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I'm super interested in the rumors that Essential is working on "an anti-smartphone with a small screen that relies primarily on voice commands."[1] The world n

by xd1936 8y ago

I'm super interested in the rumors that Essential is working on "an anti-smartphone with a small screen that relies primarily on voice commands."[1] The world needs more sub-5" phones now that Sony isn't making the Compact phones, and Apple isn't making a successor to the iPhone SE. 1. https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/10/10/essential-ai-phone-that-operates-mainly-through-voice-commands/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/10/10/essential-ai-phone-...

desireco42 8y ago
Agreed. I feel like they are all trying to hard to invent something new instead of just listening and talking to users. Small format phone practically doesn't exist. Palm concept is nice for example but way to expensive for second phone. Also, not nearly as much focused on essential services you would use this phone for.
- trevyn 8y ago
  I’d love a square phone; the iPhone Xs Max feels to me too tall but not wide enough.
pyb 8y ago
A smartwatch?
- sitepodmatt 8y ago
  Impractical to many, you still look like an idiot talking to your rist, just a 3.5" android from a major OEM (good battery and build, no spyware) will suffice.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > Impractical to many, you still look like an idiot talking to your rist No more or less than you look like an idiot talking to a device in your hand (of course, if he function can be served with voice response, and you have earbuds/headset, you don't have to talk “to” either device in a visually apparently the way, so it's moot.)
    - sitepodmatt 8y ago
      Yes, talking to your device in hand the same, perhaps it's more normal in some places in the world than others?
pavlov 8y ago
Palm has been resurrected as a brand for tiny phones: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/palm-rises-from-the-dead-as-a-zombie-brand-launches-tiny-smartphone/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/palm-rises-from-the-...
- Splines 8y ago
  Which is cool until you find out that it's $350.
  - microcolonel 8y ago
    If it's good, it's worth it. I have a phone about this size and it doesn't do anything other than SMS, phone calls, and Snake; and while I would lose the tactile feel of real buttons, if TCL's "Palm" had even one twelfth the standby time of my current phone, and competent enough as a standalone device, it would be worth considering at $350. I don't get why people (including TCL and Verizon, it seems!) are calling it a "second phone", as though everyone in their right mind is reading novels on their telephones. At least half of the people I know are considering switching, or already have switched, to a feature phone because new phones have awful, unpredictable battery life and are unwieldy in size (and recently, because most of the things they thought they gained from smartphones seem to come with massive privacy strings attached). The biggest problem with the TCL Palm, to me (if the standby time is okay, on the order of four days, and it probably isn't with the size of the battery), is that it is locked to Verizon, and only available as a secondary phone; this means I just can't buy or use it right now.
    - cmrdporcupine 8y ago
      Yep I keep watching reviews of it and getting infuriated that I can't get it as a regular unlocked phone. I was happy with the size of my Palm Pre/Pre2/Pre3. I'd pay decent money for a phone like that w/ upgraded specs and a good camera. Don't need a big screen.
  - erikpukinskis 8y ago
    Can you explain what you mean? Are you saying you think the size of the display is a primary cost center for phones, so small screen phones would have a substantially cheaper bill of materials?
hobbescotch 8y ago
I think it’s possible that apple and others are still working on a small phone. Demand for small phones has increased in the past year or two and the lead time for development of new phones afaik is 2+ years. It’ll take time for other phone makers to respond to the demand.
- balladeer 8y ago
  I also have a faint hope that they might update SE finally and that they might do that with a longer update cycle because obviously SE users are not the people who will buy a shiny iPhone every year spending $1000 and going for all the bells and whistles. But then I think this is just hope and Apple has really moved on to phones that "most" of the people want to buy.
jiveturkey 8y ago
what is this, a phone for ants?
askvictor 8y ago
Two things I want in a smartphone, that seem to be mutually exclusive (at least in terms of what is being manufactured): small size and an excellent camera. There are plenty of small phones, but they're all budget devices and thus have a half-baked camera. I would be happy if these rumours were true
- RachelF 8y ago
  The Sony compacts are pretty good camera-wise, but the most recent compacts are bigger than the old ones. The old ones had 4.6" screens, now they are growing to over 5".
  - Markoff 8y ago
    it's pointless to compare size by screen size, Sony phones are infamous for large bezels, so my 5" phone had same body as 4.6" Sony and it's still same, Sony always two years behind in design, you can add there also HTC, one of the reasons both of these brands (smartphone divisions) are on the edge of bankruptcy
- curt15 8y ago
  How about also 5 years of security updates like Apple's products?

by xd1936 8y ago

desireco42 8y ago

Agreed. I feel like they are all trying to hard to invent something new instead of just listening and talking to users. Small format phone practically doesn't exist. Palm concept is nice for example but way to expensive for second phone. Also, not nearly as much focused on essential services you would use this phone for.

trevyn 8y ago
I’d love a square phone; the iPhone Xs Max feels to me too tall but not wide enough.

pyb 8y ago

A smartwatch?

sitepodmatt 8y ago
Impractical to many, you still look like an idiot talking to your rist, just a 3.5" android from a major OEM (good battery and build, no spyware) will suffice.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > Impractical to many, you still look like an idiot talking to your rist No more or less than you look like an idiot talking to a device in your hand (of course, if he function can be served with voice response, and you have earbuds/headset, you don't have to talk “to” either device in a visually apparently the way, so it's moot.)
  - sitepodmatt 8y ago
    Yes, talking to your device in hand the same, perhaps it's more normal in some places in the world than others?

pavlov 8y ago

Palm has been resurrected as a brand for tiny phones: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/palm-rises-from-the-dead-as-a-zombie-brand-launches-tiny-smartphone/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/palm-rises-from-the-...

Splines 8y ago
Which is cool until you find out that it's $350.
- microcolonel 8y ago
  If it's good, it's worth it. I have a phone about this size and it doesn't do anything other than SMS, phone calls, and Snake; and while I would lose the tactile feel of real buttons, if TCL's "Palm" had even one twelfth the standby time of my current phone, and competent enough as a standalone device, it would be worth considering at $350. I don't get why people (including TCL and Verizon, it seems!) are calling it a "second phone", as though everyone in their right mind is reading novels on their telephones. At least half of the people I know are considering switching, or already have switched, to a feature phone because new phones have awful, unpredictable battery life and are unwieldy in size (and recently, because most of the things they thought they gained from smartphones seem to come with massive privacy strings attached). The biggest problem with the TCL Palm, to me (if the standby time is okay, on the order of four days, and it probably isn't with the size of the battery), is that it is locked to Verizon, and only available as a secondary phone; this means I just can't buy or use it right now.
  - cmrdporcupine 8y ago
    Yep I keep watching reviews of it and getting infuriated that I can't get it as a regular unlocked phone. I was happy with the size of my Palm Pre/Pre2/Pre3. I'd pay decent money for a phone like that w/ upgraded specs and a good camera. Don't need a big screen.
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  Can you explain what you mean? Are you saying you think the size of the display is a primary cost center for phones, so small screen phones would have a substantially cheaper bill of materials?

hobbescotch 8y ago

I think it’s possible that apple and others are still working on a small phone. Demand for small phones has increased in the past year or two and the lead time for development of new phones afaik is 2+ years. It’ll take time for other phone makers to respond to the demand.

balladeer 8y ago
I also have a faint hope that they might update SE finally and that they might do that with a longer update cycle because obviously SE users are not the people who will buy a shiny iPhone every year spending $1000 and going for all the bells and whistles. But then I think this is just hope and Apple has really moved on to phones that "most" of the people want to buy.

jiveturkey 8y ago

what is this, a phone for ants?

askvictor 8y ago

Two things I want in a smartphone, that seem to be mutually exclusive (at least in terms of what is being manufactured): small size and an excellent camera. There are plenty of small phones, but they're all budget devices and thus have a half-baked camera. I would be happy if these rumours were true

RachelF 8y ago
The Sony compacts are pretty good camera-wise, but the most recent compacts are bigger than the old ones. The old ones had 4.6" screens, now they are growing to over 5".
- Markoff 8y ago
  it's pointless to compare size by screen size, Sony phones are infamous for large bezels, so my 5" phone had same body as 4.6" Sony and it's still same, Sony always two years behind in design, you can add there also HTC, one of the reasons both of these brands (smartphone divisions) are on the edge of bankruptcy
curt15 8y ago
How about also 5 years of security updates like Apple's products?