What happened to the small phone?

[anon(10388027)]

You could set up a mobile WiFi hotspot for multiple devices.

Carriers in Canada assign a phone number to mobile enabled tablets... You share your phone mobile phone data with your tablet.

But yeah... Mobile carriers don't base their mobile plans around a base for internet access to all your stuff... It's cheaper to have home based internet and use its WiFi connection for your stuff... Faster and usually unlimited.

 

[Anthony Turner4]

Ideally, I do prefer smaller phones. However, my current phone is 6 inches yet it is only a hair bigger than my previous phones 5 inches and 5.2 repsectively. I am willing to have significantly more screen real estate if it means sacrificing some one handed usability.

 

[Inders99]

The small phone is alive and well as evidenced by the effort Apple is putting into their new SE or whatever it will be called. I just wish it was equally alive as well with Android offerings.

 

[Morty2264]

The small phone is alive and well as evidenced by the effort Apple is putting into their new SE or whatever it will be called. I just wish it was equally alive as well with Android offerings.

I wish the same thing! There needs to be more variety for smaller phone enthusiasts!

 

[belodion]

Even as we text, the Android manufacturers are reading this thread and thinking "Clearly, there is a demand for small Androids which is as yet inadequately met. We must mend our ways and meet that demand fully with a range of excellent devices to suit all pockets, thus winning the devotion of the customer while at the same time making a handsome profit. It's a win-win." ☺

 

[belodion]

(They're not.)

 

[chanchan05]

Even as we text, the Android manufacturers are reading this thread and thinking "Clearly, there is a demand for small Androids which is as yet inadequately met. We must mend our ways and meet that demand fully with a range of excellent devices to suit all pockets, thus winning the devotion of the customer while at the same time making a handsome profit. It's a win-win." ☺

Actually, searching using GSMarena's advanced search tool using the following parameters for body size: 145mm x 72mm or lower (the smaller iPhone body size is about 140mm x 70mm), and phones 2016 or newer, we get 14 hits:
LG Q7 and Q6
Huawei Y5, Y6, Nova 2, P9 Mini
Sony XA1, XA2, XZ1 Compact, XZ2 Compact,
Samsung J2, J3, J3 Emerge, A3

Sure they're all mid range devices except for the XZ variants, but it's not like the iPhone SE is a flagship.

 

[Morty2264]

Actually, searching using GSMarena's advanced search tool using the following parameters for body size: 145mm x 72mm or lower (the smaller iPhone body size is about 140mm x 70mm), and phones 2016 or newer, we get 14 hits:
LG Q7 and Q6
Huawei Y5, Y6, Nova 2, P9 Mini
Sony XA1, XA2, XZ1 Compact, XZ2 Compact,
Samsung J2, J3, J3 Emerge, A3

Sure they're all mid range devices except for the XZ variants, but it's not like the iPhone SE is a flagship.

At least there is a decent list there! Thanks for sharing!

 

[chanchan05]

At least there is a decent list there! Thanks for sharing!

There's actually more, but they're mostly brands found only in Asia, like Oppo. Is Vivo available in the US? Steph Curry endorses them so I'd expect him to be using one.

 

[odd1ne]

I personally prefer larger screened devices.

I remember making the jump to Android, I went from a Nokia 5800XpressMusic, with 3.2inch display to a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10i with a 4.0inch display that was seen as absolutely huge in its time.

Even with the 4inch X10 I felt that I could use a bigger phone, got a Galaxy S2 after that with 4.2inch them a S3 with 4.8inch, at this point I began consuming more content on my phones and less on my iPad.

The Galaxy S4 was great, 5inch display fitted in a small body, but I still felt there was room to grow.

Got a Galaxy Note 4 at launch and absolutely fell in love with Phablets

My Galaxy Note8 is perfect for me right now, anything with a smaller display than 6.3inch is now too small for me.



Agreed, especially with your last sentence. The smaller the display on a smartphone, the less utility it provides, IMO.

I cannot take phones with a Display less than 5.5inches seriously anything that small makes it difficult to watch anything for a reasonable amount of time.

I remember watching hours of motorsport and tv shows on my 3ish inch HTC desire don't know how I used to manage it compared to the monster phones today.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Size does come into play when I am looking at a phone. I usually buy the smaller option of whatever line I am looking at.

 

[belodion]

Actually, searching using GSMarena's advanced search tool using the following parameters for body size: 145mm x 72mm or lower (the smaller iPhone body size is about 140mm x 70mm), and phones 2016 or newer, we get 14 hits:
LG Q7 and Q6
Huawei Y5, Y6, Nova 2, P9 Mini
Sony XA1, XA2, XZ1 Compact, XZ2 Compact,
Samsung J2, J3, J3 Emerge, A3

Sure they're all mid range devices except for the XZ variants, but it's not like the iPhone SE is a flagship.

I should not personally consider any of those as coming anywhere near the iPhone SE for overall quality and performance, except possibly the recent XZ2 Compact. It’s why I bought an SE, which in my opinion was at the time I bought it, and remains, far and away the best small phone.

 

[chanchan05]

I should not personally consider any of those as coming anywhere near the iPhone SE for overall quality and performance, except possibly the recent XZ2 Compact. It’s why I bought an SE, which in my opinion was at the time I bought it, and remains, far and away the best small phone.

The XZ2 and XZ1 are superior to the SE if we consider same generation Android flagships as equal to same generation iOS flagships. It's got the same internals as any 2017 and 2018 flagship (SD 835 and 845) and the SE isn't even an Apple flagship by 2016 standards.

As far as my research goes, the 2017 version of the A3 can pretty much go up against the SE in terms of daily usage. It's using an Exynos 7870, whose performance if I remember correctly is somewhere between that of the Galaxy S5 and S6, which is fine since the SE performance is the same I think as the iPhone 5 or 5S.

The others are quite less than that and are truly low to mid range but a lot cheaper.

 

[belodion]

My own SE is noticeably faster than my 5s, and has a noticeably better camera.
The XZ1 was, for me, simply unusable because of absurdly sharp corners, unconventional button positions, and bad camera software. I considered it, but those things, and the Sony bloatware, made the SE far preferable.
The XZ2 is better in all respects - though I don't know about the bloatware - but the camera software is still not as good as it could be....and this in a device costing about £550, compared to £400 (£440 at the time I bought) for a 128gb SE.

 

[anon(10300249)]

I don't like small phones & their tiny screen. Had 5 inches phone before, recently upgraded to new phone which is 5.99 inches and I love it even more. When I see how some people still using Iphone 5, I just can't even imagine how I would be using such tiny phone.

 

[Morty2264]

I don't like small phones & their tiny screen. Had 5 inches phone before, recently upgraded to new phone which is 5.99 inches and I love it even more. When I see how some people still using Iphone 5, I just can't even imagine how I would be using such tiny phone.

Which big phone did you purchase?

 

[mohit9206]

I don't like small phones & their tiny screen. Had 5 inches phone before, recently upgraded to new phone which is 5.99 inches and I love it even more. When I see how some people still using Iphone 5, I just can't even imagine how I would be using such tiny phone.

Ya 4 inches is very small these days but 4.7 to 5 inches is still big enough and there should be a lot more options in the market for these sizes.

 

[chanchan05]

Ya 4 inches is very small these days but 4.7 to 5 inches is still big enough and there should be a lot more options in the market for these sizes.

Except that there are in terms of actual phone sizes. Screen size is the wrong thing to base on when talking about "big phones." For example, when you compare the 5.8inch S9 and the 5inch Pixel 2, you'd think the S9 is that much bigger, except that they're actually the same size.

 

[anon(10300249)]

Which big phone did you purchase?

Xiaomi S2

 

[Morty2264]

Xiaomi S2

Awesome! How are you liking it?