Not only is this something I’d love, it’s also a comment that gets a lot of upvotes on Hackers News every time it’s made.
Do HN readers have an unusual like for ‘small’ phones or is it just an unserved market?
I also happen to think small screens feel more elegant. The promise of technology has always been to amplify humans without detracting from the important parts of life. Big screen phones feel ideologically wrong to me in that people use them as a replacement for life.
I'm going to try out the new Digital Wellbeing stuff in Android Pie, which lets me set restrictions on app use. But it feels like a smaller phone is a much better solution, as it doesn't have any compromise in terms of portability - what's the point of having a big screen if I'm just going to disable the things that it's good at?
It would be nice if Apple or Google or anyone else could commit to serving the small phone market.
I kind of care about the design. It's elegant-- I like the flat camera, the chamfered edges and the brick-y form (which I appreciate they brought back with the new iPad Pro).
What I care most about though is the headphone jack. This is why I still keep mine around in spite of having another phone-- to listen to music.
EDIT: The fact that it's cheaper, so I could get more memory for the same price as a bigger model also contributes to it still sticking around primarily for music, but also with some games.
It's like when they started making laptop screen reflective. All my non-tech relatives were saying: "wow that screen is super nice" while I was thinking: "holy crap, the matte screen is disappearing, how I am going to work?"
However, in a situation where you have ambient light from everywhere, like an open office with many windows, glossy screens are insanely distracting. I much prefer the matte screens for that. Yes things on the screen can be harder to read, but way better compared to the "looking into a mirror" effect of a glossy screen.
they want the inexpensive option to not really fill a specific niche, they want it to be a little uncomfortable, that you're already making compromises so you'll pay a grand for the fancy one instead.
What i'm trying to say is, making a smaller option would be cheaper. That would cannibalize high end sales. From the seller's point of view, you want the best alternative to compromise all of your desires, so it's not that big of a deal to just upgrade. something inherently small violates that.
HNers can identify the tradeoffs. Apple probably understands the tradeoffs better though. Apple exploits them. (I say this as a loyal iphone owner.)
Recently got a 14” Zenbook for my daughter. Lovely machine honestly, but the screen ratio is annoying.
Having a large screen is also good for watching Netflix and YouTube. For many people, the phone has almost completely replaced the TV. I guess that explains why the screens keep getting bigger.
My luggable laptop for real work away from home or in equipment rooms has a 2010 4:3 matt screen
My portable laptop for quick emails while moving and occasional corporate stuff is a 13" gloss screen mac, but when it comes to productive work give me a good OS on a good laptop any day.
It is not "elegant" by any stretch of the imagination, but it is extremely small. Like you, I want something that is very small in my pocket and not distracting me from real life.
My theory is that big phones dominate because a lot of people don't have reliable/maintained computers other than their cellphone. If that was true of me, I'd want the biggest cellphone I could get, too.
Personally, I think if this is true, and phone companies figure it out, you'll see phones begin to be priced like turn-of-the-millennium laptops. The giant and clunky "desktop replacement" units should be giant and priced at the bottom of the market. The small units should have all the premium features and be way more expensive.
The fact that there are very few small smartphones being made and that none of those are 'premium' smartphones would indicate that either I am wrong or there's a market opportunity that the major cellphone manufacturers are missing.
I haven't read anything convincing on the subject.
https://opto.ca/health-library/the-20-20-20-rule
2018 thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16146106
The only consolation is that maybe I can better understand and relate to generation Z than my peers. Not much of a consolation.
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I spend ~6-7 hours each day on my phone. On weekends, this use increases. I am now averse even to work flows that are better suited for laptop use. I will use my too-big-to-use-with-one-hand phone for tasks that would take half the time on my laptop.
I also have a compact and dSLR, but the best camera is the camera you have and that’s often my phone. I have a lot of pics of my kids that were unfortunately taken on an iPhone 4 or similar era touch and are noticeably terrible.
I had a 6+ for a while and got on with it fine but it’s a bit big. My 6s is just right. It is a little big for reaching on screen controls sometimes, but I’d hate to lose the readability so it’s a trade off.
I do still prefer Android as an OS, though I am still getting used to iOS's quirks. I'm very happy with my purchase, though.
I have had one of the above for about a year. Battery life is not too great, but for my needs (occasional phone call, text, google maps) it works fine. Fits in the front coin pocket of my jeans.
I do use the phone itself for audiobooks and podcasts, but otherwise its basically a server (not the best term for that.. but you get what I mean.)
What I don't get about the larger phones is how people comfortably carry them around. Maybe its because I wear skinny jeans / pants, but there's absolutely no way I could fit a larger phone in the pockets of my pants, and I rarely have a jacket on.
But the love of the SE form-factor is not isolated to HN. I know a lot of people who love a smaller phone for various reasons.
As the tech gets thinner, I'm longing for the day when we get something similar to the folding phone from HER, but with a few modifications (e.g. memory LCD / eink for other side..)
Aside from a cellphone, I also carry a kindle all the time. I literally wear special pants so I can carry my kindle without a bag.
I mean, they aren't custom made or anything, but I do limit myself to baggy pants with giant cargo pockets. I keep saying I'm going to take all my electronics to a tailor and ask for less ridiculous pants that can carry all my stuff, but I haven't.
(that said, if apple released a new phone with new screen and network quality that was the size of the SE, I would buy it, just 'cause it's a lot easier to use with just one hand, and when I want to use both hands, I have bigger devices.)
My wife wants a phone that can fit into her jean pockets. Requiring handbags just to carry a phone around is absurd, and untenable for many people.
There's a difference between having a mobile device with you in the city and using a device comfortable at home where most people prefer a bigger screen.
Well only in the context of US, EU, Canada, AUS, and the like. Or if you consider China, India to be a poor 3rd world country.
There are more people using their Smartphone as their only computer devices in China / SEA than the whole of US and EU population combined. There are elderly who never had a computer in their life are now using Smartphone as their first "computer". You will be surprised how many people can't double click a mouse, and moving mouse cursor around is a daunting task. And how using iPhone is 10x more intuitive.
another case in point: parent only wants to change to smaller phone if all other specs are also improved.
I don’t think Xperia matters much here is it is sacrificing iOS and also to a lesser degree, an Android manufacturer that isn’t known for great software on that end.
But afaik it is the only phone out there with same specs as it's bigger brother. The phone is excellent too. I have the big one personally buy my hands are considerably larger than hers.
Of course I'm not convinced Sony's learned anything from putting rootkits on their music CDs either.
I'm hoping to get the Sharp Aquos R2 compact announced back in November; but it doesn't seem to have hit the market yet. Probably will during MWC 2019?
Also google took too long to come out wit Duo, so all the old people in my family learned how to use FaceTime, so now we all just stick with Apple products because it’s not worth switching to another environment, especially since Apple stuff changed much less and causes much less frustration.
Perhaps those people were serious, and now feel like they've been left out in the cold.
I find it somewhat fascinating that Apple has chosen to reproduce the mistakes of the Mac (in the late eighties/early nineties -> higher prices/margins at the expense of market shares) rather the success of the iPod (own all the market, with an iPod at every price point). I don't think it's a winning strategy in the long term, though it has worked so far.
If I posted "I loved it every time my phone screen got bigger" every time this discussion comes up, it won't add much to the discussion. Now imagine ten times of the complaint-comments are of this type, that's just spam.
There's definitely a potential market for smaller phones, but someone's gotta figure out how to market them.
I wonder how many of us, if asked, would say that we spend too much time on our phones? Probably higher than the population at large. A bigger screen is nicer to look at, I readily grant. But that's exactly the problem.
However I'd be surprised if that trend applies to the HN crowd, which probably considers their phones as a secondary device, at best. An extension of the multiple other computers they use more frequently, something you need on the go, a mobile device that's used for quick glances and short uses, which gets relegated to second or third device at home. At least that's how I see it and it is why I value a small, portable form factor. Plus, I have small hands.