So long, small phones

I want a smaller smartphone but not an iPhone. It's sad that Apple is the only manufacturer still producing reasonable sized phones. Small phone gang unite and push for other manufacturers to follow Apple on this one!

I still have an SE 2020 and now wondering if I can get a Mini. I had a 6+ and got rid of it because it made my hand cramp. I hate big phones.

Fellow 13 mini user here, and I’ve never loved a phone more.

The 13 mini made me switch to apple after years of android and even Ubuntu phone.

The form factor is the only reason I buy a new phone so let’s hope there’s still be a market for people like us.

Damn, Steve Jobs got his posthumous hooks in ya

They won't. It'll break and you won't be able to repair it before then.

iphone 13 is gaint! I don't I'm on the same page as you lol

You see so many people asking for smaller phones in the forums and places you frequent.

They do not necessarily represent the views of the common public. I personally could do with a slightly smaller phone because the compact size allows for easier holding with single hands. But, sadly, I have not seen folks around me deciding which phone to buy based on their screen size. Neither is that a priority for them. Simply put, our Venn diagrams do not fully overlap.

I prefer smaller phones but none of them have the specs I want. I'm never looking for bleeding edge flagships either. I just want a good enough camera, good enough screen, goddamn micro SD slot damn it, and flat glass edges with a bit of a bezel so I can put a case and tempered glass on. And whatever the maker needs to make available for custom roms to be possible because I'm damn well going to keep using it after official updates end.

They wouldn't even need to make a new model as frequently, maybe minor revisions to replace no longer available components. USB port update shouldn't be needed for a good chunk of time since c seems pretty great. There's probably a shitload of tooling and supply chain issues to work out even ignoring the likely toxic workplace politics though.

You meet them online, but they’re a vocal minority. Especially when a smaller phone means a smaller battery and worse camera system, two of the consistently top priorities for consumers.

See also: manual transmissions in cars. I say this as someone who, until going electric, exclusively drove three pedal cars. People just weren't buying them, but toward the end it did seem like manufacturers were making it less appealing to buy them by only putting them in base models.

The point I feel is that small phones have a small but vocal userbase and is not lucrative for smartphone manufacturers as more R&D is involved in the packaging for product which has a small audience

I also believe it's usually high(er) end model being smaller and people who want smaller phones want something cheaper. At least that's what's going on in my social bubble.

I'm a staunch and unyielding small phone user and this does, admittedly, describe me. I used my LG Optimus (4.75" or 120mm) for something like 6 or 7 years and I loved it. I don't use my phone for games or video and just want something I can always tuck in a pocket (on women's clothes this means tiny). It was the perfect size for my hand. When it stopped working because of the 3G/4G change over I upgraded to the smallest, most decent phone I could find: a Samsung Galaxy S7. I am still using it something like 5 years later and I would never go bigger than this, it fits comfortably in one hand, is light, and the battery is replaceable and lasts me all day. It sticks out of pants pockets but fits in a coat or jacket pocket. I would be willing to pay a higher up front cost to get a new phone if it was exactly what I wanted though, about 5" with no bloatware, replaceable battery, headphone jack, and a great camera.

I think you may be on to something. I keep hearing podcast ads for a t-mobile phone upgrade service that brags about offering 2 year upgrades, which sounds bizarre to me because I want my phones to last at least 3 years.

Maybe it's about perspective. When smaller phones were the default, other phones were more of an exclusion. When bigger phones became the defacto default, smaller phones started to seem smaller in spec in comparison (mostly battery) while being at about the same price.

I don't want smaller phones, I'm just having a hard time growing my hands and pockets to keep up.

That will be a side effect of them locking abitrary features behind the bigger and thus more expensive models, if there was feature parity smaller phones would probably still be the norm.

As a woman: I'd love to use bigger phones - as soon as they give me pockets I can fit them into.

It's one of the reasons I find foldables so interesting. The Google Pixel Fold has the perfect form factor. If only it wasn't so expensive...

I feel like hopefully with a potential paradigm shift, maybe one SIM card and number shared between several devices, one large phone or tablet for work or movies and a smaller feature phone for on demand urgent communications, we'll hopefully see the market for OEMs open up a bit wider and allow for further competition/collaboration across the whole portable electronics sector

Absolutely untrue. It’s a heat dissipation issue. iPhone minis had so many issues with heat they can’t make em anymore.

Apple wants you to think that bigger phones are better only because they can’t make them smaller.

7" plus an inch of bezels on each side. A Nexus 7 was nearly 10 inches.

Using diagonal screen size to measure phones doesn't work because of bezels and taller aspect ratios. The 5.5" iPhone 6 Plus (2014) is pretty much the same size as the 6.7" iPhone 15 Pro Max

I actually carried a 7 inch tablet in my pocket before it was cool, bezels and all. This was back on Android 2.3 when people would moan about tablet UIs and say that it's just a giant phone, to which I would say: Yea, and having a giant phone is awesome.

Typing this from my pixel 5. The best sized phone ever. I think imo the use case for big ass 15 feet phones is a little overkill. Most people are just buying it because it's "premium".

I'm still using mine.

Currently using an Essential Ph1 running Lineage (Android 13) and I'm about to switch to a Pixel 4a of all things, because of size, weight (its plastic), cheap as hell (so I can keep a hot spare around and do testing for a low cost), and it has one of the highest NIT ratings of any unlockable phones.

The 5 looks good too, just not as bright, slightly larger, and a little heavier.

Edit:spelling

Pixel 5 is great, but 4a was perfect

The s23 is basically the same size as the pixel 5.

https://m.gsmarena.com/size-compare-3d.php3?idPhone1=10386&idPhone2=12082

Yeah I wish my 5a was a little smaller, it'd be perfect. Still been a great phone so far. But my screen is scratched to hell because I forgot to put a protector on it.

My perfect phone would be a galaxys s5 with modern camere processer and compatibility with graphene os

I recently busted out my Pixel 5 (currently using Pixel 7) to try out Lineage OS and absolutely love how it feels in my hands. It's light and easy to reach all of the screen with one hand. Man I miss that phone.

Pixel 3 and Samsung S4 and j series were good

The day mines dies I might just not have a phone lol

Hey, your Nexus 5X has called... actually it can't because its still stuck in a bootloop.

my first ever smartphone was the 4. it was my favorite for the longest time. i kept using it as a backup and i have 2 others I've harvested for parts. i love how easy it is to take old phones apart :D

6 was the best, period. Could still be on sale today and be an awesome phone

That sounds more like an iPhone problem than a large phone problem. You have complete control over both text size and display scaling in Android.

I just wish phones would get thicker, instead of longer. So they can fit beefier batteries.

I'd love to be able to charge my phone like twice a week

That's still my current phone. Newer phones just look so absolutely massive.

Except for the Bixby button, I mostly like my s10e. I have large hands, but still wish it was slightly shorter.

Using this right now. If they revived the galaxy mini line (~4in screen) I'd absolutely buy it.

Pixel 5 and Zenphone come to mind, too.

Look into rooting it and putting a different Android rom on it, I'm sure there's something for your phone to extend its life quite a bit.

...unless you're tired of that phone.

You may want to take a look at Fairphone if you want a phone that gets updates for a long time. The current one will be supported at least until 2028, maybe 2031.

I'd add NFC to that list because mobile payments are awesome.

ir blaster gang gang

I'd buy that phone for sure. Sounds hella good.

The closest you could get is the fair phone, its not perfect but once its available where I am I'm thinking on getting it.

The Samsung flagships (s22, 23) are the only "small" phones, but they're actually pretty good. I've been using Samsung for a few years now and it actually improves on the things that annoy me with stock android.

Nah personally I would trade SD card support for headphone jack any day, but hey I get why they got rid of it, something to do with the environment

Conspiracy part of my brain wants to say thats by design.. To artificially increase sales by replacing broken ones.

Same reason they sealed up the phones so you couldnt replace the batteries/repair them.

Jtlyk, you can use a custom keyboard, like Swift Key. Many have the option to scale according to your preferences.

man I just miss being able to type and reach all corners of the screen with one hand without having to be a contortionist or accidentally clicking on the one-handed keyboard that I never actually use because I've already resigned to always using two hands anyways

I've since realized that you can turn off the one handed keyboard completely but the fact that it has to exist at all still annoys me

I think it's part of a push of making your smartphone your "everything" device. I love small phones but I will say that some tasks are just impossible with them.

I guess most people browse the web and that's why bigger screens work better. I happily bought bigger phones. Some people like to pretend phones are for calls but that's just not true IME.

Also agreed. However the manufacturers know how many of each device they sell and seem to think the smaller form factor devices aren’t very popular. I imagine there’s multiple reasons, like the smaller phones tend to also have lower battery life and lack other features due to size and they tend to appeal to people on tighter budgets that upgrade less often.

A plastic screen? Doesn't that get scuffed up really easily?

The #a line is usually a bit smaller then the flagships. The 4a was the perfect size. 3a was huge compared to it. 6a is slightly larger than the 4a. The 6 is massive compared to the 6a

I'm on a pixel 3 also. The size is important but the front facing speakers are amazing. I can't find anything else like it.

It's a nice idea, but I'd be worried about the wear and tear on the folding screen. I can't imagine it would hold up through the years of use I put phones through.

This is the angle that makes me reconsider folding phones. Either fold direction, and you’ve got a smaller screen that’s usable in one hand.

The Z fold is 67.1mm across in folded mode. The iPhone 12 & 13 Mini is 64.2mm.

My friend got the original galaxy fold and kept it until this year when she bought a fold5. She still has the original fold as a backup phone, too. I'm not sure longevity is necessarily a worry, by that metric.

Have the new Z Fold after years of owning borderline-phablets and the usability is much better. My previous phone (Galaxy S20+) felt too big and painful to use one-handed, yet typing with two hands felt awkward. This splits the use cases. Slim one-hand phone on the outside. Mini-tablet typing monster on the inside. 🤌

I appreciate the longetivity of the iPhone compared to other brands.

I used my galaxy 4s mini for literally a decade.

I got the S23 because it was smaller, then returned it and got a bigger phone. I guess I'm one of the people that only thought they wanted a smaller phone.

Galaxy S23 is 14.6×7.1cm, so almost the same.

Xperia 10 V is 15.5x6.8 cm. Might be worth a try

That size os about the max for me too. I wonder what I'm gonna do if my current phone fails...

On the contrary, poorer people tend to buy oversized phones since that's the only device they have

Every 5th grader I know has a phone (I'm a parent not a creeper). So it's not just the rich and stupid. Cell network companies give these things away under 2 year plans that most can afford. And it's not just two year plans, my kids have $50 phones from Motorola that are +6". I think most people like a big phone and it's only us few that want to see sub 5" phones.