The pixel 9 pro is smaller than my pixel 6. And i hope they continue making smaller pro phones, and an xl variant cus i want to buy a smaller pixel when i need to buy a new one
When I upgraded from a Pixel 6a to a Pixel 8, I was really surprised to find out that not only was my phone slightly smaller, it also had a slightly larger screen. I'm not super happy with google, but the things they focus on with the Pixel line has me pretty bought in.
I wish I could get a flagship phone with a swappable battery, headphone jack, SD slot and allow my apps to interface with each other's files when I want without having to fuck around with permission bullshit.. I don't care if it's the size of a dinner plate
Just get a USB-c dongle and let that sit on your headphones. These days nearly everything has USB-c anyway and the sound is way better.
The last phones I had with the USB-c jack (RedMi Note 13 Pro and iPhone 4 before that) all sounded worse than me using a cheap DAC. Getting an expensive DAC will improve the sound even more.
Personally I say that most would need to get a NAS before they need a SD card or you need to get a dedicated Camera or MP4 player if your pictures or music exceed the 500GB max and streaming isn;t an option using a NAS.
Personally I say that most would need to get a NAS before they need a SD card or you need to get a dedicated Camera or MP4 player if your pictures or music exceed the 500GB max and streaming isn;t an option using a NAS.
Yeah spending 100s of dollars on whole other devices you have to carry around instead of like 10 for an SD card makes a ton of sense.
That is my exact complaint. The phones are too tall! I am ok with it being wider, but the height is insanity. The whole balance of the phone is awkward and I would be ok with more of the weight on the bottom instead of the middle of a tall ass phone.
The problem is any wider makes it so that it requires two hand to use comfortably for a lot of people. My S22 ultra is just barely comfortable in a case because of the rounded edges, I have tried to see what the S24s felt like and just the flat edges make it so that I can not use it one handed at all.
I remember when I was picked on at work for how big my Note 3 was. They used to call it "my insecurity". Now it's basically smaller than the smallest standard size.
The Note 3 did look ridiculously large back then. Kind of insane.
The box for HTC HD2 had <---- BIG ----> as dimensions of the phone. It had a 4.3" screen that actually was huge at the time (2009), but it's hilarious from today's perspective.
Well, it may only have had a 4 inch screen, but it also had huge bezels. It's less tall than modern flagships, but almost the same width, making it similar for one handed use.
iPhone 5 / original SE was a good design, and a good size, but it was also the first iPhone I had to buy a case for because it was so damn light and thin it was hard to handle compared to the thicker, glass-plated 4.
Oof this is the reason why I went with Fold. Basically when folded it takes almost the same area as an iPhone 5 albeit quite thicker. But my hand adjusted to the thickness quite nicely.
Having basically a small tablet when you unfold the phone for actual two handed use is good too.
Man I loved the 2016 one. Got the 2020 one when that broke and that was already too big for me. I have chronic tendonitis, stretching like that is painful.
They do NOTHING to improve or innovate. In fact, we've lost most great features over the years. The headphone jack for high quality audio, the micro SD card slot for easy upgrades and migrations, the IR blasters, the replaceable batteries...
It's a fucking joke. Peak phone tech was the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Sorry, you gotta upgrade everything every 5 years, because otherwise there's a security vulnerability! Sorry, looks like there will be no new updates on your software, no compatibility! Surely, things have become so much more efficient in the last 5 years as a result of processing gains, and surely that will be passed onto the consumer rather than eaten up in the middle, and surely we need that increased processing power so you can run the increasingly dwindling number of social media sites that are actually relevant!
Sorry, looks like we got rid of the headphone jack because it takes up too much space and it's too hard to make the phone water resistant! The IR blaster isn't relevant anymore because everyone has unilaterally switched to wifi operated smart TVs! Surely! Sorry, the micro SD card slot took up too much space, we need to use that space for processing power! Same with irreplaceable batteries! Sorry, the 16:9 aspect ratio we used to have for phones isn't available in any phone anymore, because we decided to replace the physical buttons and ugly bezels with basically unusable screen space! But we're still gonna have a hole punched in the screen for the camera!
I dunno. Modern phones are fucking dogshit now, I hate them so much it's unreal. Even the software is progressively getting worse year over year. Shit used to be so basically functional and it's become so horrible.
You no longer need to have flagship phone, to have good experience though. I am rocking my Samsung Galaxy A52 and it does everything I want it to. Only current localization and direction seem to behave weirdly and not accurate when navigating using Google Maps (especially when walking) but on other apps it's perfectly fine, so go figure, lol.
I bought them until they stopped making them... My favorite phone was the Sony Xperia X Compact with a 4.6" screen. It had decent midrange specs and a great camera.
I had the Motorola backflip (that was a fun one) and had one of the first phones with a fingerprint sensor that everyone said was a gimmick, had the one with the "indestructible screen" (Motorola Z2 force iirc) that I had a lot of fun throwing around till I broke it (But not the screen! I'll give them that lmao), had every Nexus device until the bitter end (I cursed Google for a long time when they decided Pixels was the way forward, I didn't pick up a pixel again until the Pixel Fold 0G) and so so many others over the years.
Until one day they just stopped being cool for years, hell the Foldy phone has been the coolest innovation they've put out in years and we're already back to nothing but iterations again
Oh is it?? I loved my pixel 3 and when it was time for an upgrade the pixel 7 was the flagship and was way too big. I switched over to a Samsung s21 5g and it's been a decent size, but I'm at a loss for what to do when this one inevitably dies on me. Glad to hear the newer pixels are potentially one-handable for my tiny hands.
I would vomit if I had to look at the Windows logo every time I pulled out my phone. Google is not perfect and they've made mistakes with Android, but at least it's Open Source. Microsoft has a much worse record of opposing Open Source initiatives...
This was nearly 20 years ago, Microsoft was annoying but fairly benign at the time. This phone with Windows Mobile 6 was released alongside the first release of android and the first iPhone
Companies trying to make foldable phones happen are going the wrong way.
They are making giant phones that unfold into tablets when really they should be making small phones that unfold into something just large enough you can watch Netflix on.
I believe foldable phone is "invented" by idiots who don't know design and good products. Literally "if we put in advanced tech, people will buy it", lol.
I think Motorola makes a much better flip phone in terms of experience overall. I also really like their software, however their track record on updates is less than stellar.
I think what I would like is a bigass flip phone that unfolds into a tablet but instead of being thick as hell because the tablet is some OLED bullshit, I just want like, a e-reader. So I can have an easy way to read a book in my pocket.
I started off with iphone 7, then pixel 5, now on pixel 7a. With each phone, it got increased in size. Pixel 5 was a compromise for me. Pixel 7a feels a step too big to be pocketable.
A lot of companies are doing that these days, especially on the Android side. I love how Google promises certain gimmicks that don’t make it to the actual device even after months of release though lol.
As you add more compute per user interaction ("smart" features), you increase power consumption. To keep an 18hour discharge cycle, you have to have more battery. Since phone thickness is a negative marketing feature but increased screen size is a positive marketing feature, you end up with bigger phones.
Every time they reduce compute power consumption, feature inflation overtakes the gain and more power is needed over time. Try turning on battery saver in the morning... even with "normal" use the battery will last significantly longer due to disabling background power consumption.
Yeah, Big Pants is into this. What if instead of phone cases manufacturers sell pants to carry the phone around. Imagine...
... the iPants. Specially made for carrying the latest iPhone with you. For just 2999,-. You can't wash it tho, and it will not be compatible with the upcoming model.
It's not even flagship phones. Even the cheaper ones are huge. When I had to replace my LG phone (6") I went to an electronics store to see what's on the market right now. Of all phones availiable there only were two android phones (I don't know which brand) that were sized similarly to my LG phone. Both of them were in the 800-€-price-range.
Similar with iPhones. Almost all models exceeded the 6" screen size, except for one or two models which were in the 1000-€-price-range. They also had an iPhone SE there, that had the desired size. I bought this as a refurbished one online for a fraction of the original price.
It's harder and harder to find a phone that has a size that either fits in your hand or that can be carried inside your pants without restricting your ability to sit down while the phone is inside the pocket.
That's not an "even". Cheaper phones have been larger as the default for a while now, because they're often the primary, if not the only device their owners have.
I'll go shittier phone before I'll go phablet ever again. I bought a motorola razr 2023. I bought a foldable because I want the shit to fit in my pocket. It also is the only flip phone I've seen that hasn't made the imbecilic decision to coat the entire front panel in glass. I don't need a full miniature phone making my shit more fragile when it's clamped shut. If they continue to glass panel it up on the outside of newer editions I'll try to find a case that just covers the entire outside.
But ultimately I'm holding onto this thing as long as I possibly can.
I have no idea why everyone -- including the reviewers -- think people need a glass panel on the outside of a flip phone with all kinds of smart capabilities. The phone is fucking closed. If I want to use the phone I'll open it. All I need is maybe the time.
It's useful to take pictures. I usually turn on the outside screen so the people I'm taking picture of can pose themselves better. My kids love it too.
Sometimes I also use it for maps navigation when walking somewhere new. There's actually lots of use cases for it, I just get a case with screen protector for it.
The Oppo X8 (non-Pro) is probably the smallest flagship with a top level chip and good camera currently made but it is only available in a few markets.
I have large hands and I don't like having to make the compromise of features or size. I prefer phones around 5in or a smidge under. But to have a modern camera I have an almost 7in phone. It's really frustrating.
We're the kind of people that are pushing our phones to end of support, it's not a market that moves product
and thus not one the big companies listen to.
I of course don't miss small flagship phones because my S10e is still perfectly serviceable.
....its 2035 and the ending of jeans as we know them. Today the birth of the unipocket marks the start of another page in crotch covering technology. We'll no longer be bound by the primitive tubular jeans of old. Jeans with two small front pockets that wouldn't cover anyone's privates in the case, the oh so common zipper failure. No, no ziper, no flimsy buttons either. Those have always been weakness. The future is brighter than we could have ever imagined. That's right! Front and rear screens covering every crotch on the planets. And a screen belt to hold it all together. And for the perpetualization of Victoria's Secret, the new double circular scraw... A scraw covering every pair of tits on the planet! Imagine full crotch ads! Imagine all the profit!
It was already difficult enough to undo bra hooks, but now you can watch 6 unskipable ads instead and it'll release itself automatically. Much profit indeed.
I have big hands and loved my Samsung Galaxy Flip 4 for this reason, plus it would fit comfortably in my pockets (especially when leaning/bending forwards)
Notice the past tense? Despite taking very good care of it, the hinges didn't last long. Rip
Yes, the Pixel 7 Pro was when Google still only had 2 models, the big pro model and the small non-pro model.
With the Pixel 9 series there are 3 options, the budget pixel 9, which is a small phone, the Pixel 9 Pro, which is a flagship but the same size as the small Pixel 9,or the Pixel 9 Pro XL, which is the big version of the flagship Pixel 9 Pro. So you no longer need to compromise if you want a small Pixel phone
I actually went from a 7 pro to a 9 pro, and while Idk if its small enough for you it is a massive change in usability for me. I disliked the 7 it was usable but annoying at times to reach stuff I almost never have that issue with the 9 pro.
One of the few positives of today's designs is the better screen-to-body ratios that we have. This would mean that we can have a 5" screen in the same physical body size that previously used to house a 4 point something inch screen. But for some reason the latest flagship small phones are from a few years ago - I guess sales figures show they're not sought after.
Unihertz specializes in small phones. They aren't flagship spec but they are midrange at sensible prices. They also have keyboard phones and even a phone with a built in DMR radio for Amateur and GMRS use.
Not a plug, I don't even own one I just love that they are daring to be different.
I've just gone from an iPhone 13 mini to a Pixel 9, and two weeks in I'm still amazed at how damn big it is. I still have the 13 and get a bit spun out when I pick it up.
It's kinda sad that there are hardly any small phones anymore. I chose the 13 mini because I wanted a small phone that I wasn't going to spend all day doomscrolling on, and that broadly worked well for me. This time I wanted a phone that runs GrapheneOS, and don't need the expense of any pro models, so the Pixel 9 was it. And it's huge.
Not that it’s everyday practical, but you can definitely get small phones. There are definitely lesser known names out there that make phones in all sizes.
However I do feel that top vanilla Samsung (S2x) and iPhone (normal Pro, especially since the 16 has the good snappers like the big model) at least still fit the bill of being natural one-hanged-phones.
Even Sony ships of flags (1 ... of which "1 IV" runs Lineage OS!) while big arent as wide and much more handy.
But, I cannot help myself thinking that there must be some market sense in like actually small but premium phones. Something like a 4.2" slab with a 4" screen (thin bezels) and proper cams.
Since shitty versions exist, it must be just less profitable for the big brands to get in to (and phone startups can't make much difference until Linux phones come of age to handle the software side of upgrades and security/privacy).
Bullshit. I have an s24. Before that, I had an s10e.
They both are too big for one handed use, but the s24 even more so.
Before I bought the s24, I even considered to switch to ios after years of Android only, just for their iPhone Mini range. Guess what, they cancelled that.
There are simply no phones by major manufacturers that can be used with one hand.
I have definitely wondered that, since my "normal" phone is already too big for real one-handed use, should I just get the big/plus/max version just so it's a bit more like a tablet? If I am typically going to be using it with two hands, seated at my desk or on the couch, maybe I would like that better.
No way. I have an S24, and this thing is huge compared to my S10. Which was already bigger than I wanted. The last phone I've had that I liked the size of was the S6.
I definitely would love a 4.2" slab.
I thought about the 1 IV, because it still had a headphone jack. But there was a deal going for the S24. That's how they get ya.
I'm not sure what are you taking about the size difference between S10 & S24 tho ... they are the same size (if anything one could say S24 has gotten smaller)?
Did you per change purchase the vanilla S20 but the plus S24 model? :)
I still have mine as a secondary work phone. Love the size and format of it in general, although I think I'd still prefer a phone slightly bigger (~10%) and with a higher resolution (1080p?) display, mainly for media consumption.
Outside of that, I second the slow and buggy comment (although in my experience this has been mostly with Microsoft Teams, which is a buggy mess regardless)
I've got pretty small hands but I am really comfortable with my 6.4 inch Oppo Reno Z, it has all the reachability I need, it isn't too heavy or too light and it's got a large enough display for me.
I used to use a galaxy S4, which has a 5 inch display. I find the galaxy quite cramped and not very usable, but the AMOLED was just as good as the Reno Z, and even had better PPI.
Something that would be pretty frustrating would be if phones get any larger, because I find that the sizes currently are pretty much perfect for everyone, although there should be more options when it comes to smaller phones.
I went from a Pixel 6 Pro (I believe the one on the left might be a Pixel 6 Pro as well) to a Pixel 9 Pro recently and it's just about the perfect size for a phone IMO (6.3").
With a Spigen Tough Armor case, right? Had one on my 6 Pro, too, saved it from quite a few nasty drops.
When you consider the 9 Pro's screen to body ratio it's pretty compact, especially for a flagship. Ten years ago a phone of its size would have maybe had a 5" screen.
I've recently set up my launcher that way that I can access all of my apps without the need of constantly moving my hand up and down. This shit is ridiculous.
I'm rocking an SE2 and probably next year I'll reluctantly upgrade to an SE3, which I will keep for at least two more years. After that, I'm fairly certain I'm cooked, as all available phones will be faceid phablets. FML.
the A series is smallish, the last small android phone was probably the Asus Zenfone 10, then Asus axed that line and merged the Zenfone line and ROG phone line and followed the ROG phones size. A phones however aren't flagship so theyd fail the check.
My wife's P7 and my P8P are both roughly the same dimensions as an old landline handset would be (my phone is maybe half an inch thicker than the landline at my work)
Cell phones of the 00's were small by phone standards, modern phones are closer to old landline handset sizes than 00's cells, so I'd say the 00's cells are the ones off the standard
There's more to it than that. Big phones are more marketable and have better profit margins. It's not all consumer preference. Kinda similar to cars actually
I still have my Pixel 6 Pro and, whatever its dimensions, they're a pretty good fit in my hand. I definitely value the bigger screen as I get older and my vision gets wonkier.
The Sony Xperia 5 used to fit the bill, but the gen 6 (the Xperia 5 V) came out a couple of years ago and did not get a bump like the 1 (premium) and 10 (mid range) which now have a 7th gen. I also think it was dropped from US sale even further back, maybe with the 4th or 5th gen?
Even that phone is fairly large (well, tall - it has a unique shape as it has a 21:9 screen ratio) but now it's gone, there's nothing that fits the bill for me size wise outside of the newer flips from other manufacturers. The dropping of the Xperia 5 was a sad day for me as I've been on the smaller Xperia phones since the Z was launched way back...
...switching from Xperia means losing the headphone jack too.
I loved the idea of these foldable phones until I saw a Z Flip in real life, and it’s so damn huge when open, feels really uncomfortable to use. Was pretty disappointed :(
No no no, just wear headphones at all times and also a smart watch and keep the smartphone in your bum bag /s Conversational interfaces definitely understand what you are saying and asking for.
Flagship means the best of the best, of course it’s gonna be large and fancy lmfao.
There’s plenty of phones that fit your niche, but it’s like expecting a cigar boat to be the flagship of the navy dude lol. Gotta temper yourself to realistic expectations, especially when the term “flagship” is thrown out.
This makes no sense. Large doesn't mean fancy. Back in the day, making the phone smaller was fancy.
The minimal company's flagship phone is a minimal phone. It's their signature phone. The flagship was the ship that had the ranking officer/admiral on it, representing the fleet. Apple, google etc all decided their flagship phone would be huge.
OP wants more flagship phones, that is the type of phone the company markets as its main phone, to be smaller. It has little to do with the best but how phones are used. So tell him "tough luck because most people use their phones as a TV so they will remain big". It's not because that's a better phone.
This makes no sense. Large doesn't mean fancy. Back in the day, making the phone smaller was fancy.
Which has nothing to do with the the historical term and already established convention of the term “flagship”, no one has ever called their compact phone a flagship, got any proof to back that asinine claim up?
The minimal company's flagship phone is a minimal phone. It's their signature phone. The flagship was the ship that had the ranking officer/admiral on it, representing the fleet. Apple, google etc all decided their flagship phone would be huge.
If it’s not the fanciest and most expensive, then by definition and original convention, it’s no longer a flagship phone.
Terms have specific uses, let’s not dilute them to make ourselves feel better. Language IS fluid, but when people are obstinate to already preestablished conventions… a small phone will never by definition eve be considered a flagship, but bloviate if you want.
So you don’t want a flagship, you want a small compact phone with all the fixings. That would no longer be the flagship anymore by using established conventions.
Flagship has specific meanings and you’re ignoring them to bitch and moan.