[VERGE] So long, small phones
[VERGE] So long, small phones
[ sourced from The Verge ]
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But for gadget enthusiasts like me, Google had other plans: it’s arbitrarily pushing buyers to the ginormous Pixel 8 Pro instead, bragging about how its larger handset can handle niftier features even though both phones have the same cameras and chips.
Plus, Samsung doesn’t actually let you use it like a small phone by default — you’ve gotta jump through hoops to use apps on the outer screen.
It’s called Unihertz, and its Jelly line is tiny and has nifty features like a BlackBerry keyboard or programmable buttons and extra LEDs.
The project hasn’t had a meaningful update in five months, and team leader Benjamin Bryant admits he had to pause to look for consulting work on the side.
“Samsung Display US is willing to champion us; the challenge will be convincing the Korean HQ that we are a viable enough project for them to invest time and resources into,” Bryant tells me.
Bryant admits that, in general, the small phone outlook is “bleak” and that some of his prospective customers “will be forced to upgrade in the coming year.”
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Bad summary. TL;DR:
- Almost all phones used to be a lot smaller than the smallest phones today
- Today's "small" phones are basically all the same size as the standard Apple and Samsung models. There's nothing smaller.
- Sony and Google's phones are honkin big.
- Folding phones are really honkin big unfolded, so if you have small hands, you're screwed unless you never open them.
- Unihertz makes shitty small phones for people who aren't very picky.
- Small Android Phone, a project started by the former founder of Pebble, is struggling to source a display smaller than the current Apple and Samsung flagships. The best candidates are a folding phone cover screen and refurbished iPhone Mini screens.
- Small Android Phone is concerned that their window of opportunity is closing and many small phone lovers will move to larger phones before they can launch.
- The author, a current small phone lover and recovering physical keyboard addict, was bamboozled into buying a Z Flip on sale. It is both thick and very large when unfolded, and will likely end in tears.
- "AI" summarizers are literal garbage that will make you miss very important details in any stories you trust them to read for you.