You people seem to have tiny hands.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
54 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
38120 readers
56 users here now
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Sony used to make compact variants of their flagship Xperia phones. Good specs. Good battery life. Good camera. Good sound. Good reception. Headphone jack. SD card slot. Unlockable bootloader, so they could be de-googled.
Sadly, the "compact" models grew slightly larger with each model year, and even a not-so-compact one hasn't been released in a while.
the obvious answer is that people weren’t buying them enough and that capitalistic markets will not support niche products that serve smaller demographics unless they can either financially justify themselves or earn some kind of government subsidy to sustain the effort (eg for a medical device and even then it’s shaky)
There are thousands of cool things that have died because they weren’t financially viable. That is what it is, but what’s more frustrating is that the technology behind these items and ideas is then almost always kept under lock and key forever, lost to the ages, because of the sliver of hope that some portion of it may somehow become a part of some new project. Instead of sharing the information to allow for collaboration and building on what was already established, any future projects need to now start from scratch. Otherwise they may infringe on the creators ability to secure earning potential you see, and that justifies drastically slowing the development of human progress in all fields by obfuscating research everywhere
My favourite example is Concorde, which remained profitable throughout its service life but was cancelled because bigger profits can be made with slower planes.
Patents expire after 10 years so technology being locked away isn't the biggest concern. The bigger problem is the dismantling of supply chains and loss of skills and experience when the workforce moves on.
Something tells me the companies sabotaged the smaller phones so they can charge more for the giant "pro" devices.
I opted for the smaller pixel 9pro last year because i didn't have to compromise (it has the same specs as 9pro xl). My previous phone was 7 pro, it was the bigger model and if i went for the smaller 7 model, I'd have to forego the telephone camera.
I really like the smaller 9pro over my previous 7pro phablet. The size ia more manageable, although it's probably still larger than the early smartphones, but since we moved to touchscreena, larger screens are necessary for typing. The larger size also houses bigger battery necessary to power the display whose resolution has gone way up over the years.
There is a large degree of this, at least with some manufacturers. the iphone se referenced being a great example. If you’re a tech dork that wants fancy features you will overlook the se 100% of the time because even if you value a small phone many (basically all) of the bells and whistles on flagship models are gone as the se was based on the low end models from 1-3 generations back. No face id, no 5g, no magsafe, etc
Even for casual users: if you valued photography the se had the absolute worst camera of all the iphones. It was slow, it had less storage (64 gb minimum vs 128gb in the iphone 13 and newer), noticeably worse battery life, etc.
You can. You just can't have a small iPhone. Android phones are also a mainstream product, they're just not popular with people who have thousands of dollars to blow on iPhones.
Android phones are, in fact, more popular than iPhones worldwide, and have nearly half the market in the US.
Forget small phones... I want bigger phones! Why do we keep making phones that appear to be made to appease people with small pockets‽
Bigger screens are better! Give me a great big tri-fold phone with a week-long battery (as long as it's under 10lbs it won't be a problem!). Actually, fuck that: Where are our backpack phones? We used to have them in WW2 and now we have the technology to make them even better!
I want the power to unfurl my monster phone to turn it into a portable 3-monitor gaming rig. Make it run regular Linux too so I can actually automate things and decide where I want to store my stuff (not in Google or Apple's clouds!).
Perfection.
The 5.5" phones were a sweet spot for me, I'd love to go back
5.5” with a 16:9 screen and bezels?
The iPhone 8+ was 6.24” x 3.06” while the latest 16 pro max is 6.42” x 3.06“ almost the same footprint but much more screen real estate.
Smaller phones do have a place though. I've got a 7-year old son with Type 1 diabetes. We wears a Glucose Monitor that requires a Bluetooth connection to get a reading. He needs to carry a mobile phone for this reason, and because of his size, and the fact that he needs to carry it basically all the time, a smaller phone is best. He does not need a camera, or to browse social media.
They don’t have a dedicated reader for that scenario? That’s the exact scenario I’d explicitly not want a phone for. Sure as a backup, but give me something small that’s the main reader.
I don't think any glucose readers come with a bluetooth functionality. There's one (or a few) that does NFC. The advantage of having a mobile phone is that it can also transmit the data to the clinical team, and the parents.
If the glucose reader came with bluetooth and a simcard slot (to share data), and a simple LCD screen to provide a simple glucose reading then I'd probably go with that. But there is nothing like that at the moment AFAIK.
It’s definitely an option, maybe depending on the brand. Abbot makes readers for theirs.
I just need a tiny phone that still had an incredible camera array, gps, and music streaming. I think the Light Phone III is almost it but they’re not quite there yet.