The phone market (where are the compact phones rant)

Discussion in 'Geek Cave: Computers, Tablets, HT, Phones, Games' started by Stuff Jones, Sep 18, 2018.

  1. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    I went and bought a "as new" HTC M8, until this day it was the most "wow" phone i ever had, until i lost mine. I still need another phone and i would like a HTC U12 but those prices are a no-no for me. Considering a V30 instead since i already saw one at 390 in a online store but was out of stock.

    What i find the most incredible are that the prices just keep going up and up every year. Apple with that crappy (specced) 879€ - 1049€ iPhone XR, with the 1792x828 screen, takes the cake.
     
  2. dubharmonic

    dubharmonic Friend

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    Prices are going up on the high end but they're also going down on the low end. The midrange market has never been better!
     
  3. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    Yeap, that's why i am becoming a mid-ranger, or a "i'll buy last years flagship for a good price" guy.
     
  4. Stuff Jones

    Stuff Jones Friend

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    I think the Iphone 7 is probably the way to go. $449 for 32 GB (non-expandable, argh). Bezels are way too big though so it's not nearly as compact as it should be given it's 4.7 screen size. Also mediocre Apple battery life and no HP jack.

    I think part of the problem is there's not much significant product differentiation but constant new product churn. Everyone wants to make the iPhone X or Samsung S9 flagship type phone and then tweak it every year for a few years until a radical revision. The consumer would be better off IMO if say Sony became the compact, great battery life, great camera phone company, Samsung the beautiful screen high power phablet company, etc and they worked to develop HQ products that would compete on the market for a few years at a time. More like how the camera market works, as far as I know.
     
  5. Stuff Jones

    Stuff Jones Friend

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    Pixel 3 is inching closer to flagship price and with the lack of jack or upgradable storage, flagship inconvenience.

    Who will save us?!
     
  6. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Samsung! My note 9 is excellent. The battery life is really good (50-60% when I go to bed). The camera is great. It has a headphone jack. It doesn't have a notch but still has an excellent 83.9% screen to body ratio vs iPhone Xs Max 84.4%. The fingerprint sensor is perfectly placed. It's very fast and it has expandable storage, etc.

    The downside? its huge. I have big hands so it's not too bad, but I can see how it would be a problem for most people. Also the corner of it sticks out of my front pocket a bit on certain jeans.
     
  7. loki993

    loki993 Facebook Friend

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    I used to be a small phone guy until I started watching a lot of videos on my phone. Also big phones have gotten smaller, the edge to edge displays you talk about is one of the reasons. It why everyone is obsessed with screen to body ratio and how to maximize it. that said I don't mind a bit of bezel and I think its has its purposes..and seriously give me small bezels over a notch anyday.

    There is still a bit of a market for smaller phones and it seems like Google and maybe Sony are committed to addressing it.

    Unfortunately the prices are the prices....I've often wondered if they are charging what they are charging simply because they can or if there was some sort of market adjustment..I think it's probably a bit of both. I also think that people never really noticed the real price of phones when we just renewed contracts with carriers and always got discounts. I also think that the manufacturers have realized that people are using these things as near computer replacements and are pricing them as such.

    Things like expandable storage and headphone jacks..its almost a dead horse issues at this point. Eventually no phone will have them and that times coming soon, even now if you want a headphone jack your options are very limited.

    I like flagships but I also like getting value for my money so I don't generally buy them when they come out. I got a Pixel 2 XL a couple months ago that I run on project Fi and despite all the complaining about it when it came out it's pretty good. The camera espensically is everything people say it is. It does have its share of software niggles thought that I don't think a phone that originally cost 900 dollars and is made by the company that makes the software should have but it is what it is.

    The S8 or s9 has all that though and it's not too huge..decent shooters too and reasonably priced at this point.

    You said you don't mind bezels the Pixel 2 regular should fit you size needs and has that great camera, but you are not getting expandable storage or a headphone jack.

    Im sure there may be some midrangers or chinese phones out there, if you are on a GSM carrier, that may fit the bill but Im not really familiar with the midrange phones.
     
  8. Hekeli

    Hekeli Facebook Friend

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    Got Nokia 8 a while back from 249€ sale (has been 299€ too). Had OnePlus 3 for 2yrs before this. Only thing I'm missing is the notification led, but moar horsepower makes up for it. Excellent value for money, clean android with immediate updates, they also opened up the bootloader now.

    And yeah I'd much prefer smaller and light like my kids P8 Lite, but this is still very manageable..
     
  9. loki993

    loki993 Facebook Friend

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    Oneplus is doing good things with top end specs at a reasonable price but their phones are getting bigger too and they just ditched the headphone jack too...but other than that they are hard to beat.
     
  10. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Phones driven towards certain features isn't really because of consumer demand. A lot of it is pushed more by the manufacturer to make phones (and other devices) much harder to service.

    Before a swappable battery was standard on all portable electronics. With thinner phones, batteries are no longer user replaceable with manufacturers saying "we HAD to have a non-replaceable battery to keep the phone this thin". See it's your fault, you wanted a thin phone so you can't have other conviniences anymore. Nevermind that device thickness is almost at the bottom of anyone's list of features.

    I much preferred thicker laptop with RJ-45 ports. I also wasn't worried about them getting bent while carrying them around, which seems to be an issue with these oversized, superthin devices.
     
  11. loki993

    loki993 Facebook Friend

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    that's part of it but it's also water resistance probably moreso, which I would assume a lot of people want. I also think thats apart of the reason most phones don't have removable storage. Its much easier, and probably cheaper, to make a phone water resistant if you can't take the back off of it and there are a bunch of holes in the body to seal off.
     
  12. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    The water resistance is similar to thinner phones, no one really wants that either. It's a bonus feature that makes the phones far harder to service.
     
  13. drgumbybrain

    drgumbybrain Science Nut

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    Here in Brasil apple store RIO still selling iPhone se 128. I just bought one of them last week. If you want I can sent you the phone in mail box. The only problem it’s iphone prices here are absurdly expensive
    For me it’s the best iPhone design ever
     
  14. Stuff Jones

    Stuff Jones Friend

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    Bump.

    Got the Pixel 3a which somehow passes for small these days. It's not small and wastes a lot of space. Google made a strange decision to go with an 18.5:9 screen, which leaves a lot of the top inaccessible with one hand (even with larger hands). It also wastes space for watching videos. Not sure why they made that choice. Top and bottom bezels are also sizable, and there's the virtual home and back button which further take up space.

    The camera and price point and general usability are on point. It's just a shame the couldn't have made it a bit more compact.
     
  15. RedFuneral

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    Hey I'll just take something lighter and less bulky, if that's compact I'm all in. When you're heading out on a run and considering the merit of a counterweight to keep you running straight or if your pocket is deep enough because your phone's a big boy with shocking momentum its time to downsize.

    Then again I want the new Energizer phone & a matching holster.I'm sick a of buying a new phone every couple years to retain acceptable battery life. I like to explore in the woods behind my neighborhood and need a reliable call for help. I see at least one story a year of a body being found out there dead cell in hand. Having a Samsung drop from 30 to 0 to off in my hands out in the cold has made me a bit paranoid about keeping my phones topped up.
    www.energizeyourdevice.com/en/mobiles/product/details/power-max-p18k-new/
     
  16. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    The Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact is the last of the great Android Compacts. Too bad the Sony Compacts didn't sold enough to have Sony continue to make them. Now they are in the pablet land:

    [​IMG]

    Narrow, long, and almost $1k.
     
  17. RanocchiO

    RanocchiO Acquaintance

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    I'm happy with a xiaomi mi5 since 3 years, but I'm looking to replace it because I dropped it too much times
    Samsung has released a few smaller phones lately: S10e, A40, A20e, also the entry level Nokia 2.2 is small enough.
    Now we have a few options, not very much, but more than the last 2/3 years.
     
  18. HeadFoneDude64

    HeadFoneDude64 Facebook Friend

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    I like my phones to be somewhat bigger, was using an S10+ but it still has a relatively small screen, but awesome for movies with its SuperAmoled screen. Just got a Galaxy Fold and I'm liking what I see thus far.
     
  19. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

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    Just ordered a Vivo iQoo because it was the only new model Chinese phone with a headphone jack and the specs looked good. Totally didn't even think about size until it was already shipped and now I'm scared because it says this thing is like 6.4".
     
  20. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    I ended up with a Samsung S9+ because the battery life was allegedly superior to the vanilla S9 and it had a secondary telephoto lens for when "zooming with my feet" was improbable. Definitely regret it now because I almost never use the telephoto lens (why Samsung doesn't let you shoot DNG with it, I have no clue— you can't capture DNG with the ultrawide on the S10 line either, which bites) and the 6.2" display is barely usable for me.

    I'm on the fence about whether I would have appreciated waiting for the S10 line to come out though. I actually like the rear fingerprint scanner and the punch hole-less display, and the ability to hard press the bottom of the screen for "Home" with haptic feedback is f'ing amazing. Dropping small things like that make me wonder whether Samsung is losing their touch. At least the S10 has a headphone jack.

    +1 to the list of people waiting for smaller high end phones to supplant the phablets (note, I loathe that word and prefer "phoneblets" by comparison). The vanilla S10 and the Pixel 3/a are steps in the right direction. If I had the cash to burn after some nice pens and a good SET amp, I'd also be curious about foldable devices. @HeadFoneDude64 would appreciate long term use notes for the Fold! May your screen stay intact :))
     

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