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Comment by elliekelly | Hacker News Reader

> It's cool that Apple made a cheap phone, but what I actually wanted was a small phone and price wasn't that relevant.

I’d like to shout this from the rooftops. All I want is an iPhone I can comfortably use with one hand whether it’s $400 or $1400

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To be fair, different people wanted different things. Some care about cheaper way inside the walled garden, some clanged into their SE for the small size, others keep their old iPhone for the headphone jack, and so on.

To me, this has always been the issue with that ecosystem. If the one or two devices Apple makes fits your preferences, then that's awesome. Otherwise, you're shit outta luck. With Android, there's phones for everyone. Want a hardware keyboard? Check out Blackberry or F(x)tec. Want audio jack with a nice DAC, check out LG. Want stylus support? Check out Samsung Note or Moto Stylus. Gaming phone? Check out Razer or ROG. And the list goes on. There's a phone for everyone.

Well, apart from a decent Android phone with a small screen.

https://www.ebay.com.au/i/173997105683

Check Palm Phone

With a terrible camera and horrendous battery life I’m not sure I’d call the Palm Phone “decent.”

https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/palm-phone

The review states Android 8.1. The current site says Android 8.1[1] The updates section of the FAQ only talks about Google Play updates.[2] That’s not good enough for me.

[1] https://palm.com/pages/product#s-a7c5360d-c3db-4c91-bb73-841...

[2] https://palmsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600181853...

no NFC, which I need for work

no Qi wireless, which is really problematic with a 4h battery life.

Still, I ordered got one to play with and evaluate the form factor, in the hope the next version will have both NFC and Qi

I don't get it, do people expect magic? How do people think you're gonna fit all the features from a 6" phone into a device literally half the volume. Phones are already packed to the brim. When you make a smaller phone, other than the display, everything else takes the same size and uses the same amount of power.

This is the main reason phones have actually getting bigger. Not because people want huge phones, but because people want wireless charging, NFC, 3 cameras, high refresh rate, etc, and a much bigger battery to support all of those extra features.

I do not need camera or high refresh rate or even bluetooth.

I need Qi charging to work around the battery life problem (just drop the phone on a qi craddle), and I need NFC for an enterprise application.

It's great that you have those need, but that's too niche even for Android. No one is going to manufacture a small phone without camera or bluetooth or good battery, with Qi and NFC, just for the 5 people out there with your specific needs. Realistically, a small phone can only have 1-2 or the big features most premium phones have, and you might seem some, but you'll never see one that focuses on those two you need unfortunately.

I think the Samsung Galaxy S10e is the closest current model. It's not as small as I would like, but it's at least a sane size.

It’s 70mm wide, same as the new SE

The old SE that I’m currently using in 58.6mm

Neither google or android serve this market.

If you care about width and not height, keep an eye out for new Xperia models. I think I remember some speculation that one of them (Xperia PRO?) might be unusually narrow.

> Neither google or android serve this market.

Agreed. I miss my Xperia Mini Pro.

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