My small-phone journey

I got my first iPhone in 2009, and my last one was a 13 Mini. I found nothing mini about that phone, and it is an extremely effective little dopamine rectangle.

So I switched to a Light Phone 2.

There was a lot to love:

• E-ink screen
• Great form factor
• Nothing to scroll
• A general sense that my phone had politely stopped yelling at me

But it was an intense commitment to frictionmaxxxing.

I couldn’t check Slack when I stepped away from my desk. I couldn’t stream music. Maps were such a compromise that I ended up hot spotting my old iPhone in the car just to navigate.

A minimalist phone, plus a second phone without a SIM to hotspot to... not very elegant.

Then I dropped the Light Phone in a parking lot and it was crushed by a car. I guess the universe made its judgement.

I went back to the iPhone for a while, tried the Mudita Kompakt, and eventually bought a Jelly Star.

I haven’t switched back.

Why the Jelly Star works for me

The Jelly Star hits the sweet spot: just enough friction.

Facebook and long-form news reading are technically possible, but not especially inviting on a tiny screen. At the same time, nobody is deciding which apps are good or bad for me.

I can still:

• Use real maps
• Connect to Android Auto
• Stream music
• Check Slack in a pinch
• Pull up QR codes
• Call an Uber like a person living in the modern world

There is no weird compromise when I get into the car. There is no second phone living in the glove compartment. It is just a full Android phone that happens to be a tiny glowing pebble.

What could be better

It is not perfect:

• Text-message reliability can be spotty
• The camera is nowhere near iPhone quality, which is a real bummer when you have kids
• Software updates and security support have ended
• I worry that there may never be another phone quite like it

The Jelly Max exists, but it is, well, maxier.

The sweet spot

The Jelly Star is the first phone I’ve owned that feels like a tool without requiring me to opt out of society.

It gives me friction where I want it and just enough weirdness to get asked, "Is that a phone" whenever I am out.

For some time now I've been looking for alternative phones with smartphone capabilites, but also smaller than the usual mainstream models. When checking out different degoogled Android-devices, with systems such att Lineage, e/OS/, Graphene and so on, I've come to realize that all decent alternatives are of a size that I'm not comfortable with using. In almost every case, the phones are of 6 inches or larger, and always seem to copy the flagship type of huge smartphones that are released nowadays. I would prefer screen sizes of around 4 inches (or smaller), but that seems hard to come by.

The only alternatives for small, degoogled smartphones that I've identifed so far are the Mudita Kompakt and Dumber Mini. Both are interesting in their own ways.

Now to my question: Is there any other options out there worth checking out?

Ive never even heard of this company before but according to Google they've been around since 2008. Ive been on the hunt for a mini phone with 5g connectivity for the last few months, im a big fan of the jelly max but imo I want something kinda in-between a jelly star and jelly max. This guy seems to check all the boxes and pre-orders open in 2 days... although the 36gb of RAM has me a bit skeptical or thinking this will be super expensive. It also kind of reminds me of the fossibot f116 pro which also hasn't come out yet 🤔 thoughts?

EDIT: it actually has 12gb of RAM (24gb virtual expandable) which makes much more sense and looks like pricing will start around $350

While not the same size, the shape reminds me of Light Phone 3.

My first thought is to put this in a case that seals off the Foldable portion and just use it as a normal non-folding slab phone.

I guess this will be the closest we'll have for a "small" phone from a mainstream brand, with trusted after-sales service centers, stable software & budget for long updates.
(iirc both Bluefox & Clicks say that software upgrades are extremely expensive, and can be buggy if not done well enough as seen in the case of Pixels)

Got pretty hopeful when I saw this image in the leak. Though unfortunately, it will also carry the price of a Foldable.

(Image from 9to5google)

I've always felt like I'm in the minority on this, so I'm curious if anyone else feels the same.

Most discussions about displays focus on refresh rate, brightness, color accuracy, or screen size. Meanwhile, I'm obsessed with pixel density.

I used a Xperia XZ Premium in the past, and ever since then I've found myself wanting even higher pixel density. I know most people think 400–500 PPI is already enough, but I can still notice pixel structure, especially when I look closely.

That got me thinking about a weird concept: a tiny Android phone with a 2-inch 1080p display, which would be around 1100 PPI.

I know it's completely overkill. I know it's impractical for most people. That's kind of the point.

The idea isn't to make the most mainstream phone possible. It's to create a device where the display looks almost continuous, with pixels becoming effectively invisible even at very close viewing distances.

I've attached a concept image of what I imagined.

So I'm curious:

• Am I the only one who wants something like this?
• Is there a point where PPI stops mattering to you?
• If a niche manufacturer actually built a phone like this, would you be interested?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

EDIT: DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE!

A few hours after posting this initial review, a strange bug started to happen. The screen on the phone would flash a bright white color. It lasted for less than a second and seemed to be fixed by restarting the phone. Today, during a phone call, the screen changed to a bright yellow color with repeating dark bands scaling up the screen. No combination of button presses would fix this, and restarting the phone was seemingly not possible. If it was restarting, it just continued to show the yellow screen.

Eight days after taking it out of the box, it seems to be bricked. I have contacted iKKO to get a full refund, at this time I don't really want a replacement since it doesn't seem like the phone is ready for the market.

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ORIGINAL REVIEW (BEFORE IT BROKE)

I've had my Mind One Pro for about a week now, and I figured I'd post a review since there's not an enormous amount of information out there on this one.

I've really enjoyed my time with this phone so far, but there are some glaring issues that you should be aware of, should you decide to purchase the phone.

The Good:

1. The form factor. I absolutely love the form factor. A lot of people in r/smallphones talk about the issues of using large, modern phones with normal sized hands. I have very large hands so that hasn't been an issue for me. I honestly thought my hands would be too big to use this phone, but I haven't really had any problems with that. The design is pleasing and very aesthetic.
2. It is effectively just a small Android phone. Anything that you could do on a regular Android phone, you can generally do on this one. My old phone was a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and I just copied everything from that phone onto this one. Haven't really had any issues with any of the apps I used to use (with some exceptions).
3. The iKKO team are constantly updating the phone. A lot of people talked about how you couldn't use NFC card payment, that has since been fixed and works fine. Since I've had the phone, it's had to update twice with bug fixes, which I see as promising.
4. There are two physical buttons, one to open the camera and one to open the AI mode. I love that you can open the camera with a button, and I don't use the AI mode, so I just remapped the AI button to open Spotify, which works well enough.

The Mid:

1. The camera quality is fine, 50MP. The only issue I've had with it is that it really struggles to focus on what I want it to focus on. I have to click the screen several times to get it to lock on.
2. I use Niagara launcher, and the phone struggles with it sometimes. I've never had that issue with the launcher on any other phone, and I now have to restart my phone once a day because it bugs out.
3. The settings page can be a little glitchy, specifically the search function. Oftentimes nothing will show up in the search function unless I restart the app.
4. The physical buttons are nice, but cannot be remapped through settings. It can only be accomplished through a third-party app. Hope they update this.
5. The advertised AI mode and global internet are mostly useless. The global internet only works with AI mode, and AI mode lacks any meaningful functionality. A lot of people rag on it, but you can just not use it. It is by no means forced upon you.
6. Because of the small size, the palms of my hands will sometimes trigger things on the screen I'm not trying to touch. Same with small buttons and big fingers. You have to be very intentional with how you hold and interact with this phone.

The Bad:

1. The battery life is just bad. I do not use my phone that much; I would say probably two hours or less a day. Halfway through the day, the phone is basically out of charge. This is a big change from my old Galaxy S20 FE, which would still have plenty of charge by the end of the day.
2. The phone gets hot, like really hot, when doing intensive tasks. Sometimes it gets hot just from charging. Hot enough that it's uncomfortable to hold for long periods of time.
3. The speaker is loud but does not sound good. Also, bizarrely, the speakerphone function is significantly quieter than what the speaker itself is capable of. Speakerphone is almost useless because of how quiet it is.
4. The odd form factor means that some apps are difficult or impossible to use. I would say 95% of apps adapt to the aspect ratio just fine, but some don't in ways that make them unusable. For example, I use Microsoft Swiftkey. To start that app, you have to read through a splash screen and hit "Accept". The "Accept" is hidden beneath the screen and cannot be accessed in this aspect ratio. To use the app, you have to manipulate it through the phone's settings, rather than the app itself.
5. The build quality on the flip camera is very bad, which is unfortunate. The hinge is cheap plastic, and after a week of use it's already coming loose. It wiggles and will occasionally struggle to close properly.
6. You may wait to receive your phone for a very long time. When I ordered mine in February, the website said new deliveries would ship in March. Then March came and it said April, then April came and it said May, then May came and it said June. I ended up getting mine at the end of May.

Conclusion:

I would say overall I am ultimately happy with the phone. It gives me a lot of joy to use something that's so neat and non-traditional. If I had to say the one thing that kills it for me, it's the construction of the flip camera. I am very gentle with this phone and it's already loose. I kinda doubt it will last very long, and at that point I will probably have to abandon the phone. I could be wrong, maybe it will just be a little loose forever, or maybe I'll drop it accidentally and it'll rip off.

This phone is probably not right for everyone, and getting it is certainly a leap of faith. I think iKKO should be commended for trying something so unique in a space where every phone is basically the same. I will continue to use mine until I can't anymore, but I think for now I'd recommend waiting till they come out with an improved design which fixes these issues. The software bugs will certainly be patched, but the hardware issues are set in stone once you get the phone.

The greatest appeal of the QWERTY mini series is that it works seamlessly alongside the traditional QWERTY.

QWERTY mini is a compact 2-row 16-key keyboard for mobile devices that preserves the familiar QWERTY layout while providing larger keys for easier typing.

Plus, enjoy 50% off for a limited time!

QWERTY mini Series (50% Off) r/QWERTYmini

I just got a Samsung S25 and I must say that I am so pleased with it. This phone feels so small and so comfortable in my hands (6.2 inches screen on a 6.1 frame) It is also very thin and it has a very sturdy metal back which means I won't need to put it in a cover as that would add to the size of it.

Honestly I think this is the smallest recent phone you can get these days.

I feel like phones that are marketed as "compact" these days aren't actually compact. Even the standard iPhones have become slightly larger over time.

The only truly compact phones I can think of in the used market are the iPhone 12 Mini and 13 Mini. Am I the only one who wishes more companies still made phones that size?

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3.95" LCD, 13MP single camera, Helio G99, 2450mAh 10w charging, IR control