Why can't we go back to small phones?
Why can't we go back to small phones?
The iPhone SE is dead, and with it, the compact smartphone as a mainstream product. What happened?
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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 picked the Pixel A because:
- It runs GrapheneOS
- It's slightly smaller and slightly cheaper than the normal version
- The back is plastic and not glass
Glad I can use it and type on it one-handed, can't imagine using a bigger phone.
The only A series Pixel phone smaller than the Pixel 8 was the Pixel 4a.
Pixel 8, even now that 9 is out, is still around $400 compared to 7's already huge $300.
That point absolutely still stands.
It's just strange that since the 4a, the 2 smallest phones Google released were both not in the a series.
I almost did, but I found the 8 used for a good price and the size difference was minimal.
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.
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
I picked the 5ii for similar reasons at the time.
The problem is it only gets 2 years of support, so I haven't gotten an update in years. Sony is living in 2010.
The fingerprint reader slowly stopped working 6 months ago via a prolific software bug that is all over forums for xperias that will never be fixed.
The battery (even ONLY charging it to 80% using battery care) is horrific after a few years, mediocre when I got it and the standby time is shit. It loses 1.5-2% battery per hour not being used at all now. I get maybe 4h SOT browsing (much less with video).
The default camera app is crap and not even worth using...
I want to try lineageOS when I get the time to see if it fixes the battery and fingerprint reader, but here in Belgium we really need access to our bank apps because almost everything is done through there.
Edit: also the xperia 1v has a glass back... https://m.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_1_v-12263.php
I had a 5 II too, used lineageOS for years, worked great. Doesn't totally solve the battery or fingerprint reader. My screen got the dreaded green lightsaber too. Nail in the coffin was Australia turning off 3G so it can't make calls anymore. (Wasn't officially sold here so they didn't bother loading it with VoLTE profiles)
I can't trust anything made by google. It's a company that literally makes its money capturing everything everyone does on the internet...and yet the phone they make is the ONLY phone immune to having everything captured...
Sorry. Not buying it. There will be a chip in there phoning home we'll find out about in a decade.
I doubt that, but I respect the skepticism. I happen to trust the GrapheneOS devs to reveal if that was the case.
All phones already have that, regardless if its Google or Samsung or whatever.
And all computers even those running Linux, are still vulnerable to the Intel ME and AMD PSP backdoors.
Like I don't see a way to stop mass surveillance unless we have open source hardware.
If the pixel series had a damn SD card slot it would be the perfect phone for me.
I just want to sync all of my music and local backups to an SD card via syncthing dammit. I don't want to have to pay 200€ for them adding a 5€ chip
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.
my Chinese tiny phone has a name, it's the Unihertz Jelly Star. they even have a subreddit, not sure what makes you think it's a "no name" they make a lot of phones for niches in today's world including one with a physical qwerty keyboard.
now the fact that they're the only company filling those niches sucks, but it's better than nobody doing it.
Well, how's it supported? This is usually what kills these phones. Even brand like Xiaomi dump their non-flagship model really soon. I have one, bought as a new model, was officially supported for like a year. Great.
I'm not really sure. what happened when it was no longer officially supported?
It just stopped receiving updates, even security ones.
Seems to not be supported by Lineage... I wonder if a more privacy-preserving OS can be installed at all? I don't trust stock ones.
Edit: another comment here links to a Reddit post about installing a modified Lineage there - haven't checked it yet, but seems like it IS possible!
But can it run a degoogled Android rom well?
not sure. stacking niches means there's a good chance the answer is no though.
if it's just a matter of specs it should be up to it, the hardware is pretty beefy for a phone, but I figure there's more to it than that.
personally I don't have the spoons to pour in the effort required to degoogle. the fact that the algs and few ads I see are completely irrelevant to me suggest that I have thoroughly confused them by how non-standard my internet usage is. I'm not overly concerned about the data they do get or what they do with it.
there are enough Man-Made Horrors Beyond My Comprehension™️ keeping me up at night but you do you
The old jelly pro had a decent modding community, and I definitely was able to unlock the bootloader and root it, though not sure about degoogling.
There was the iPhone 13 Mini. It’s adorably small. But it didn’t sell well so they stopped making the Mini line.
I've got a 12 mini and bought it just because it was small. Had nothing else from the apple ecosystem (altho I did buy airpods with the phone cause it had no 3.5mm jack), and still bought it just because it was small. People like to point out and laugh at how tiny the phone is, but I don't care cause at least I don't have to carry around half a tablet everyday. Sad to hear they discontinued the mini line, even tho I wasn't planning on buying apple again.
I’ll use my 13 mini until I literally can’t anymore. Sadly it seems like maybe Apple will release a clamshell to get back to the pocketable size but never a mini phone again. Wish the 16e used a mini chasis
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
I've been maining a Unihertz Jelly Star, I quite like it.
I want one. Can you put a custom ROM on them?
per @[email protected] in another comment here:
The old jelly pro had a decent modding community, and I definitely was able to unlock the bootloader and root it, though not sure about degoogling.
Yeah, I can't ever find modders using the new one and I'm not willing to get an old used one.
I am using Unihertz Jelly Star for more than a year now with custom LineageOS ROM. Works well with it. I used this guide to flash it: https://www.reddit.com/r/unihertz/comments/16sviga/unihertz_jelly_star_running_great_with_lineageos/?rdt=36027
NICE
Nice. Actually logged in to save that post. Thanks
I upgraded to a Sony Xperia XZ2 compact last year. It has a 5" screen and decent capabilities, the only down side is it doesn't support 5G. For a phone that's over 5 years old, it's probably the most recent usable phone available which actually fits in my pocket.
Seriously, don't show me a damn tablet computer and try to sell it to me as a mobile phone. If you can't make a compact phone then you're not really advancing the technology, are you?
If I can't use it one-handed (using ALL physical buttons and ALL parts of the screen), then it's not a phone.
Seriously, this is how we used to define the difference between phones and tables - one-hand or two-hand use.
Right? I mean I'm still lamenting the loss of slider keyboards, typing on a screen is so damn unreliable that I was forced to turn on the auto-correction, which itself is highly unreliable and constantly changing real words while failing to fix the words where I hit a number instead of a letter (the word "9f" gets typed a LOT!). I use my phone for phone calls and sending texts, with a secondary usage as a GPS in my truck. If it can't perform one of three basic tasks then what good is it?
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.
So once again instead of providing choice the market is simply phasing out things with smaller profit margins as if they planned it together in some kind of cartel.
Demand also isn’t there. The iPhone SE sold ok, but the other thing to keep in mind was that it was the cheap iPhone too so it’s supposed to sell.
If it was outselling the main model every year then they’d keep making them small. But they didn’t so they got dropped.
If it was outselling the main model every year then they’d keep making them small.
Why would they do that if they make more money on the main model? It's not like you have a choice in iOS manufacturers.
Not really, even the cheap phones have large screens now. There’s no correlation anymore between price and screen size, the cheap phones just have lower quality panels.
I agree. I just worked there when I was younger. I no longer work there.