Next Pinephone should be smaller (imho)

[_kiwi]

My Pinephone fell on the floor and have a minor crack in the screen. Luckily both the digitizer and the display still work fine.

I never had that before with smaller phones (and each of my previous smartphones fell on hard floor at least few times).


Thing is, I always bought the smallest decent phone I could find, and that every generation is a bit bigger. I made an exception for the Pinephone because of the concept.




A smaller phone:

• fits in more pockets
  
• get less bending pressure in pockets
  
• is less lickely to crack because of less weight
  
• requires a smaller -> cheaper screen
  
• requires less power to light the screen, thus a smaller battery or can last longer
  
• takes less space on desks etc
  

Now I'm wondering, do people here actually like to have a so big device? Or is it in imitation of market trends?

[CharlieGordon]

Now I'm wondering, do people here actually like to have a so big device? Or is it in imitation of market trends?

I would prefer a 7-inch PinePhone.

I guess it's about what you're looking for. Those who really want just a phone will prefer smaller devices, those who want a pocket computer will prefer bigger ones.

[zetabeta]

@_kiwi 

it will be endless debate what is perfect pinephone. some want it smaller, and some bigger. more cpu, bigger screen and so on. it's going to be compromise and most likely pine company will produce one design plan.

however, i would go on bigger side. not necessarily because of screen, because of battery. some way around 5000 mAh is probably fine.

someone proposed flipphone.

i am still disappointed of lack of 5Ghz wifi-ac.

[bosi564]

My Pinephone fell on the floor and have a minor crack in the screen. Luckily both the digitizer and the display still work fine.

You may wish to try the case covers in the Pine64 store. I haven't used any of them, but for the android devices I owned, they did help.

Now I'm wondering, do people here actually like to have a so big device? Or is it in imitation of market trends?

Any smaller than this and I'll find it unusable as a smartphone. And I might prefer a dumb phone over it (which I used for the past year).

I would prefer a 7-inch PinePhone.

If the screen gets any bigger then the current device, I'll consider it only as a interesting tablet. Wouldn't carry it on me everywhere.


I guess it's good to fit in the market trends.

[_kiwi]

Now I'm wondering, do people here actually like to have a so big device? Or is it in imitation of market trends?

Any smaller than this and I'll find it unusable as a smartphone. And I might prefer a dumb phone over it (which I used for the past year).

I would prefer a 7-inch PinePhone.

If the screen gets any bigger then the current device, I'll consider it only as a interesting tablet. Wouldn't carry it on me everywhere.


I guess it's good to fit in the market trends.

Any smaller and any bigger, I guess you are very lucky
For comparison, the PinePhone (160.5x76.6 mm) is much bigger than an 12th gen iPhone (146.7x71.5), and more comparable to an iPhone *Max* (160.8x78.1).

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@_kiwi 

it will be endless debate what is perfect pinephone. some want it smaller, and some bigger. more cpu, bigger screen and so on. it's going to be compromise and most likely pine company will produce one design plan.

Yes, and to have a compromise there must be a discussion 

however, i would go on bigger side. not necessarily because of screen, because of battery. some way around 5000 mAh is probably fine.

That can be achieved also with software optimizations, more efficient hardware, a thicker device, a power bank.

[thatrandomguy]

My Pinephone fell on the floor and have a minor crack in the screen. Luckily both the digitizer and the display still work fine.

I never had that before with smaller phones (and each of my previous smartphones fell on hard floor at least few times).


Thing is, I always bought the smallest decent phone I could find, and that every generation is a bit bigger. I made an exception for the Pinephone because of the concept.




A smaller phone:

• fits in more pockets
  
• get less bending pressure in pockets
  
• is less lickely to crack because of less weight
  
• requires a smaller -> cheaper screen
  
• requires less power to light the screen, thus a smaller battery or can last longer
  
• takes less space on desks etc
  

Now I'm wondering, do people here actually like to have a so big device? Or is it in imitation of market trends?

I am one of the people that prefers a bigger phone than a smaller phone.

While I agree that a smaller phone would fit in more pockets, I haven't had problems with fitting my phone in the varying pocket sizes that I use on the clothes I have.

I don't honestly believe it's less likely to crack a smaller phone than it is a bigger one... the screen will always have enough surface area for this risk compared to phones that existed like 20 years ago. The weight would also still affect this. The PinePhone, IMO, is not premium-grade quality and that is fair considering the price it's put at. This isn't your Samsung Gorilla glass or Sony metal framing kind of phone... it's cheap. You get what you pay for.

I would like to think the smaller screen is cheaper to obtain but I guess that's a given. Obviously since I don't fully know the ins and outs of how that works, I can only speculate.

A smaller battery wouldn't help anything given that the current output and longevity of the PinePhone has much to be desired. Screen time is detrimental to battery life, yes, but it likely goes beyond having a smaller screen...

I have never had a problem putting my PinePhone on any hard top... sure it could take less space by design but that's all purely subjective.

Despite what I have said so far, I do think it would be fair to accommodate those that might need a smaller phone for whatever reason. I for one know I cannot use a phone that's too small 'cause of my vision problems but not everyone has my problems so that shouldn't automatically mean they don't get to push out a smaller model. Do I think they'll push out a smaller model any time soon? Not likely... but in the future and if this project does really well for them down the road, you might see a smaller come around much like how the original PineBook is 11' and the PineBook Pro is 14'. Keep your fingers crossed.

[Vortys]

My Pinephone fell on the floor and have a minor crack in the screen. Luckily both the digitizer and the display still work fine.

I never had that before with smaller phones (and each of my previous smartphones fell on hard floor at least few times).


Thing is, I always bought the smallest decent phone I could find, and that every generation is a bit bigger. I made an exception for the Pinephone because of the concept.




A smaller phone:

• fits in more pockets
  
• get less bending pressure in pockets
  
• is less lickely to crack because of less weight
  
• requires a smaller -> cheaper screen
  
• requires less power to light the screen, thus a smaller battery or can last longer
  
• takes less space on desks etc
  

Now I'm wondering, do people here actually like to have a so big device? Or is it in imitation of market trends?

[biketool]

If our small niche market sould support it I would love to have two devices one small(N900/N950 sized) and one larger(pinephone sized) for different occasions with clone SIM cards.
The Pinephone though is a singular long term stable demonstration and development reference which means we can count on it's availability for at least five years and thus can trust in the dev efforts to build free software behind it.  If this reference hardware gets a popular software movement behind it I believe we will see more consumer graded devices form Pine64 and perhaps other vendors simply wishing to make money selling hardware with open documented hardware compatible with FOSS drivers.