Once upon a time you could get a small android device with good specs.
https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_xz1_compact-8610.php
It’s still my favourite phone, even though it’s been retired and is only used as an MP3 player with AUX in the garage nowadays.
I realize that for most people the phone is now a device to consume media through and that the larger screens are helpful there, but having a smart phone that is fully usable with one hand is still something I miss. Often.
Considering that modern androids have about 85% to 90% of their size as display size then a phone with the size of the xz1 compact should get a screen size of ~5 inches instead of the old 4.6 inches.
With the SoC advancements I don’t even feel that the phone would require a flagship SoC to interest me. Put a Snapdragon 6, as much battery as you can fit and an AUX input in it and I’m game.
What would make you guys interested in a smaller phone today?
I had an old Samsung windows phone, the first gen. I loved that thing. The performance was great and the screen was fairly small, but it was way more usable than other phones despite the lower resolution because it had an OLED display.
Then I eventually got the Lumia 1520 behemoth haha. Then eventually back to one of Sony’s Compact phones, but the performance was terrible. I’m now on more regular sized phones.
The best part about the smaller phones was the much for usable single-handed use. I think that’s the main thing. I also tended to use another device for things like reading or entertainment. But I will say though, that 1520 was pretty great.
It was a good first gen phone, but you definitely did better by waiting for the 920. That think was darn near indestructable.
I’m on an XZ2 Compact, which is still bigger than I’d like but has modern up to date LineageOS
You can pry it from my cold dead hand
How’s the performance of the phone? I had one of the older Z Compacts and while I liked the smaller size, the performance was pretty abysmal. Like, I’m in line and want to get my ticket out ahead of time - still waiting for the phone to catch up by the time I got to my turn.
So double tap your home button and shrink it down to one handed size.
Today’s issue is that all the high end stuff takes up space and needs surface area to keep cool. Shrinking it all down for a market there isn’t a large demand for is hard, and then having to put a smaller battery in it is also hard. I take phones apart quite often. Even the big ones don’t have much unused space.
I’d love to get my hands on something similar to the nexus 4a or even the xiaomi mi 8. I really hate the form factor of the later nexus series.
i recently bought moto edge 50 neo. it’s not small but it’s compact phone. i feel the difference when i hold other phones.
Kinda similar in size to the new Sony Xperia 10 IV and Sony Xperia 10 VI. It’s a step in the right direction, but I really want them to shrink down a bit in height too.
