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It's a bit too small, but I like that it's a thing. However, for my own use, I want something in-between. A 4" phone would be ideal. I'm still confused how the
by grishka 2y ago
It's a bit too small, but I like that it's a thing. However, for my own use, I want something in-between. A 4" phone would be ideal.
I'm still confused how there aren't any phones for people who still use a computer as their primary means of accessing the internet. Even for this one, the media review section makes it look like it's "to distract oneself from social media". As if a phone's primary purpose isn't to be a communication device for when you aren't near your computer.
- RachelF 2y agoiPhone 4 or 12 mini size is probably ideal for me personally. While this is small, it is double the thickness of most modern phones. Still, it is great to see a bit of creativity in the smartphone market. Most phones are pretty much the same these days.
- grishka 2y agoFor me, iPhone 5/5S/SE is the ideal size. I even seriously considered different ways to try to port Android to the SE, but while this would've been an interesting project, I decided that I have more useful things to work on.
- orson2077 2y agoiPhone 4 was the apex of phone design, I will die on this hill!
- timschmidt 2y agoIt was the Pre 3 [0] and I'll fight you for it. Lol. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Pre_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Pre_3
- orson2077 2y agoHah! Sliding keyboard, that absolutely rocks!
- timschmidt 2y agoSomehow it's been 13 years and none of the available phone OSes have managed to be as usable or user-focused as WebOS was. Nor as easily hackable. The hardware was smooth like a river rock in your pocket, but still had an easily found physical slider switch to silence the device. It had wireless charging as a standard feature. And the software stack was familiar to any desktop Linux user with just a custom display layer on top. Complex multi-tasking was effortless on it (thanks in part to the gesture area and also the OS's cards interface). And it combined all contacts and messages regardless of communications channel into a unified interface. Oh, also, replaceable batteries! Unfortunately HP played musical CEOs (three in less than a year) and one of them didn't see phones or PCs as businesses they should be in.
- Fnoord 2y agoFormer owner of Nokia E71, Nokia N900 (both user replaceable battery), Planet Computers Cosmo Communicator and Astro Slide (like old Psion keyboard): not really. The keys on this smartphone are very small, therefore annoying to use. The larger they are though, the bulkier. You're also stuck in either portrait or landscapr mode. Whereas a touchscreen smartphone can reuse the touchscreen for say watch a movie or use different input (like say gamepad). I believe the current innovation trend lies in those small foldables. Of course, small form factor and dual screen has disadvantages for battery, repairability, and ridiculously high price.
- dredmorbius 2y agoPsion Series 3: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3>
- grishka 2y agoCool device but doesn't look very pocketable.
- dredmorbius 2y agoAnything's pocketable with sufficiently large pockets ;-) The Psion would fit well into a coat or jacket pocket, or cargo pants/shorts, and easily fit into a satchel or messenger bag. The Psion S3 dimensions are 165 mm x 85 mm x 22 mm (6.50 in x 3.35 in x 0.87 in). Contrast the iPhone 15 at 147.6 mm x 71.6 mm x 7.8mm (5.81" x 2.82" x 0.31"), and the iPhone 15+ at 160.9 mm x 77.8 mm x 7.8 mm (6.33" x 3.06" x 0.31"). Other than thickness, these are pretty comparable. What it offers most specifically, however, is a useful and usable set of capabilities, in both hardware and software: full keyboard, email, calendar, Web, word processing, spreadsheet, contacts. I've known journalists who've used it as their mobile platform for gathering and filing news stories, which also means it passes the "professional use" test. Dimensions from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3> and <https://www.apple.com/iphone-15/specs/ https://www.apple.com/iphone-15/specs/>.
- kelnos 2y agoI don't like iPhones, and have never had one, but I will absolutely agree with you on that. The iPhone 4's industrial design was beautiful.
- nanomonkey 2y agoiPhone 4 was a great size and looked great, but the sharp edges would wear through your jeans in a way that the earlier iPhones did not. That's my only complaint.
- pvorb 2y agoWho cares about thickness other than tech enthusiasts? There are phones that are so thin, they feel uncomfortable while in your hand.
- attentive 2y agoThose of us who carry it in the front pocket.
- amandasystems 2y agolaughs in woman
- pvorb 2y agoI do. But to be honest, some phones are so thin that I fear I'll accidentally break them when sitting down. I'd rather take a thicker but smaller phone because of that.
- ksec 2y ago>While this is small, it is double the thickness of most modern phones. My only problem with the Mini was the battery, they could have increased the thickness to iPhone 4 ( 9.3mm ), to increase the battery life. They could have also make it slightly bigger so it matches the same size as iPhone SE, while increasing battery life. Instead the iPhone mini was a compromise too far that very few people wanted it for its price. Had the iPhone SE also have two size of phone to choose from, there should definitely be a mini at 5.6" and a normal at 6.1".
- saagarjha 2y agoThose phones differ in screen size by two whole inches, so putting them in the same bucket is basically useless.
- orson2077 2y agoAmen. An updated 4" flagship would be incredible! They say that small phones are for people with small hands, but no-one can one-hand a 6" phone without holding it like an idiot. I want the claw grip back!
- grishka 2y agoThat and I also have small hands. My current phone is a Pixel 4a, and it's already way past my comfort zone. It's frustrating to use with one hand, and, believe it or not, most of my phone usage is one-handed. It's like all phone manufacturers have collectively forgotten about ergonomics.
- sharts 2y agoHas there ever been a focus on ergonomics over aesthetics by any manufacturer of any tech product over the last decade? Nothing comes to mind.
- grishka 2y agoThose curved keyboards and mice come to my mind.
- dangrossman 2y agoThose are from the 1990s.
- grishka 2y agoThese exists that somewhat popular Logitech mouse, I don't remember the exact model, but it's "ergonomic" and modern enough that it has USB-C and bluetooth. I've also seen curved modern keyboards, albeit those are rarer. edit: Logitech MX Master 3
- microtonal 2y agoGlove80 is a new curved keyboard design (in many ways a departure from Kinesis' 1990 designs).
- samatman 2y agoI'll be holding on to this Mini 13 until Apple makes another model in that form factor, or until it's unusably obsolete. So far, it does what I need, and does it fast enough.
- normie3000 2y agoHow's the battery life?
- leeman2016 2y agoNot the parent, but my experience is very good. Right now for example, it’s at 44% after 24hrs from 100%. This is pretty sufficient for me
- microtonal 2y agoI loved the 12 Mini, but battery life was one of the reasons to upgrade. 44% after 24 hours is very impressive. I often wouldn't make it through the day.
- sulandor 2y agothere are A LOT of settings in ios that can safely be disabled while retaining "phone" functionality and conserving energy/data
- grishka 2y agoIn my own experience iPhones somehow just love eating through battery doing nothing. I know because I have an iPhone I hardly use. It takes around 3 days to completely drain the battery doing nothing laying on my desk. Airplane mode does extend it by a lot. Android is much better at this, probably thanks to the "doze mode".
- samatman 2y agoAdequate for my purposes. The whole point of owning it is that I have a very light-duty relationship with the phone: music/podcast, maps, some food delivery and ride share, and some messaging when I'm not at my laptop. I don't read stuff on it, let alone browse the web or doomscroll social media. So when I'm at home it can easily last a couple days. If I'm traveling by air, or other rare occasions where my phone gets heavy use, I have a slap-pack battery to stretch it out. I'm more likely to resort to that if I'm traveling and I forget to charge it: it's obviously not as much battery as a bigger phone, but for 99% of days, it's more than fine. It serves my purposes, and fits in more pockets than the big bricks do. I wish Apple would learn to count as low as several million, and go back to accommodating the smolphone niche, but their current policy seems to be that if a product doesn't sell enough units to supply one to every resident of a mid-sized European country, it isn't worth manufacturing. Pity.
- wslh 2y agoI bought one to carry on while doing physical activities and, eventually stay connected.
- barbs 2y agoUnihertz will be launching their Jelly Max phone in a couple of days, which is bigger than the Jelly Star but (hopefully) not too big. As a 1st gen iPhone SE user I'm intrigued.
- askvictor 2y agohttps://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fgmzgruagsacd1.jpeg https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fg... Looks to be about the same size as iPhone SE 2016
- barbs 2y agoYeah roughly, although it's estimated to be a lot thicker, greater than 1.5 cms by some sources.
- iSnow 2y agoWell, that would have been the perfect smartphone for me, I had the original Jelly but it was too small. Now, I have the iPhone 13 mini and I love it.
- TeMPOraL 2y agoJust give us a commbadge then. Star Trek had it right all along. Commbadge (or flip communicator) is for talking. A PADD is for reading, writing, media consumption. A tricorder is for recording, remote sensing and remote operating needs. You always have at minimum the first one when in the go. When working, you usually have all on you. But then, at home and work you also have proper computer terminals available and then some. 10 years ago, I thought this was a quite obsolete vision, given how our smartphones are so multifunctional. These days I feel it was prescient, and that our phones are a bad idea, for human nature reasons.
- ghayes 2y agoI tend to feel the Commbadge and communicator are tropes to make it easy to communicate to viewers. Given the technology in real life, I prefer text over voice for quick, rapid messages.
- TeMPOraL 2y agoI'm a text person too, but I suspect we're not the majority, and definitely not the entirety of the smartphone-using population. I recently noticed my wife is increasingly often exchanging voice messages on Messenger instead of text messages, with increasing number of her friends. I queried about this several times, she says they all find it more convenient. It sounds unbelievable to my text-first sensibilities, but apparently it is.
- throwaway55110 2y agoThis is very prevalent in the expat community where I have many friends. I hate it. At least the current AI developments made it possible for messenger apps to transcribe the messages to text (and back, though I haven't seen that feature yet) - we both get what's best for us. And same with voice calls and voicemail - I mostly don't accept calls and let them all go to voicemail. iPhone transcribes what they're saying in real time and I can decide to pick up. I'm really looking forward to an AI-first total overhaul of communication UX.