Comment by dijit
4 hours ago
Supply chain has left us.
Since there's no new development happening with small phones, we'd have to settle for "older spec" screens (IE, new stock iPhone 5 screens, with none of the colour accuracy, frame-rate etc improvements from the last 10 years).
People don't like "old spec", so they'd probably not buy those devices.
If you're a small player, then you're downstream of the supply chain, you don't make the rules.
Chicken and Egg problem.
Ironically people think there's no market for small phones due to apple making a "small phone" which had a larger screen size than an iPhone 6.. which was when phones started getting too big for me, and many people I spoke to.
So, you make a small phone that isn't actually small, it sells like poop so you presume that people don't want small phones..
> Supply chain has left us.
<rant>
Who made the decision? There are still so many of us wanting a compact phone, but the big tech companies (Google, Apple, etc.) said no, therefore we can't have it. Not only can we not have it, they also closed the door on everyone, now even if someone wants to service this section of the market, they can't. Because, yes, the supply chain has left us.
This is power - they are taking away our freedoms and anatomy. They are making decisions for us and we have absolutely no say.
</rant>
Compact phones is but one of examples. A more current example would be the rocketing DRAM price. We got do something to stop this, but I feel so powerless.
> colour accuracy, frame-rate
Absolutely irrelevant for what I do with a phone, and I'd wager that 90% of users would not notice the difference.
Variable frame rate screens aren’t just for making the phone feel snappier but are also needed for the battery to last longer.
If your production volume isn’t high enough to justify a custom screen to be cut you are stuck with what is available on the market.
And even if 5” screens are available now in the form of NOS or upcycled refurbs that may not be the case 2 or 3 not to mention 5+ years down the line.
So you have to go with what not only is available today but with what is still likely to be available throughout the expected usable lifetime of your product.
90% wouldn't notice, but of those 90%, 5% compared specs and got the phone with better color accuracy "just in case," and 95% just went to their local retailer and either bought the newest phone or the cheapest phone.
I had iPhone 12 Mini and then 14 and now 17. I can't practically tell the difference except for battery life, weight, and size.
It will be pretty imperceivable when you stay within the same ecosystem. If you went from your 17 and then went to a mid tier phone like a Samsung A71, you would notice a difference.
Display is something I for sure started paying attention to when I was jumping back and forth between Android and Apple when I went from my OnePlus to Apple and then to Samsung noticed differences.
Are you really telling me that people wouldn't look at the spec-sheet and state (loudly) that they won't buy a phone because "in 2025 it doesn't even have 120fps"?
I don't believe you if that's the case.
I'm not the OP, but if you ask me, I'll tell you that I think most phone users out there don't even know what a fps is, let alone how many fps their smartphone has...
I've never looked at the spec sheet when I bought a phone.
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Re us/we, you're not associated with Jolla, right? For clarity.
To clarify: no.
Though I suspect I worked with many staff members at Nokia. Their former CTO was my boss.
You know what, that is exactly what Lenovo executives were telling their customers right up until the moment that Apple released Retina devices. Lenovo swore in a blog post that because of the overall panel market it was quite impossible to put an IPS display in a laptop, then a few days later Apple released a 221 DPI 15" IPS MacBook Pro.
Apple definitely has the grunt I'm talking about to push the supply chain to change.