Once upon a time you could get a small android device with good specs.
https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_xz1_compact-8610.php
It’s still my favourite phone, even though it’s been retired and is only used as an MP3 player with AUX in the garage nowadays.
I realize that for most people the phone is now a device to consume media through and that the larger screens are helpful there, but having a smart phone that is fully usable with one hand is still something I miss. Often.
Considering that modern androids have about 85% to 90% of their size as display size then a phone with the size of the xz1 compact should get a screen size of ~5 inches instead of the old 4.6 inches.
With the SoC advancements I don’t even feel that the phone would require a flagship SoC to interest me. Put a Snapdragon 6, as much battery as you can fit and an AUX input in it and I’m game.
What would make you guys interested in a smaller phone today?
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Smaller phones do still exist, such as the Unihertz Jellystar or upcoming Jelly Max.
Definitely smaller, but how’s Unihertz track record regarding security updates? That’s the last part of the puzzle for me, I want a phone that’s safe. Otherwise I could still use my old XZ1 Compact. :)
Not great. You’d probably want to flash lineage os on it for security, which apparently works okay.
Last time I tried my banking apps didn’t wanna play nice with LineageOS. :(
Totally. I have one of the newer pixels and it’s on the smaller side relatively, but it’s the biggest phone I can use comfortably.
I wear a size medium glove and it’s insane to me that it’s hard to find a phone I can use comfortably in one hand.
At the same time, I’ve started to realize that I should do less with my phone anyway. So I really don’t need it to do to much besides get a good reception and have a day or so of battery life. The most demanding thing I’ve asked my phone to do recently was to emulate some Nintendo games and run llama3.2:1B. But both things are better done either on a device meant to perform that workload or via a self hosted server where my phone is just a client.
I’m with you on those specs. Maybe the best features of new phones is the water resistance. Idk of its possible to have both water resistance and removable batteries and SD cards, but I miss being able to swap out to a fully charged battery or upgrade the storage at a whim. If I hadn’t choose tho, id stick with the water resistance.
So to add to your specs I’d like:
- water resistance
- 256 SD card minimum
- battery last 24hr minimum
- ability to switch from WiFi to cell mid call
- don’t need more than a 1080p oled display on a phone
- comes without any bloatware preinstalled
- runs linux with ability to sudo
Well the Sony XZ1 Compact got IP68 even with aux input and a microSDXC slot so I don’t think combining the SD Card with water resistance should be a problem. The swappable battery would probably be worse.
Regarding bloatware I’ve gotten used to using adb and the uad to remove it when buying a phone. https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater/tree/main
Xperia 10 is what you’re looking for, it’s a tall phone, but it’s 68mm wide, which is what mostly counts in phone size feel. I use an S23 and I’m happy with the size. It’s still one-handable enough for me and I have small hands. Otherwise you can look at Asus’ Zenfone lineup from 8 to 10, but I would only recommend the 9 and 10 because the 8 sucked
Yeah, I’m using the Sony Xperia 10 IV right now and while it is better than many phones I’m reminded of how much better the XZ1 Compact feels in my hand everytime I use it to startup some music.
129mm vs 153mm in height and 65mm vs 67mm in width - it’s amazing how much a difference those 2.4cm in height does for me.
I’d love to get my hands on something similar to the nexus 4a or even the xiaomi mi 8. I really hate the form factor of the later nexus series.
Man I totally agree. I have an XZ2C running lineage but it isn’t working correctly. Am going to try to flash it again, hopefully that helps.
At any rate, I haven’t come across a satisfying explanation about the reason for the absence of small smartphones. I’m convinced that there is a market for it so why aren’t any of the established companies producing them?
Is it a matter of profit? I.e. are the profit margins better for larger devices?
I don’t expect it to be a battery capacity problem, since the trade off seems sensible to make.It started with requiring larger antennas, then larger batteries. LTE was super inefficient, and low frequency bands need large antennas.
Then the industry tried to push tablets and smartphones to sell more devices. Most people settled on a single device, the large smartphone that already exists and forego the tablet. In a lot of cases forego the computer as well.
Somewhere in the middle, the industry self-proclaimed that people obviously prefer large smartphones, when there were no small ones available anymore.
…and here we are.
I’m running an XZ2C with Lineage and it’s working just fine fwiw
I was thinking about trying another ROM on my old XZ1C but my banking apps wouldn’t run properly if I did that anyways.
I can only imagine that your conviction is wrong. If we were large enough a market to make a nice profit then I imagine the smaller phones would still be around.
With all the video that’s being consumed through phones today I kinda understand why most people prefer a larger screen too. I have friends who has neither tablets nor computers at home and if I didn’t have both of those I might even prefer a 6 inch screen myself.
Pixel 9 pro has a smaller model and it’s great.
If only they could make it another 20% smaller I would count it as small as well. 6.3inch screen isn’t small in my world.
Potential fragility aside, I think flip smartphones (at least the cheaper ones without a proper outside screen) solved the problem for me since I was never really a one-handed user of my XZ1 Compact. I liked the smaller size because it fit into every pocket safely and the smaller screen was more annoying to use and therefore less addictive. Flips have a similar barrier in terms of having to physically open the device to use it. It’s a shame that even the cheaper models are getting the bigger outside screens now, though. It just makes these devices more addictive and more fragile.
I’d love a foldscreen flip that would open into a Pixel 6 size, but was half that size folded. Most of the time I break my screen is when it falls out of my shirt pocket and being closed would just scuff the outer case, and that’s usually because I can’t do up the button on the pocket because the phone is too damn tall. I like the extra screensize but would prefer a compact phone.
If I put it in pant pocket, it just gets scratched with keys/pocket knife, and I’m fairly active so I’ve broken them in my pant pocket by lifting something that presses against it or folded it jumping in a piece of equipment without adjusting the location. Never had problems with a phone that was 4.5" or less but that’s impossible to find now.
I’m on an XZ2 Compact, which is still bigger than I’d like but has modern up to date LineageOS
You can pry it from my cold dead hand
How’s the performance of the phone? I had one of the older Z Compacts and while I liked the smaller size, the performance was pretty abysmal. Like, I’m in line and want to get my ticket out ahead of time - still waiting for the phone to catch up by the time I got to my turn.
XZ1 Compact with LineageOS checking in! I never want to change from this phone, and I’m already scared about what’s gonna happen when they shut down the 4G networks in ten or fifteen years.
i recently bought moto edge 50 neo. it’s not small but it’s compact phone. i feel the difference when i hold other phones.
Kinda similar in size to the new Sony Xperia 10 IV and Sony Xperia 10 VI. It’s a step in the right direction, but I really want them to shrink down a bit in height too.
I too wish same, but I don’t think manufacturer will care about what handful of people want.
I’ve given up trying to find a small phone with decent support. I picked up a Smasnug Flip4 on sale and I’m converted to flip phones now. I loved my Sony XA2 for it’s size, but the software support was atrocious.
My ideal phone is something closer to the Blackberry Bold or the q10, but I realize that’s a market segment of 1 so I’ll never get it again.
I had an old Samsung windows phone, the first gen. I loved that thing. The performance was great and the screen was fairly small, but it was way more usable than other phones despite the lower resolution because it had an OLED display.
Then I eventually got the Lumia 1520 behemoth haha. Then eventually back to one of Sony’s Compact phones, but the performance was terrible. I’m now on more regular sized phones.
The best part about the smaller phones was the much for usable single-handed use. I think that’s the main thing. I also tended to use another device for things like reading or entertainment. But I will say though, that 1520 was pretty great.
920 and later a 950XL here! I was tempted by that Samsung, though!
It was a good first gen phone, but you definitely did better by waiting for the 920. That think was darn near indestructable.
The 920 survived some incredible falls, including a wild ride down a story of stairs.
Meanwhile my 950xl cracked when it fell out of a car door onto the pavement while the car was parked.
