Submitted 4 weeks ago by corbin@infosec.pub to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.spacebar.news/cant-go-back-to-small-phones/
I switched from OP 9 Pro to a Z Fold 6 to get the best of both worlds - a small, TV remote-like phone by default and a square-ish tablet for media and multitasking. Couldn’t be happier.
At the same time, I do understand people who thought the width of Samsung’s Folds is too small - my first consideration was OnePlus Open anyway, but upon actually holding it in store, I realized that Z Fold 6 is just more comfortable for me to hold closed.
I’d never want to pay 2,500 for a phone… tht’s just insane
These days I never go for flagships. I want 1TB storage and if I choose the 1TB phones, they’d cost $1500. I could get a Samsung A-Series and have the 1TB MicroSD Card slot at around $400 for the phone + a 1TB MicroSD card at around $130, so basically a $530 phone with a 1TB storage, $1000 cheaper than a flagship. I don’t play any games anyways these days (too depressed), I don’t even need flagship specs.
I absolutely agree, luckily I got mine used for 870€.
I work for a company that repairs these. The Flip and Fold phones have been riddled with issues since day one.
They’re literally plastic screens. Over time the crease on the screen where the hinge is will get so deep that Samsung’s required “screen protector” will no longer adhere. If you close the phone and the hinge decides to break, you can never open it a full 180 again. If you accidentally open it all the way too fast, you will literally rip the screen off the frame. The weak point is hinge which could lead to a thick black line across, or upper or lower portions malfunctioning. One day you may open the phone and it’s unresponsive to touch. Screens randomly fail all the time and either display static or nothing at all.
Samsung knows the failure rates and how they’re problematic. Any physical damage on the phone will void your warranty. If it’s the tiniest scratch, warranty void. Not kidding. I see Samsung deny them left and right. If you remove the pre-applied screen protector and replace it with your own, warranty void. They literally record how many times they’ve been dropped. If the count exceeds an acceptable value, warranty void.
In terms of outright failure across all phone brands and models, the flips and folds are #1. Behind that is the A series. But those are cheap so it’s expected.
Please purchase insurance for it if you can. It will save you at minimum $400 on a screen repair.
These are all good points and indeed I considered them. I’m curious though, how many 6nd gen foldables have you had to repair yet?
Yea the plastic screens is why I didn’t like the “fold”/“flip” phones.
The other reason being that due to them being flagships, they also don’t have MicroSD card slots.
I don’t want a small phone, I just want a normal phone that I can use in one of my normal sized hands. I have an iPhone 13 Mini right now and it’s pretty ideal but I know they’ll go end of life one day and there’s nothing to replace it right now.
people spend more time on their phones than ever before. its substituted sitting in front of a tv, so i guess people want bigger screens the same way they want bigger tvs.
Seriously.
I don’t want a tablet in my pocket all day.
I bought my current phone because it was small and the options I had when looking for small phones were extremely limited.
I’m not trying to seriously game on a smartphone. I’m not trying to watch full length movies. It’s in my pocket 90% of the time. I want it to be small.
Same here. My max is about 5.5’’ and 160g. Otherwise I feel it’s too hard to carry and handle, or even just hold. I also want to be able to reach the opposing screen corner with my thumb.
Why is the article using diagonal screen size as their measurement for phone size? In that case you could have a phone the exact same size get “bigger” just because bezel sizes have shrunk over the years.
Because, for a touch screen, the screen itself IS the user interface. Imagine while holding with one hand, you want to reach your thumb to the opposite corner to hit a button. Even if the body of the phone is the same, a larger screen will need a bigger reach for your thumb. That is primary issue.
I like big phones (and I can not lie)
My brother despises bug phones and cannot tell the truth…
Didn’t Apple just come out with one or am I mistaken?
I have an iPhone 15 Pro and a recent Pixel (just because I’m a dev and want to know both ecosystems). I use the iPhone as my daily driver, though, not because it’s necessarily better but because I cannot help myself when it comes to tinkering with Android devices. I have semi-bricked several over the years and then had to install Windows in a VM to run some sketchy-looking factory reset program.
Basically, it’s not an Android problem. It’s a me problem. I’m the one who needs a walled garden so I don’t do science experiments.
I can’t imagine using a phone that I can’t even use adless Youtube on :/
Safari + AdBlock + Vinegar makes for a great YouTube experience.
That said, Freetube on my Pixel is wonderful.
IDK, i have Big hands, so using those was a pain for me lmao.
I’m not gonna lie, as a 6’4" guy, I can’t stand small phones. I understand that I’m an outlier though, and wish there were more options to cater to more people.
I think it’s a psychological thing.
Like, while thinking about what kind of phone we want - a small phone sounds pretty good. But when it comes time to buy it, we start comparing phones, and we see some small ones, and some slightly bigger ones, and some really big ones. We tend to go bigger than we’d originally intended because of psychological anchoring effects.
The slightly bigger phone is seen as a slightly better phone. “not too big” we think, as we compare it to some monsters; and the key stats such as screen resolution and battery capacity sound slightly better. So we tend to buy that bigger phone even if it isn’t what we actually thought we wanted.
I’m just waiting for smart watches to get bigger and bigger and eventually lose the strap.
Haha! I was thinking the same. Saw someone post ads for wireless headphone straps, so it’s a matter of time before techbros reinvent phones, but worse.
I mean that’s kinda what the new razr is. I got one because Asus enbiggened their ZenPhone to normal dimensions. And the razr folds in half but it’s still as wide as the phablets we pass off as typical.
The battery is still dense and the outer screen is still glass, so the weight distribution isn’t great without the extra length for your fingers to share the load. But it’s essentially an overgrown watch when it’s closed. I rarely open it, so it’s not like the external screen is useless.
Too small, can’t phone
I held on to my iPhone 4S as long as I could. Now I have a 12 “mini”. I know I’m in the minority, though, because I don’t spend all day staring at my phone. I do like having all the features, but I use them only occasionally–say, once a week or less. I prefer my internet use on my gaming computer with a big monitor, and a full-size keyboard.
I expect I’ll end up with a huge phone for my next one, that I don’t need, just to keep access to the functionality. Like everything else in life, there’s always compromises to be made.
There is a feature called single hand mode on most keyboards. Makes it something like this.Screenshot of smartphone keyboard in single hand mode.
My default setting. Big hands =\
If they make the phones smaller they’ll have to make the ads smaller too. Can’t have that.
Phones are already too small. I use a fold because it’s the only way I can get a decent sized phone now!
Making a small phone is harder than making a big phone.
Because small phones have a small viewing area, which is a pain in the ass to see, especially as you get older. Which is why I prefer foldables. The more screen real-estate I can fit in my pocket, the better.
i have a 6a and i think its about the optimal size. not too small, not too big.
by the way, my first post on here… how is this different to reddit?
The instances are structured much like discord, in that you have a separate server for topics/communities. Think of them as servers that can talk to each other. Instead of subreddits you have this.
Regarding Reddit (US company), well, depending on your values and political views, you might see the need and have the desire to not depend on/support the platform.
There are still subreddits though, they’re just called communities
I believe I saw where you hear that people want small phones, they make them, and then they sell poorly. So, to the company at least, it doesn’t look like people want the smaller devices.
Now, I saw some comments in here about the smaller devices usually being less robust than their normal/pro counterparts, and that could also be a major reason small phones don’t sell.
They make bad small phones that people don’t buy because they’re bad, then conclude its because people don’t buy small phones.
They make phones like the palm palm, the second phone you have to pair to your other phone, for those days when the big phone is too big. Also the battery didn’t even last a day. When it doesn’t sell they say its because it was small, not the everything else.
power usage of screens scales as O(n^2), but battery scales as O(n^3), meaning bigger phones will have better battery life
They can just make them a little thicker, but still usable with one hand.
Really, it’s not a technical problem, it’s a marketing problem (i.e. not enough demand, unfortunately).
Shit battery capacity, bloated OS causing worse battery life, and not enough people actually buying them.
Phones became more frequently used for apps and posting which is a pain on a tiny screen. I built a pi zero powered retro console but actually using the tiny screen of about 3" makes it near impossible to read anything.
I would like to see things return to having replaceable batteries, headphones jacks and maybe slide out keys, but if I have to type and read on the same screen it’s awful nice to have some room to work with.
I don’t see why we don’t already have an iPod size device. I just need something for music and if a phone call happens to come in - great! It was so simple then.
I bought a pixel fold because the screen on the front is small and it opens in a wide format when I need to look at tables
Same reason I have a Samsung Fold. 75% of the time it’s a small phone for small regular tasks. When consuming media, I open up.
You know I keep hearing people say they mostly use the small screen on their fold, but since i got mine the small screen has been for notification only, and when I want to actually use my phone the inner screen is just better. So like 99% inner screen for me.
Umm, you still can buy them
They cost like 10 dollars each man, it’s not that difficult
What?
I’ll continue to carry my iPhone mini since there isn’t a comparable option
Ummm we did? My pixel 9 pro is noticably smaller than my pixel 6 pro, much to my delight. Maybe stop buying the XL tablet phones and you’ll find they’re actually a reasonable size again. So many people in the comments rallying against an issue that isn’t even there. You’re just being told this is an issue. Do you even check for yourselves?
this right here is the issue, people don’t even remember the size smartphone used to be. I’ve got a phone that’s one of the smallest available that still have decent hardware. the screen is still 6.1 inch. your example of a reasonable size is 6.3 inches.
what op and I are actually looking for is something around 5 - 5.3 inches instead, like smartphone used to be. For that size, all that is available today is no-name chinese phones with shit hardware and no support. the big brands are busy selling 6.2 inches as “compact” where it used to be considered phablet size
The “small” P9P is considerably larger than the iPhone 12/13 mini, which is the size OP wants. My mother-in-law has an iPhone 13 mini and it’s very small, but nearly as fully-featured as the standard iPhone 13, which is where other manufacturers keep missing the mark.
I’d like to have no phone at all, I don’t like small screens, nor being interrupted. Problem is that phone apps are now almost obligatory for IDs, transport tickets, passes, banking, etc. So I’d just like a phone-receiver (modem) with a sim card on a USB stick that can enable phone-app-stuff via my laptop or tablet. (Yes some tablets have data sim cards, but we still need sms and occasional phone functions for ‘verification’ etc.). Any suggestions?
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
No, the tiny soft-keyboard on my old Galaxy Xcover is significantly easier to type.
Petter1@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
How you know a boomer wrote that 🤣
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago