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As a small phone lover, here's the thing: we don't consume as many phones or as many services as (general) big phone people.
It's not only about the size of the community. It's that our phones are tools generally at our service and not the reverse.
Hopefully Linux phones are not so far away from usable in the next couple years.
Hopefully Linux phones are not so far away from usable in the next couple years.
I said the same thing in like 2013. :(
It seemed more likely back then than it does today. Ubuntu and Firefox were both developing mobile OSes around that time.
What's the closest thing to a viable option nowadays?
I think a Pixel running Graphene is the closest viable option. Out of the pool of bespoke built to run GNU/Linux phones, it might just be the PinePhone Pro. It's the one suffering the least from critical existence failure.
Plus it looked like Web Apps were gonna become huge.
I know the words "web app" send some on Lemmy into a frenzied rage, but they'd be amazing from a platform agnostic perspective.
Imagine if the biggest barrier to entry for new smartphone OSes (app support) was gone. It'd be huge.
But seeing it as a threat to their business models (don't get that 30% cut if it's not through the App/Play stores), Apple and Google have had pretty shitty support for them.
If a Linux phone was out today and had good hardware and software, it'd still fail just like Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS did. WebApps would give it a strong chance though.
Linux phones aren't gonna help, the issue is the hardware
Unfortunately it does not look like as if linux phones would be developing anywhere
I think he means normal sized phones, instead of the 'phablets' we are surrounded by now. I still think the ~6.1 inch screen is the perfect size.
6.1β is too big. I miss the 4.7-5.1β range that they had on the iPhone Mini for example.
MKBHD's video titles are so click baity now
It's annoying but I get it. If you want to make it or stay big on YT you gotta play the game, and the majority of people eat up click-baity titles and obnoxious thumbnails.
I don't disagree but it's still a shame to see a well established channel needing to go to such lows.
ALL HAIL THE ALGORITHM
"We"
I used an iPod touch 4G thru 7G as my 'phone'. WiFi was available enough where I live that it was all I needed. And if I was off in the woods somewhere, I was ok not having service, and the intarwebs instantly answering my every curiosity. I tried to keep it small.
There is at least the Unihertz Jellystar, which is a fairly nice tiny phone. Personally I'm likely stuck with Pixel phones because I'm a big fan of Graphene OS, otherwise I'd likely pick one up after my Pixel 4a fails, which might be awhile, since it's still going strong.
Never heard of the Jelly Star! $200 bucks?! I just ordered one.
Fucking awesome phone. Been my daily driver for a week now.
Typing is horrible, tough, and for anything serious (browsing, streaming...) you will want a bigger screen and general more build quality. Camera, sound quality, screen are all screaming low end.
Super fast charging because the battery is tiny, sill good SOT because the screen is tiny too.
Feels damn good to be able to use and hold your phone one handed in almost any orientation you can hold your arm in.
Keyboard: AnySoftKey and a Compact layout (2 keys, 1 button) is very helpful.
The death of small phones is why I'm so committed to my flip 4. The space it takes up in my pocket or bag is so much less than any "regular" phone.
Pocket space is only half the problem. The other half is one-handed use and the flip is huge when opened.
This is true, and honestly my biggest gripe with the phone. I don't wear small mitts, and I can only comfortably reach 3/4 of the way up the phone. This is exacerbated by the fact that phone application design is in a very top-centric stage right now. I wonder if there's a way I could extend the android nav bar to take up the top 1/4 of the screen...
On Samsung devices there is an accessibility setting that gives a smaller one-hand screen when swiping down from the bottom bar. But that just feels like a waste of space when you could just have a smaller screen.
That's available on Pixels as well - I use it a lot even on my smaller 4a. Very handy in a pinch!
I know it's not everyones cup of tea but..
I ended up buying a Pixel Fold for the Fold aspect. There's an added benefit that it's really short when folded so I can reach the entire screen one handed. It's heavier and thicker than a slate phone, but I actually enjoy the folded experience way better than other phones.
I'd kill for a sub-6" phone with a physical telephoto lens.
Because there is no demand, display manufacturers don't produce small phone displays anymore. And because there's no small display in stock, phone manufacturers have given up on producing small smartphones. Technically, you can contract the display manufacturers to restart production of small phone displays, but no one seems to be interested in taking the upfront risk.
Haven't watched the video but he is one of the reasons and a strong one. He has really big hands and has been pushing flagship devices since forever.
I have really big hands too, and even with those, really big phone sizes are just not practical, IMHO. Unless one has giant NBA player tennis racket sized hands, past 6β to 6.2β, you just canβt comfortably hold your phone and reach every part of the screen without shifting it around all the time.
I don't get why you'd want a smaller phone unless you're looking to get one in a flip-phone style form factor. I'd be down for that. I miss being able to accurately text from my pocket.
Because I don't want this giant thing in my pocket that's also hard to hold, let alone use one handed.
I definitely think Apple and Samsung can do a smaller premium phone if they want to as Apple makes the lion's share of profits in the industry and Samsung is the only other manufacturer that makes a significant amount of profit. Heck Samsung can probably do a smaller midrange phone as well. I do not think it makes sense for other manufacturers as they make 3% profit and targeting a very vocal but demanding minority isn't going to help them improve that.
Small phone users should also temper their expectation, I saw a lot of comments from people saying they didn't get the iPhone mini because they expected the Pro Max's specs in the mini form factor. They have to understand that the cameras on the biggest flagships occupy a lot of space and it isn't feasible to bring it to a smaller form factor. Increasing the thickness might help with the battery but that's about the only component that benefits with an increase in one dimension.
They have to understand that the cameras on the biggest flagships occupy a lot of space and it isn't feasible to bring it to a smaller form factor.
Not... Really... Sure it makes some difference, but the much more constraining factor is the money. Cameras arent that big, but they're one of the priciest pieces of hardware in the device.
The problem is more that they keep trying to sell small phones at cheaper price points. So they end up with much worse screens, socs, and cameras so they perform like shit. People don't want a small phone because they don't care about their phone. People want small phones because the standard size is fucking huge. They need to make a high-ish tier small phone instead of low tier small phone that performs like the 50 Walmart shit.
The S23 and S24 are solid phones at a regular size. So Samsung already do normal sized flagships. It's the mid-low range that is lacking, they are all oversized in that price range, so people don't have much choice but to buy an oversized phone.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S line:
Seriously, the Zenfone 10 and S24 have the same size in practice. I don't know what the hell he's talking about.
Bigger screens make it easier to use as my main computer, thank you.
