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'I Want An iPhone Mini-Sized Android Phone!' (smallandroidphone.com) 167

Eric Migicovsky, founder of smartwatch company Pebble and lover of small Android phones, decided to take matters into his own hands and "rally other fans of small phones together" to put pressure on phone manufacturers to consider making a small Android phone -- complete with all the premium features one could expect to find in a larger device. Essentially, what he wants is an iPhone Mini-sized phone running Android. Is that too much to ask?

Here's an excerpt from his manifesto (via smallandroidphone.com): My Dream Small Android phone Optimizes for only 3 things:

- Sub 6" display, matching size and design of iPhone 13 Mini
- Great cameras
- Stock Android OS

If you can hit these three bullets, you've built the perfect phone. Currently there are ZERO premium Android phones with less than 6" displays. No amount of money can buy one right now. Focus on these three bullets, all other specs are flexible.

Price: $700-800 (again, we have no alternatives so we should be willing to pay a bit more!)
In a call-to-action, Migicovsky asks readers who agree with him to sign up on this page to help "convince a manufacturer to build us our dream phone." He adds: "If no one else makes one I guess I will be forced to make it myself, but I really really don't want it to come to that!"
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'I Want An iPhone Mini-Sized Android Phone!'

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  • by hAckz0r ( 989977 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @08:13PM (#62544650)
    Samsung Galaxy S YP-GS1

    Its ancient tech, and didn't even have cellular but its probably about the right size/form factor. Just build one using the current technology and everything should fit inside. I still have one of these but it probably has not had a software update in 15 years. With enough customers I'm sure Samsung could do it again.

    https://usermanual.wiki/Samsun... [usermanual.wiki]

    • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      Why are you using some old Samsung iPod wannabe from over a decade ago as an example device, when the Sony Xperia Compact phones are actually cited by the author in his own "manifesto" and are only 4 years past?

  • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @08:32PM (#62544682)

      Android really is crap these days isn't it?

      My phone always does what I want it to do, 24/7/365. As a pocket sized computer it is super reliable.

    • I have a high-low-end ;) Moto phone (Moto G Power 2021) and the camera is pretty mediocre. It's fine for well-lit snapshots and the macro is decent, otherwise it's not great. It's also huge so it isn't what he's talking about, but I'm just talking about the cam.

      On the other hand it was very affordable even with a breakage plan.

    • by Misagon ( 1135 )

      What are you talking about? Motorola hasn't released a smartphone in the last two years that has less width than 70 mm.
      (according to a search in a model database [gsmarena.com])

      That is what this is about: width. So that people with smaller hands can hold it comfortably and securely.
      People with smaller hands, such as children and women.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      He lists these reasons for wanting a smaller phone:

      1. fits nicely in pocket
      2. are much lighter
      3. are easy to use one-handed without dropping
      4. won't fall out of my pocket while bicycling

      1 and 4 are the same thing, solution is to wear more functional clothes with decent pockets that stuff doesn't fall out of. 2 is nonsense, we are talking such a small difference most people would be hard pushed to notice. 3 is partly down to how good the phone's software is, e.g. the Pixel 5 is easy to use one handed.

      He also

      • by jabuzz ( 182671 )

        Using one handed is a function of your hand size. Unless you have a magical way for large sections of the adult population to increase their hand size (you don't) then you are an ignorant twit.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I guess you have never tried the one handed mode accessibility options. You can do things like make the keyboard smaller and offset to one side, and use gestures to pull down the notification shade without having to reach all the way to the top of the screen.

          • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
            Using gestures to get to the far ends of the screen seemed silly to me. However, once I started using them they were actually easy and reliable tools.
      • by jstott ( 212041 )

        He lists these reasons for wanting a smaller phone:
        1. fits nicely in pocket
        2. are much lighter
        3. are easy to use one-handed without dropping
        4. won't fall out of my pocket while bicycling

        ... 2 is nonsense, ...

        Small phones aren't automatically lighter. My old iPhone SE (original SE, not the new ones) wasn't especially light because Apple gave it a bigger battery instead. And a big long-lasting batter is a useful feature in a phone, so #2 can be very useful if done right.

      • solution is to wear more functional clothes with decent pockets that stuff doesn't fall out of.
        Obviously. Reminds me to the advertizement I saw on youtube and /.
        "Tactical pant" - some kind of pant (trouser) made from a kind of "plastic" with velcro closed pockets.

        Wearing such pants is an absolute must in business meetings. Were I do business, we usually have a "tactical flash light" as well, and wear bullet proof wests.

        Oh ... it was about small and hand fitting long battery life lasting phones? Not about cl

      • https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

        Best pair of pants ever made.

    • what we, the users, actually want

      Don't speak for others. What you want is not the same as what other people want. You can tell that by the sales. Devices that you mention exist, and don't sell well. Ask yourself why that is, and in the future I suggest you take your own advice and "consider looking".

    • Score: -1, Troll

      You don't list your model. Others below you say Moto hasn't put out the spec you describe in a while. As a former moto owner, the camera sucks. I bet your phone doesn't have 90hz. All you can do is curse and literally claim the world is worse because some person wants a smaller, high quality Android. What a completely dumb take. On brand for /. trolling.

  • by fermion ( 181285 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @08:28PM (#62544674) Homepage Journal
    6 inch screen, Android 10, Kodak camera, $100.

    The physical camera in a modern phone is junk, but still requires space, both for lens and sensor. Also it requires enough computing power to process the junk image into what the user expects which also requires a matched battery and heat dissipation

    In iPhone 13 mini is actually less that 6 inches. Who knows the engineering trade offs to get down to that size. Many consumers do want a small phone, but stuff needs to be it that consumers also want.

  • I still have mine, and I love it, and I will keep it as long as it lasts and/or I can get refurb replacements. It's the right size, it's powerful enough, great display in the right resolution (no reason to go over 1080p on a 6" device), etc.
  • by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @08:38PM (#62544698) Homepage
    The best^H^H^H^H favorite phone I've ever had is the Panasonic GD-55 [youtube.com], circa 2002. Check out the form factor and be blown away
  • by ByTor-2112 ( 313205 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @08:45PM (#62544706)

    I believe the Pixel 4a would have met those requirements when released. Other options exist.

    • And the Pixel 4a is a great device.

      • Re:So, a Pixel 4a? (Score:4, Informative)

        by ByTor-2112 ( 313205 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @09:19PM (#62544760)

        Agreed, it's my current device. If it had a removable battery, I'd probably keep it for a very long time.

      • by Misagon ( 1135 )

        Bad fingerprint sensor, weak WiFi reception and it has a reputation of the camera breaking after a while - but that last thing hasn't happened to mine yet.

        Top durability though.

        • The fingerprint sensor is fantastic on mine, no issues at all. Camera has been fine on mine. No complaints on wifi either. You may have gotten a bad one?

        • I've deployed many of them in a corporate environment. They have been really good. Had one outright die under warranty, like the CPU or memory just died. Otherwise they have been rock solid and popular with staff.

    • by dohzer ( 867770 )

      Well since they said "Stock Android OS", that basically limits you to a Pixel or Nexus, doesn't it? Or can you jailbreak, say, a Samsung phone and run Stock Android on it?

    • Yea, especially with the "stock Android" and decent camera requirements probably just Pixel 4a (and maybe 5) match (otherwise there are 98 phones on GsmArena filtered by up to 6" screen and from 2020). But especially the 4a certainly matches his requirements so what's the whole deal?

      Ah, "If no one else makes one I guess I will be forced to make it myself", I guess he's looking for outraged people to do a bit of free marketing, based as often marketing is on bending the truth?

  • Samsung Galaxy s10e. Flagship-level phone, 5.8 inches high.
    https://www.phonearena.com/pho... [phonearena.com]

    • by ezdiy ( 2717051 )

      It's a flagship from 3 years ago. They're great value when bought second hand. I'd go for Pixel 4, tho.

  • "A BIT more?" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Travco ( 1872216 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @08:57PM (#62544726)
    That's 3 to four times what I'm willing to spend on pocket annoyer device. PLUS- 6 INCHES? try 5 and $300 I could go for that
    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      That's 3 to four times what I'm willing to spend on pocket annoyer device. PLUS- 6 INCHES? try 5 and $300 I could go for that

      And that's why there are no premium phones available. They'll just toss whatever cheap crap parts they can to make a phone for that price.

      Want a small phone? There are lots out there. But you'll give up the screen, camera, processor and memory for it.

      Want a good phone with decent specs? You either have to go with the gigantic ones because they don't make 'em with small screens.

      Want so

    • That's 3 to four times what I'm willing to spend on pocket annoyer device.

      I agree. If all it did was annoy me I wouldn't want to spend on it either. On the other hand I happy spend more for the single most important device in my personal inventory which doubles as entertainment, computer, etc.

  • And I cannot lie.
  • With the sorry state of mobile apps today, especially those that can't match up with their basic desktop counterparts (Google Earth, I'm fucking looking SQUARE at YOU with your lacking networked-KML capability,) there's no point in building a shitty small smartphone like some whiny designer fucking wants.

    Until you can give me fucking desktop-parity program-wise, shut the fuck up, Eric Migikovsky. That's the REAL smartphone edge, and all of you ignorant fucks don't have a clue - including GOOGLE.

  • Samsung shrunk down their smallest Galaxy from last year's smallest, the S21.
    The screen is 6.1", but the bezels are rather minimal.
    S22:
    146 mm (5.7 in) H
    70.6 mm (2.78 in) W
    7.6 mm (0.30 in) D
    I have the Google Pixel 3 XL, And the Moto G5+, both known for being pretty stock Android, and my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra isn't much different, and arguably the UI is subtly improved over stock Android.
    Buy it on sale or with the frequent discounts Samsung offers, and the S22 is around the sought after price point.
    It's cu

    • by ezdiy ( 2717051 )

      S22 is great attempt to keep sane form factor of a flagship, but suffers from a problem common to sub-6" phones - tiny battery life. Modern high spec phones with 4000mAh+ and sub-6" OLED are very few and between.

  • I miss my Galaxy S4 Mini something fierce, but it's not even supported by Cyanogenmod any more, so no point getting a new display etc for it.

  • They don't make them because they don't sell. Just google "iphone mini discontinued" and you'll get many articles suggesting that even the iPhone mini might go extinct.
    what chances will an android mini have?

    also, the list of things this guy wants are subjective. I don't care about the phone's camera at all and would much rather have a large battery instead. I taped both front and back-facing cameras on my phone because I never use them and wouldn't want a malicious entity activating them at will.
  • Sony had its "compact" versions of its Experia Z and then X series of phones that had the same guts, but just a smaller, lower resolution screen in the early to mid 2010's. They didn't sell. Most people didn't want to pay almost full sized phone prices for a small phone.

    Experia Z1 Compact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    Experia Z3 Compact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    Experia Z5 Compact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    Experia X Compact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    Companies would make them

    • by jabuzz ( 182671 )

      There was the XZ1 Compact and XZ2 Compact too.

      They probably didn't sell that well (I had a Z1 Compact which I replaced with an XZ1 compact which I still have) because they where very very badly marketed. Like not at all. I met plenty of people who complained about phone size but simply didn't know a premium compact model existed.

  • If my maths is right he is 35. Give him another 10 years and he with find those tiny 6" screens really annoying because you have to get out reading glasses to find out what Google has deemed is so world breaking important that it has to notify you about it.

    Pro tip for pissing off potential customers who are over 40: Try and redirect them from using their web browser, on a decent size screen on a PC, to using an app on their phone.
    • If my maths is right he is 35. Give him another 10 years and he with find those tiny 6" screens really annoying because you have to get out reading glasses to find out what Google has deemed is so world breaking important that it has to notify you about it.

      I'm getting close to 50, but I've always just gone into the display settings and selected the display and font size to make things readable. I usually just drop the display size by one notch to make things fit better on the screen, but if you have vision problems, maybe do the opposite. If you want to be more precise, "wm density" and "wm size" work well, but might need root nowadays.

      Pro tip for pissing off potential customers who are over 40: Try and redirect them from using their web browser, on a decent size screen on a PC, to using an app on their phone.

      I've never seen that on my desktop, but on my phone websites do that occasionally. Of course I always ignore it. I'm not inst

      • by waspleg ( 316038 )

        I've never seen that on my desktop, but on my phone websites do that occasionally. Of course I always ignore it. I'm not installing some fucking app for a website.

        Same, especially since on the browser my DNS blacklists and client plugins (ublock origin especially, of course) have the most impact. Those "apps" are always shit anyway, it's not like the offer anything YOU want only what THEY want.

  • Current linux based phones target enthusiasts and developers, and are not suitable for your average user. Why not push this kind of enthusiasm into the linux based phone space? More interest and wider adoption of nix phones will drive innovation, adding a healthy alternative to a market saturated with only two other options.

  • I've looked too. Couldn't find anything. There are no-name Android phones from China that are really tiny but apparently that's too small for the Android desktop/UI to adapt to. Yes, something 5"-ish would be great.

    BTW, I'm writing this on a ChromeOS tablet with a physical keyboard for browsing the interwebs pipes.
  • Small phone should be cheap!

  • My ideal phone: 5-5.5" screen with 2-3mm of bezel. Metal case (no glass) ideally milled from aluminium billet, stiff enough that the screen won't crack if I sit or stand on the phone by accident. USB-C charging port and ability to act as host for most standard USB peripherals. Camera equivalent to flagship phones of 3-5 years ago, decent speaker (one will do), 3.5mm TRS with decent quality DAC & amplification. IR blaster, microSD slot. CPU/GPU equivalent to flagship phones of 2-3 years ago. Mechan
  • and wearables/wireless touchscreens to actually use it. There are times where a large phone is unsuitable (eg. running, manual work etc.) and times that you want to write a long message or do a lot of browsing (infuriating on a small phone). I'd argue that having a small phone is an unhappy compromise (iphone 5se being a perfect example). A small screen-less brick could be smaller and more rugged than a normal phone. People could be free to pick whichever display device is most suitable for them, for a give
  • I liked my Lumia 635. Easy to fit in most normal pockets, and the Win8/Win10 phone interface was easy to read and use. We all know what happened to that ... though I did keep it going for 5 years with benefit of some minor registry hacking, until a hardware failure killed it.

    Replacement was a Nokia 6.1. Beautiful phone, well designed, solidly built, largish for me but usable - better pocket fit than recent models like the Pixel 5a that replaced it, much more durable than the operating system (Android 8 on r

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