Smartphone size discussion

[Rurouni]

I carry the phone around with me all day so it should be as small as possible - but still with >=720p resolution. I don't need maximum size screen - I am fine with 4" as long as it is high resolution..

I would like to have a phone with:
- around 4 to max. 4.5" screen size, compact case
- 720p resolution, good brightness for outdoor usage
- good camera (and I don't mean 20MPixels crammed into a 1/4" sensor )
- microSD slot (I can't understand why there are smartphones without, should be mandatory like the SIM card slot)
- state of the art dual core CPU and good GPU with good software support
- rugged construction, it should not break directly when dropped
- no shiny glossy case surface that easily collects fingerprints, dirt particles and scratches...
- good battery life (+user replaceable battery)
- good software support, recent android version


Does something like this exist?

Xperia V, but a bit tall.

 

[slyd]

> One big reason could be the fact that for example Android doesn't
> natively support MicroSD cards

It's Linux. Should be piece of cake to enable that.
(but also to disable it)


> Xperia V,

Comes close - but there are lots of reports about the phone often crashing completely when in standby and not waking up again until you remove the battery. Not sure if Sony has fixed that but last time I checked there was no update for it.
Not good...

 

[zed]

ideal phone, which is very possible to build

~5-5.5"
100% plastic (its superior than metal in phones, yet has an image problem)
plastic front (gorilla glass sucks, 1/3rd of UK iphone etc owners have a cracked screen on their phone)
big battery ~3x the size they are currently (I dont mind if the phone weighs 250gm)
waterproof/resistant (I see sony have released a phone that is)
decent GPS (that doesnt require cell connection)
torch (no mate your 'torch app' is a joke)

 

[RudeCurve]

I guess I must be old. I'm the opposite. I've used my smartphone as a phone 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time being either as a MP3 player or GPS device. I don't touch apps or internet on my smartphone, didn't find them at all interesting or useful on a mobile device of that caliber.

In many ways, I regret buying a smartphone, although it was exciting for the first couple of weeks to just have one. But after a few months of use, I'd be better served with a feature phone with much longer battery life. This smartphone I have is supposed to have one of the longest battery lives on any smartphone and it achieves maybe 1/20th of the battery time that my previous flip phone did. That's just atrocious. I used to be able to go 2-3 weeks of moderate useage without charging and it'd still have about 25% battery remaining. This device I can only go 3-4 days of light useage before the battery is dead and I'll be wondering how long it's been dead and if I've missed any calls.

Regards,
SB

Most people charge their phones daily anyway, it's like brushing your teeth every night except it only takes a couple seconds to plug the phone in before going to sleep...hardly an inconvenience.

 

[silent_guy]

decent GPS (that doesnt require cell connection)

FWIW: I still use my decommissioned iPhone 4 as GPS (due to various gadgets that aren't compatible with the 5). It doesn't have an active SIM card, but GPS lock is still pretty much instantaneous. So I think it still uses the cell phone network to get accelerated access to the GPS ephemeris data.

When I use it in cell phone free backcountry, it takes much longer to lock, but faster than, say, a Garmin Edge 305.

I don't think that, these days, there is a substantial difference between a pure GPS handheld and a GPS cell phone: they all use the same silicon anyway. (Except the antenna may be larger for a dedicated handheld.)

 

[zed]

Stick it in airplane mode and test. Disable WiFi also

My nexus4 takes 10mins roughly to get a lick. And about 5secs with cellassist.
Huge difference

My sony camera takes about 5secs. I.e. it has excellent GPS.

 

[3dcgi]

Ah well, it's all academic as I'm saving for a wedding next year so don't have the means for a new phone at the moment! Hopefully, the Atrix will last another year or so.

Weddings are so expensive no one will notice if you slip a phone into a supplies budget. :smile: On second thought maybe that isn't the best way to start a marriage.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Most people charge their phones daily anyway, it's like brushing your teeth every night except it only takes a couple seconds to plug the phone in before going to sleep...hardly an inconvenience.

For you and those people it isn't. For me, it's a relatively huge drawback and inconvenience. Such that I'm not sure I'll buy another smartphone if given a choice.

Regards,
SB

 

[silent_guy]

Stick it in airplane mode and test. Disable WiFi also

I always disable Wifi. Airplane mode also switches off the GPS (dumb, I know), so that doesn't fly.

 

[orangpelupa]

on android, after go to flight mode, gps disabled. then go to setting to manually enable GPS again
phone that support GPS and GLONASS have faster lock and better precission.

about Xperia V. Use custom firmware.
From my experience with previous Sony Android phones, the official firmware never good. Its buggy, slow, lag, freeze. Then if there new upgrade available, you will get new bug.

for example Xperia 2012 (Xperia S, Xperia Sola, etc) upgrade from Gingerbread to ICS. It introduce new bugs.
- Video record mono audio (it was stereo on GB)
- Quicklaunch (camera hardware button) broken/work randomly (it was working fine on GB)
- randomly fails to lock to closer cell tower (stuck on low signal until you restart phone)

 

[zed]

Orangepelupa r u in Malaysia?
I'm on kapas island ATM.
I'm on celcom also. Good choice? Or should I choose something else?

 

[orangpelupa]

sorry zed, currently im not on Malaysia but on its neighboring country.

 

[zed]

Indonesia. I've been there a couple of times before. Not going this time though. Starting at Singapore and moving up

 

[orangpelupa]

haha you got me

back about smartphone size,
not all small phone are comfortable to hold.

i have tried to hold iPhone 4. Its very boxy. its uncomfortable. On the other hand, Galaxy Note 2 is very big but have curved body that comfortable to hold.
The HOME MENU BACK button position also have effect on comfortability. For me its only HTC and Sony phones that have "chin" thats comfortable. Other phone where HOME MENU BACK too close to bottom make my Thumb a bit cramp.

btw i read TheVerge review about Xperia Z and they say its too boxy or something.. not comfortable. Thats werid, Xperia Z is less boxy than iPhone 4 but they say iPhone 4 is comfortable :/

 

[Kaotik]

HTC One

One Phone to rule them all, One Phone to find them,
One Phone to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

'them' obviously referring to inferior plastic buckets from other manufacturers and shattering pieces of out of date glass

 

[Deleted member 13524]

HTC One

One Phone to rule them all, One Phone to find them,
One Phone to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

'them' obviously referring to inferior plastic buckets from other manufacturers and shattering pieces of out of date glass

I might still get a HTC One in the end, but I find two disastrous turn-offs in that smartphone:

1 - No MicroSD card. Coming from a 16GB One X, I'm still trying to adapt to the stupidly low storage space, and that's the sole reason for me wanting to change models from the otherwise spectacular usability I have with it. I'll only ever buy a One if it's a 64GB model, and if that model isn't way too expensive.

2 - No physical menu button. Apparently the pre-launch ROMs could map the long-press home button into menu button but that's been scrapped in the production ROMs. This means I'll heed to have a stupid black menu bar everywhere just to house that button.

 

[Helmore]

btw i read TheVerge review about Xperia Z and they say its too boxy or something.. not comfortable. Thats werid, Xperia Z is less boxy than iPhone 4 but they say iPhone 4 is comfortable :/

That's probably because the iPhone 4 is smaller. Their Xperia Z review is also written by a different guy than their iPhone reviews.

ideal phone, which is very possible to build

~5-5.5"
100% plastic (its superior than metal in phones, yet has an image problem)
plastic front (gorilla glass sucks, 1/3rd of UK iphone etc owners have a cracked screen on their phone)
big battery ~3x the size they are currently (I dont mind if the phone weighs 250gm)
waterproof/resistant (I see sony have released a phone that is)
decent GPS (that doesnt require cell connection)
torch (no mate your 'torch app' is a joke)

I think your ideal phone would be a niche product. I think few people would want a phone that heavy for example.

Another thing, is it currently even possible to make plastic as scratch proof as Gorilla Glass or something similar? I know there are studies in applying diamond coatings and things like that, along with all sorts of coatings they can work into eyeglasses, but I'm not sure how strong and viable for mass manufacturing those are.

 

[Kaotik]

They might change it back too via update if people give enough feedback on it.

I'm not sure how people get their phones filled, I'm using a One S which has 8GB if my memory serves me, and it hasn't ever ran out on me - I do for example empty my photos and videos regularly to my computer and have usually just couple albums of music in there - there's plenty of streaming services I can use, or netradios.

 

[orangpelupa]

why HTC not just put an option on the settings menu instead forcing user to use only one button behavior.

im sure it will be fixed by custom rom, but it will be awesome if supported officially

 

[Kaotik]

why HTC not just put an option on the settings menu instead forcing user to use only one button behavior.

im sure it will be fixed by custom rom, but it will be awesome if supported officially

IIRC they did change the behaviour of my current One S's "multitask"-button in a patch due feedback so the user could choose it to act as menu button and long press for the original "multitask", so just start sending those feedback mails if you want a change for this.