Technology

I second this.

3.5 jack is easy, most budget phones have them (along with a MicroSD card slot)

The replaceable battery? That's gonna be hard to find. There the obvious Fairphone, but its very costly for its specs and is only made for EU, and even if someone from the US imports it, the only US carrier allowing it is Tmobile.

Samsung Galaxy XCover series have IP67 Water resistance, headphone jack, and MicroSD card slot, and the replaceable battery, but its specs are not that good for its cost (as reported by various Reddit users).

I wouldn't trust the water resistance tho. One drop into a puddle and the back comes off exposing the internals.

That phone isn't actually small. It has a small screen, but it's 25mm thick and weighs 300g.

“walled garden” - how many 5.4” android phones can you name from the current decade?

I agree, it's like the author is saying "why this public-market company I trusted blindly is not doing what I (minority) want?"

RAM is a horrible indication of phone performance imo.

The A15 chip in the iPhone 3 SE absolutely destroys the Dimensity 6300 chip in the 8GB phone you linked

A lot of people had liked iPhone because for the longest time android phones were not able to compete in the cpu/gpu space especially around the time of the iPhone 11.

Although now at the high end android phones are much closer together in performance so it’s more about what features you care about more between the phones.

The truth is though that it's not an apple-specific thing. On the android side Asus was the last large phone maker to ship modern small phones, and even they have taken over their zenfone line (small phones line) with a large phone for the ZenFone 11.

Based on reports from companies, it sounds like the market is just not there, at least not big enough to warrant the R&D compared to "regular" phones which make them good money.

That, and small phones on the Android side are often nerfed beyond reason, like a bottom-of-the-barrel Mediatek SoC with low RAM and shit storage option instead of the bigger model's Snapdragon and quality storage, or shit cameras, or garbage screen resolution, etc etc.

There is something to be said about the larger variant having more room for better cameras, but outside of that, the nerfing feels almost intentional.

And screen. And buttons.

I also want something that's supported more than 3 years so there's a point to repairing it. Ideally, support should come from the community so it can be infinite as long as someone is willing to do the work.

Because they're fucking stupid.

I can pick up a phone in either hand and type on it using only that hand, and I can play games using both hands at once. If I'm using a bracer, it means I can't do anything else with either hand or use my off hand to interact with it.

The only problem a bracer solves is not having pockets, but even then you still need to wear a bracer.

They always lean a little too hard into making the small one the "budget" phone and end up gimping it into something nobody wants, and yet they still don't make it cost attractive.

Compared to the SomePhone Pro, the SomePhone Mini has:

• 6GB of RAM rather than 8. (I mean, okay, what do I need that much RAM for?)
• 128GB onboard storage rather than 512GB (Those chips are the same footprint so that wasn't done for miniaturization, but I don't store a lot on my phone so ok)
• No SD card slot. (I suppose you could argue that IS for miniaturization but it's still a kick in the pants)
• 1080p display rather than 4k. (fine, the PPI is still finer than my eyes)
• 3100mAh battery instead of 3600 (You know the reduced resolution on the display will probably make up for that anyway)
• No NFC (really?)
• No fast charging (fucking sigh)
• No wireless charging (pegwarmer says what?)
• 5.9 inch 9:21 display (so it's 89% the size of the Pro model anyway?)
• a laptop grade VGA camera (you're actively trying to make this product fail, aren't you?)
• Locked bootloader, locked carrier (because of course)
• $899 instead of $949 MSRP (Okay just stop saying words and drown yourself in the septic tank)

I would rather spend this time on a device with a 15' screen and a comfortable keyboard. A phone is just that - a secondary device. That needs to be comfortable to hold and type on with one hand while the other holds onto the subway railing.

The iPhone 13 mini was the perfect size and if Apple would have used that as a base for their new SE instead of the shitty 16e, I would have bought it in a heartbeat. Just give me a thicc 13 mini with a good battery, camera and a new processor.