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Comment by mg | Hacker News Reader

I maintain this chart of small Android phones, maybe it helps:

https://www.productchart.com/smartphones/small_android_phone...

You can move the "RAM" slider to 3GB which will show the phones that have 3GB or more. And the screen slider to your desired size. A height of 140mm means the phone would have a display size of roughly 5 or 6 inches.

For the USA, it gives me 90 phones with 3GB and up to 6 inches.

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That's a great site!

And it really highlights the problem OP is highlighting. I've had Motorola Moto G's in the past, until they also got large, then I bought an iPhone 12 Mini. Not too happy with that purchase, I want to go back to Android (mainly because CarPlay's UX is so much worse than Android Auto), but unable to find any phone.

If on that website I put "Screen: 4 - 5.5 inch" and "Released: 2019 - 2021" it shows me a whopping amount of 4 phones, none of them by established brands but instead by random companies I never heard of (or AT&T ???), so the quest continues.

There simply seems to be no manufacturers interested in creating smaller Android phones as of today, still.

If you're willing to increase the screen size to 5.6 inches you can get the Pixel 3a, although it's not actually a small phone, it just feels like one in comparison to everything else.

And it's from 2019 and will probably and only guaranteed to get updates until May this year. In the meanwhile, the original iPhone SE from 2016 is still getting major updates.

If you care about a small phone with reliable updates for a longer period, there is only the iPhone.

You could put LineageOS on that Pixel, though.

tbh Calyxos is much better than lineage imho.

It's so sad that the choice is between a Giant Douche and A Turd Sandwich. Why can't someone make a good phone?!

Cool. On what counts as "small" it's really not so much about screen size -- I don't want a small screen, I want a small phone. So it would be great to be able to filter by outright product dimensions.

Also would love to be able to filter to usb-c, headphone jack, and Android version.

+ this, that Unihertz Titan in the list is a chunky one, because of the qwerty keyboard but small screen with 153.6x 92.5x 16.65 mm dimensions...

I could implement the filtering by Android version. I already research that info. You can see it when you click on the phone. I did not add a filter for it as it might be somewhat misleading. Because it might be possible to upgrade the phone to a newer version.

As for phyiscal size, usb-c and headphone jack - I would have to research that data. All data on Product Chart is reasearched manually. So it takes quite some work to add another parameter.

I think Android version is very important, this is often the first filter that I use in order to filter out older devices. Yes, I know there are older devices e.g. 3 year old Smartphones that can be upgraded to the latest Android, but I'm not interested in such a device, because it's very likely that the support will end very soon and that the phone might lack some newer features of recent years, like Quick Charge 5.

If it's available I would use launch date to filter out older devices.

Rather than android version, it might be better to filter by the release year and cpu manufacture since Qualcomm is the primary offender in terms of arbitrarily short support windows.

Lineage compatibility would also be useful since it enables to use modern Android on post market phones.

You can try https://geizhals.eu/ or https://skinflint.co.uk/ They have really nice filtering and very good coverage of specifications. I always use them when searching for tech.

I want a phone I can operate one-handed. I.e. while holding it in my hand, my thumb can reach any point on the screen without changing my grip on the phone. Roughly a 3" screen. I don't need a camera at all. I don't think such a phone exists.

The Palm phone comes close. I'm not sure if they're still current though.

I hadn't heard of that one. Yeah that definitely hits a lot of my criteria. Says it doesn't work on AT&T which would mean I would need to change carriers. Still, something I will keep in mind. Thanks for the tip.

> I don't want a small screen, I want a small phone

It's definitely not what I'd call an "HN-friendly device", but check out the Galaxy Z Flip 3. I thought I'd hate it at first (no 3.5mm jack or IR blaster), but the whole system of having a tiny device that folds open into a giant screen is surprisingly awesome.

Wait. Phones have IR blasters?

It's not common, and these days it's basically exclusively Chinese brands that offer it, but yes, some do.

If you select 5.5in (iPhone 13 Mini is 5.4in), 3GB and launch year 2021 you get zero phones. So the poster's question is pertinent!

From latest phones of known brands I pretty much only get Google Pixel 4A (144 mm) and Asus Zenfone 8 (148 mm). I wouldn't consider these small phones.

Oh yeah, love this site. I was looking for small android tablets and there are woefully few of those as well.

Curiously though there's something that sort-of fits both small-phone/small-tablet.

Surface Duo

  8.1 inches (2700 x 1800, 2x 1350x1800)
  6 GB RAM (128GB or 256GB storage)
  145 x 93 x 9.9 mm (folded)
  8.8 ounces (250g)

Surface Duo 2

  8.3 inches (2688x1892, 2x 1344x1892)
  8 GB RAM (256GB storage)
  145 x 92 x 11 mm (folded)
  10.02 ounces (284g)

There's also the Samsung Z phones, but the Surface Duo with 3:2 display seems more suited as a portable terminal.

Make sure you view the reviews of the surface duo 1/2. They are horrible.

The Pinephone Pro with the Pine Hardware Keyboard might be what you are looking for. Also LG has dual screen phones which are very usable as a portable terminal and less expensive.

Also checkout GPD Laptops, if you are looking for something portable with ALOT of power.

If they'd make those dang things waterproof I'd be all over them. My phones get a dip in the Gulf of Mexico from time to time.

Yeah, my current phone is IP-whatever waterproof because I cared. I've never actually lost a phone to water damage though and haven't got this one wet more than raindrops. It is peace of mind. Statistically I'm more likely to lose it, break the screen, or brick it if I get too experimental. Most likely, outgrow its performance or need/want OS upgrades. The one phone I swam in the ocean with, a Nokia 3390 was fine after I thoroughly rinsed and let it dry.

The horrible reviews point out a few things that don't much matter to me:

  - Terrible camera
  - Terrible speaker
  - Software too buggy
  - Price

The 'software too buggy' does matter, but I suspect that was earlier reviewed versions or related to specific aspects like the camera, certain soft-keyboard modes, or non-tablet-optimized apps as specifically called out by some of the reviews. My usage of a phone is largely not for many entertainment/consumption/apps but more general informational websites like HN, reddit, or for work (github, etc).

The LG G8X brings up a very interesting alternative I hadn't considered.

Simply get an external battery-powered USB-C display with included (or Bluetooth) keyboard+trackpad/mouse. This device category must exist by now.

A lot of the small tablets in Androidland are marketed as phablets (really big phones). If you get a phablet instead of a traditional tablet, it will come with an 4G or 5G chipset, so you can connect it to a phone carrier in addition to WiFi. Try setting screen size to 6" to 9" in the phone category.

Great site! The visualization style is very nice to get a feel for the distribution of the market, so to say. I noticed you can even switch axes, for example changing the y axis from screen size to storage.

A "release date" field would be super nice!

Wow. This site is great, really. Fantastic job.

Really useful site, thanks! The Pixel 4a seems to be in there twice, once with screen size 5.8" and once with 5.81".

Well done. I wished though, it would list battery endurance (stand-by time / max. call duration) instead of capacity.

Capacity is a relatively precise measurement compared to the endurance.

Capacity is an useful measurement for producers of batteries and their consumers, i.e. devices running on batteries. It's utterly useless for consumers of those devices though.

Hey maybe you can help, been looking for a new android tablet (current tablet S5E) for media consumption, primarily manga, that's lightweight and has a large screen. This combo seems really hard to find. Every tablet i've looked at is significantly heavier than my S5E. Does your website help me with this.

You can switch that site to tablets, here's a direct link: https://www.productchart.com/tablets/

At a glance, you can filter by both screen size and weight, so that should work for your purpose.

Yup, what Freddex said. Plus you can also tick the Android filter.

Additionally, if you see the non-mobile view of the site (Which should be the case on a desktop or tablet) you can hover/tap the axis and switch to "Inches per ounce" which will sort the tablets by how much size you get per ounce of weight.

Oh nice! In/ounce is awesome... though sadly my S5E is at the top lmao.

How about getting an eink tablet? Boox note air has a 10" display and is 420grams, and runs Android. The downside of eink is that you cannot watch videos and is black and white. Also boox devices are kinda in asive to your privacy I'd not login to then with my real Google account.

Otherwise I had only very disappointing experiences with Android tablets (mainly due to the lack of support, apps, updates), if you need one get an iPad.

It's an interesting idea but that would mean giving up colored webtoons and visual novels which I also want to read though less frequently. My manga app tachiyomi only exists on Android.

I have an ipad for apps and stuff, this device would be exclusively for media consumption. It's a consideration... hmm esp the weight is really appealing.

Though of the 15 apps I use they're all available on android, and of them 5 are android exclusives. Android tablets are the way to go for me I think.

You might check out the Boox Nova3 Color. Color e-ink, but it's somewhat small for a tablet.

Does anyone know when eInk patents will expire and it becomes far less expensive?

What eInk patents? You think patents are what dominates pricing?

Yeah. ePaper/eInk has a monopoly on epaper screen production because of a bunch of patents they have exclusive rights to.

> Yeah. ePaper/eInk has a monopoly on epaper screen production because of a bunch of patents they have exclusive rights to.

Your comment lacks any effort at accuracy. ePaper is a generic term and tonnes of manufacturers make ePaper displays, even huge companies like Sharp. Even startups like ClearInk that I've interacted with make electrophoretic displays which are the same underlying technology as E-Ink. And I bet if I ask you for evidence of "bunch of patents they have exclusive rights to", you'll just patent search for E-Ink and pretend that's evidence. Look at my comment history. It is pretty clear HN posters like above know nothing about the display industry and yet make extraordinary claims with such confidence and inability to provide any evidence for their faith in those claims.

you've got several discontinued models there and it's a problem cause you cant' get an updated android version and sometime it's hard to get them an alternative. Also in 2020-2021 the only phones launched were the Pixel 4a and the Asus Zenphone 8.

phones are ranked by screen diagonal size not body size, which isn't super helpful because bezels.

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