4 ms·

I'm eagerly awaiting the market's return to phones that you can actually fit in your human-sized hands. Bigger is not always better. I recently bought a phone

I'm eagerly awaiting the market's return to phones that you can actually fit in your human-sized hands. Bigger is not always better. I recently bought a phone that's so large it takes both hands to operate it. If I'm grasping it reasonably tightly, my thumb can't navigate to over 30% of the screen. If I stretch uncomfortably to try to reach those areas, the phone is likely to slip out of my fingertips entirely. I do not have small hands. I'm not sure what the market standard definition of "phablet" is, but for me, a 136mm x 68mm device has served me fine for years, and this new device (which I'm returning after almost accidentally throwing it across the train for the n'th time in as many days) is 148mm x 76mm. Apparently that extra ten millimeters is a big deal. (Interesting to look at Apple's product page for their sizes. They measured this too, evidentially -- the 6 and 6s went up to exactly 138x67 and aren't budging; they use the Plus series to probe over that line.) The fairphone2 is 143x73 -- it's not as big as some other flagships on the market right now, so huge kudos for winning the miniaturization battles so far -- but I bet they're falling prey to competing on screen size, and frustratingly, though I'm interested in everything else about this phone, I'm honestly not sure I'll be able to hold it in my hand.

engi_nerd 11y ago
And as someone with freakishly large hands, I welcome large phones. There are still small phones out there for you. There are large phones out there for me. I am not sure that I see a problem.
- abrowne 11y ago
  There aren't really many decent small phones. I have a first-gen Moto E, and it's about as big I as I'd like, but the new versions are larger. Same with the Moto X. The best current options seem to be the Sony Xperia Zx Compact series. Everything else small is also very low-end, with bad screens, too-small storage and old software.
- cannam 11y ago
  There really aren't small phones out there. I use a Nokia Lumia 620, a slow, 3-year-old phone with a 3.8" screen. Twice now I've dedicated a week to using only a larger phone (4.5-4.7", so not big by today's standards) and both times at the end of the week I've given up and gone back to the 620. The two most common things I do with a phone are (a) use it on a train platform or strap-hanging on a train, one-handed, and (b) leave it in a jeans pocket and ignore it. Even an iPhone 5 is really a bit too big to be a happy device to use like that. (Previously I had a Nokia 700, with a 3.2" screen. That was fantastic, best phone hardware I've ever used, but it ran Symbian and eventually became too poorly-supported to stick with) What I'd really like to see is a phone of the same size and shape as a 3rd gen iPod touch -- so like a thin version of an iPhone 3G. Maybe one day the market will swing back that way, and hopefully when it does, it'll be with a bit more choice so we can have big or small, rather than producing a hundred-and-fifty examples of devices all basically the same size.
kayoone 11y ago
Whats wrong with using two hands ? These are not dumb phones but multi purpose computing devices. If you make/take calls for several hours a day a phablet is probably not the right device, but even then you can comfortably use earbuds with a built-in mic.
- juliendorra 11y ago
  If you want to read standing in the subway/metro you need one hand on the handle and then there's only one left for handling and navigating. I suppose there is a myriad of other small use cases where one handled use is necessary or more convenient.
  - kayoone 11y ago
    try reading a real book or on a kindle in that situation, would be even more inconvenient.
rsync 11y ago
"I'm eagerly awaiting the market's return to phones that you can actually fit in your human-sized hands. Bigger is not always better." I never bought a smartphone because I never wanted to carry around huge devices ... for the last few years I have used a motorola F3 ("moto fone")[1]. I loved this phone. It finally broke, however, so I was forced to buy a modern phone, and I found the Neptune "pine"[2] which is a phone-watch, but you can detach it from the watch band and it essentially becomes a very, very tiny full featured android phone. I have been using it for about two months and it is great - it's basically a very tiny hotspot device that I use for mobile wifi and bluetooth, etc., and it works great as a phone ... and texting/typing isn't ideal, but it works. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone [2] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neptune/neptune-pine-smartwatch-reinvented https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neptune/neptune-pine-sm...
- abrowne 11y ago
  I loved my Motofone too. I've also been thinking a smartwatch might be the best chance for a small phone these days. Thanks for the link to the Pine.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  Looks more lightweight than the last secure phone design I had. The need for dedicated chips for CPU hardening, baseband firewall, and power isolation made it quite bulky. Looking for a commercial model, I settled on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator Didn't build it for obvious reasons. It was the shit back in the day, though, with probably some people willing to buy if they get trusted chips. Not sure enough on return to want to risk it, though.

engi_nerd 11y ago

And as someone with freakishly large hands, I welcome large phones. There are still small phones out there for you. There are large phones out there for me. I am not sure that I see a problem.

abrowne 11y ago
There aren't really many decent small phones. I have a first-gen Moto E, and it's about as big I as I'd like, but the new versions are larger. Same with the Moto X. The best current options seem to be the Sony Xperia Zx Compact series. Everything else small is also very low-end, with bad screens, too-small storage and old software.
cannam 11y ago
There really aren't small phones out there. I use a Nokia Lumia 620, a slow, 3-year-old phone with a 3.8" screen. Twice now I've dedicated a week to using only a larger phone (4.5-4.7", so not big by today's standards) and both times at the end of the week I've given up and gone back to the 620. The two most common things I do with a phone are (a) use it on a train platform or strap-hanging on a train, one-handed, and (b) leave it in a jeans pocket and ignore it. Even an iPhone 5 is really a bit too big to be a happy device to use like that. (Previously I had a Nokia 700, with a 3.2" screen. That was fantastic, best phone hardware I've ever used, but it ran Symbian and eventually became too poorly-supported to stick with) What I'd really like to see is a phone of the same size and shape as a 3rd gen iPod touch -- so like a thin version of an iPhone 3G. Maybe one day the market will swing back that way, and hopefully when it does, it'll be with a bit more choice so we can have big or small, rather than producing a hundred-and-fifty examples of devices all basically the same size.

kayoone 11y ago

Whats wrong with using two hands ? These are not dumb phones but multi purpose computing devices. If you make/take calls for several hours a day a phablet is probably not the right device, but even then you can comfortably use earbuds with a built-in mic.

juliendorra 11y ago
If you want to read standing in the subway/metro you need one hand on the handle and then there's only one left for handling and navigating. I suppose there is a myriad of other small use cases where one handled use is necessary or more convenient.
- kayoone 11y ago
  try reading a real book or on a kindle in that situation, would be even more inconvenient.

rsync 11y ago

"I'm eagerly awaiting the market's return to phones that you can actually fit in your human-sized hands. Bigger is not always better." I never bought a smartphone because I never wanted to carry around huge devices ... for the last few years I have used a motorola F3 ("moto fone")[1]. I loved this phone. It finally broke, however, so I was forced to buy a modern phone, and I found the Neptune "pine"[2] which is a phone-watch, but you can detach it from the watch band and it essentially becomes a very, very tiny full featured android phone. I have been using it for about two months and it is great - it's basically a very tiny hotspot device that I use for mobile wifi and bluetooth, etc., and it works great as a phone ... and texting/typing isn't ideal, but it works. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone [2] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neptune/neptune-pine-smartwatch-reinvented https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neptune/neptune-pine-sm...

abrowne 11y ago
I loved my Motofone too. I've also been thinking a smartwatch might be the best chance for a small phone these days. Thanks for the link to the Pine.
nickpsecurity 11y ago
Looks more lightweight than the last secure phone design I had. The need for dedicated chips for CPU hardening, baseband firewall, and power isolation made it quite bulky. Looking for a commercial model, I settled on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator Didn't build it for obvious reasons. It was the shit back in the day, though, with probably some people willing to buy if they get trusted chips. Not sure enough on return to want to risk it, though.