one” buys it
Company stops making small phones
People complaining why there are no small phones
no one bought it because it was shit. companies do this all the time so they can make more expensive things more cheaply, and force people into buying the most expensive.
I want an easily removable battery. As in, I want to be able to have two batteries, one in my phone and another in a charger and I just swap them once a day. I used to be able to do that, and it was normal. Now, the only phones that have that are either extremely garbage or also feature a barcode scanner and cost as much as a “flagship” device.
“because it was shit” if you look at the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini they were essentially the same phone just in different sizes, while the sales of the mini stayed in the low 1 diget % the iPhone 13 was around 35-40% of all iPhone sales in it’s first year.
I agree with some of the things in your 2nd part it has nothing to do with small phones.
And not to say you said it but it came up in the article a couple times, comparing screen inch sizes to determine if a phone is big or not is flawed > the screen to body ratio increased a lot over the last year’s which means that a phone could have the same physical size with a bigger screen.
To be fair, these are Apple users we’re talking about. They uhh… kind of epitomize rampant American consumerism.
I get your perspective, but I think it’s inaccurate when applied to current consumer behavior. The iPhone market share is like 60%. You can’t tell me that 60% is inherently more consumerist than the 40% that is Android users, especially when we’re talking about how Apple users actually tend to keep their phones longer before upgrading/updating to a new phone.
Especially when we’re talking about the mid-tier, non-flagship model in the lineup, like the non-Pro iPhones.
I think I may have just done a bad job of explaining my first point:
I’m saying that manufacturers are putting these features on phones that people weren’t going to buy anyway on purpose, in order to support the narrative that nobody wants those features.
There’s counter examples of course, but for the most part I think what I said is applicable.
Don’t forget that company does fuck all in advertising the small phone at a similar level as the “regular sized” phone
I don’t know which small phones have been released recently but I’ve used an iPhone Mini and decided against it. Not because it’s small but rather because it’s not small enough.
See, I do like a big screen more than a small one. That said, the phone is something I carry in my pocket so there’s a balancing act to be done there. What was really great about the original iPhone’s size was not that it had a small screen. It’s that it was small enough that I could reach all corners of the screen with my thumb.
None of the recent small phones I tried had that advantage. In that case, since there’s no clear usability advantage to the smaller model, I’ll take the larger screen instead.
How many times is this going to be regurgitated? The question has been well and truly answered.
We don’t buy them.
Removed by mod
They don’t care about “you”. They care about their “consumers” (as in, you in bulk), who don’t buy them.
It’s capitalism; simple as that.
But I want mine to have a goatee, why doesn’t apple give iPhone a goatee?
How many times is this going to be regurgitated?
OP is an iPhone user. They’re very used to their tiny phones and they love them and simply can’t understand why everyone wants a large phone.
Because apparently people want big phones.
For the last 10-15 years it’s been a boiling frog situation really - .1 or .2" increase every generation until 7" somehow becomes the norm (for a phone, not a tablet, mind you).
I wish there were more small hi-end phones too.
Large phones are supposed to be called phablets, but it seems like that distinction was phased out as they got bigger.
I remember that term. It was short-lived.
Here’s what I want, roughly in order of priority:
- long term OS support
- repairable
- privacy friendly
- small
I currently have a Pixel 8:
- 7 years software support, maybe more
- 6/10 on ifixit score; not great, but better than many
- supports GrapheneOS
- on the smaller end of “normal” today
A community-supported Linux phone would be awesome, since I’d get 1 and 3 by default and 2 by convention, but they don’t meet my minimum needs from a phone: reliable basic feature support. Hopefully we get there by the time my Pixel dies.
You might be interested in the fairphone
My main complaint is that they don’t directly support the US. There’s a reseller here, but I think there are issues with some bands.
Maybe it’ll be better the next time I need a phone.
Plus they don’t support GrapheneOS. (or rather, GrapheneOS doesn’t support them due to it being too expensive to support more than one model while also not having the same hardware integrity measures that Pixels have) It’s the only thing stopping me from getting them for my next phone, because while I don’t necessarily need the fastest processor, highest resolution screen, etc, I do need a phone that won’t break over time until it becomes useless in a few years.
I’d be fine with /e/OS I think, GrapheneOS is nice, but not a hard requirement for me.
The Fairphone is interesting, but it is also enormous unfortunately
I’m using a Pixel 5. Replaced the screen and battery recently because there’s no modern option for me. My thumb will be able to reach all corners of the screen in one hand operation or I’m just not buying it. I’d probably be better off without a phone anyway.
people spend a third of their lives on those things. And while cumbersome, a big screen simply is better for media consumption
only way I see smaller phones make a comeback is if we change our habits or if a new technology comes along
A bigger screen is better for text consumption, too. Perhaps especially for that. If you don’t know why, just wait ;D
Seriously as a person getting on in years I always bump up the font size. And if you do this on a mini phone, you run out of usable space immediately.
I wish there were small phone options, too, but I can see why big is the default.
new technology comes along
I believe the RAZR foldables allow you to do almost anything on the front screen, and in the latest iterations the front screen is larger than Samsung’s.
People don’t buy them for the price they’ll buy bigger phones. That’s it. That’s the whole story.
They have to make the phone cost $300 less to sell in meaningful numbers. Why do that when they could just not make them at all and sell fewer models at higher prices?
exactly, profit margin. people aren’t upgrading every year like they used to, so they have to make up (some of) that lost profit by increasing prices.
Yes, $300 was for the current flagship back then.
Answering single handed on me iPhone 12 mini on latest iOS 😇
It is a great small phone!
I second this.
Answering the phone single-handed sounds like it should be possible on even the largest of phones. No problem for me using a Pixel 9 Pro, although it’s not a very big phone of course.
Yes please. I really dislike iOS, but I use the iPhone 13 Mini for work and it’s the perfect form factor. I desperately want an Android phone that’s the same size, but I’m rocking a Flip which is the best I can do for small form factor right now.
This author should’ve spent digging into the iPhone 12 / 13 mini, and how it was received in Apple communities a few years ago.
That experiment really showed that the small phone demographic is passionate and vocal, but small (no pun intended). Those phones sold well when the small-phone-fans ran out to buy them, but the sales numbers cooled off quick.
Given that Apple is working on a lightweight 17 “air” phone, my guess is that they learned screen size is too important for too many people, but they’re going to see if they can strike a middle ground with weight / pocket fit.
The 12 mini had really poor battery life. I have the normal 12 myself, and even that one has underwhelming battery life, but the mini was way worse. Don’t know about 13, but I would hope that recent advances in chip efficiency and battery technology would allow for making small phones with good battery life. Just please make it a little chonkier if you have to.
Consumers just aren’t that interested in a product that’s visibly cheaper and worse than what everyone else is carrying. And that is what a smaller phone signals.
Phones are a status purchase; they all do basically the same things, but most people gravitate towards higher end phones because they offer all the fancy features. Flagship phones are all large, so that’s what you see in the marketing. Just like you’ll never see a car company put its cheapest base model on a car catalog cover.
A smaller phone tends to cut corners; it’s not just smaller, but also functionally worse. While the price might be appealing, the potential customer also knows that using said phone will mean a worse experience, and might even get them ridiculed because they got ‘the cheap one’.
So we can absolutely go back to small phones - we just don’t want to. Smaller, cheaper, worse products just don’t appeal to a status-conscious buyer. If phone manufacturers offered the same specs at different sizes, that might change. But any savvy tech buyer knows a smaller phone is worse than the bigger one.
Back in the pre-smartphone days, size was a thing companies could compete on since customers wanted small, light, distinctive designs in premium materials. Like the Motorola Razr V3. These days, that just doesn’t work.
At least on the iPhone side the 12 and 13 mini were full flagships in a smaller form factor. I just wish we could go back to that
There is always the iPhone SE 3 with 4.7 inch display or the iPhone 16e with 6.1 inch display.
I had never heard of the 16e and checked their site, it will only allow comparison up to the 11, a phon from 2019. And its expensive.
That’s because it’s stupidly downgraded and aimed at people upgrading from the 11. It’s a no-one phone, there just to make people think, “well, the 15 is just $100 more, let’s buy that instead”. It would be a remarkable phone, if it were $200 cheaper. But Apple just can’t let an opportunity to scalp consumers go. Only Apple charges so much for a 60 Hz screen.
Yes. The 16e released only 2 days ago and it is an entry level version of the iPhone 16. And you are right, it is not that cheaper then the full-size version.
Its an entry iphone, I wouldnt say 16 given it shares very little with it.
I see what you mean
I will say, when a company tries sometimes they can make small work really well:
There are opportunities to make small desirable. But I know people like their big trucks, I’m sure people like their big phones too.
Phones are a status purchase;
Bullshit, at least with the people I know. Literally nobody I know is interested in how much my phone cost me.
You can. Ditch Apple and join us. Plenty of small phone selections here on the other side. Edit: you know what. Android doesn’t have that many either.
I used a Jelly pro for two years as a daily driver. Smaller than a credit card
Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo/OnePlus, and Vivo, the top four Android smartphone manufacturers, have not released a single phone with a display 5.5 inches or smaller in the past three years, according to data from GSMArena.
Seems like they’re going away on the Android side too.
Sure sure, plenty more that offers 4.7 and smaller.
