Comment by JumpCrisscross
4 years ago
> Missing microSD card support could be the major dealbreaker
And for the other guy a 3.5mm jack and for a third a physical off switch and look at that we have too many dealbreaker features for the form factor.
Power users tend to have more dealbreakers than the average consumer. Anecdotally, it seems power users prefer smaller phones. This might be what kills the small phone factor.
I believe the bit about power users is the HN effect at work, the main customers for small phones are people with small hands and/or pockets, who are disproportionally women.
Women are also overrepresented in the Really Big Phone market, and wield them two-handed.
They also trend heavily iPhone in the US market, but that leaves plenty of alpha for the manufacturer who serves the actual market for small-form-factor Android phones.
I agree with this. Power users are a tiny market compared to “people who can’t reasonably fit a modern phone in their pocket.”
But if you have to keep your phone in a purse anyways, why not just get a big one?
So mostly the people in that market who still care are the ones who can’t or don’t want to carry a purse, which is also a smaller market. (I’m in this market though, so i am sad)
Not everyone wants a phone that they have to operate two-handed -- particularly those with small hands to begin with.
5 replies →
As a non-power-user, I mostly keep my phone in the pocket, where I’d like it to be small.
I’d almost go for a dumb phone, almost... but then I need emails, maps and WhatsApp.
I don’t need 50 filters, 3 cameras, razor-thin (yet somehow enormous) body, more Storage than my laptop, etc etc...
Yeah, I really wanted to ditch owning a phone at all when my last one broke but I realised that too many services require having some sort of authenticator or phone for two factor authentication. Banks literally require having a mobile phone as they will require you to authenticate transactions through their app. So I'm still chained to the damn thing.
> As a non-power-user, I mostly keep my phone in the pocket, where I’d like it to be small.
> I’d almost go for a dumb phone
But nobody makes a small dumb phone either! I'd be ok with a dumb phone, if it is small.
Android manufacturers besides Samsung already don’t make any money. The last thing they are going to do is go after an even smaller niche.
The Moto G (2013) had a microSD slot, a 3.5" port and all of it in a 4.5" form factor.
Why can't we just get an updated version of that?
I started with one of those, and every two-three years I upgrade to the most recently available one.
Over time the MotoG phones have been getting larger - to the extent that now the one I have doesn't fit in my sporran, if I go out wearing a kilt.
I love this. I propose we henceforth judge all phones by the sporran test.
It didn't have an SD card slot of any kind!
Wikipedia says it did, at least on the LTE model.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moto_G_(1st_generation)
Edit: ah found another source as well about it being on the LTE model https://www.phonearena.com/phones/Motorola-Moto-G-LTE_id8655
I definitely want a smaller phone but I don't know that I'd call myself a power user given that I use my phone less now than I have in the past 5 years - but it has been a total replacement for things like photography.
No, just do all three of those things. Add a couple millimeters to the thickness.
I disagree. I bet many average consumers would want a small phone for work, travel, etc.
IMHO vendors try not to sell small flagship phones so you have to buy a foldable phone, which is way more expensive.
> I bet many average consumers would want a small phone for work, travel, etc.
They neither say they do nor buy those which are available.
Maybe they'd like a smaller phone for a limited set of situations (though there’s no evidence of that) but they’re not going to buy two phones, so that’s not relevant.
It's like asking a single-issue voter their preference on other subjects.