just make normal sized cellphones again, please!
People asked Apple for this, and when they obliged, it sold so terribly that retailers literally could not give them away. Unfortunately, it seems those who actually want smaller phones are a vocal minority
Capitalism: Providing infinite consumer choice, so long as your choice is to consume what everyone else is consuming.
I’ve got about a billion issues with capitalism, but I’m not sure how you think something like this should work otherwise? Product design/development/manufacturing takes a bunch of resources, so it doesn’t make sense in any model to make things people generally don’t want.
Apple user here. If they don’t come out with a new generation of iphone mini, I am simply going to never buy another phone again.
I am simply going to never buy another phone again.
This will not happen.
I moved from Android phones to Apple specifically for the iPhone mini. Seems when it eventually dies I’ll be out of luck.
Large phones are the new normal size now.
Going back to small phones now feels like trying to type through a postage stamp
Yeah, I was thinking who’s to say what “normal” size even is? In hindsight, it was awkward as hell taking calls on my tiny nokia brick. Personally, I think we’ve hit a sweet spot between functionality and size practicality. I’m happy with my 6" screen as long as women’s clothes continue on the trend of indulging us with functional pockets.
I’m waiting for a free upgrade to switch to a flip phone. I didn’t want one immediately because I was worried about quality, but from what I hear they’re doing well. Decent compromise for me
Ive been using the galaxy fold 3 for 2 years now and i could never go back to one that doesnt fold. The tablet style screen has become my main screen. Its just functionally superior to any normal phone screen and if im only performing simple tasks the smaller outer screen is fine.
I’ve been torn on whether to go with that or the flip. Most of my clothes have smaller pockets so the flip would be great, but then the larger screen with the fold would be handy too!
I saw a review for a new Motorola Razr, and thought that maybe I’d switch to one of those, but I love a good camera and it’s camera wasn’t good.
But the siren song of manageably sized phones still calls to me.
Motorola of today is unfortunately not the Motorola of yesterday. I loved my Razr and Really really loved my Droid with the side charging port, it docked into the nightstand cradle and the driving cradle perfectly.
Everytime someone says this and manufacturers end up making a smaller phone… no one buys them.
Because it’s mostly small crap phones or small expensive phones. A 4,5 to 5 inch pixel, a 5 to 5,5 inch pixel pro to current prices. I’d buy it instantly.
In the beginning days of the Pixel, both sizes were the same specs - just one bigger than the other. The XL outsold the smaller one consistently.
It’s these glass backs that I can’t stand. I bought a phone not a wet bar of soap.
The comments section of a post like this feels like early reddit. Love it!
I adored my Pixel 3a. The size was perfect in my opinion. Small enough to handle with one hand and to put it in my pockets, big enough to enjoy watching videos on it. The Samsung S10e was lovely too.
I don’t have sources but I remember them stating that small form factor phones were not selling too well. So I guess we won’t see many flagship or even midrange phones in the near future.
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And that doesn’t require water resistance, my A52s has an IPX 67 rating and has both.
I’m a big guy, with big hands.
Got the s22 ultra, and it feels like it’s finally a me sized phone. I’ve been fighting tiny phones for decades!
In the end, we need a range from small to large.
I switched to a Pixel 7 today from a Xiaomi Android phone. I always felt my existing phone was too big, and when looking for a new one the first thing I did was go to gsmarena and search for a phone released relatively recently with a smaller screen. Literally the only result was the Iphone SE.
The Pixel phone is practically the same size, just a tad smaller and just a tad heavier. But there is a significant difference in the gesture support, which is usually something I don’t bother with. The result is that the basic system navigation and app switching can be done with my right hand only, in its normal holding position. The swipe from the left to go back a screen can be done from the bottom of the screen, so I don’t need to stretch my thumb up and across to do it from the middle of the screen.
Stretching unnaturally is still required to swipe down from the top of the screen, or I guess if third party app design puts buttons in the top left. But as a software solution to this hardware problem which also preserves the larger screen size for cases where that’s useful or desired, I think it’s pretty good.
Interesting feedback
Over the past day of use I’ve realised I can also swipe left from anywhere on the right edge of the screen to go back, and the swipe down doesn’t actually need to start from the notification bar. I can just swipe down from wherever and it seems to consistently figure out that I’m trying to do a gesture. I installed my normal launcher Niagara and the gestures all still work fine, so with that inclusion general operation is fairly one-handed and comfortable now, other than typing.
you should be able to install a custom ROM that allows you to have notification bar on bottom so that you can swipe up.
@LordShrek @gila iphones used to have the control center by swiping up. Took a while to adjust to doing it from the top right. Wish we had the option to add it to the bottom
Wish we had the option to add it to the bottom
@apple @android feature request here. submitting ticket.
I figured out that the swipe down doesn’t need to begin from the actual notification bar, like it does on my older Android phones. I can just naturally extend my thumb up to halfway up the screen and swipe down from there. Doesn’t work if I have scrollable content already on screen though
Unihertz, interesting, thanks!
I had the atom XL for a while, it was ok. Battery life was awesome, but it was hobcobbled together software wise and not actually rugged (both mine and it’s warranty replacement broke their screens from a 3’ fall out of my pocket stooped over). Their support sucked as well. 3 months after shipping my phone back for warranty they approved the replacement and then shipped out the replacement.
I want a smaller phone, without sacrificing on the camera. I have an S22 ultra and the camera is great, but I can’t use it one-handed.
On the one hand I love my fold 3. On the other I miss my pre. That thing was great except the terrible slider.
Not possible at the moment. Without the large size, you can’t fit an adequate battery to last a day or longer.
Not to mention that many people want good cameras on their phone, an they need space as well.
Display needs a lot of battery, less of it and you dont need such a big one. Than make it two millimeters thicker and the problem is solved.
That is a factor, but not a big one anymore. Not as big as the communication chips (bluetooth, wifi, 4g/5g). Also rendering apps and websites is excessively expensive, specially if you want to have HiDPI and 60Hz or more.
I’m typing this comment on a Zenfone 9, which is a pretty reasonably sized phone with a decent battery and camera. Charging to 80% usually lasts me over a day of usage. The camera is good enough as well. Phones don’t have to be so massive to have those features
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There’s definitely a market for these - my partner prefers a more compact phone, it has been harder and harder to get a decently spec’d small phone of late. There are certain niche markets for small devices and alwasy will be
but the big phone manufacturers don’t realize there’s a market for this and they completely neglect that. or rather, they know that there’s a market for it but they know it won’t make them enough profit so they stick with the mainstream, which is a huge shame. i’m sure that there are engineers working at google, samsung, etc. who would love to work on smaller phones, phones with other unique hardware such as trackballs, but aren’t able to because of “turn everything into money” mindset.
It is strange, it may be a small market niche (pun intended) but surely its worthwhile for someone to jump into it, particularly given that it could be satisfied with existing technology, no great advances required
Just grow bigger hands 😉
Unironically if there was enough demand they would be made. Even the iPhone mini failed in market penetration, not to mention things like the Sony compacts and the Zenfones.
Sony are quite overpriced, and ZenFones have very limited software support. I hope they improve it for zenfone 10