DynamoSunshirtSandals

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 1 month ago

Yeah, roll one out with a 5.8" screen and a headphone jack amd I’ll buy it at a premium. I’d shell out even more for a true iPhone mini-sized phone if they make the battery fat enough for decent battery life – small phones can still be ergonomic and light enough with a little extra chonk.

Giant screen, no headphone jack? No thanks, I might as well buy a $50 android phone at a gas station.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 1 month ago

Plus the M7 had a nicer aluminum unibody. The M8 had plastic on the front. Still handsome, but not the same level of gorgeous macbook-style design the M7 had. Fuck, I’d rock an M7 today if they trimmed the glass bezel down, removed the hardware nav buttons, and tossed in some new hardware.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 1 month ago

If only we could get RCS with any app other than Google’s. I wonder how long they can gatekeep those APIs.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 3 months ago

Minimalist with a 6.7" screen, eh? Now I really want to know how they define minimal lol. Minimal features? Minimal security? Minimal support?

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 6 months ago

Citymapper is the gold standard. Osmand is excellent, except for delays. Many countries have third party top-tier apps for transit and train navigation – Trainline comes to mind in the UK, but it varies by region.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 7 months ago

The containers UI is damn near unusable, they’ve squeezed so many of those “offers” into the tiny addon manager popup.

I wish Mozilla had management who understood their userbase. But instead they keep pulling this crap which only makes me (and likely most other power users) less likely to use Mozilla branded products.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

I’m definitely a small phone lover. I don’t watch videos on my phone if I can avoid it and tend to consume text-heavy content.

Currently bouncing between an Xperia XZ1 Compact running Lineage 17.1 and an iPhone SE 2016 (!!!) running iOS 15. I get security updates for both, but it’s clear that I’ll have to move to a different phone in the next year or two.

Honestly at this point I just wish Apple would bring out an “iPhone Classic” based on the 4,5, or Mini body. Throw a headphone jack on there, a TouchID power button, and I’d pay serious money for it on launch day. I’d prefer an SD card slot, but if I know the phone will last for 3-5 years, I can pay a couple hundred extra bucks for 512GB of storage.

I just do not get folding phones. I understand that others like them, but I’ve never been a tablet guy. I suppose I would consider one with an internal e-ink screen, so I could combine my e-reader and phone into a single device… but I don’t think I’d enjoy using a phone that’s 1.5-2x the standard thickness of modern phones (not counting those massive camera bumps!). Plus the durability issue – I would absolutely not trust any modern folding phone to last 5+ years, and at the $1000+ price point, it damn well better last 5+ years.

Above all else, I prefer small phones for two reasons:

• my phone can “disappear” into my pocket, even if I’m walking, biking, running, or playing a sport
• I can use my phone with one hand on public transit, or doing one of the above activities if I decide to listen to music during that activity

It’s really frustrating that phone companies don’t bother with small phones any more. But nobody is even trying – and never has tried – to market a small phone that stays out of your way but helps you when you need it. Even Apple barely marketed the Mini at all (and debuted it during a global pandemic when a lot of people stopped commuting and traveling, two of the best times to have a small one-handable phone).

I wonder how much Apple fucked up the small phone market by maintaining exclusive access to the Mini screens from Samsung, as the author mentions in this article.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

From the article:

“The problem is Apple has exclusive rights to [the iPhone Mini’s] display — so, even with the line being discontinued, [Samsung Display] isn’t going to give us access,” he told supporters last month.

Sounds like we’re splitting hairs: no other OEM is ordering the Mini-sized display, and this line certainly implies some kind of exclusivity. I’ve been following the thread on the Small Android Phone discord as well, and what I’ve seen there aligns with that understanding.

As far as I know, no small manufacturer ever gets displays built specifically for them. Even Pebble, which was a lot more popular than Small Android Phone, used preexisting displays. It just takes a lot of time, knowledge, and money to create a custom display.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

I’ve looked at the Unihertz phones quite a bit, but the cell bands and camera have stopped me so far. Your Lemmy instance implies that you’re in the EU, so you should give it a shot if you can stomach the crappy camera. I’m afraid no Unihertz phone has IMS or voLTE support in the USA, so it’s an open question if you’ll even be able to use them at all on our networks in a year or two :(

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

Yeah, the small car thing is a perfect parallel. The market doesn’t necessarily fit preferences perfectly: instead, companies optimise for whatever MOST folks will buy that nets them the most money.

They make more money selling a large phone with a bigger sticker price and a bigger profit margin, so they make big phones. And the most phone-hungry people, power users, who buy a new phone every year or so, tend to buy big phones. So they cater to that group.

Think of it this way: when I bought my iPhone SE 2016 7 years ago, I cast maybe $100 of profit “vote” in the marketplace.

Every time someone buys a $1700 folding phone, they cast something between $500 and $1000 of profit “vote” in the marketplace. And they do that every year, not once every 7.

Of course, I’d be willing to spend a lot more on a really decent small phone. But nobody in the market has really experimented with that model yet. And it is admittedly harder to fit components into a smaller phone body (though not as hard as Apple would have you believe – after all, the 14 and 15 literally takes up more space with a useless empty plastic SIM card spacer than the headphone jack used to take.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

The Z fold is 67.1mm across in folded mode. The iPhone 12 & 13 Mini is 64.2mm.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

I was going to say that the Mini should be pretty cheap now that it’s two generations old – the 13 is down to $629 new, after all, and the Mini ought to be $100 cheaper…

But it looks like Mini demand has actually driven prices much higher than the normal 13. Strange, almost as if there IS demand for small phones…

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

AOSP deserves to be split out from Google into some kind of open source nonprofit similar to Linux. It’s obvious that Google has no intent of maintaining AOSP in a usable form, they’ve become completely distracted by Pixel software features.

The quick settings tiles and settings app are perfect examples. No custom color picker for the UI either? I HAVE to use one of the “AI”-generated suggestions, or one of 6 incredibly boring barely-different pastel variations? These things technically work, but almost seem designed to piss off the end user.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

I know you don’t want to hear it, but if you want a phone that’s (relatively) privacy respecting, reliable as hell, well constructed so it won’t break after just a couple of years, and supported for a long time… you just described an iPhone. You could be the 2022 SE today for $400ish and use it for 3+ years before you have to do anything to it, and even then you’d just have to pay $69 or so for a battery swap. You could also buy a 13 Mini or a 12 Pro for close to the same price and get an OLED screen and a better camera.

The Pixel series is probably your best bet in terms of specs and theoretical support. But I would be very surprised if you were able to use a Pixel for 3+ years without developing a hardware issue. Maybe you’ll be lucky, but I wouldn’t bet on it, personally. My partner’s 4a isn’t even 3 years old yet and it’s clear that Google does not backtest any of their software updates on older hardware either. Hopefully that changes going forward, but Google has a pretty shit record with long-term support. They’ve promised to make replacement parts available for the 8 year lifespace of the 8 series phones, but the phones are glued together and hard to repair, so unless you’re hardcore about DIY, it’s unlikely that you’ll bother with it. Instead you’ll likely end up going to a repair shop, which you could also do with older Pixels today. And both Pixels and their replacement parts are iPhone-level expensive unless you’re playing the carrier incentive game.

I’m not sure why others are shitting on the Fairphone’s hardware. I think it’s incredibly dumb that they killed the aux jack, and the phone is way too big for my liking… but it’s literally built to be easy to repair. And Fairphone has a proven track record of support for their phones. It isn’t perfect, but I’m much more likely to believe that you’d use a Fairphone for 5+ years than a Pixel. If you’re concerned about part availability down the road, just buy a couple of spare batteries, a spare screen, a spare camera module, and a spare USB-C port today.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

I’ll probably switch it to GrapheneOS after next month because I think it’s a software issue, not a hardware problem. But my partner can’t use Android Auto even though our car supports it, her phone crashes and becomes unresponsive randomly, and apps frequently drop out of memory when you aren’t heavily multitasking. The phone is perfectly capable of running a browser, music player, and maybe the camera all at once, so it’s frustrating to see this nonsense play out.

The phone is only two years old and runs stock Android. Around 60-70% storage usage on average. No clue what’s causing so many problems, but I’ve heard other 4a users say similar things lately.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

I’d go with the Fairphone if I were you, as long as you actually care about having the phone long term. I know the Pixel is very shiny and very nice, but Google really does have an awful history of QA. Fairphone isn’t perfect either, but being able to repair things yourself is a huge benefit. Sure the CPU and camera and screen aren’t as nice, but they’re probably nicer than what you’ve currently got, and definitely nice enough unless you’re a tech reviewer who’s constantly looking at the new shinies.

Plus, y’know, it is kind of cool that Fairphone tries to produce their phones without any slavery or labor abuses, and at least makes real attempts at sustainability. When you get burned by Google, you just feel shame because you knew they were going to screw you one way or another. If you get burned by Fairphone, at least you tried to do something better in the world.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

Why the official requirement? Just because you don’t want the device to be abandoned? Or is there some other “official” value-add I’m unaware of?

I’m going to ignore the “official” requirement because I think your task might actually be impossible with that req.

I use an Xperia XZ1 Compact with LineageOS 20.

4.6" screen. Very similar in dimensions to the iPhone 5/5S, which had 4" screens (just a tiny bit winder, maybe a mm taller). Headphone jack. microSD slot with support up to 512GB. Side fingerprint sensor. Decent (not modern flagship quality, but also not an AI “image” generator) camera. Band 66 support (though no band 71). And a notification LED!

Sony only supported it with two software updates (big surprise) ending with Android 9 (Pie). The Sony website lets you unlock the bootloader with a self-serve portal. You can use the Xperifirm tool to flash stock software & firmware, and custom roms work as usual with flashing, TWRP, etc. The SD card makes custom ROMs an even simpler process.

Note that you need the US firmware for cellular band & network compatibility, but you can copy the two files related to fingerprint sensor usage (system_X-FLASH-ALL-C93B.sin and vendor_X-FLASH-ALL-C93B.sin) from CE1 (chinese) or UK firmware into the US firmware, flash it, and you’ll get US firmware with a functional fingerprint sensor.

There’s recent builds of Lineage 17,18,19, and 20 (unofficial, unfortunately) with relatively few compromises. Gapps versions and MicroG versions seem to get published once every month or two by the unofficial maintainers. Yes, they’re unofficial. But they’ve been publishing new builds every month since 2019. And allegedly the only reason they haven’t gone official is because Lineage puts some restrictions on packages you can include in official releases.

There’s also HavocOS and a relatively recent /e/OS build, if you’re into that.

Unfortunately my mobile provider (Google Fi) has some compatibility issues with these ROMs, but there seem to be dozens-to-hundreds of happy users out there. The modem has a tendency to crash when signal is completely lost, so if you live in the middle of nowhere like I do, I don’t think I would recommend it. But if you live in a city or a country with competent infrastructure you should be fine.

The call microphone has a shitty physical design; it uses sound piped into a single, very long, very tiny hole in the bottom of the phone, next to the USB-C port. Guess what? Over time that tends to fill with dust, and then people can only hear you on calls if you hold the phone at the perfect angle, shout, or switch to speakerphone, which uses a different mic. Fortunately you can clean it pretty easily with a SIM card ejector.

TL;DR this is literally the last reasonably sized phone by a major manufacturer you can use as an actual smartphone with custom ROMs. And there’s a good amount of custom ROM support out there.

The other one I would seriously look at is the Pixel 4a, but it’s definitely above your size requirement. It might be more useful if you list a height limit or width limit to the phone size instead of a screen size limit – for instance, I won’t use anything taller than 135mm. But the iPhone SE (2016), XZ1 Compact, and iPhone 12/13 Mini all satisfy that requirement, despite having 4", 4.6", and 5.4" screens, respectively. Aspect ratios and bezels are weird!

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

Makes sense. I can confirm there’s a nice step-by-step procedure for the XZ1C, and it’s been tested by at least dozens of folks, some of which have multiple devices.

I’ve also looked at the Atom L myself, please post a review if you do end up getting it and using a custom ROM on it! I chose the XZ1C over it because the Atom L is literally 2x the thickness of the XZ1C, which is already as thick as I’d like a phone to be. I’m curious if the thickness will bother you at all, and just how good the unlocking and custom ROM experience is on such a niche phone.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

Verizon-style bootlocking ought to be criminal.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

It turns out that the DRM keys only matter on Android 8 (Oreo) – on 9 (Pie) and on all custom ROMs, they don’t matter. I think. Camera quality certainly seems fine to me – comparable to my 2016 iPhone SE, that is, acceptable but not beautiful.

It seems nobody really cares about the DRM keys any more unless you’re hellbent on reselling your XZ1C with the capability of taking high quality photos on Oreo. A pretty niche thing these days!

Because the DRM keys don’t matter any more, no need to root or downgrade. You probably have to factory reset, but you should be able to take a backup and install a custom ROM. Lineage 17.1 and 20 have both treated me well, and introduce some nice new features and conveniences along with improved app compatibility now that Pie is so old. A tough sell on a daily driver, I know, but if you’re contemplating a phone upgrade anyway, this might get you a couple more years out of the XZ1C!

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

Have you had any issues with crashing modems on your cellular provider? I’m curious if my issue (works OK for a few days after flashing Lineage over stock, then the cell modem totally dies and the wifi crashes every minute or so) is limited to Google Fi. Sadly Fi’s international data is really valuable for me so I can’t switch to another MVNO, but it would be nice to know if I have the option.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

Official, too! And I believe the predecessor, the Z2 Compact, also has official Lineage support.

Sadly the XZ2 did away with the headphone jack and has a (subjectively) shittier design. But it is still smaller than any modern phone by a fair margin.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

Thanks! I’m also trying a new Fi SIM, mine is pretty old and I know that older SIM cards can cause issues sometimes. So far so good!

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 8 months ago

It’s a tradeoff of convenience. I want the jack because it’s a universal standard that doesn’t require external batteries or the right alignment of the stars for proper functionality. Quality has been fine since the dawn of the smartphone, IMO, at least for earbuds. You’re still free to use a USB DAC if there’s a jack!

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 9 months ago

I’ve been running a setup much like this for a year and a half now. I ended up buying a Samsung T5 2TB USB drive and plugging it into my RPi 4. Works amazingly, performance is ideal. And there’s even a way to boot from a USB SSD if you want to avoid SD card wear.

Why the T5 and not a higher tier SSD? Turns our the T7 and higher chips only benefit from speeds if you’ve got a thunderbolt port, consume a lot of extra power, and generate a ton of extra heat. The T5 will hopefully hold up better over time since it’s almost always cool to the touch. Performance has not been an issue.

Of course, you could also look into SBC with built-in PCIe ports and plug an SSD right in.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 10 months ago

Idle battery drain, the bane of Android’s existence. Remember when Google started to literally sleep components based on gyroscope movement data to try to save battery? And forevermore Android users were forced to deal with a phone that won’t get notifications until after you pick it up?

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

No reason the state can’t run their own Mastodon instance. Then they don’t have to moderate anything except the comment sections on their own pages, but everyone can consume the content as they please.

I live in a region of the US recently effected by a freak natural disaster. The US Army Core of Engineers announced at 2AM last night that they might have to release water from a dam, adding to the floodwaters in an already flooded downtown near me. On Twitter. Which you can’t view unless you create an account, and even then you might get rate limited. That’s not an acceptable availability for a public emergency announcement.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

I’m glad that it works for you. Doesn’t work for everyone, unfortunately. There are still a few brands out there that release new phones with the jack. Supporting them demonstrates that there’s still a market out there. I find Bluetooth buds, even the great ones, a frustrating enough experience that I don’t want to rely on ONLY that for music listening.

Same thing with small phones; there aren’t many out there, but I show my support where I can. I may not be the majority but I think the jack is a large enough “niche” that it will absolutely be out there for a long time. In fact I suspect as people get tired of the $200/year (for good bluetooth buds) hamster wheel the jack will actually increase in popularity. But it takes time for all of those bluetooth buds to break down on people, and for people to decide that enough is enough.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

95 here. Started with the original GameBoy and an old Macintosh in the basement. My first computer was a POS gateway with the cow logo and 128MB of RAM. Finished up high school with the Xbox 360 and an iPhone. I’m a retrogrouch to Gen Z and some kind of hacker to most Millenials. My GF (same age) and I jokingly call ourselves “MillenialZ” (with an obnoxious accentuated zzzzzz at the end) because we don’t quite fit in with either generation.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

I still remember getting in trouble at my public school with the IT admin because my friends and I discovered how to write BAT files, and had the brilliant idea to create a bunch of fork bombs that self-replicated until they froze their host computer.

Unfortunately I think kids today don’t even get enough leeway to figure that sort of shit out. But kids are awfully good at finding cracks in systems, so maybe they’ve just figured out how to get up to similar hijinks with GUIs and cloud storage.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

The last a series phone with a headphone jack was the 5a. Two a series phones have come out without the jack since.

Really annoying, tbh. The jack is a requirement for me as well. The last phone that met most of my requirements was the 4a (the 5a got quite a bit larger).

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

The last a series phone with a headphone jack was the 5a. Two a series phones have come out without the jack since.

Really annoying, tbh. The jack is a requirement for me as well. The last phone that met most of my requirements was the 4a (the 5a got quite a bit larger).

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

The last a series phone with a headphone jack was the 5a. Two a series phones have come out without the jack since.

Really annoying, tbh. The jack is a requirement for me as well. The last phone that met most of my requirements was the 4a (the 5a got quite a bit larger).

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

Sadly, I think they saw the writing on the wall with Google’s RCS push, and the decided lack of RCS APIs for Android apps to implement an RCS interface outside of Google. SMS has a lot of staying power, so it won’t happen overnight. But there’s a good chance that third-party RCS apps on Android will never be a real thing, or will forever end up hobbled. I think the Signal product folks imagined they had a LOT more clout than they actually had in the community. Sort of a less disastrous version of the Twitter and Reddit changes this year, trying to lock folks in.

DynamoSunshirtSandals , 11 months ago

Exactly. I sometimes switch my SIM card between two different phones; Signal makes that process super confusing and awful because your Signal account, on a phone, doesn’t just behave like an account, it has hooks built into your phone and messaging apps. Telegram, on the other hand, lets me set a password and use 2FA via email and then just… log in. Honestly it seems so much simpler I can’t understand what the Signal devs are up to!