7 ms·

All I want is an iPhone 3G with an all screen front. It would fit 4.2-4.5 inch screen with ease and it's the size of my wallet. iPhone X specs in the iPhone 3G

by x0054 8y ago

All I want is an iPhone 3G with an all screen front. It would fit 4.2-4.5 inch screen with ease and it's the size of my wallet. iPhone X specs in the iPhone 3G body. Thicker is fine, just make the battery last a long time. Honestly, there must be people like me out there. I'll gladly pay $1k for a 4ish inch version of iPhone X. Large phones are fine, to each their own. But some of us what small phones. And I have large hands, but I want to be able to comfortably use a phone with one hand. Typed in iPhone SE.

jen729w 8y ago
SE owner here. Total tech nerd, but I just want a small phone that fits in my back pocket when I'm cycling. It makes me very sad that they're all getting enormous. When I'm out, I'm just sending messages. Maybe a bit of maps and occasionally Safari. But all of my proper browsing is done at home, on an iPad or my Mac. When I'm out, I'm out. The phone is a tool, it's not the thing I'm doing.
- kalleboo 8y ago
  Apple wants cyclists to buy a cellular apple watch
  - emptybits 8y ago
    This cyclist bought one. Then he found out his Canadian carrier (Fido) doesn't support Apple Watch.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - kalleboo 8y ago
      Yeah I'm still skeptical about this eSIM business
    - Marsymars 8y ago
      Fido isn't even a real carrier. It's more that Rogers (along with the other carriers) has chosen to artificially restrict Apple Watch support to only its most expensive plans.
  - johnvaluk 8y ago
    I'm a cyclist with an Apple Watch and iPhone SE. The watch is nearly useless when I'm riding, because it requires me to remove one or both hands from the handlebar for too long to accomplish anything meaningful AND possibly take my eyes off the road to see what's (not) happening on the display. Too many Watch apps wait until you open them to update (if you're lucky) or tell you to unlock your iPhone first. It sounds convenient, but it's really a usability nightmare on a bike. Use Siri instead, you say? I can already do that with my headset, so what benefit does the watch provide? I use my watch mostly at work for 2FA and to passively monitor my notifications. When I need to respond, I'd rather use my phone, so adding cellular to the watch doesn't really add much value for me.
- camillomiller 8y ago
  I understand your point of view, but from a market standpoint you're a niche of a niche of a niche. I feel you, because I have the same feeling about many mass produced products. I find that the real problem with phone and electronics is that their nature prevents the development of "artisanal" alternatives, which, market-wise, are the only option that can takle the need of a small pool of users like in your case.
  - iguy 8y ago
    I remain surprised that such niches don't get filled. Apple is weird, but what percentage of the market does the 100th most popular Android phone capture?
    - camillomiller 8y ago
      I don't, considering the amount of resources needed to concieve, develop and market even the smallest peripheral at a company like Apple. Plus (although it might be less so nowadays due to their size) Apple still has a culture of saying "no" to a lot of things that "could" make sense. Some chinese companies that tend to throw shit at the wall to see what sticks are better positioned to do that, but chances are that you'll get a subpar product you won't probably like using, let alone buy in the first place. Last but not least, the existence of a niche of consumers is no direct indication that such niche will actually buy the product they think they want. This is why a lot of startups fail despite the fact their product should theoretically sell like hot cakes.
    - Arnt 8y ago
      I think this niche doesn't get filled because of the gap between what you want and what you buy. The gap between what you (ought to) want and that which makes a good first impression on you. I have, use and like a small android phone called "unihertz jelly pro", small enough to fit in any pocket and good for my use. After a while with that phone, using a phablet one evening was an absolute eureka moment. I was looking for some sort of product, and on the phablet all the photos looked good. Inviting. Desirable. The whole phablet was fun in a way the small phone wasn't. After that experience, I can understand that people reach for the big phones in the shop, even if some of them may really want something different in the long term. And I can understand why retailers stock the phones they do. The phone where instagram looks good is the phone with the right first impression, and one has to optimise for getting the goods out the door. (http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/unihertz http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/unihertz has blah about how I tweaked the phone, if anyone cares.)
- stevewillows 8y ago
  I love the SE love / appreciation on HN. I love the SE so much, and I hope this form factor lives on. Outside of HN, I don't know anybody with an SE. We seem to be in the same boat for phone use. For me, I only use my phone for a handful of things * basic browsing * recipes while cooking * some music and audiobooks (I mostly use a modified iPod 5.5) * Simon Tatham's Puzzles * clearing my mod queue on Reddit when I'm not home I'd love to see Apple's market research behind the SE to see if our use patterns are normal for fellow owners.
  - deltron3030 8y ago
    >I'd love to see Apple's market research behind the SE to see if our use patterns are normal for fellow owners. I think the're many more like you, and that Apple is aware of it. My theory is that they don't want to cannibalize watch sales, or basically regard the watch or wearable market as their future, and the Apple Watch as device to cement their leadership role in this market early on. I mean it works for them, they are the number one wearbales brand now. It's not only watches, the're the headphones and maybe AR glasses in the future, a distributed wearable system if you'd combine them. That's where things are going I think. If the'd have continued pushing sff phones (pocket watches), their real watches might not have gotten this traction.
    - sutterbomb 8y ago
      This doesn’t seem very plausible to me. Still a world of difference between small phone and watch. I just don’t think there’s a big enough market for small phone users who won’t buy the next available size that more people are happier with.
    - imglorp 8y ago
      I agree with that, and also wonder if they're ignoring the research in order to continue with the current profitable trend of bigger every year, because that's one of the very few distinguishers they have. It's easy to market in one word ideas and easy to understand, same reason cars and cokes are getting bigger.
    - ethbro 8y ago
mhd 8y ago
I really liked the form factor of my first smartphone: The Palm Pre. Well suited for jeans front pockets (male). I wonder how the software would work out now that "just make PWAs" might actually be useful. Then again, that's what the FirefoxOS guys thought, too…
- rpastuszak 8y ago
  Re Firefox, I guess the timing wasn’t right. With the current WASM support and reference types coming out soon(ish) building performant apps should be way easier. More so, there’s a possibility to run WASM in Ring 0, which opens up performance gains rarely seen in native. Also, Apple tried going down the web app route long time ago, would be great to see them revisiting this idea in a year or so.
  - oblio 8y ago
    Apple's probably not going to revisit any web idea soon. There's a reason they killed Flash and Java on iOS - both being the most prominent cross platform techs. I think WASM is still in an early phase, we'll probably have to wait for 2020 for it to catch on. It still needs: GC/direct DOM access, threads, and Javascript module integration, in my opinion: https://webassembly.org/docs/future-features/ https://webassembly.org/docs/future-features/ Plus, even the MVP is only supported globally by 78% of the browsers out there: https://caniuse.com/#search=webassembly https://caniuse.com/#search=webassembly Thing will get very interesting very quickly once WASM 2.0, basically, is created and it support is around 90%. But before that, it's kind of early to declare victory :)
  - mhd 8y ago
    I think some of the new APIs and general PWA support (workers, indexeddb etc.) are the more important changes since Palm Pre / iOS 1. Sure, better script engines and a few cycles of Moore's law seem neccessary, but that's sadly more of a reflection of all the performance wasted by the stack. I'd argue that most apps are rather passive when it comes to displaying stuff, don't have to crunch numbers and don't manage a lot of data. So an 80s BASIC engine would be enough for it, if the APIs are done well (or 90s Tcl/Tk). Games are an entirely different matter, of course. I don't see a lot of stuff in between.
seddin 8y ago
5S owner over here, can glady say that it is one of the best smartphones I´ve ever had.
pmilot 8y ago
I was also dismayed by the lack of choices in smaller smartphones a few months ago when my Nexus 4 died. I tried an LG G5 for a while but couldn't handle the larger screen. It's not iOS, but I got a Sony Xperia ZX2 Compact as a replacement and I find that it struck exactly the right balance between enjoyable screen size and being able to operate the phone with one hand.
tomaskafka 8y ago
That's what I expected Apple to introduce this year - here's an XS, and here's a new thing that's iPhone 8 with full front screen. I'd buy this in heartbeat.
iagooar 8y ago
I have small hands and an iPhone X. Not a single complaint about the size, I think that Apple nailed it with this one.
- porsager 8y ago
  Are you able to easily tap the opposite upper corner when holding it with one hand (eg. the back button when using your right hand)? I have big hands and even then have issues doing this on an iPhone SE.
  - iagooar 8y ago
    I guess that might be the thing: I'm left-handed. So reaching the back button is quite straight-forward for me.
mgkimsal 8y ago
Used my phone at the local burger shop. One of the teen girls working there laughed at it. "wow, that's so small, does it even work? i think it's time for you to get a new phone!" (FWIW I'm a regular there, so most of the staff know me and we chat while I'm waiting). "I just got this 18 months ago" I said. It's a 64g SE. She just laughed - "OMG - I couldn't even imagine using that. What is that? An iphone 4?". "An SE, " I replied, and she just had a weird look on her face. I wonder if they'd used numbers on that model instead of "SE" if it would have stuck in peoples' minds more? It was such a strange thing - 18 months ago was still in her lifetime, and ... I'm not using a Palm VII or some obscure 80s retro thing - it's a damn iphone from 18 months ago, and she genuinely reacted like it was some piece of ancient technology. She showed me her iphone 6. I showed her Live Pictures on my SE, then commiserated with her that her 'bigger' 6 couldn't handle what my puny "old" phone could do. Teenagers... youth is wasted on the young :)
therealdrag0 8y ago
Not sure if you've seen on the newer phones/iOS, you can double tap (not press) the home button and it pulls the screen down so that the upper right corner is within range of the thumb [0]. Doesn't totally solve the size problem, but it is something. [0] https://i.stack.imgur.com/uygr9.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/uygr9.jpg

by x0054 8y ago

jen729w 8y ago

SE owner here. Total tech nerd, but I just want a small phone that fits in my back pocket when I'm cycling. It makes me very sad that they're all getting enormous. When I'm out, I'm just sending messages. Maybe a bit of maps and occasionally Safari. But all of my proper browsing is done at home, on an iPad or my Mac. When I'm out, I'm out. The phone is a tool, it's not the thing I'm doing.

kalleboo 8y ago
Apple wants cyclists to buy a cellular apple watch
- emptybits 8y ago
  This cyclist bought one. Then he found out his Canadian carrier (Fido) doesn't support Apple Watch.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - kalleboo 8y ago
    Yeah I'm still skeptical about this eSIM business
  - Marsymars 8y ago
    Fido isn't even a real carrier. It's more that Rogers (along with the other carriers) has chosen to artificially restrict Apple Watch support to only its most expensive plans.
- johnvaluk 8y ago
  I'm a cyclist with an Apple Watch and iPhone SE. The watch is nearly useless when I'm riding, because it requires me to remove one or both hands from the handlebar for too long to accomplish anything meaningful AND possibly take my eyes off the road to see what's (not) happening on the display. Too many Watch apps wait until you open them to update (if you're lucky) or tell you to unlock your iPhone first. It sounds convenient, but it's really a usability nightmare on a bike. Use Siri instead, you say? I can already do that with my headset, so what benefit does the watch provide? I use my watch mostly at work for 2FA and to passively monitor my notifications. When I need to respond, I'd rather use my phone, so adding cellular to the watch doesn't really add much value for me.
camillomiller 8y ago
I understand your point of view, but from a market standpoint you're a niche of a niche of a niche. I feel you, because I have the same feeling about many mass produced products. I find that the real problem with phone and electronics is that their nature prevents the development of "artisanal" alternatives, which, market-wise, are the only option that can takle the need of a small pool of users like in your case.
- iguy 8y ago
  I remain surprised that such niches don't get filled. Apple is weird, but what percentage of the market does the 100th most popular Android phone capture?
  - camillomiller 8y ago
    I don't, considering the amount of resources needed to concieve, develop and market even the smallest peripheral at a company like Apple. Plus (although it might be less so nowadays due to their size) Apple still has a culture of saying "no" to a lot of things that "could" make sense. Some chinese companies that tend to throw shit at the wall to see what sticks are better positioned to do that, but chances are that you'll get a subpar product you won't probably like using, let alone buy in the first place. Last but not least, the existence of a niche of consumers is no direct indication that such niche will actually buy the product they think they want. This is why a lot of startups fail despite the fact their product should theoretically sell like hot cakes.
  - Arnt 8y ago
    I think this niche doesn't get filled because of the gap between what you want and what you buy. The gap between what you (ought to) want and that which makes a good first impression on you. I have, use and like a small android phone called "unihertz jelly pro", small enough to fit in any pocket and good for my use. After a while with that phone, using a phablet one evening was an absolute eureka moment. I was looking for some sort of product, and on the phablet all the photos looked good. Inviting. Desirable. The whole phablet was fun in a way the small phone wasn't. After that experience, I can understand that people reach for the big phones in the shop, even if some of them may really want something different in the long term. And I can understand why retailers stock the phones they do. The phone where instagram looks good is the phone with the right first impression, and one has to optimise for getting the goods out the door. (http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/unihertz http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/unihertz has blah about how I tweaked the phone, if anyone cares.)
stevewillows 8y ago
I love the SE love / appreciation on HN. I love the SE so much, and I hope this form factor lives on. Outside of HN, I don't know anybody with an SE. We seem to be in the same boat for phone use. For me, I only use my phone for a handful of things * basic browsing * recipes while cooking * some music and audiobooks (I mostly use a modified iPod 5.5) * Simon Tatham's Puzzles * clearing my mod queue on Reddit when I'm not home I'd love to see Apple's market research behind the SE to see if our use patterns are normal for fellow owners.
- deltron3030 8y ago
  >I'd love to see Apple's market research behind the SE to see if our use patterns are normal for fellow owners. I think the're many more like you, and that Apple is aware of it. My theory is that they don't want to cannibalize watch sales, or basically regard the watch or wearable market as their future, and the Apple Watch as device to cement their leadership role in this market early on. I mean it works for them, they are the number one wearbales brand now. It's not only watches, the're the headphones and maybe AR glasses in the future, a distributed wearable system if you'd combine them. That's where things are going I think. If the'd have continued pushing sff phones (pocket watches), their real watches might not have gotten this traction.
  - sutterbomb 8y ago
    This doesn’t seem very plausible to me. Still a world of difference between small phone and watch. I just don’t think there’s a big enough market for small phone users who won’t buy the next available size that more people are happier with.
  - imglorp 8y ago
    I agree with that, and also wonder if they're ignoring the research in order to continue with the current profitable trend of bigger every year, because that's one of the very few distinguishers they have. It's easy to market in one word ideas and easy to understand, same reason cars and cokes are getting bigger.
  - ethbro 8y ago

mhd 8y ago

I really liked the form factor of my first smartphone: The Palm Pre. Well suited for jeans front pockets (male). I wonder how the software would work out now that "just make PWAs" might actually be useful. Then again, that's what the FirefoxOS guys thought, too…

rpastuszak 8y ago
Re Firefox, I guess the timing wasn’t right. With the current WASM support and reference types coming out soon(ish) building performant apps should be way easier. More so, there’s a possibility to run WASM in Ring 0, which opens up performance gains rarely seen in native. Also, Apple tried going down the web app route long time ago, would be great to see them revisiting this idea in a year or so.
- oblio 8y ago
  Apple's probably not going to revisit any web idea soon. There's a reason they killed Flash and Java on iOS - both being the most prominent cross platform techs. I think WASM is still in an early phase, we'll probably have to wait for 2020 for it to catch on. It still needs: GC/direct DOM access, threads, and Javascript module integration, in my opinion: https://webassembly.org/docs/future-features/ https://webassembly.org/docs/future-features/ Plus, even the MVP is only supported globally by 78% of the browsers out there: https://caniuse.com/#search=webassembly https://caniuse.com/#search=webassembly Thing will get very interesting very quickly once WASM 2.0, basically, is created and it support is around 90%. But before that, it's kind of early to declare victory :)
- mhd 8y ago
  I think some of the new APIs and general PWA support (workers, indexeddb etc.) are the more important changes since Palm Pre / iOS 1. Sure, better script engines and a few cycles of Moore's law seem neccessary, but that's sadly more of a reflection of all the performance wasted by the stack. I'd argue that most apps are rather passive when it comes to displaying stuff, don't have to crunch numbers and don't manage a lot of data. So an 80s BASIC engine would be enough for it, if the APIs are done well (or 90s Tcl/Tk). Games are an entirely different matter, of course. I don't see a lot of stuff in between.

seddin 8y ago

5S owner over here, can glady say that it is one of the best smartphones I´ve ever had.

pmilot 8y ago

I was also dismayed by the lack of choices in smaller smartphones a few months ago when my Nexus 4 died. I tried an LG G5 for a while but couldn't handle the larger screen. It's not iOS, but I got a Sony Xperia ZX2 Compact as a replacement and I find that it struck exactly the right balance between enjoyable screen size and being able to operate the phone with one hand.

tomaskafka 8y ago

That's what I expected Apple to introduce this year - here's an XS, and here's a new thing that's iPhone 8 with full front screen. I'd buy this in heartbeat.

iagooar 8y ago

I have small hands and an iPhone X. Not a single complaint about the size, I think that Apple nailed it with this one.

porsager 8y ago
Are you able to easily tap the opposite upper corner when holding it with one hand (eg. the back button when using your right hand)? I have big hands and even then have issues doing this on an iPhone SE.
- iagooar 8y ago
  I guess that might be the thing: I'm left-handed. So reaching the back button is quite straight-forward for me.

mgkimsal 8y ago

Used my phone at the local burger shop. One of the teen girls working there laughed at it. "wow, that's so small, does it even work? i think it's time for you to get a new phone!" (FWIW I'm a regular there, so most of the staff know me and we chat while I'm waiting). "I just got this 18 months ago" I said. It's a 64g SE. She just laughed - "OMG - I couldn't even imagine using that. What is that? An iphone 4?". "An SE, " I replied, and she just had a weird look on her face. I wonder if they'd used numbers on that model instead of "SE" if it would have stuck in peoples' minds more? It was such a strange thing - 18 months ago was still in her lifetime, and ... I'm not using a Palm VII or some obscure 80s retro thing - it's a damn iphone from 18 months ago, and she genuinely reacted like it was some piece of ancient technology. She showed me her iphone 6. I showed her Live Pictures on my SE, then commiserated with her that her 'bigger' 6 couldn't handle what my puny "old" phone could do. Teenagers... youth is wasted on the young :)

therealdrag0 8y ago

Not sure if you've seen on the newer phones/iOS, you can double tap (not press) the home button and it pulls the screen down so that the upper right corner is within range of the thumb [0]. Doesn't totally solve the size problem, but it is something. [0] https://i.stack.imgur.com/uygr9.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/uygr9.jpg