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Comment by TrianguloY | Hacker News Reader

As other users on the thread I also needed to change phone recently (the old one was already 5 years old and was begging for a replacement). I wanted an Android with a headphones Jack connector, and a "you can reach all the screen comfortably with you thumb while using one hand" size, nothing else (not even camera, I simply don't use it other than the occasional qr reading). All "good" results are from even more than 5 year old phones and obsolete versions, and no sign to change unfortunately.

In the end I simply searched for the narrowest possible, and ended with the Xperia 10 III. 68mm wide, Android 11 from 2021, and decently fast. It's looong however (21:9 screen) but very usable with one hand because you can grab it without issue.

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I’ve looked at the Xperia 10 III (boy, that name) a bit. I just don’t understand the screen choice. What the hell is the point of a super long screen like that? If it was half the height I would be more than happy. Extra height just means it’ll stick out of the top of my pants pocket!

Films. That's the main selling point of this device. You can watch films without any black bars, sad I'm not a movie person.

Oh, and better of all: it has absolutely no notch! All the screen for video!

I recently bought a ZenFone 8 specifically for its size, it's slightly shorter than the Xperia 10 III, and the same width. Very easy to use with one hand. I really like it, it has a headphone jack, decent enough cameras, a 120hz screen, and a snapdragon 888, so it's basically as powerful as any other current android flagship, just smaller.

Twice the price too, but very good alternative indeed. It does have a camera hole (which I wanted to avoid) and less battery, but the smaller height may be worth it.

You touched on a possible answer to this question. Android phones tend to be taller and narrower than iPhones, so there’s less need for a special mini device. Also, as an iPhone user I find Android is better optimised for large screens (you can swipe in from either edge to return, buttons are lower on the screen etc.)

I don't know, these long devices are less common, or so I think, although it's true that usually phones are slightly taller than 16:9. I still prefer a 16:9 phone though, but as I said those phones are basically tablets nowadays.

(And yes, I enabled the gestures to try and I must say that swiping from the right edge to go back and from the bottom to go home is comfortable and you get used to it pretty quickly)

I've similar requirements and I've seen the experia 10 III. Last time I've looked at it, it had uninstallable bloatware like facebook and the facebook services preloaded on it. I don't think it is acceptable. Has this changed? I'm still looking for a decent phone.

Facebook is preinstalled, yes, although you can disable it (and from adb maybe even uninstall it completely). As for "Facebook services"...

I searched, and there are in fact 4 services! They are apparently disabled too, but I'm going to remove them from adb in any case, thanks!

I've heard that now you cannot really uninstall anything from adb (at least without root), only disable something for the current user

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