Hey, I am having big trouble finding a good phone for me. My current path is as follows: Sony xperia mini 3" (2010) -> samsung s4 mini 4.3" (2013) -> sony xperia z3 compact 4.6" (NOW) - > sony xperia xz1 compact 4.6" (when price of secondhand drops) I am using phone mainly for calls and messages. I also use my camera quite a lot, so this is very important. I rarely browse internet and rarely use gps. So from my usage u can understand i need phone as small as possible and screen as small as possible, calls/messages is clumsy on bigger screen. Even going from s4 mini to z3 compact was a big pain even though just 0.3" difference in screen. I have a hard time comfortably reach all parts of my screen and i dont have a small hand. I tried samsung alpha 4.7" and while i loved the phone, it was completely impossible to do everyday tasks without it dropping from my hands and i had a really hard time reaching all parts of the screen without looking like a total idiot using it. So what is going on with screen sizes. Is everyone using their mobile phone as their computer nowadays ? To me it is completely crazy because everywhere i go there is a computer i can use or i just bring mine and i cant belive how browsing internet on 5" is more comfy than on 4.6" - computer is just much better. Basicly it angers me that i just got used to samsung interface and now i have to move to sony because it is basicly the only choice for me to get a somewhat decent camera (xz1 compact) and hardware of decent speed. And once i am on xz1 compact it is the end of the way it seems because i have nowhere to move from there, xz2 compact is crazily bigger and just to big for me. Am i asking to much to want 4.5" screen, great still and video camera and hardware that will occasionaly browse webpages and show gps without crazy lag ? And i wont even go into how horrible Z3 compact camera is because its just not worth it.
On my Galaxy S8+, there is a feature for one-handed operation, which I typically use when I can only use one hand. It works pretty well.
Truly compact phones are just about all gone... sadly. I had an S4, and did not want a bigger phone, but i did want a fast phone... luckily samsung just released the s10e, which is the same size as the s4 (bigger screen, but the frame of the phone is the same size), and without a retarded curved screen.
It is sad but companies produce phones people want and this is what baffles me. How is it possible that i am the only one needing a small fast phone. If there was a big market for small phones i am sure companies would invest into them, afterall they are cheaper to produce due to smaller screen/battery. And let me be clear here, 127mm tall phone is not small to me by any means, holding z3 compact feels like a big phone and i would prefer smaller phone. But now it came so far that even at this size under 130mm u wont be able to find a phone. It is just insane. And also funny, i remember many years ago, first phones were big chuncks and in time they were getting smaller and smaller ... until touchscreen came out. Then we went into this insane island of a mobile phone way and it is insane that each company doesnt have at least 1 compact under 130mm. And they even go far enough to call 140mm compact. I mean, come oooon
I know quite alot of people who would prefer smaller phones... i honestly think it has to do with what reviewers say... they are wanking to ever bigger screen sizes, and critize phones when they have "small" screens. It has less to do what the actual customers want.
I wouldn't say that. Most people like phones with a large screen - when Apple released a bigger iPhone, sales exploded. Even Samsung's curved screens follow customer demand - they went exclusively with curved screens with the S8 because there wasn't enough demand for the flat-screened variants of the S6 and S7 (of course they sell other flat-screen phones as well, but they are not the flagship model). Personally, I like large phones because of the bigger battery (I specifically got the S8+ over the S8 because of the battery size). I got tired of always having poor battery life and went with an overly large phone, which can sometimes be awkward to use with my small hands but the battery life is finally where I want it to be. I consider that to be worth the hassle. The current trend seems to be edge-to-edge screens, which I feel mixed about. They can be difficult to hold at times and I am not a fan of the notch or punch-hole that Apple and Samsung use, respectively. I like the approach that Huawei used with the OnePlus 7 (pop-out camera), but it unfortunately doesn't have wireless charging.
Edge to edge screens are not a problem, as long as the phone doesn't have a curved screen - such as the s10e i bought... and obviously when samsung went back to making a smaller flat screen flagship phone, it is because there is a demand for it I don't see the battery life as a problem - i got a charger in my car, and if i should run low during the day (which basically doesn't happen) i'll just charge it through usb in my computer. I felt wierd about the punch-hole at first aswell, but in use you basically don't notice it, because its in the bar in the corner, so it isn't taking up any space on the screen.
The more i watch online reviews the more i see that xz1 is the only option for me. I should be good with it for a couple of years and lets home some company will decide to create a decent big 4.6" phone.
Oh and another thing, i noticed that its smart that i slowly move to bigger phones with each phone i buy. Why ? Well because like it or not, if i want good hardware i will have to buy bigger phone. When i changed from s4 mini to samsung alpha, it was to big of a change. But when i went from s4 mini to z3 compact it wasnt that big of a change. And going from z3 compact to xz1 compact i will barely notice the difference
I'm in the minority of liking large phones. The Samsung foldable phone had my attention until it was a hardware disaster. I figured as much, foldable screens seem like they will lack endurance. But the idea is awesome for my tastes.
I like large phones, but mostly because I come from the Galaxy S5 which is a 5.1 inch phone and I recently bought a S10+. Believe it or not, due to the bezel, there isnt a huge difference side by side. My s10+ is also thinner, it is also a big longer.
I feel your pain Sentinel. I also like medium sized phones (around 4,7) but unfortunately they are disappearing because no one seems to want them anymore. Instead the current trend is gigantic phones with gigantic screens... My previous phone was the first Samsung A3, a decent phone with the perfect size. Then i "broke" the screen and the fix cost more than 100€ so i decided to buy a new one with better specs and with the same size. I ended up with an Huawei P10 that´s a great phone but it´s a little bigger than i wanted but it was the best i could find in terms of size. Better only the Iphone7 or 8 but those were much more expensive... Now i fear the day i´ll have to replace my P10 because the only thing i see in stores are small tablets being sold as phones...
I'm hunting for a big screen phones, i enjoy using all the screen i can, that's why i chose Huawei Mate 20 X.
I can only imagine then how this looked must for some here 6 years ago. Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3(i9200) (Funny story. I sold my first one but regretted it and bought another one for and had it for a months until the Samsung Note came out later that year.) And on topic, for the OP unfortunately it seems that an upscale to at least 5" screen size will be unavoidable. Quite sure 5" phones will be around for a while to come from either a few/couple known and not so known brands, so that's good news I guess but it seems that they use similar or lower-end specs vs the OP's current XZ1 compact(Snap 835).
