3 ms·

Flip phones are really the only phone product that actually excites me

by high_na_euv 1y ago

Mistletoe 1y ago
Why does it excite you?
- high_na_euv 1y ago
  It reminds me the phones from 2005, they were really cool and smaller in ya pocket
  - simoncion 1y ago
    If one is interested in small smartphones, the Unihertz Jelly series of phones might satisfy that interest. (Amazingly, "small" is roughly the size of the Nexus S... which I found to be the ideal phone size for my large hands.)
    - jcgl 1y ago
      I’d love the Jelly, but all of Unihertz’s stuff is basically devoid of software updates :( I’m not gonna buy e-waste.
      - simoncion 1y ago
        > I’m not gonna buy e-waste. e-waste? Their latest phone is running the very same version as the four-year-old Pixel 5a; Android 14. Incidentally... not only does my Pixel 5a still runs software distributed through the Play Store just fine, its battery life is still quite acceptable.
        jcgl 1y ago
        If you can find me credible evidence that Unihertz will support the device for 5+ years, delivering major version upgrades and timely security patches, then I'll take back what I said. In 2025, a lax approach to the OS lifecycle (especially with security patches) isn't legitimate and respectable.
        simoncion 1y ago
        > If you can find me credible evidence that Unihertz will support the device for 5+ years, delivering major version upgrades and timely security patches... You don't even get that with most Pixel phones. Through to the Pixel 5 family, you only get three years of updates, period. Through to the Pixel 7 family, you get an additional two of security updates. It's not until the Pixel 8 family that you're getting what you demand. That's a lot of "e-waste" that Google only recently stopped generating. ;) But, honestly? I'm not sure why you consider the current five-years-of-updates policy to not be creating an unacceptable amount of e-waste. I have (and still use) nearly-twenty-year-old laptops with the latest Linux kernel and desktop environment software (& etc) versions available. They work just fine. The only maintenance required has been battery replacement and occasional thermal paste replacement. [0] Only five years of updates? That's an absolutely absurd policy. [0] Though, it's not clear that the thermal paste actually needed to be replaced... it was just fun to break out the screwdrivers and service manual.
        jcgl 1y ago
        > That's a lot of "e-waste" that Google only recently stopped generating. ;) Yep, agreed. While my "e-waste" epithet was deliberately inflammatory, I really do have a problem with what they and others were doing before. Thankfully, with newer Pixels (and Galaxies, iirc), that's getting better on the Android side. > I'm not sure why you consider the current five-years-of-updates policy to not be creating an unacceptable amount of e-waste. I have (and still use) nearly-twenty-year-old laptops with the latest Linux kernel and desktop environment software (& etc) versions available. You're getting sidetracked from my original point (that Unihertz's practically nonexistent support disqualifies it for me), but I would certainly like to have higher standards! Core smartphone hardware has matured to the point where I would like to see 10+ year lifetimes. However, you're making a false equivalence here; a smartphone is at the mercy of the vendor to provide updates, while a laptop (thanks to commoditized hardware and a lot of work in the Linux kernel) has a more stable base to work from. Again, if we could reach that place for smartphones, I would be into it. But until we're at the point where you can viably buy a 10+ year-old phone and install a supported operating system (where "supported" includes critical firmware updates), this is a bad comparison.
- sheepybloke 1y ago
  For me, it's the first true upgrade in the design of a phone in a long time. It's not a slightly better CPU or battery, but a different way to work with this key device in my life. I think it will be the default phone format in ~5 years, especially for younger people.
hulitu 1y ago
Can you type with only one hand on a flip phone ?
- hu3 1y ago
  Sure, just fold it.
- delecti 1y ago
  Do you actually mean "flip"? Because when open, with the screen opened upwards, they have roughly the same dimensions as any modern slab phone. Then it'd come down to whether your hand is big enough to type one-handed on that formfactor (a few women, some men). If you mean "fold", then probably only while closed, subject to the same hand-size limits. While open, with the screen opened to the left, like a book, they're quite a bit wider than even the largest human hand could reasonably type on.
vachina 1y ago
Flip phones happened because tech have plateaued, so downstream product development iterated on weird phone casings and keyboard placements.

Flip phones are really the only phone product that actually excites me

Mistletoe 1y ago

Why does it excite you?

high_na_euv 1y ago
It reminds me the phones from 2005, they were really cool and smaller in ya pocket
- simoncion 1y ago
  If one is interested in small smartphones, the Unihertz Jelly series of phones might satisfy that interest. (Amazingly, "small" is roughly the size of the Nexus S... which I found to be the ideal phone size for my large hands.)
  - jcgl 1y ago
    I’d love the Jelly, but all of Unihertz’s stuff is basically devoid of software updates :( I’m not gonna buy e-waste.
    - simoncion 1y ago
      > I’m not gonna buy e-waste. e-waste? Their latest phone is running the very same version as the four-year-old Pixel 5a; Android 14. Incidentally... not only does my Pixel 5a still runs software distributed through the Play Store just fine, its battery life is still quite acceptable.
      - jcgl 1y ago
        If you can find me credible evidence that Unihertz will support the device for 5+ years, delivering major version upgrades and timely security patches, then I'll take back what I said. In 2025, a lax approach to the OS lifecycle (especially with security patches) isn't legitimate and respectable.
        simoncion 1y ago
        > If you can find me credible evidence that Unihertz will support the device for 5+ years, delivering major version upgrades and timely security patches... You don't even get that with most Pixel phones. Through to the Pixel 5 family, you only get three years of updates, period. Through to the Pixel 7 family, you get an additional two of security updates. It's not until the Pixel 8 family that you're getting what you demand. That's a lot of "e-waste" that Google only recently stopped generating. ;) But, honestly? I'm not sure why you consider the current five-years-of-updates policy to not be creating an unacceptable amount of e-waste. I have (and still use) nearly-twenty-year-old laptops with the latest Linux kernel and desktop environment software (& etc) versions available. They work just fine. The only maintenance required has been battery replacement and occasional thermal paste replacement. [0] Only five years of updates? That's an absolutely absurd policy. [0] Though, it's not clear that the thermal paste actually needed to be replaced... it was just fun to break out the screwdrivers and service manual.
        jcgl 1y ago
        > That's a lot of "e-waste" that Google only recently stopped generating. ;) Yep, agreed. While my "e-waste" epithet was deliberately inflammatory, I really do have a problem with what they and others were doing before. Thankfully, with newer Pixels (and Galaxies, iirc), that's getting better on the Android side. > I'm not sure why you consider the current five-years-of-updates policy to not be creating an unacceptable amount of e-waste. I have (and still use) nearly-twenty-year-old laptops with the latest Linux kernel and desktop environment software (& etc) versions available. You're getting sidetracked from my original point (that Unihertz's practically nonexistent support disqualifies it for me), but I would certainly like to have higher standards! Core smartphone hardware has matured to the point where I would like to see 10+ year lifetimes. However, you're making a false equivalence here; a smartphone is at the mercy of the vendor to provide updates, while a laptop (thanks to commoditized hardware and a lot of work in the Linux kernel) has a more stable base to work from. Again, if we could reach that place for smartphones, I would be into it. But until we're at the point where you can viably buy a 10+ year-old phone and install a supported operating system (where "supported" includes critical firmware updates), this is a bad comparison.
sheepybloke 1y ago
For me, it's the first true upgrade in the design of a phone in a long time. It's not a slightly better CPU or battery, but a different way to work with this key device in my life. I think it will be the default phone format in ~5 years, especially for younger people.

hulitu 1y ago

Can you type with only one hand on a flip phone ?

hu3 1y ago
Sure, just fold it.
delecti 1y ago
Do you actually mean "flip"? Because when open, with the screen opened upwards, they have roughly the same dimensions as any modern slab phone. Then it'd come down to whether your hand is big enough to type one-handed on that formfactor (a few women, some men). If you mean "fold", then probably only while closed, subject to the same hand-size limits. While open, with the screen opened to the left, like a book, they're quite a bit wider than even the largest human hand could reasonably type on.

vachina 1y ago

Flip phones happened because tech have plateaued, so downstream product development iterated on weird phone casings and keyboard placements.