Hacker News Reader

Comment by RachelF | Hacker News Reader

iPhone 4 or 12 mini size is probably ideal for me personally.

While this is small, it is double the thickness of most modern phones.

Still, it is great to see a bit of creativity in the smartphone market. Most phones are pretty much the same these days.

View on HN

For me, iPhone 5/5S/SE is the ideal size. I even seriously considered different ways to try to port Android to the SE, but while this would've been an interesting project, I decided that I have more useful things to work on.

>While this is small, it is double the thickness of most modern phones.

My only problem with the Mini was the battery, they could have increased the thickness to iPhone 4 ( 9.3mm ), to increase the battery life. They could have also make it slightly bigger so it matches the same size as iPhone SE, while increasing battery life. Instead the iPhone mini was a compromise too far that very few people wanted it for its price.

Had the iPhone SE also have two size of phone to choose from, there should definitely be a mini at 5.6" and a normal at 6.1".

Who cares about thickness other than tech enthusiasts? There are phones that are so thin, they feel uncomfortable while in your hand.

Those of us who carry it in the front pocket.

laughs in woman

I do. But to be honest, some phones are so thin that I fear I'll accidentally break them when sitting down. I'd rather take a thicker but smaller phone because of that.

Those phones differ in screen size by two whole inches, so putting them in the same bucket is basically useless.

iPhone 4 was the apex of phone design, I will die on this hill!

It was the Pre 3 [0] and I'll fight you for it. Lol.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Pre_3

Hah! Sliding keyboard, that absolutely rocks!

Somehow it's been 13 years and none of the available phone OSes have managed to be as usable or user-focused as WebOS was. Nor as easily hackable. The hardware was smooth like a river rock in your pocket, but still had an easily found physical slider switch to silence the device. It had wireless charging as a standard feature. And the software stack was familiar to any desktop Linux user with just a custom display layer on top. Complex multi-tasking was effortless on it (thanks in part to the gesture area and also the OS's cards interface). And it combined all contacts and messages regardless of communications channel into a unified interface. Oh, also, replaceable batteries!

Unfortunately HP played musical CEOs (three in less than a year) and one of them didn't see phones or PCs as businesses they should be in.

Former owner of Nokia E71, Nokia N900 (both user replaceable battery), Planet Computers Cosmo Communicator and Astro Slide (like old Psion keyboard): not really. The keys on this smartphone are very small, therefore annoying to use. The larger they are though, the bulkier.

You're also stuck in either portrait or landscapr mode. Whereas a touchscreen smartphone can reuse the touchscreen for say watch a movie or use different input (like say gamepad).

I believe the current innovation trend lies in those small foldables. Of course, small form factor and dual screen has disadvantages for battery, repairability, and ridiculously high price.

Psion Series 3:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3>

Cool device but doesn't look very pocketable.

Anything's pocketable with sufficiently large pockets ;-)

The Psion would fit well into a coat or jacket pocket, or cargo pants/shorts, and easily fit into a satchel or messenger bag.

The Psion S3 dimensions are 165 mm x 85 mm x 22 mm (6.50 in x 3.35 in x 0.87 in). Contrast the iPhone 15 at 147.6 mm x 71.6 mm x 7.8mm (5.81" x 2.82" x 0.31"), and the iPhone 15+ at 160.9 mm x 77.8 mm x 7.8 mm (6.33" x 3.06" x 0.31"). Other than thickness, these are pretty comparable.

What it offers most specifically, however, is a useful and usable set of capabilities, in both hardware and software: full keyboard, email, calendar, Web, word processing, spreadsheet, contacts.

I've known journalists who've used it as their mobile platform for gathering and filing news stories, which also means it passes the "professional use" test.

Dimensions from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3> and <https://www.apple.com/iphone-15/specs/>.

I don't like iPhones, and have never had one, but I will absolutely agree with you on that. The iPhone 4's industrial design was beautiful.

iPhone 4 was a great size and looked great, but the sharp edges would wear through your jeans in a way that the earlier iPhones did not. That's my only complaint.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com