Seriously, all of these things are massive. Just looking at them gives me carpal tunnel. Nobody needs phones this big. I certainly don’t. In fact, I want a very small phone, relatively speaking. The size what we had before we apparently learned better, and there doesn’t seem to be many convincing options.

Ideally, my perfect smartphone went extinct with 3.5" displays. I do like reaching the All of the screen without contorting my thumb like some kind of mathematical instrument. I know modern OSes try to work around this by letting you slide or squish stuff around but i don’t care. This is a regression, a fix that never needed a problem!

Ironically, Apple’s iPhone SE seems to be the closest modern technology I can muster to those halcyon days sans deformed digits at a comfortable 4.7", but those .2 imperial nonsenses do matter, slightly, and regardless I am not keen on Apple’s ecosystem. My wife has one of these and I kind of love it anyway. Android at least ought to have some options…? Well, sort of. I have done some digging ahd found a few models that might be OK. I know small beggars can’t exactly be big choosers but I am determined to find my glass slippers, damn it.

Cubot Mini/Pocket:

Oh shit. This is perfect! A 4" screen, be still my heart…! However, I am led to believe this entire line of phones won’t work in burgerland because this country hates everyone and everything. What?! angery

Unihertz Jelly Star:

Love the enthusiasm, but maybe this is a bit too far in the other direction… also, this thing is just kind of ugly. I do have a fondness for that y2k transparency; maybe if it were in a few other colors, but I just can’t get into it.

Palm Smartphone:

I genuinely had no idea Palm was still making phones. This actually might be the queen of the crop; 3.3" and from what I can tell, it fits my use case quite well.

And…that’s basically it. Everything else that exists won’t function with US carriers, near as I can tell. Am I just being a smartphone boomer? I can’t be the only one who wants flagship specs on sensible real estate… copium

  • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@reddthat.com
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    8 months ago

    Am I just being a smartphone boomer? I

    My phone is 6.7" and fits fine in my hand and my pockets fit it without issue with a case on. It’s at the upper end of what I would be willing to use though. But I think there is a general lack of widespread smaller phones for those who prefer that and definitely have avoided phones for being too large.

    • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      fitting in the hand is a lot different from being able to reach the entire screen one-handed but yeah… I sense that what a lot of the big-phone heads (especially those that are now getting into folding display phones) would love is something like an ipad mini, but there’s also a sizable indifferent group. I don’t feel limited hugely by not being able to reach every corner one-handed, but I also do miss when a phone was primarily just a phone with some extra features, and not an everything-device. A swiss army knife rather than a leatherman, so to speak

    • beef_curds [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      But I think there is a general lack of widespread smaller phones for those who prefer that

      I’m a bit surprised that with cells kinda plateauing with what they can offer that we haven’t seen a return to niche feature phones. The closest we see to that is the folding screen stuff.

      I really feel that for most other markets with a glut like this, we’d start seeing a bunch of options tied to people’s identity. A “rugged” phone with a solar panel and long battery for preppers, smaller phones for minimalists, gamer phones with an analog stick.

      I know these things exist in deep niches, but I’m just surprised we haven’t seen marketing start pushing them as real options yet. Because there just doesn’t seem like there’s much more to offer as far as mainline phones go.