Miss proper small phones with 6-inch screens or less? Unfortunately, more manufacturers have bad news for you.
    • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      13·
      3 months ago

      I’m starting to head this direction, at least mobile-wise. I haven’t yet because trying to live life without a cell phone is just not pleasant, But the only thing I really use my cell phone for is Discord, Firefox, and the camera

      Mobile gaming, which I primarily had got a phone in the first place for has gone down the tube, It seems like every mobile game can fit into one of 4 categories.

      • The live-action-style ones like Clash of Clans that you need money to progress in.
      • The simulation idlers Where you don’t actually do anything, You just upgrade every once in a while.
      • The match 3 clones where it disguises as a different game but the primary focus is matching,
      • The bleed you dry energy style games where every action you do costs some form of in-game energy. That takes real time to regenerate.

      Used to be able to find puzzlers or simulation games that were outside of that genre, but you can’t really anymore. I’m still circulating the same 4 games from when I had an s9 8ish years ago.

      Social media is thoroughly screwed. You can’t go on there without some sort of ideology being pushed at you or toxicity.

      Voice-mails and messaging is hit or miss of whether or not it’s someone trying to scam you.

      every application out there wants to harvest every bit of data about your life because almost no country has any type of actual regulation against the collection of personal data.

      Every once in a while, I look back to see how feasible it would be to go without, but far too many services require a phone number. Any platform worth its salt uses some form of two-factor authentication, which generally is either text message or an app-based two-factor.

      Hell, It’s hard enough finding a bank that doesn’t require a cell phone. I just dumped my last bank due to that reason. They reconsolidated into a slightly larger company, and when they did, that parent company decided that consumers shouldn’t have the ability to write their own checks. So if I wanted to write a check, I had to log into the phone app, and then select Send a check, wait four to six business days for the bank to actually send the check themselves, and then wait for the three to four days on top of that to actually receive payments. I closed the account as soon as I got confirmation my funds transfered

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      I got kinda conned into a Pixel 10 Pro XL. It’s huge and it’s heavy, and it doesn’t really feel that much more useful than the S10e it replaced.

      What I want it for is basically a media player, quick internet look-upper, and maybe instant messenger. The ability to get “Hey I’m at the front entrance” and reply “Cool I’ll let you in”. My Galaxy S4 Mini did every piece of that.

      It’s getting uncomfortably difficult to do without a cell phone. Everything wants to be an app. Like, it’s one thing when a restaurant allows you to order via app because then they can be making your order while you’re on your way to get it. But when they won’t print a menu, they’ll ONLY allow customers to order via an app, like a waiter comes up to your table and tells you you have to scan a QR code. Parking, public transit, starting into goddamn government functions, now require an app. Which is a problem if you VISIT a city rather than live there.

      When I was a teenager, I would have been excited to have a powerful, capable computer with a fantastic screen and constant high speed internet access that fit in my pocket. But damn if they didn’t go and ruin it.

  • LaggyKarEnglish
    6·
    3 months ago

    6 inches is not small, it’s quite big. Small would be like 4 inches or less. My first smartphone had a 3.2 inch screen.

        • zikzak025@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          Maybe a bit redundant these days. They’re effectively just “phones”.

          Used to be that the label was needed to differentiate from earlier feature phones, but even the “dumb phones” of today primarily run some slimmed down flavor of Android. No one can escape the data harvest.

          • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            Remember the term “PDA” “Personal Digital Assistant?” From like the PalmOS days?

            At this point a smart phone is a PDA that ate a cell phone to gain its power. I never hear the term PDA in the real world anymore, but video games use it for in-universe gadgets often used to justify the inventory menu or whatever. Subnautica does it.

            • Hadriscus@jlai.luEnglish
              2·
              3 months ago

              My dad used a Palm from the late 90s to roughly 2007-8 when he got one of the early HTC Androids, the ones with a trackball. Then he got a Palm Pre and that shit was good… even though the devices today are vastly more powerful I feel that the market regressed in many ways

  • HM King Charles III DG FD@feddit.ukEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    There’s unihertz, but their quality is unfortunately questionable. I’ve ordered a Clicks Communicator. It’s actually a similar size to a phablet, but using that space for a physical keyboard feels like I’m sending a message to the establishment.

    • GraniteM@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      I got a Jelly Star to use as a music player and I very seriously considered using it as my full-time phone for that exact reason. The only thing that held me back is I take a lot of pictures and the camera wasn’t quite up to snuff, and I’m not prepared to commit to also carrying a decent camera around all the time.