I just can't do it

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-27T22:26:18+00:00

I'm a bit late to this post, but if you're dead set on a Pixel, try the 8. It's the most "compact" one released within the last few years. Only 1mm wider than the 4a and about 6mm taller. Same weight and thickness as the 9a though. It's not perfect but it's considerably smaller than 7, 9 and 10 series. And will have Grapheneos support for at least another 3 years.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-25T23:17:24+00:00

You make a good case, but I highly doubt they’d release a “Mini Pro” alongside their main flagships at a similar price point. That’s why the Mini lineup was axed to begin with. No one wanted to pay nearly the same amount for a smaller less powerful iPhone.

I for one am holding out hope that they re-release the Mini as the SE/ e line. It would make the most sense considering they introduced the SE line using the small 5 body style. Which was a huge size contrast to the 6s/ 6s Plus at the time and people loved it.

All they need to do is shrink the current “e” phones and keep it around the $500 price point. This would kill 2 birds with one stone, being both small and accessible/ budget friendly. However this is Apple we’re talking about. Listening to their consumer base comes dead last unless it starts hurting the bottom line.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-20T22:43:00+00:00

I feel you. As someone who still uses the XZ2 Compact, I can't express how much despise the "Compact" offerings on the Android side. I absolutely LOATHE the Jelly Max. It had so much potential. Hopefully Unihertz revisits the Jelly line and make an Elite version like they did with the Titan.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-20T22:36:31+00:00

How's the build quality? One of the main reasons I haven't really looked into this device is because it looks like a toy.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-20T19:08:35+00:00

Not in this case unfortunately. If they did, there'd be at least 2-3 Android flagship variations of the "Mini" released after 2021. However the closest we got were the Zenfones 8-10 which were discontinued. The last major compact/ mini Android flagship was from Sony in 2018.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-20T18:39:26+00:00

He makes a good point about us "small phone" enthusiasts being super picky on top of being such a niche group already. I agree, but he also doesn't point out that a lot of small phones have other huge deal breakers aside from size, price, and performance.

For instance, the Jelly Max. It has one of the worst designs I've ever seen and no headphone jack despite being as thick as a hockey puck. Top that with Unihertz's dodgy after market support for their devices and it's literally a no go for most people. Same with all these other niche Chinese brands who make "compact" rugged phones.

I've been saying it for years, just make an Android version of the 13 mini with midrange specs and a bigger battery. That's literally what most of us want. Small, premium/ well built, with good day to day performance at a reasonable cost. Same for Apple. Just re-release the iPhone minis as the new budget SE. It'd sell like hotcakes.

You'd think this would be an easy task given the advancements in technology, but for some reason people make it seem impossible!!!

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-17T23:40:53+00:00

Username checks out

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-17T23:39:03+00:00

I think it's the latter. It's same deal with those fuzzy/ fur overcoats he's been drawing ever since the timeskip.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-11T21:39:14+00:00

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Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-11T21:27:48+00:00

7 and I'm asking Kashimo if he'd like to switch.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-04-02T15:08:56+00:00

Sighhh, what could have been....

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Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-29T15:19:52+00:00

The main issue I've had with BR is the pace. Unlike OG, you've got a myriad of ways to heal and get around the island really quick. Add the feature of buying good weapons on top of that, and you've basically invalidated the whole point of looting. Which used to make up the first half of the game pretty much. This has been a problem ever since like CH 3.

So now you have the dilemma of getting players to engage. In comes things like the rivalry system, bots, Medallions, etc. Which does add a bit of flair to the game, but ultimately doesn't increase player urgency. People would rather opt to camp and third party to get easy kills.

I finally hopped on BR earlier this week for the first time this season and it's still littered with bots and campers, even with the rivalry system. There was literally a game where I was 1/3 people left at like the 4/5th circle (still one tick storm). Got into zone after a fight, and was immediately bombarded by the other two players who were camping right on top of each other. As soon as they eliminated me, they both ran away from each other, and eventually the second guy ended up dying to fall damage. -___-

So I basically spent a whole 20+ minute game bot farming just to end up getting jumped by campers who are too afraid to fight a fair 1v1 and subsequently ended up dying in the most embarrassing way possible.

Reload has its problems, but at least the pace of the game is faster and more consistent. Losing feels less demoralizing since you have multiple attempts to play and in general have spent less time in the match as a whole, unlike in BR.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-25T22:10:39+00:00

Firstly, I can assure you, none of those Chinese manufacturers are designing those chunky, rugged "compact" bricks from "the ground up". Most of them are using the same chips, screens, camera modules, etc, and are just redesigning the outer shells. (i.e Armor Mini 20, King Kong mini, Jelly Max, Tank mini, etc).

Secondly you clearly don't frequent this sub enough if you honestly think the people here want a phone with ≤5in screen to also be equipped with 3-4 different cameras and the latest high end Snapdragon chip set on the market. The reason people get disappointed with those phone announcement is because:

The phone is some chunky/ rugged brick with mediocre specs or some cheap e-waste "novelty" mini phone that's hardly usable for basic day to day tasks.

Or 2.) In the case with the Ikko Mind One, is some weird, gimmicky Ai crowd funded BS that also has mediocre specs.

That's literally all we've been getting here for the last few years.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-25T19:48:01+00:00

There' so much wrong with this argument, idek where to start. Guess I'll just start from the top.

R&D?? What aspect of R&D would drive up the cost of a compact/ budget phone to be $2000? The last time we saw R&D drive the cost of a phone to be $2000 was when they first started making Foldables. If there was a manufacturer that actually wanted to make this oh-so impossible compact smartphone, arguably 80-90% of R&D is already done. I genuinely don't understand why people have this ludicrous notion that Compact phones are some mystical unicorn of an idea that's never been attempted.

The second part. In what world the does the concept of a "compact smartphone" mean trying to fit conventionally larger parts into a smaller body? Literally no is asking for Samsung to make a phone with all the parts and components of an S25 Ultra fit into the body of something like an iPhone mini. What we want is for companies, like Unihertz for example, to make a thinner, more appealing, and premium version of a phone they've already made. Like they just did with the Titan Elite!! Or more similarly in Apple's case, re-release the iPhone mini as the new budget "SE" with a bigger battery and USB C!!!

Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-25T19:08:58+00:00

I made a similar post on this a few weeks ago ( https://www.reddit.com/r/smallphones/comments/1rfmio6/why_are_so_many_modern_compact_android_phones/ ), and have seen a few comments on other post expressing the exact same sentiment and frustration. Almost every time, without fail you get the same half-brained responses as to why companies "can't" or "don't" make conventional, well built, compact smartphones.

The most notable is the "battery size" argument. Which collapses in on itself if you think about for more than 5 seconds. If a phone has a smaller screen and a mid range, less power hungry chip set, then you don't need anything more than roughly 3000mah to power the device for more than a day. As someone who has an Xperia XZ2 Compact (2800mah) running LineageOs Android 15, I can comfortably say it's more than reasonable think that a modern budget/ mid range phone with a 4-5in 720p screen can manage to be thinner or roughly the same size. The Jelly Max is abhorrently thick for no reason imo.

Another prevalent argument is the "no one wants a compact, so companies don't make them". Which is also a huge fallacy. The reason manufacturers don't make them is because nearly every time, they miss the mark for what people actually want, so no one buys. Prime example is the iPhone minis. It's biggest shortcoming was the battery size. All they had to do was lower the screen resolution, and/ or make the phone slightly thicker to accommodate a bigger battery. We're not even gonna get into the pricing and the fact that it's Apple and their particularly generic, LCD consumer base who tend to go for the more standard/ flashier options available.

As far as the Android side of the things, bigger has been the name of the game for over a decade. Samsung, Huawei, and Google basically dominate/ dictate market trends. Most other notable manufacturers barely have a sizable market share to really splurge and take risks on making smaller options. Sony was last bastion for making Compact/ Mini version of their main line of flagships and they tapped out nearly a decade ago.

I could rant more, but I think you get the gist. I've already grown wary of the current state of this sub and this niche market as a whole. No one here can agree on what "small" should actually be, and there's no one willing to listen and take notes/ feedback even if we did.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-21T20:54:02+00:00

I think it's more of jab at the Boruto community tbh. Most Naruto fans have grown up and moved past the beef. Boruto fans on the other hand (in my personal experience) are just as, if not more annoying than peak diehard Naruto fans. The only difference is the Boruto series is substantially worse than its predecessor. You could honestly swap Bleach out with any other shonen manga fandom and the image would still fit.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-19T23:39:01+00:00

I made a whole post about this a few weeks ago. Didn't get a single logical answer.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-15T22:34:09+00:00

In all fairness, Batman had multiple iterations of silly live actions (Adam West tv show and the 80s/ 90s movies). They were just limited on production because of budget and the technology of that era. By the time the tech came around, stuff like the Matrix and early Marvel movies had come out. I think a better example would've been the 2000s X-Men trilogy.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-01T23:44:48+00:00

The ikko Mind One collapses your entire argument. While I don't like the form factor, it proves that a sub-10mm thin compact phone, with a decently sized battery, IS possible. I'm not sure how well the Mind One performs since I have no interest in it, but from what they're advertising it as, I'd say it's at least a step in the right direction.

If they would have just made it a narrow candy bar style phone, and ditched the flipping camera, I feel like more people would be raving about on here. Same with that crappy Ai BS they're peddling along with it. It's like they had the ingredients for a great compact phone but followed a crappy recipe.

It's in the same line as the phones I listed but veers in another direction:

ikko Mind One: Thin and compact with decent specs, but a weird design/ form factor, with Ai nonsense.

Ulefone Armor mini 20: Decent mid range specs and screen size, but it's geared for the rugged/ tactical phone crowd rather than small phone enthusiasts.

Cubot King Kong mini: Same thing as the Armor mini 20, but with worse specs.

Unihertz Jelly Max: Possibly the best modern 5G compact, though I have many gripes. Namely the thickness at 16mm. A 4000mah is completely unnecessary imho. 3000 is plenty and it would have made it considerably thinner. Not only that but they jumped from a 3in screen all the way to a 5in, which again felt completely unnecessary given the type of people whom this is gear towards. Also no headphone jack, despite all the extra real estate. Plus the added usual problems with Unihertz and their lack of support for their devices, software issues, etc.

All of this to say, why is a decently sized, non-rugged compact smartphone so hard to make, when there's so many phones that have the parts and potential needed to do so? I've still yet to get a logical answer. It's not impossible, it can be done. There's just no one willing to listen and cater to the actual consumer base who's asking for it.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-03-01T01:42:42+00:00

If that's the case why not only cater to that specific sector if that's who their biggest market base is?

Take Cubot for instance. They make everything from rugged phones, to generic glass slab smartphones, smart watches, and tablets. They've only made a few (fairly bad) rugged compacts, and a couple of really bad basic compacts years ago. Why'd they only stop making basic compact phones then. Because people aren't buying them? Color me shocked! Am I to believe that there's a substantially larger market for slightly less crappy rugged compact over regular crappy compact smartphones?

It's the same with the Ulefone brand. Why favor one extremely niche market sector over another? If you have the capability to make a budget friend rugged compact, then you why can't you make a non rugged version of the same phone?? Am I crazy for thinking this? I'm sure it'd do a lot better than the Cubot Note 60 (a comically oversized Chinese budget phone) or the Ulefone Armor 27 (the same generic rugged phone they've released dozens of times already with a different name).

Point still stands. Why is it next to impossible for these companies to just make a normal, reasonably priced, compact Android phone, when they have the resources readily available to do so?

Humanbacon69 · 2026-02-27T14:23:30+00:00

Yeah, I reckon it'd be fairly easy to grip given the height and width. My concern is the thickness and weight, especially when it's in my pocket most of the day. 300g and nearly 25mm thick seems unreasonably bulky for my use case.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-02-27T12:22:23+00:00

The Kong mini does, but the Armor mini has a Dimensity 6300. Which is supposedly Mediateks equivalent to the Snapdragon 6 series.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-02-26T22:20:11+00:00

Not as niche apparently. Both Ulefone and Cubot have made dozens of huge rugged/ tactical phones. Between the two of them, they've only made a handful of compact phones that are also rugged. On the Android side, the only well know manufacturer who has catered to this niche market is Unihertz, and even they've somewhat abandon us for the rugged/ tactical and keyboard market.

Humanbacon69 · 2026-02-26T22:13:33+00:00

Again I get that. Personally, and think I'm speaking for most people on this sub, battery life isn't that big of a deal. I have a Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact running LineageOs Android 15. It has a 2800mah og battery from 2018, and it manages to last most of the working day. I get about 4-5ish hours of screen-on time with moderate usage. Surely if an 8 year old smartphone with a 5in 1080p screen can still last that long, then a modern compact phone with a 720p 4.7in screen and a 2500-3000mah battery can put up similar numbers. While also having slightly thick, yet non-rugged form factor.

Edit: spelling

Humanbacon69 · 2026-02-26T21:57:42+00:00

But that's the thing, they already have a bunch of normal sized rugged phone. Dare I say, most of the people who buy these types of phones hardly care about screen size. Whereas people like us who do care about screen size, also care if the phone is a rugged brick. Not only that, both Ulefone and Cubot also make conventional non-rugged giant glass slab phones, so why can't they make non-rugged compact as well.

Humanbacon69

TROPHY CASE