11 ms·

> It's insane that the "phablet" standard from ~5 years ago is now not even the new standard, but the only standard. Utterly insane. I replaced my SE with a S

by spurgu 7y ago

> It's insane that the "phablet" standard from ~5 years ago is now not even the new standard, but the only standard. Utterly insane. I replaced my SE with a Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact yesterday. It has a 5" screen and decent specs (2018 flagship). About as small as you can get a mobile nowadays, sadly. And wow how I've missed Android, the UX is soooo much better in most aspects. I can't believe I was stuck with iOS (as an experiment) for almost 1.5 years. Reason being that I hadn't been able to find anything below 5" in the Android world.

colechristensen 7y ago
As a 95th-percentile-sized human, the large phones have been quite appreciated, there is quite a lot of frustration when everything in the world is the wrong size, whatever your size. Now if we could do something about airline seats, sedans, and home furniture.
- Jldevictoria 7y ago
  I'm in your boat here. I have pretty large hands, and I've always regretted not getting the XL size of my Pixel 2.
- spurgu 7y ago
  Agree kind of, although airline seats, sedans and furniture haven't been trending towards one end of the spectrum over a number of years. And I think it sounds like a reasonable idea to offer cars with swappable (or well-adjustable) seats. Airlines already offer seats with extra legroom, as well as business class depending on your needs. The first touch devices might've been around 3.5-4" (just guessing here) but they've since then been constantly growing to where 6" is nowadays considered normal. How far can you going up in size? It's definitely not comparable to finding the size of a seat, as a phone's "right size" depends on how you intend to use it. There are hundreds of phone models on the market but they all seem to revolve around price points (and hence features/specs). Why not expand the range size-wise as well while at it? I have fairly large hands and I don't mind manhandling a 6" "phone" but I simply do not want to carry one in my pocket. I can't imagine I'm alone on this. Largest phone I've ever had was 5.5" and that one constantly fell out of my shorts pocket when sitting down and now with the 4" iPhone SE I've grown rather accustomed to the form factor and am willing to trade off usability (more difficult, precise typing required) for it. And then you have people with small hands. Edit: Easy one-handed usage is also important to me.
  - bluntfang 7y ago
    >Airlines already offer seats with extra legroom, as well as business class depending on your needs. I don't like having to pay more money because I was born a different size. Not to mention you are usually paying more than other customers for the added responsibility of accepting to help in case of an emergency.
    - spurgu 7y ago
      > I don't like having to pay more money because I was born a different size. But you're fine with paying extra for more screen estate on your phone? I'd gladly pay less - or more (I don't care either way, I just want the option!) - for a smaller footprint phone.
      - nightski 7y ago
        Personally I'd be fine with it if it was comparable. By that I mean 10% more leg room equates to a ~10% increase in airline ticket price. But currently business class tickets are significantly more expensive - sometimes 200%+
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - bluntfang 7y ago
        If I had a disability that required a larger screen, I wouldn't want to pay extra for it...if that's what you're getting at.
        spurgu 7y ago
        It's really not. I would simply like the option of having smaller size mobile phones available on the market. I don't really give a shit if they are differently priced. If they only existed that would be a huge improvement from the current situation.
    - esoterica 7y ago
- bradleyankrom 7y ago
  Kitchen counters, too.
- 8ytecoder 7y ago
  I’m in the same boat as you. I waited until iPhone 6 to buy my first iPhone precisely because the previous ones were too small for my usage. But, I full get the appeal for a smaller phone. I don’t expect Apple would revert back to the SE size though. They’re clearly optimising their manufacturing process to “eat leftovers” and reuse pipelines
- vbezhenar 7y ago
  For me phone size is not about human size. I'm tall person and my finger are quite long. It's about one-hand use. I was able to use iPhone 4S with one hand and it was convenient, not some kind of stretch. It's just not possible with iPhone 8. I'd pay good price for 3.5" iPhone 4S with modern internals. That said, this boat has been sailed. Modern apps won't work on tiny screens because their developers optimize for large screens, so it's a pointless desire.
  - spurgu 7y ago
    Agree! And have definitely noticed this both on websites and apps, that sometimes for example it's impossible to highlight a field that's buried behind the keyboard. One would think that you'd test the whole iPhone range when developing, since it's actually doable (compared to the Android landscape with infinite resolutions) but no. I'm not blaming Apple for that though.
  - swiley 7y ago
    I don’t understand why people don’t see this! It wouldn’t be so bad if the phone had a window manager and you could keep everything you wanted in a corner (although the iPhone 7 digitizer feels less accurate than the SE was so maybe that wouldn’t work so well.)
- iso947 7y ago
  Buy a seat in a cabin nearer the front. Buy a larger car. These options are available, there’s nothing for people who want to have a hand sized phone.
dagrha 7y ago
Nice choice on the XZ2. Like you I picked up a phone from the Xperia line. It's an older model than yours, namely the Z1 Compact, which I chose after filtering for form factor, LineageOS support, and price. I wrote about it here: https://hallau.world/post/the-perfect-android-phone/ https://hallau.world/post/the-perfect-android-phone/
- spurgu 7y ago
  That's a great little table you've built there, highly useful for finding new phones with LineageOS in mind, bookmarked! I wish I would've found it a week ago... It seems that for support is not fully there yet for the XZ2 Compact, camera is still a work-in-progress, unfortunately: https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz2/development/rom-lineageos-17-1-t4044653 https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz2/development/rom-... But once that's sorted out I might be tempted to switch, or at the latest when I run out of official Sony updates.
- andrepd 7y ago
  Wow, nice article! Bookmarked.
- mng2 7y ago
  Wow, the Z1C is pretty old. Do you have any trouble with battery life? I used to run a Z3C, but after some of the seals got loose I upgraded to an XZ1C. It's near perfect for me, and I don't know where I'm going to go next for a compact phone.
  - sleepydog 7y ago
    I also had a Z3C and upgraded to an XZ1C. I liked the Z3C's rounded rectangle design as the XZ1C can be uncomfortable to hold in certain configurations. And I liked the color tones for the Z3C more. Other than that I'm very happy with the XZ1C. I hope they put out another phone with the shape of the Z3C and the specs of current flagships. I did have the same issue on the z3c with the seals coming loose. Eventually the glass panels got loose too.
  - 0ld 7y ago
tudorw 7y ago
Dell Mini 5, 2010, oh how people laughed at my clown phone, now it's 'pocket size'!
akoncius 7y ago
It's funny that 5" smartphone is branded as "compact" :D
- spurgu 7y ago
  It is compact compared to the competition!
leeoniya 7y ago
a couple months ago i got a Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact to replace my Z5 Compact (4.6") - they are hard to find new! i'm waiting eagerly for the camera focus bug to be fixed in oemv6 firmware to flash TWRP & Lineage and try it as a daily driver: https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz2/development/rom-lineageos-17-1-t4044653/page26 https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz2/development/rom-... for now, my Z5 Compact is still going strong but has known noise cancellation mic issues (hardware) that cause echo on the other end of some calls.
- spurgu 7y ago
  > they are hard to find new! I know! I found a single online store in my country selling them. There were lots of listings but in all stores except one they were sold out. I was just looking at that XDA thread today and yeah, once the camera issues are fixed I'll probably be looking at flashing Lineage. At the latest once the official Sony updates stop coming in. Or if the next one brings back the bloatware I've removed..
Razengan 7y ago
> And wow how I've missed Android, the UX is soooo much better in most aspects. iOS has its problems, but every time I have to handle somebody's Android (i.e. to help them do something faster than telling them), I want to give it back as quickly as possible.
- spurgu 7y ago
  I hope you're not equating Samsung with Android. I find most (if not all) skinned Androids horrible as well. Spent some time with mine removing preinstalled bloatware using adb and then a bit more finding various settings restoring default Android behaviour on the Sony, even though it's relatively vanilla.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - tbrock 7y ago
    How could you not though? Skinned Android is how most experience android.
    - spurgu 7y ago
      Yeah, which in mind tarnishes the reputation of Android. Well on the other hand most regular people don't even don't know what Android is, they only talk about "Samsung" phones, which is somewhat correct.
- shoulderfake 7y ago
  I have same experience with ios
  - spurgu 7y ago
    Right? Simple things like selecting/copying text can be so annoying and unintuitive to the point where I wasn't feeling comfortable even after 1.5 years, and I'm somewhat of a power user in that I like to figure out the most effective ways of doing things. With iOS I've failed on so many different occasions and having to succumb to what I'd consider workarounds. Another glaringly obvious thing with Android that frustrated me to no end with iOS: Why the fuck do you need to swipe twice to remove a notification. So many swipes wasted that I could've used for Tinder instead. I have a boatload of stuff that annoys me about iOS, to the point where at one point thought about opening a Twitter account to send a daily tweet about something that sucks on iOS. Emojis look good though.
barbs 7y ago
I'm hoping this recent announcement will highlight the gap left in the market for 4-inch phones.

by spurgu 7y ago

colechristensen 7y ago

As a 95th-percentile-sized human, the large phones have been quite appreciated, there is quite a lot of frustration when everything in the world is the wrong size, whatever your size. Now if we could do something about airline seats, sedans, and home furniture.

Jldevictoria 7y ago
I'm in your boat here. I have pretty large hands, and I've always regretted not getting the XL size of my Pixel 2.
spurgu 7y ago
Agree kind of, although airline seats, sedans and furniture haven't been trending towards one end of the spectrum over a number of years. And I think it sounds like a reasonable idea to offer cars with swappable (or well-adjustable) seats. Airlines already offer seats with extra legroom, as well as business class depending on your needs. The first touch devices might've been around 3.5-4" (just guessing here) but they've since then been constantly growing to where 6" is nowadays considered normal. How far can you going up in size? It's definitely not comparable to finding the size of a seat, as a phone's "right size" depends on how you intend to use it. There are hundreds of phone models on the market but they all seem to revolve around price points (and hence features/specs). Why not expand the range size-wise as well while at it? I have fairly large hands and I don't mind manhandling a 6" "phone" but I simply do not want to carry one in my pocket. I can't imagine I'm alone on this. Largest phone I've ever had was 5.5" and that one constantly fell out of my shorts pocket when sitting down and now with the 4" iPhone SE I've grown rather accustomed to the form factor and am willing to trade off usability (more difficult, precise typing required) for it. And then you have people with small hands. Edit: Easy one-handed usage is also important to me.
- bluntfang 7y ago
  >Airlines already offer seats with extra legroom, as well as business class depending on your needs. I don't like having to pay more money because I was born a different size. Not to mention you are usually paying more than other customers for the added responsibility of accepting to help in case of an emergency.
  - spurgu 7y ago
    > I don't like having to pay more money because I was born a different size. But you're fine with paying extra for more screen estate on your phone? I'd gladly pay less - or more (I don't care either way, I just want the option!) - for a smaller footprint phone.
    - nightski 7y ago
      Personally I'd be fine with it if it was comparable. By that I mean 10% more leg room equates to a ~10% increase in airline ticket price. But currently business class tickets are significantly more expensive - sometimes 200%+
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - bluntfang 7y ago
      If I had a disability that required a larger screen, I wouldn't want to pay extra for it...if that's what you're getting at.
      - spurgu 7y ago
        It's really not. I would simply like the option of having smaller size mobile phones available on the market. I don't really give a shit if they are differently priced. If they only existed that would be a huge improvement from the current situation.
  - esoterica 7y ago
bradleyankrom 7y ago
Kitchen counters, too.
8ytecoder 7y ago
I’m in the same boat as you. I waited until iPhone 6 to buy my first iPhone precisely because the previous ones were too small for my usage. But, I full get the appeal for a smaller phone. I don’t expect Apple would revert back to the SE size though. They’re clearly optimising their manufacturing process to “eat leftovers” and reuse pipelines
vbezhenar 7y ago
For me phone size is not about human size. I'm tall person and my finger are quite long. It's about one-hand use. I was able to use iPhone 4S with one hand and it was convenient, not some kind of stretch. It's just not possible with iPhone 8. I'd pay good price for 3.5" iPhone 4S with modern internals. That said, this boat has been sailed. Modern apps won't work on tiny screens because their developers optimize for large screens, so it's a pointless desire.
- spurgu 7y ago
  Agree! And have definitely noticed this both on websites and apps, that sometimes for example it's impossible to highlight a field that's buried behind the keyboard. One would think that you'd test the whole iPhone range when developing, since it's actually doable (compared to the Android landscape with infinite resolutions) but no. I'm not blaming Apple for that though.
- swiley 7y ago
  I don’t understand why people don’t see this! It wouldn’t be so bad if the phone had a window manager and you could keep everything you wanted in a corner (although the iPhone 7 digitizer feels less accurate than the SE was so maybe that wouldn’t work so well.)
iso947 7y ago
Buy a seat in a cabin nearer the front. Buy a larger car. These options are available, there’s nothing for people who want to have a hand sized phone.

dagrha 7y ago

Nice choice on the XZ2. Like you I picked up a phone from the Xperia line. It's an older model than yours, namely the Z1 Compact, which I chose after filtering for form factor, LineageOS support, and price. I wrote about it here: https://hallau.world/post/the-perfect-android-phone/ https://hallau.world/post/the-perfect-android-phone/

spurgu 7y ago
That's a great little table you've built there, highly useful for finding new phones with LineageOS in mind, bookmarked! I wish I would've found it a week ago... It seems that for support is not fully there yet for the XZ2 Compact, camera is still a work-in-progress, unfortunately: https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz2/development/rom-lineageos-17-1-t4044653 https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz2/development/rom-... But once that's sorted out I might be tempted to switch, or at the latest when I run out of official Sony updates.
andrepd 7y ago
Wow, nice article! Bookmarked.
mng2 7y ago
Wow, the Z1C is pretty old. Do you have any trouble with battery life? I used to run a Z3C, but after some of the seals got loose I upgraded to an XZ1C. It's near perfect for me, and I don't know where I'm going to go next for a compact phone.
- sleepydog 7y ago
  I also had a Z3C and upgraded to an XZ1C. I liked the Z3C's rounded rectangle design as the XZ1C can be uncomfortable to hold in certain configurations. And I liked the color tones for the Z3C more. Other than that I'm very happy with the XZ1C. I hope they put out another phone with the shape of the Z3C and the specs of current flagships. I did have the same issue on the z3c with the seals coming loose. Eventually the glass panels got loose too.
- 0ld 7y ago

tudorw 7y ago

Dell Mini 5, 2010, oh how people laughed at my clown phone, now it's 'pocket size'!

akoncius 7y ago

It's funny that 5" smartphone is branded as "compact" :D

spurgu 7y ago
It is compact compared to the competition!

leeoniya 7y ago

a couple months ago i got a Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact to replace my Z5 Compact (4.6") - they are hard to find new! i'm waiting eagerly for the camera focus bug to be fixed in oemv6 firmware to flash TWRP & Lineage and try it as a daily driver: https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz2/development/rom-lineageos-17-1-t4044653/page26 https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz2/development/rom-... for now, my Z5 Compact is still going strong but has known noise cancellation mic issues (hardware) that cause echo on the other end of some calls.

spurgu 7y ago
> they are hard to find new! I know! I found a single online store in my country selling them. There were lots of listings but in all stores except one they were sold out. I was just looking at that XDA thread today and yeah, once the camera issues are fixed I'll probably be looking at flashing Lineage. At the latest once the official Sony updates stop coming in. Or if the next one brings back the bloatware I've removed..

Razengan 7y ago

> And wow how I've missed Android, the UX is soooo much better in most aspects. iOS has its problems, but every time I have to handle somebody's Android (i.e. to help them do something faster than telling them), I want to give it back as quickly as possible.

spurgu 7y ago
I hope you're not equating Samsung with Android. I find most (if not all) skinned Androids horrible as well. Spent some time with mine removing preinstalled bloatware using adb and then a bit more finding various settings restoring default Android behaviour on the Sony, even though it's relatively vanilla.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- tbrock 7y ago
  How could you not though? Skinned Android is how most experience android.
  - spurgu 7y ago
    Yeah, which in mind tarnishes the reputation of Android. Well on the other hand most regular people don't even don't know what Android is, they only talk about "Samsung" phones, which is somewhat correct.
shoulderfake 7y ago
I have same experience with ios
- spurgu 7y ago
  Right? Simple things like selecting/copying text can be so annoying and unintuitive to the point where I wasn't feeling comfortable even after 1.5 years, and I'm somewhat of a power user in that I like to figure out the most effective ways of doing things. With iOS I've failed on so many different occasions and having to succumb to what I'd consider workarounds. Another glaringly obvious thing with Android that frustrated me to no end with iOS: Why the fuck do you need to swipe twice to remove a notification. So many swipes wasted that I could've used for Tinder instead. I have a boatload of stuff that annoys me about iOS, to the point where at one point thought about opening a Twitter account to send a daily tweet about something that sucks on iOS. Emojis look good though.

barbs 7y ago

I'm hoping this recent announcement will highlight the gap left in the market for 4-inch phones.