I'm starting to head this direction, at least mobile-wise. I haven't yet because trying to live life without a cell phone is just not pleasant, But the only thing I really use my cell phone for is Discord, Firefox, and the camera
Mobile gaming, which I primarily had got a phone in the first place for has gone down the tube, It seems like every mobile game can fit into one of 4 categories.
The live-action-style ones like Clash of Clans that you need money to progress in.
The simulation idlers Where you don't actually do anything, You just upgrade every once in a while.
The match 3 clones where it disguises as a different game but the primary focus is matching,
The bleed you dry energy style games where every action you do costs some form of in-game energy. That takes real time to regenerate.
Used to be able to find puzzlers or simulation games that were outside of that genre, but you can't really anymore. I'm still circulating the same 4 games from when I had an s9 8ish years ago.
Social media is thoroughly screwed. You can't go on there without some sort of ideology being pushed at you or toxicity.
Voice-mails and messaging is hit or miss of whether or not it's someone trying to scam you.
every application out there wants to harvest every bit of data about your life because almost no country has any type of actual regulation against the collection of personal data.
Every once in a while, I look back to see how feasible it would be to go without, but far too many services require a phone number. Any platform worth its salt uses some form of two-factor authentication, which generally is either text message or an app-based two-factor.
Hell, It's hard enough finding a bank that doesn't require a cell phone. I just dumped my last bank due to that reason. They reconsolidated into a slightly larger company, and when they did, that parent company decided that consumers shouldn't have the ability to write their own checks. So if I wanted to write a check, I had to log into the phone app, and then select Send a check, wait four to six business days for the bank to actually send the check themselves, and then wait for the three to four days on top of that to actually receive payments. I closed the account as soon as I got confirmation my funds transfered
I got kinda conned into a Pixel 10 Pro XL. It's huge and it's heavy, and it doesn't really feel that much more useful than the S10e it replaced.
What I want it for is basically a media player, quick internet look-upper, and maybe instant messenger. The ability to get "Hey I'm at the front entrance" and reply "Cool I'll let you in". My Galaxy S4 Mini did every piece of that.
It's getting uncomfortably difficult to do without a cell phone. Everything wants to be an app. Like, it's one thing when a restaurant allows you to order via app because then they can be making your order while you're on your way to get it. But when they won't print a menu, they'll ONLY allow customers to order via an app, like a waiter comes up to your table and tells you you have to scan a QR code. Parking, public transit, starting into goddamn government functions, now require an app. Which is a problem if you VISIT a city rather than live there.
When I was a teenager, I would have been excited to have a powerful, capable computer with a fantastic screen and constant high speed internet access that fit in my pocket. But damn if they didn't go and ruin it.
I had to refurbish mine a few times, the power button wore enough that it fell out, a couple screen replacements, and a few battery replacements. It's not too bad to repair as long as you don't carelessly put generic aftermarket battery adhesive over the fingerprint ribbon cable 😳 I have a bucket of pixel 5 parts at this point.
Replaced 2 power buttons that fell out, plus a spicy battery, but the screen was trying to fall out after that and when the button fell out again I just gave up
Hmm maybe I'm just lucky but I never had issues with the screen falling out unless I misaligned the adhesive or didn't clean the edge enough beforehand. I use the black plastic piece in the ifixit kit that's shaped like a flat head screwdriver to scrape the inside edge clean of goo.
Maybe a bit redundant these days. They're effectively just "phones".
Used to be that the label was needed to differentiate from earlier feature phones, but even the "dumb phones" of today primarily run some slimmed down flavor of Android. No one can escape the data harvest.
Remember the term "PDA" "Personal Digital Assistant?" From like the PalmOS days?
At this point a smart phone is a PDA that ate a cell phone to gain its power. I never hear the term PDA in the real world anymore, but video games use it for in-universe gadgets often used to justify the inventory menu or whatever. Subnautica does it.
My dad used a Palm from the late 90s to roughly 2007-8 when he got one of the early HTC Androids, the ones with a trackball. Then he got a Palm Pre and that shit was good... even though the devices today are vastly more powerful I feel that the market regressed in many ways
There's unihertz, but their quality is unfortunately questionable. I've ordered a Clicks Communicator. It's actually a similar size to a phablet, but using that space for a physical keyboard feels like I'm sending a message to the establishment.
I want that minus the "rugged tech" aethetic, current gen wireless, micro sd slot, degoogled os options, at least that much bezel, and user swappable battery.
It's got some of those – the camera is shit but it's literally got screws on the back so you can replace the battery, plus it's got 2 SIM and 1 microSD slot. Idk about the wireless or roms
oh neat that all of it is accessible by opening the back. wireless is just because my network provider has dead spots if you don't have 5g because some of the previously dead zones they just put up new 5g towers without the older support.
I looked it up, cool price and form factor but seems kinda sketchy tbh I've never heard of Cubot. I definitely wouldn't do any high-security stuff on it.
If the Aiphor Bluefox NX1 had 5G and wasn't prone to have the screen come loose I would probably try it. I prefer that one's form to the rounded back of the Unihertz Jelly.
But with google working on making android their own walled garden I'm more interested in trying something like Jolla. https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sep-ii-2026
I got a Jelly Star to use as a music player and I very seriously considered using it as my full-time phone for that exact reason. The only thing that held me back is I take a lot of pictures and the camera wasn't quite up to snuff, and I'm not prepared to commit to also carrying a decent camera around all the time.
i went to a Moto Razr 50 flip, it surprised me how much I like liked the small pocketable form factor. I can also do 60% or more of my stuff on the small front screen. When i want to watch video, or doom scroll Lemmy I can just flip it open.
If you compare the newer iPhone physical size with the 6s it’s about the same. Which I think is best.
Now that phones abandoned the idea of a stable aspect ratio screen size has become irrelevant to me. So I look at the phones dimension. And there is still small phones on the market, they just try their best to pretend to be bigger than they are.
That said I do wish the Mini IPhones lived long enough to get USB C. Was the perfect size for it to be one handed.
I mean a S26 just weighs 167g. Thats still 30g more than the Z1 Compact i had back in the day. But overall its like 20mm taller and 5mm wider. Its alright. For the modern day i think its a perfectly fine small phone. Its sadly Samsung though and they can fuck themselves. I will never buy anything from them again after past experiences with different products. But i wouldnt say the small phone is dead. Sure you cant buy a 3,5"- 5" screen phone anymore. But my eyesight gets worse by the minute and i dont want a that small smartphone anymore. Rather i would get myself a shitty feature phone where the display doesnt matter at all.
Handlingwise i would be really happy about 16:9 screens again. My thumbs arent tall enough for the upper third of most phones since the last 7 years or so. 19:9 up to 21:9 is IMHO such a stupid format. But i also really want my headphone jack and sd card reader back... It is what it is.
57 Comments
RamenJunkie@midwest.social · 52 pts · 108d
Yet they "don't have room" for a fucking headphone jack or clips for a removable back/battery.
tja@sh.itjust.works · 27 pts · 108d
Well, they'll soon have room for a removable battery ✨
etherphon@piefed.world · 44 pts · 108d
Pika@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 108d
I'm starting to head this direction, at least mobile-wise. I haven't yet because trying to live life without a cell phone is just not pleasant, But the only thing I really use my cell phone for is Discord, Firefox, and the camera
Mobile gaming, which I primarily had got a phone in the first place for has gone down the tube, It seems like every mobile game can fit into one of 4 categories.
Used to be able to find puzzlers or simulation games that were outside of that genre, but you can't really anymore. I'm still circulating the same 4 games from when I had an s9 8ish years ago.
Social media is thoroughly screwed. You can't go on there without some sort of ideology being pushed at you or toxicity.
Voice-mails and messaging is hit or miss of whether or not it's someone trying to scam you.
every application out there wants to harvest every bit of data about your life because almost no country has any type of actual regulation against the collection of personal data.
Every once in a while, I look back to see how feasible it would be to go without, but far too many services require a phone number. Any platform worth its salt uses some form of two-factor authentication, which generally is either text message or an app-based two-factor.
Hell, It's hard enough finding a bank that doesn't require a cell phone. I just dumped my last bank due to that reason. They reconsolidated into a slightly larger company, and when they did, that parent company decided that consumers shouldn't have the ability to write their own checks. So if I wanted to write a check, I had to log into the phone app, and then select Send a check, wait four to six business days for the bank to actually send the check themselves, and then wait for the three to four days on top of that to actually receive payments. I closed the account as soon as I got confirmation my funds transfered
etherphon@piefed.world · 7 pts · 108d
Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 108d
For gaming on the go, I got an AYN Thor. Life changer. I even put YouTube onto it so it's now essentially my entertainment device.
marius@feddit.org · 11 pts · 108d
It's time for the iPhone shuffle
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 108d
I got kinda conned into a Pixel 10 Pro XL. It's huge and it's heavy, and it doesn't really feel that much more useful than the S10e it replaced.
What I want it for is basically a media player, quick internet look-upper, and maybe instant messenger. The ability to get "Hey I'm at the front entrance" and reply "Cool I'll let you in". My Galaxy S4 Mini did every piece of that.
It's getting uncomfortably difficult to do without a cell phone. Everything wants to be an app. Like, it's one thing when a restaurant allows you to order via app because then they can be making your order while you're on your way to get it. But when they won't print a menu, they'll ONLY allow customers to order via an app, like a waiter comes up to your table and tells you you have to scan a QR code. Parking, public transit, starting into goddamn government functions, now require an app. Which is a problem if you VISIT a city rather than live there.
When I was a teenager, I would have been excited to have a powerful, capable computer with a fantastic screen and constant high speed internet access that fit in my pocket. But damn if they didn't go and ruin it.
Ilandar@lemmy.today · 19 pts · 108d
No, my phone has a screen size of ~4 inches.
blackn1ght@feddit.uk · 14 pts · 108d
There haven't been any small phones for about 10 years.
cheers_queers@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 108d
unihertz titan pocket. love mine
Blaze@piefed.zip · 1 pts · 107d
I'm keeping an eye on the Titan 2 Elite, seems like a promising device
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 108d
blackn1ght@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 108d
I mean a regular, normal form factor phone, not a foldable.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · -8 pts · 108d
irrelevant. tiny phones. They stopped making smaller screen phones because no one was buying them.
pycorax@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 105d
It still folds out to a fairly big device. Unless you're planning on using it always folded, that's not it.
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 12 pts · 108d
Ok, I won't buy a new phone then :)
LaggyKar@programming.dev · 10 pts · 108d
6 inches is not small, it's quite big. Small would be like 4 inches or less. My first smartphone had a 3.2 inch screen.
Cleisthenian@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 108d
4 inches is definitely above average...
Alberat@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 108d
I'm a folder not a shower!
BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 108d
I guess I'm running my pixel 5 into the ground then... Tbh I miss my 5 inch pixel 2. That felt ideal to me.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 108d
Pixel 4a was such a nice phone in terms of form factor.
SaneMartigan@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 108d
My p5 died and I got a p8a which isn't much bigger. I miss my Nexus 5.
psud@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 106d
I still have a working pixel 3, two of them actually, and they're a perfect size phone
lost_faith@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 108d
My pixel 6 is just a touch bigger than I'd like, running it til no more security updates then looking at dumb phones. Miss my old flip phone
cheat700000007@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 108d
I wish. Mine literally fell apart
BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 108d
I had to refurbish mine a few times, the power button wore enough that it fell out, a couple screen replacements, and a few battery replacements. It's not too bad to repair as long as you don't carelessly put generic aftermarket battery adhesive over the fingerprint ribbon cable 😳 I have a bucket of pixel 5 parts at this point.
cheat700000007@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 108d
Replaced 2 power buttons that fell out, plus a spicy battery, but the screen was trying to fall out after that and when the button fell out again I just gave up
BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 107d
Hmm maybe I'm just lucky but I never had issues with the screen falling out unless I misaligned the adhesive or didn't clean the edge enough beforehand. I use the black plastic piece in the ifixit kit that's shaped like a flat head screwdriver to scrape the inside edge clean of goo.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 9 pts · 108d
Then said manufacturers can get fucked.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 108d
My iPhone 12 mini is the perfect size. I don't want to carry a damn tablet in my pocket. Maybe if I spent all day staring at it, I would, IDK.
warm@kbin.earth · 8 pts · 108d
Why do we call them smartphones? They are phablets.
cattywampas@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 108d
Because they're smartphones and phablet is a stupid word.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 108d
and smartphone isn't?
zikzak025@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 108d
Maybe a bit redundant these days. They're effectively just "phones".
Used to be that the label was needed to differentiate from earlier feature phones, but even the "dumb phones" of today primarily run some slimmed down flavor of Android. No one can escape the data harvest.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 108d
Remember the term "PDA" "Personal Digital Assistant?" From like the PalmOS days?
At this point a smart phone is a PDA that ate a cell phone to gain its power. I never hear the term PDA in the real world anymore, but video games use it for in-universe gadgets often used to justify the inventory menu or whatever. Subnautica does it.
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 2 pts · 108d
My dad used a Palm from the late 90s to roughly 2007-8 when he got one of the early HTC Androids, the ones with a trackball. Then he got a Palm Pre and that shit was good... even though the devices today are vastly more powerful I feel that the market regressed in many ways
emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 108d
Dumb phones mostly run java or a lightweight OS like Firefox OS. Android is bloated.
kn33@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 108d
Because phablet became mainstream so it doesn't make sense to have a different word for them anymore.
neclimdul@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 107d
You know what I want? I know it's a pretty hot take. I want manufacturers to give me what I want.
manuremy@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 108d
I'll continue with my Nokia C2-01 then.
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 3 pts · 108d
What ? I have a Huawei P30 (6.1in screen) and it's considered small ? it's the biggest phone I've owned by far
Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 108d
There's unihertz, but their quality is unfortunately questionable. I've ordered a Clicks Communicator. It's actually a similar size to a phablet, but using that space for a physical keyboard feels like I'm sending a message to the establishment.
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 108d
I'm writing this on a King Kong Mini 2 and it's sick, plus it only cost $100
Grass@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 108d
I want that minus the "rugged tech" aethetic, current gen wireless, micro sd slot, degoogled os options, at least that much bezel, and user swappable battery.
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 107d
It's got some of those – the camera is shit but it's literally got screws on the back so you can replace the battery, plus it's got 2 SIM and 1 microSD slot. Idk about the wireless or roms
Grass@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 107d
oh neat that all of it is accessible by opening the back. wireless is just because my network provider has dead spots if you don't have 5g because some of the previously dead zones they just put up new 5g towers without the older support.
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 107d
Oh I see, I didn't know that was a problem that existed :/
LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 108d
I looked it up, cool price and form factor but seems kinda sketchy tbh I've never heard of Cubot. I definitely wouldn't do any high-security stuff on it.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 108d
Could work as a banking device....
anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 108d
If the Aiphor Bluefox NX1 had 5G and wasn't prone to have the screen come loose I would probably try it. I prefer that one's form to the rounded back of the Unihertz Jelly.
But with google working on making android their own walled garden I'm more interested in trying something like Jolla.
https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sep-ii-2026
elperronegro@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 108d
I love my Unihertz Jelly Star with its 3" screen! So small, its not easy to use so it stays in my pocket
GraniteM@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 108d
I got a Jelly Star to use as a music player and I very seriously considered using it as my full-time phone for that exact reason. The only thing that held me back is I take a lot of pictures and the camera wasn't quite up to snuff, and I'm not prepared to commit to also carrying a decent camera around all the time.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 108d
i went to a Moto Razr 50 flip, it surprised me how much I like liked the small pocketable form factor. I can also do 60% or more of my stuff on the small front screen. When i want to watch video, or doom scroll Lemmy I can just flip it open.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 108d
Already on it
the16bitgamer@programming.dev · 1 pts · 107d
For me the iPhone 6s is the perfect size phone.
If you compare the newer iPhone physical size with the 6s it’s about the same. Which I think is best.
Now that phones abandoned the idea of a stable aspect ratio screen size has become irrelevant to me. So I look at the phones dimension. And there is still small phones on the market, they just try their best to pretend to be bigger than they are.
That said I do wish the Mini IPhones lived long enough to get USB C. Was the perfect size for it to be one handed.
Hond@piefed.social · 1 pts · 108d
I mean a S26 just weighs 167g. Thats still 30g more than the Z1 Compact i had back in the day. But overall its like 20mm taller and 5mm wider. Its alright. For the modern day i think its a perfectly fine small phone. Its sadly Samsung though and they can fuck themselves. I will never buy anything from them again after past experiences with different products. But i wouldnt say the small phone is dead. Sure you cant buy a 3,5"- 5" screen phone anymore. But my eyesight gets worse by the minute and i dont want a that small smartphone anymore. Rather i would get myself a shitty feature phone where the display doesnt matter at all.
Handlingwise i would be really happy about 16:9 screens again. My thumbs arent tall enough for the upper third of most phones since the last 7 years or so. 19:9 up to 21:9 is IMHO such a stupid format. But i also really want my headphone jack and sd card reader back... It is what it is.
Stupendous@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 108d
Maybe a few more generations of foldables will bring down price and durability. They're compact like old phones 20 years ago
H1AA6329S@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 107d
6.4 in screen is the perfect size phone. 90% screen bezel ratio and we are cooking.