if anyone knows good android alternatives for a smaller smartphone (something like sony xperia compact series) I'd love to hear about it.
Currently, it seems like the iphone SE is alone in the segment?
Currently, it seems like the iphone SE is alone in the segment?
It's the only phone that tore me away from the iPhone 7/8 SE form.
The fingerprint sensor is arguable in a better position (on the back).
Plus you get better battery, an OLED screen, 90hz.
It sucks the Pixel 6 series went huge and bulky instead of continuing the successive wins of Pixel 3,4,5.
I think parent could have been fine with a Pixel 4a if it wasn't for it starting to age (using the lastest OS on it, feels definitely slower at times , especially when starting the camera which is a bummer)
It cost $200 with 128GB of ram and a case included.
Battery life gets me through the day, and no more, but it charges fast.
I thought the keyboard would be bad, but it's quite usable after you get used to it. I'm probably 90% as fast as on a full sized phone.
The camera, on the other hand is just bad. Like $200 Android phone from 2016 bad.
Most apps are actually fine, if a bit cramped. The exception is dialogs. I usually have to scroll to see all options. You get used to it, but it isn't great.
Webpages are alright, but I do occasionally need to hide the keyboard while filling out forms to see feedback provided below the input (e.g. username already taken, passwords don't match, invalid CC #).
I've never really gamed on my phones, so can't speak there.
The one thing I did with a larger phone that I don't do on my Jelly2 is read things like textbooks and comics where images and text need to be laid out like print. It's too small to fit a whole page of legible text and images at once. 720 horizontal pixels and a 5" screen is the minimum there IMO, though really this is what e-ink tablets were made for.
Wait, this isn't Reddit. I shouldn't...
Now that is a beefy phone. What mobile SoC even supports this much RAM?
I have read rumors that a new Xperia Compact model is likely within the next year. I don't want to get my hopes up too high, because this is unconfirmed and because the definition of "compact" seems to be expanding over the years, but I am optimistic.
I doubt that we'll ever see the likes of the Xperia Mini Pro again.
Edit: Here's a handy phone size comparison tool: https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size
And another discussion from 3 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29287158
Your best bet would be boutique OEMs like Unihertz, who have a 3.1-inch Jelly phone (underpowered) and a Blackberry style Titan Pocket with a hardware keyboard and 4-inch screen.
Neither of these sound like what you want. In the Android world, one can only hope that another small-time OEM will swoop in to fill the gap, before inevitably disappearing.
I wish phones had thumb trackpads like BlackBerry phones had. The BlackBerry Classic (2014) had one and it worked incredibly well, even in Android apps, surprisingly (it works by moving the focus, not a mouse pointer, except in the browser, where the pointer means desktop mode is actually usable). Being able to reach the entire screen just by twitching your thumb a few millimetres is sadly probably never going to be possible again.
The 13 mini as a whole is smaller than the SE because the SE has a top and bottom that's not screen.
My favorite "feature" of these Android phones is the price. It's like having insurance on your phone. If you lose or break it, it's not $1500 down the tubes.
Honestly that's my favorite feature of iPhones too. I've always bought used iPhones 2-3 generations behind. And they're often supported for many years.
Current iPhone is 1st generation SE 2016, probably worth less than $80 and runs latest iOS.
I'm fed up with not being able to hold my phone in my hand.
I miss my nokia n73.
Asus Zenfone 8
As a person who has always used android, if apple's iphone mini had usb-c I would have gotten that instead though.