Large phones are the new normal size now.
Going back to small phones now feels like trying to type through a postage stamp
this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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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
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Everytime someone says this and manufacturers end up making a smaller phone... no one buys them.
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.
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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.
It's these glass backs that I can't stand. I bought a phone not a wet bar of soap.
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 as my existing phone, 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.
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
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.
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
20 years ago these were great. Now? Ye gods I'm too old for that tiny stuff.
A friend of mine was all in on the palm pre. And extolled the small form factor and how much better it was than the incoming 4G Android phones...
Now he buys the largest iphone possible every year
I used an overlooked palm pre for internet access before I got my first smart phone and while it was neat at the time it really wasn't going to be good for say, browsing on jerboa with that screen size. The keyboard wasn't good either.
aa
Life is your creation. :)
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.
On the one hand I love my fold 3. On the other I miss my pre. That thing was great except the terrible slider.
Agreed. I went from pixel 3a to 6a and thought okay this is definitely as big as I'm willing to use but prefer the smaller 3a size.
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.
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
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.
Big phones sell though, that's the issue. Apple sold the mini version of the iphone right alongside the bigger models and it sold like shit. The people who want smaller phones are in a minority.
Old people, who have bad eyes and money, buy the bigger phones. Profit margins are bigger with the bigger, more expensive phones. If you want a small phone, get one. Just don't expect the large phone makers to sell them.
Small phones have shittier cameras.
I like the idea of a small phone but, if I’m being honest, I’d probably use an iPad Mini as my phone if it had the ProMax (or better) imaging group on it.
Just grow bigger hands 😉
I'm generalising here and obviously it won't apply to everyone, but I tend to think most people with small phones look at huge phones and say "whoa, too big" and thus never bother to give it a go. People with large phones either love them already, or they love the idea of a small phone — so they go get one, and in most cases, immediately miss their large phone.
Of course, some people have experienced both formats enough to know that they definitely prefer small phones — but, unfortunately, they appear to be a minority. Small phones don't sell well, or else there'd be more of them. And so, these people fall into that all-too-common market category 'You're Not Significant Enough'.
All that said, it absolutely depends on what you want from your phone. I use my S23 Ultra to edit photos and videos, play a few games, get some work done — and all of those things benefit from a big display. Hell, even typing is easier for me on a big screen, thanks to my sausage thumbs. 😂
This is something I don't really understand. People will always talk about how smaller phones don't sell well, but there are a lot of products that are aimed at much smaller niches and do very well, but barely any company creates phones for that niche.
The only one I know is cubot, a chinese brand who makes the cubot pocket, the king kong mini, and the cubot j10. I hope they succeed and consolidate the small smartphone niche.
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