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Comment by bgro | Hacker News Reader

Ah, so same as the battery situation. New battery tech or revised software that works more efficiently? Great, we can make the battery smaller. That's all customers care about-- a thinner phone that can go in a bulky phone case!

I don't remember anybody ever complaining about the size of their phone. And although I have literally never heard it, I could in theory believe a small minority of people might want a thinner phone if competitors were able to do it.

I don't buy that the phone manufacturers couldn't work together and agree to release "thicker" phones with reasonable battery though, as they do on just about every other industry feature.

I assume it's just an excuse for them to further close the abilities of right to repair where serviceable or otherwise reasonable batteries would lead to less new phone sales. Exactly the same situation as the screens, I'm sure. Just keep quiet about these things though when marketing this.

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This hasn’t been true for a while. The iPhone hit peak thinness a while ago and they have been getting thicker every year. The battery life on the latest iPhones is much better this year than last.

And on weight, I find the 13 pro to be ok but the 13 pro max was too much. So what they have now is the limit of what I want the weight to be.

The fact that iPhones wobble like a cheap table because the camera protrudes with the lack of a 3.5 jack is pretty crazy im my mind. I dont like cases (will throw a sacrifice glass on the screen) but I feel they could add some thickness. And i'd go 2x as thick and as for an android like the first keyboard slide of the Motorolo Droids.

Give me a notched phone roughly the size of a SE, ~2x as thick with a slide keyboard and i will go back to android... basicly bring back the moto droid line!!

I actually like the bump because it raises the phone off the table slightly so I can grip it better. I never use the phone on the table anyway so it's no issue.

But a phone with a thickness that makes the camera flush should only give you more grip surface, I can only think of the scenario of trying to pick up a penny or dime from a counter where I need to use my finger nails the air gap would be slightly helpful.

> I never use the phone on the table anyway so it's no issue.

Just like when Apple never seemed to test how left handed people use phones, no issue to you isn't really the point.

+1 for Motorola Droid or G1. Unfortunately, Google killed them for no reason.

I complain every day that there are essentially zero android phones that fit in my one hand any more. Everything is larger than 6" these days

You should check out the pixel 4a. Small phone (which I strongly prefer), very cheap, and just a very good Android phone overall.

I just wanted to second the recommendation for the pixel 4a. I do a lot of work on my phone so it ended up being a bit too small for me, but it was definitely: inexpensive, had a nice camera, and was very portable. Also Google Fi has been really helpful for someone like me who takes a lot of overseas trips, really removes the headache from having to hunt down a sim without a working phone in a foreign country.

Has been impossible to buy new in my geography for 6 months already. I had my old one stolen in September and now doomed to the >6" life it seems.

The pixel3 is decent and the beta version of the new android 12 can be installed easily enough.

It's already nearly halfway into its pretty short support lifetime though

Diagonal screen sizes are not directly comparable since screens have been getting taller.

The 16:9 Galaxy S6 was 5.1 inches. The S22 has a 6.2 inch diagonal screen, despite being wider by only a millimeter than the S6.

While mid-rangers have been getting larger, only the actual display has grown larger on the flagships, and not the chassis.

I was thinking this too (and have the same complaint you do), but I think the parent was talking about nobody complaining about the thickness of the phone, not about the other two dimensions.

The thinner it is and the larger it is, the easiest it is for the phone to slip from your hands and the screen to break.

Got to keep people spending money.

I had a Samsung Galaxy S4, I think? Back when they still had removable batteries... Anyways, the phone was too tall to fit comfortably in my pocket, would dig into my hip and end up partially under my seat belt while driving. Eventually, the damn thing ended up bent, about inch from the top of the screen. Glass didn't break or crack, but the phone sorta looked like a bendy straw, mostly straightened if you looked at it on edge from the side. Still worked perfectly fine for quite a while with that bend, though. Definitely was too thin for my casual use.

Id prefer a slightly thicker phone with a slightly smaller screen, the better to actually fit in my pants pocket.

I had the Galaxy S3 and loved it back then. I’ve converted from android somewhat recently (was a major advocate before, but now have moved away from all Google products) and have found the iPhone SE 2020 to be perfect. Small enough for my pocket, works great, and still has probably 4+ years of full software updates. You might even be able to find a sale since they’re over a year old now

iphone 5 is best size smart phone! For those other large phone, get a freaking laptop or taplet people.

I wish they would lay off on making phones thinner. They have become unusable without a case.

The casing should simply be built in so the cool coloring, texture or material the phone offers can actually be seen

FYI, Moto G Power is a $200 phone with a battery that lasts 2-3 days.

It's the best phone I've ever had.

With a 512GB SD card, and a built-in fat battery, I never have to worry about running out either of storage or power. It's liberating.

And the camera is good enough that the storage does fill up.

Just curios does it have NFC and Google Pay?

No NFC, alas.

I would certainly like a thinner phone. Lighter too please.

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