Small Android Phone

TL;DR: Succinctness has never been my strong suit? :)

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> But I'm not really sure that this fear is grounded - before we sold to Fitbit we 'unlocked' the Pebble mobile app [...].

If I'm reading OP's comment & your reply correctly, my impression is there's potentially a fear of either (a) "re-locking"; or, even just (b) "new thing not unlocked"--and, I think, you're saying that (a) isn't going to/can't happen?

On closer reading I think you might also be saying that (b) isn't going to happen because "new thing" is still going to use the previous unlocked app and/or maybe a new unlocked app? But, if that's the case, I only really saw that possible interpretation after a much closer re-read.

(Alternatively, maybe I just didn't weight sufficiently strongly the FAQ: "Will it be exactly like Pebble?" "Yes. In almost every way.")

More broadly (outside the positive example of your specific track record with regard to OGPebble & the app unlocking), given the landscape of the past 1.5+ decades littered with even just recent examples such as Spotify's Car Thing, Google's Stadia controller, Bambu Labs, and pretty much every phone ever[0][0a], I think it would be a stretch to consider the fear to be entirely ungrounded.

Particularly if some portion of the device firmware etc and/or server software is still going to be closed source.

In terms of strength of confidence in the potential of achieving a "desired open outcome/ongoing experience", I imagine the ordering from least to…

I’m a long-time small phone Android user. But after the Pixel 5, I have not been able to find a suitable small Android replacement. The Pixel 6 is gigantic, and the Pixel 7 looks like it is also destined to be huge. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve resorted to using an iPhone Mini, biding my time and hoping desperately that some Android OEM would step up.

But it’s increasingly clear that a small premium phone is not on the roadmap. So I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. My goal with https://smallandroidphone.com is to rally other fans of small phones together and put pressure on Google/Samsung/Anyone to consider making a small phone.

I have a very specific set of skills and industry connections that I have acquired over a long career in the hardware business (my first startup was Pebble). I will put them to use in our shared quest to get the perfect small Android phone. If no one else builds one, and enough people sign up...maybe I will be forced to make it myself.

If you want a small premium Android phone, this may be your last chance (ever?) to help bring back the phone category that we love.

I've had the same email from Slack. My phone is 5½ years old.

It works fine, so I don't want to replace it, but even more than that it's small — 148x73mm. There are no other decent Android phones of a similar size! (I have signed up at https://smallandroidphone.com/).

But back to the point, in Denmark the national identity system relies on either a smartphone app or a key fob for authentication — it's needed for online banking login, online credit/debit card purchases, viewing my medical records, etc. The app supposedly might work, or might be made to work on a custom OS, but from reading around Reddit it looks like a continual hassle to keep it working. I also don't much fancy adding a large fob to my keychain, especially as unlike in the app the number on the fob isn't protected by a fingerprint or PIN.

(I'm on call sometimes, and we use Slack to coordinate, so I may end up with no choice. Whether work pay for the new phone or myself is irrelevant, it's the environmental footprint and size I care about.)

> I wonder if there isn't a market for budget Androids in this range.

I think there is: https://smallandroidphone.com/ This was started up by the people behind Pebble (including its re-launch this year). I actually emailed them a while back asking for a status update. They told me there are literally no high quality screens of an appropriate size available to OEMs. They would have to design & spin up their own display hardware, which is where things change from "expensive" to "infeasible." If there was an existing, high quality 4.5~5" screen, I think it'd be an easy slam dunk. But there apparently is not...

Too bad. I just hold out hope Apple will try the Mini again before my 13 dies.

I think phones are the main device for most people now, so they want the biggest screen as possible, like other people here are saying. It's where people consume stuff and entertain themselves, so I guess it's understandable.

There's a project [0] that hopefully will bring a good compact Android smartphone to the market, maybe it will be an alternative for people who want a compact phone.

I'm also looking for an Android smartphone to replace my iPhone SE (2016), and the Asus Zenfone 9/10, S23/S24 and Moto Edge 30 are some of the "compact" options I'm considering.

[0]: https://smallandroidphone.com/

> iPhone 4S: 3'5"

This is a very funny typo, considering the topic at hand.

But yeah, I think I stopped being happy with phone sizes when they started going beyond 4" or so. It's hilarious to me that they can make a phone that's ~5.5" and call it "mini".

I'm an Android guy, and had high hopes for https://smallandroidphone.com/, but the guy who was originally driving it is running his resurrected Pebble company now, and there's been basically no useful activity in the Discord for at least a couple years now, so I assume it's dead.