Seriously, all of these things are massive. Just looking at them gives me carpal tunnel. Nobody needs phones this big. I certainly don’t. In fact, I want a very small phone, relatively speaking. The size what we had before we apparently learned better, and there doesn’t seem to be many convincing options.
Ideally, my perfect smartphone went extinct with 3.5" displays. I do like reaching the All of the screen without contorting my thumb like some kind of mathematical instrument. I know modern OSes try to work around this by letting you slide or squish stuff around but i don’t care. This is a regression, a fix that never needed a problem!
Ironically, Apple’s iPhone SE seems to be the closest modern technology I can muster to those halcyon days sans deformed digits at a comfortable 4.7", but those .2 imperial nonsenses do matter, slightly, and regardless I am not keen on Apple’s ecosystem. My wife has one of these and I kind of love it anyway. Android at least ought to have some options…? Well, sort of. I have done some digging ahd found a few models that might be OK. I know small beggars can’t exactly be big choosers but I am determined to find my glass slippers, damn it.
Cubot Mini/Pocket:
Oh shit. This is perfect! A 4" screen, be still my heart…! However, I am led to believe this entire line of phones won’t work in burgerland because this country hates everyone and everything. What?! 
Unihertz Jelly Star:
Love the enthusiasm, but maybe this is a bit too far in the other direction… also, this thing is just kind of ugly. I do have a fondness for that y2k transparency; maybe if it were in a few other colors, but I just can’t get into it.
Palm Smartphone:
I genuinely had no idea Palm was still making phones. This actually might be the queen of the crop; 3.3" and from what I can tell, it fits my use case quite well.
And…that’s basically it. Everything else that exists won’t function with US carriers, near as I can tell. Am I just being a smartphone boomer? I can’t be the only one who wants flagship specs on sensible real estate… 
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It’s not so much that they’re bigger, it’s that they’re longer.
16:9 is a good aspect ratio not because of anything to do with video, but because it’s close to the golden ratio. Half the screen is proportional to the rotated full screen, and there’s open space to use.
These days there are no more 16:9 phones on the market, and 18:9 is the shortest they get. Many are even 20:9 or even 22:9. What are you going to do with a phone that is 2.5 times as long as it is broad? Sure, a 7" phone that’s 2.9x6.5" is less area than a 7" phone that’s 3.7x5.7". But it’s less practical too. You need a minimum width for a keyboard and other things, and beyond a certain point, more screen height is just not useful.
Longer phones are really only good for scrolling- that activity we do in-between actually engaging with content. The assumption that customers actually like scrolling, along with how it’s easier to make a larger “screen size” (longer diagonal) by making the device longer, is a driving perverse incentive that makes the hardware worse- generally unpleasant to use. Not only does it not fit in a pocket, you have to choke up on the phone to reach the corners, you almost need to glance up and down to see the full screen.
Any longer and we’ll have phones that look like NEOM.
I want my phone to be 2000:1 resolution. 1 pixel wide 2000 pixels tall. It’s like a straw.
amazing
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Yes I think this is the real kick in the ass, how tf does anyone use any modern phone with one hand? I can’t crank it in these conditions. I don’t know what exact ratio is the best for the average hand; my first smartphone was an iPhone 3 and I loved it to death. I remember there was a very specific methodology at least with iPhones then to keep the screen as such that your thumb would be able to reach everywhere without strain- I don’t remember if this was about the same time that Android phones started getting to be the size of small celestial bodies yet but I reckon it was pretty close because I very much appreciated that design philosophy. We have lost sight of what is good and right- the masses yearn for lightsaber app ig
I don’t even think they want the cricket bats. I think it’s hype around stuff that sounds good but no one ends up making any actual use of.
RAM is a similar story. What good is 4GB of RAM when the phone is still going to have to reload browser tabs?
While it may not help those of you trapped in the Apple ecosystem in such a way that you cannot escape, the Zenfone 10 is less than a millimeter wider than the iPhone SE and is the current model. The Zenfone 11 should come out in the next few months. Just don’t get the Ultra as that is a very large phone. Asus has already confirmed that they have no intention of ceasing production of flagship small-footprint phones any time soon.
For some reason they pulled the bootloader unlocker for the zenphone, which really sucks. I dunno if ill ever upgrade from the 9
I have big hands. I miss my iPhone 7, that was the last phone I could hold and touch all parts of the screen.
We had to make phone screens bigger to fit all the fucking ads.
We had to make phone screens bigger to fit all the fucking ads.
We had to make phones bigger to fit bigger batteries to power bigger processors to run all the tracking software for the fucking ads.
I recently had to retire my iPhone 7 and got a X+(n-1) or whatever. I just miss having a physical button. Touch ID is sorely missed too.
Face ID can get fucked. I miss Touch ID so much.
If my pixel breaks my plan is to replace it with a unihertz jelly phone, they seem sufficient
I yearn for a smaller phone too, but I’m Android only and not open to outdated phones + super low budget. :(
If the issue w/ older phones is software you can always use LineageOS! I’m running it on a Pixel 4a and it’s a pretty good experience, minus a few quirks
Or postmarketOS if you don’t mind a little torture haha
That’s useless to me, because
- I use NFC
- I need Google Play app detected correctly as downloaded through GP for banking
- not all phone models are compatible with Linux mobile OS anyway afaik - most aren’t
LineageOS isn’t Linux based, it’s an Android OS.
It’s still released for limited phone models and search engine tells me NFC doesn’t work on it without workarounds and then maybe it still doesn’t. I need a working phone, not an experiment.
Seems to be that NFC/tap to pay works with LineageOS if you have a locked bootloader and gapps. LineageOS is definitely a “working phone” OS (the “experimental” days of Android OSes is like eight years ago, to be honest), but like any non-OEM OS it’s going to be a little more involved than just buying a phone at the store
Relocking the bootloader is really not recommend on LineageOS and can result in a permanently bricked device. DivestOS supports relocking but that’s a whole different beast with its own compromises.
NFC doesn’t work on it without workarounds and then maybe it still doesn’t
That’s fair. I myself haven’t tried magisk to get around safety net/play integrity because it’s not a huge priority for me. I’ve learned to live without it, but if it’s a must for you then I understand.
I’d push back on the “limited phone models” though. Yes, LineageOS doesn’t cover every phone under the sun, but for those it does the support is rock solid. The original Google pixel from 2016 is still getting the latest version with all the security update. There should be more than enough variety in the supported devices to find something for everyone.
I myself haven’t tried magisk to get around safety net/play integrity
I recently had to do this with a phone I’d rooted a year or two ago. It only took like 20 minutes. Honestly it’s not so bad, if you accept that your banking & streaming apps might stop working like once a year and you have to look up the new fix.
You can also keep an old phone as a backup for such cases. I just used an old phone for streaming for like a week when I was too lazy to fix the safety net check.
I believe the pixel 4a has NFC.
It’s not issue with phone, issues is with OS not supporting it.
I am not totally sure how outdated the stuff like the above are… the Jelly series says the Star is Android 13, at $200, and then down at around $150 is 12 and 11. The Palm phone is definitely out of the question, I looked at it and Android 8 is pretty outdated at this point I think.
If I buy a new phone I want the newest Android so it lasts.
i recently got a pixel 7a and it doesnt even fit in the pockets of some of my womens clothing. we’ve gone way too far. i dont even know anyone who prefers these enormous bricks to the more moderately sized phones.
God has both blessed and cursed me with giant hands. I have no problem holding flagship phones! But I can barely use the keyboard even at real big size.
Smartphone was a mistake, retvrn to Nokia brick.
Am I just being a smartphone boomer? I
My phone is 6.7" and fits fine in my hand and my pockets fit it without issue with a case on. It’s at the upper end of what I would be willing to use though. But I think there is a general lack of widespread smaller phones for those who prefer that and definitely have avoided phones for being too large.
fitting in the hand is a lot different from being able to reach the entire screen one-handed but yeah… I sense that what a lot of the big-phone heads (especially those that are now getting into folding display phones) would love is something like an ipad mini, but there’s also a sizable indifferent group. I don’t feel limited hugely by not being able to reach every corner one-handed, but I also do miss when a phone was primarily just a phone with some extra features, and not an everything-device. A swiss army knife rather than a leatherman, so to speak
Good point. I can’t reach all of the screen onehanded without repositioning my grip, but I can shift positioning one handed.
But I think there is a general lack of widespread smaller phones for those who prefer that
I’m a bit surprised that with cells kinda plateauing with what they can offer that we haven’t seen a return to niche feature phones. The closest we see to that is the folding screen stuff.
I really feel that for most other markets with a glut like this, we’d start seeing a bunch of options tied to people’s identity. A “rugged” phone with a solar panel and long battery for preppers, smaller phones for minimalists, gamer phones with an analog stick.
I know these things exist in deep niches, but I’m just surprised we haven’t seen marketing start pushing them as real options yet. Because there just doesn’t seem like there’s much more to offer as far as mainline phones go.
Hmm, having no 3.5 mm jack is a pretty happenin’ identity these days, right?
Skill issue get hand extensions
Sony briefly had a Compact line. friend had a z3 compact and loved it. I can’t imagine they’re super usable these days though, at least not without some effort
also you may have better luck looking at what LTE bands a device supports vs official carrier compatibility lookups, if you arent already
edit: cubot pocket might work okay in some markets but it definitely will be spotty coverage wise
the last sony compact was the xz2 compact. 5" screen overall but only 2.6" wide so probably a lot nicer in the hand at least
Karls Darwin says we have evolution, so our hands will get bigger over time to hold the new phones
Hot take: I have a Pixel 8 Pro and I love the large screen size.
This is my second Pro and I recently had a chance to go smaller, but got the Pro again. Sometimes it’s hard to hold but I prefer the screen size and it makes me feel, at least, like I’m getting a pretty good view of a video when it’s turned horizontally.
Get bigger hands?
I’m gonna take a real simple guess that smaller phones = smaller profit margins
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