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.
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
Man I have enormous hands. I can barely fit into most XXL gloves. I still prefer 6" phones.
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?
It’s not that people want big phones, it’s that people like big screens.
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
First point is incorrect, there’s no easy/hard with the difference in an inch. People don’t build phones, machines do. We’re very capable of making small phones. That not what the market wants.
Second point is 100% correct. People want computers, and with crazy battery life, batteries can only be so small if you want capacity. The bigger screens combined with that make the user experience for the majority better.
Is there a community for confidentlyincorrect?
It’s not about the assembly, but all the components and features you want to cram into the box while still having decent thermals and battery.
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.
I’m old and my eyesight requires them now. Lol
For me it’s the bigger battery.
But then the bigger battery has to power a bigger screen 🤔
Second option.
Bigger screens which is the whole appeal with smartphones.
There isn’t one, there’s an “obsession” with phones that are usable by today’s use case, which is computer replacements for the overwhelming majority.
Step outside of the small phone echo chamber and youll see that’s not even remotely what the market demand is. Fine if you like small phones, but you’re the minority. If that’s where the money was, they’d still be common.
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…
It’s all become so bland.
I have small hands and I hate that I have to jerry rig my phone with shit to just reach the upper part of it.
also, interesting side-by-side comparison of the Zenfone 10, the iPhone 15 and the Pixel 8 from the article:
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 ridiculousOh yes, to top it I have small hands - I can’t reach almost any of the opposite edge without using two hands. Sigh.
Anyone who wants to keep this convo going, check out !compactphones@lemmy.world
Joined!
Thanks!
This is what is pushing me towards a flip phone. I just don’t have a need for a 6.7" phone or bigger.
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.
Loved that phone. Check out the Jelly Star (I have the Jelly 2) if you want a small, full featured Android. Compromises for the size and price of course, but it has a headphone jack, sd card, IR blaster, and usb-c - everything I need.
Unihertz phones are really cool. My main phone is an S20 but I use an Atom with downloaded podcasts for hikes and runs.
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You just brought back fond memories of mine
I loved sliding that keyboard
I’m a cyclist in the city so for me, a smaller size phone is ideal to keep it secure in a pocket. I got gifted a Pixel 6 about a year ago (wanted to stick with the Pixel 2!) and now I always need to bring some sort of pack to put it in.
Thank for bringing this up. I’m currently using a Samsung Galaxy S10e. I mostly use the smartphone from my pocket:
- listening to podcasts with earbuds on;
- running with Strava on;
- working in the garden with music on;
- checking messages with my smartwatch on;
- driving my car with Android Auto on;
- … . Of course I also use my smartphone itself for messaging, shopping online, banking, ordering takeaway, … . And a larger screen would definitely be more comfortable in these cases. But having a larger smartphone when I’m currently using my smartphone while it’s in my pocket, is a step back. In fact, for use at home I still have a Samsung tablet to have a bigger screen die when that’s more useful. When I would switch to the SG S23 version, it seems that the dimensions of the new device are quite similar? Dimensions: S10e: 5.60 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches (142.2 x 69.9 x 7.9 mm) S23: 5.76 x 2.79 x 0.30 inches (146.3 x 70.9 x 7.6mm) Zenphone 10: 5.77 x 2.68 x 0.37 inches (146.5 x 68.1 x 9.4 mm)
So as long as the basic version of the SG s-series is sold in the above dimensions, I’m not worried 🤞
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.
Mainstream ruined everything. Like it always does.
You mean corporate greed? Yes
LOL, by “mainstream” you mean market demand? People use phones as computers now, people that want small phones are the 1%, Apple bought back small phones remember? The 1% loved it, the rest didn’t. No money to be made = it won’t get made.
Same as people who want unreliable SD cards and wired headphones jacks, by far the statistically insignificant minority. What people want as a whole is what influences production, not fringe cases.
Even I used to believe that there is a good demand, but sadly it’s a very small minority.
On the other end there doesn’t seem to be any phablets either. they are all weirdly long screens.
They’re all phablets. People used to make fun of my Note 4 endlessly but it’s practically tiny by modern standards.
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.
and one of the driving forces behind the design of the Palm Pilot was that it had to fit in a shirt pocket …
I just dug out my palm pilot to check, pretty shocking it’s only about 5.5" diagonal. It seemed huge in the day.
