Manufacturers don’t make displays under 6 inches available for purchase, with special cases (such as the iPhone Mini) being made under exclusive contracts. The best lead they have so far is to try to use displays designed for the front part of a foldable phone, but they’re yet to strike an agreement.
TIL that display manufacturers are also part of the reason why we aren’t getting small phones and why it’s probably even harder for manufacturers like Fairphone to make them.
I just want one with a removable battery and a headphone jack…
And SD card support. Why TF do I want to pay a mint for storage when I could spend like $50 (or less) for the equivalent (or more) in SD form?
Like the old days, man
Wait until 2027 and buy a Sony then, I guess. They’re the only manufacturer who consistently includes a headphone jack and starting in 2027 all phones sold in the EU have to have removable batteries. Yeah, it’s pretty sad that that’s the only option…
Me too, Fan, me too.
At the last EU is fighting to make your first wish happen.
RIP headphone jacks.
I don’t understand why we can’t have a phone a usb C port on top and bottom for audio + charging
…and a qwerty keyboard.
I don’t mind not having a removable battery, and a headphone jack is nice but not make or break… but so few phones apparently have expandable storage these days.
This brothers me so much. It’s such an obvious cash grab - manufacturers can force you to buy a more expensive model of the same phone, cloud services can tap your wallet for additional space, and carriers can tap your wallet for a larger data plan.
It’s gross. There’s literally no consumer-friendly reason to strip it.
While I like having the options and agree it’s pretty shitty to remove those features, how do you use up all your storage? I upgraded to 256GB and am no where near filling it.
I’ve seen people argue they need to store a ton of media, but I’d argue you don’t need to keep a backup of everything in your phone. Rotate media out after you watched it or whatever.
I’ve nearly 40 gigabytes of FLACs as well as commissioned art (much smaller in size than my music collection) stored on a 256 gigglebyte card in my phone. While the 128 gigs built into my phone is more than enough, when it’s time to get a new phone all I gotta do is slap it into the new phone and boom, gucci. That convenience, on top of only needing to remove the card to add stuff to it, is why an SD card slot is non negotiable for me.
So you’re telling me if a perfect phone existed but did not have removable storage, you wouldn’t get it?
You can just transfer those things. This doesn’t make any sense to me, I’m sorry.
I would rather have any of the features that are part of the non-removeable storage, which I’m guessing is related to better water/dust resistance and a larger battery or other internals which I would use every day.
In fairness I’m not too picky outside of an SD card slot and 3.5mm jack. I ain’t a power user, so as long as I can chat with my buddies, reply to emails, enjoy my media, and it does all that just fast enough, I’ll take anything with an SD card slot and headphone jack. I’m not the average user lol
Most of the issues people have with Android are one and the same. Compared to a decade ago, there isn’t any choice any more
Years ago, there was almost too much variety at times, and manufacturers would experiment heavily alongside Google. Some phones had physical keyboards, some had no headphone jacks, some had no physical buttons at all, and they came in either stupidly small or (at the time) freakishly large.
Now, for some reason Android feels very sanitized, even the shite that manufacturers stick on top of stock to make it feel like it’s their product and not Google’s. There aren’t even that many manufacturers any more, and unlike the past when Android embraced being a bit different, it all feels like everyone is trying to follow Apple instead of Android leading the pack…
Very surprising that there’s no 5.5" phones on the market. I still have good eyes and I’d rather have more pocket space. Sticking with the pixel 7a for now, but yearning for a new Xperia X Compact.
It’s all become so bland.
Anyone who wants to keep this convo going, check out !compactphones@lemmy.world
Joined!
Thanks!
Meanwhile me, a 6’4" man with big ass hands, is finally happy that most phones actually feel big enough for my fucking hands for once
Have an older iPhone we use at work and I almost can’t type on it with how small the fuckin screen is lol
But yeah, options are nice, make small screens more often ya nerds
I just want a small screen and a physical keyboard like phones had when BlackBerry was still a thing. I had absolutely no trouble blind tiping on those even tho I have sausage fingers.
These days I depend on autocorrect and it betrays me fairly often
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I moved from the normal sized iPhone to the Max this year. No regrets so far. The most common thing I do with my phone is consume media so the cumbersomeness has been a good tradeoff.
I had bought a 15 Pro on release day but returned it for the max after a week of continuing to doubt myself after holding a max in the store. I had jumbophones up till the iPhone X, I even had a Dell Streak back in the day.
Most suprising thing to me was that the speaker was insainely better. I stopped carrying a Bluetooth speaker around with me for when I’m working cause the speakers get the job done well enough now. It’s not a 1-to-1 replacement but it is just ggod enough that it suffices. Also, the battery life from the smaller phone to the larger was such a big increase that I’ve stopped carrying around an external battery but just keep a usbc cable with my in case my ecig runs out of battery and I need to charge it off my phone.
It’s been an interesting series of trade offs going back to a larger phone but then again, the bezels and thickness have reduced so much that a Max without a case feels the same as a normal size phone with a case. I thought I’d get bit by the screen being too big more than I have but I guess some honest self reflection on what I actually use my phone for compared to what I picture I use it for helped with the decision making. (I totally get that other people’s use cases with have completely calculus)
I don’t get what the obsession with big phones is. Is it that most people really want big phones or that companies can charge more for them?
Two main reasons I think:
- it’s easier to make a big phone as there’s more space for all the components
- the average consumer doesn’t use computers as much anymore, so people start using their phone for all kinds of things where they benefit from the bigger screen
It’s not that people want big phones, it’s that people like big screens.
People generally just want the biggest screen they can hold in their hands comfortably.
For most people that seems to have settled into the 6.5-6.7" range, depending on aspect ratio and bezels.
Second option.
For me it’s the bigger battery.
But then the bigger battery has to power a bigger screen 🤔
i want a smartphone, that i can hold securely
while still being able to reach the entire screen.i have pretty big hands, and even i cant reach the upper left quarter of my phone (pixel6a) without letting go of the left and bottom edges.
its ridiculousPutting things like a back arrow on the upper left is just asshole design, for starters.
Which is why Android very seldom puts stuff in the far top left corner and if it does, it’s the back arrow, which you can and should avoid by just using the universal back action via either gestures (my favorite), the on screen button, or the physical button if you have one.
Material design is pretty much about moving shit away from the top and especially lop left to the bottom
Similarly putting stuff in the upper right is just asshole design for those of us who are left handed, unfortunately that’s relatively common.
Oh yes, to top it I have small hands - I can’t reach almost any of the opposite edge without using two hands. Sigh.
This is what is pushing me towards a flip phone. I just don’t have a need for a 6.7" phone or bigger.
also, interesting side-by-side comparison of the Zenfone 10, the iPhone 15 and the Pixel 8 from the article:
There was actually a meme I saw a while back where a guy was wielding a sword and shield. Except the sword was an iPhone and the shield was a samsung phone.
My favourite phone ever was my first android phone in 2010, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini (e10i). Every time I’ve had to buy a phone since, I’ve looked around trying to find something similar, but it feels like no such thing will ever exist.
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I still have one in a drawer! It’s functional, but too old to use…
It was the perfect phone.
You just brought back fond memories of mine
I loved sliding that keyboard
I’m on the iPhone mini and I wish I could get a smaller phone. It is way better than the tablets my family carry!
I was disappointed when they discontinued the mini.
I just want Sony to make another XZ1 Compact but with updated internals. Keep the screen size, camera shutter button, 3.5mm plug and make it thicker to squeeze in either wireless charging or a slightly bigger battery.
This.
Sony’s Compact series was excellent, especially for someone with small hands like me. The bigger ones have no advantages for me.
Mainstream ruined everything. Like it always does.
I’m currently using a Samsung flip 5. I have it set up to use all my main apps on the outer screen, so I can just have a small screen. Then I have the option to open it for apps that I might want to be on a larger screen.
It’s working out pretty well. Some days I never even use the inner screen.
I might have to do this for my next phone. How’s the battery life?
On the other end there doesn’t seem to be any phablets either. they are all weirdly long screens.
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I had an og Dell Streak when it first came out. It absolutely blew people’s minds when they saw it back then.
Looked up some old reviews of it and can’t beleive it was a 5" screen. In my mind, I remember it being so much bigger.
Width has to still fit in hands to be mainstream.
Almost all popular mainstream Android phones are absolutely phablet sized to the point that it’s now the standard, and not the outlier. Your perception has just changed.
I’m still using my mi max 3 that’s 6.9" screen, no modern phone seems to be able to match that.
