Why can't we go back to small phones?
spacebar.newsHappy owner of an iPhone SE here. I feel like the large manufacturers have trouble selling small phones because they just don't understand the small phone market. It's a lot like the electric vehicle market before Tesla came along. When the Prius was the best electric car on the market, car executives thought that electric cars were for hippies who wanted to make an environmental statement and who didn't care about horsepower or style. Then Tesla came along and ate their lunch because they understood the market better.
The offerings on the market, including the SE (which is probably the best small phone), seem to say, based upon features and price point, "Here is a phone for those of you who can't afford a full-size phone". But that's not why we want a small phone. I would have happily paid twice the price for my SE, so for me the low price was a bonus, but it's not a bonus when they are pricing them too low for sustainability. They should jack up the price and get more margin from it. We'd still buy it.
The number one reason why I prefer a small phone, is because I have plenty of other computers. Your 'big' phone screen doesn't impress my gaming PC. So what I want is a device that fits a niche in my ecosystem of devices, and that niche is portability. Anything that takes away from that is a minus because it's trying to do the job of some other device, which I already own. In other words, make a small phone for professionals. There are plenty of us, we like to buy devices, and we have money. Features we would be willing to pay for include working with our other devices and not having bugs associated with software expecting bigger screens.
For people whose only computer is their phone, big screens totally make sense. And I understand that is the majority of people. But there are millions of people who have another computer other than their phone. The manufacturers are discontinuing the dirt bike because they'd rather sell you an Escalade, but there is an unaddressed market out there for a Ducati.
App compatability. Tried several micro android phones and it was tough to switch because a lot of apps don't support lower/smaller resolutions or even the older customized android versions these phones ship with
Do they run but look terrible or they just refuse to open?
I've found even "normal" sized phones, like my S22, can encounter UI bugs where crappy interfaces appear to expect iPhone Max sized screens and so end up hiding bits of the interface behind button bars or fixed hight screens that hide the "next/submit" buttons behinds keyboards. I can only imagine how much worse these banking apps are on a smaller screen.
Sometimes they are just impossible to use. For example I could not hit the button to use Steam Guard in the Steam app to log in on one device. The screen was just too small for what the app expected.
Phones got bigger, but now we have smart watches with cellular (i.e. wrist phones), so we have even smaller phones than before.
I prefer my old iPhone 8 to the new models, but without the updates it's no longer useful. I was waiting for 4th Gen SE but it never came, but in practice it's the same width and less than 2 centimetres taller. If I could have a shorter phone (like an iPhone 8 without the bezel) that would be amazing.
I tried small Androids in the past, had a Sony Xperia compact (Z1?) and loved it until it very literally fell apart.
Have you considered the iPhone 13 mini?
It's not the size of an iPhone 8 without the bezel, but it is smaller than the iPhone 8 (except that it is 1/3 of a mm thicker).
You probably already know, but the 3rd Gen SE (same size as iPhone 8) and the 13 mini are both still receiving the latest updates.
I would if I could buy new, either of these would be good options. I always buy new and run on a long cycle rather than pre-owned.
In the US, Apple still release refurbished iPhone 13 Minis every now and again. In case you haven't heard, I believe they are new battery, new screen, new case. Basically a new phone, but with a plain white box. There are sites that allow you to receive notifications when they are available again. Apple may have finally stopped selling the 13 Mini - I don't follow it anymore. For a while, I keen enough to get one, I was going to use a freight-forwarder to ship one from the US, but they didn't come up while I was waiting and when my phone died, I was in a hurry so I bough a used iPhone 13 mini instead of waiting.
6 months ago, I submitted to HN thinking it would be helpful to the people holding out for one. The submission was flagged, so I haven't tried again - I suppose it just seemed like advertising. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43337518
If you're outside the US, it's a lot harder to get hold of those Apple refurbished phones. Actually, I heard something I found interesting when I was buying a different phone in one of the shops that refurbish themselves. They had an Apple-refurbished iPhone 11 - basically a new iPhone 11, around a year ago! The person at the shop said that when the devices get really old, Apple start selling their refurbished phones to those kind of shops, instead of selling them on their own website.
They thought it would be a year or two before iPhone 13s turned up that route. I don't know much about how accurate any of that was, but I've always wanted to buy a refurbished phone from Apple so I found it interesting.
Have you looked into ikko's kickstarter called the mind one?
I'm somewhat allergic to Kickstarter for things I have to trust - phones fall firmly into that category. That said, a square phone is somehow highly appealing even if it looks goofy to use.
Rakuten still makes nice small androids and you can import them pretty easy from Japan.
I have a Doro and it’s great.