brain trust: phone sizes

[cellio]

I am starting to think new-phone thoughts, and I'm looking for some meta-advice: advice about traits and how to research stuff more than specific models. (The latter are welcome too, but my questions are a litlte higher-level.)

One of my strongest concerns is about size, both physically and digitally. My current phone has the following stats:

• Dimensions: 151.7 x 75 x 7.9 mm
• Display size: 5.5 inches, 82.2 cm2 (~72.2% screen-to-body ratio)
• Resolution (this is very unusual): 1440 x 2560 pixels, 16:9 ratio (~538 ppi density)

In recent years phones have reverted to worse-than-2:1 aspect ratios. They've reinvented candybars, dammit. But maybe that's ok, if I can still see stuff. So, can I?

I almost always use my phone in portrait mode, as I think most people do. I don't watch movies; I read text. Web pages, mostly. That text needs to be able to be wide enough to be comfortable to read, and for web sites to not break if (when) I need to zoom. For context, on my current phone I have Chrome text scaling at 110% (minimum size, starting from whatever their default is), and "force enable zoom" because some web developers are rude that way.

The aspect ratios I'm seeing on modern phones are generally in the range of 1080:2400, give or take a bit. That 1080 width is significantly smaller than my current width of 1440. I assume that just means that, for phones of equal physical width, my phone is just packing in a lot more pixels per inch, so the display is a little crisper. I don't think I've seen pixel densities that high on specs I've looked at.

Pixels, schmixels, maybe: I don't know why this matters. Does it? I would naively expect that lower pixel density means a little more blurriness, but since I have to zoom most things to see them at all, do I care?

But there's a wrinkle. In order to get that physical width, with the change in aspect ratios I'd need to accept a phone that's about a centimeter longer. I'm concerned about pockets. Women, especially curvy women, if you carry a larger phone in your pants pocket, what's the secret? I assume that "butt-dialing" is just a figure of speech and folks don't actually carry phones in back pockets, right? (I tried putting mine there and it felt both uncomfortable and unsafe.)

So at current aspect ratios, I need to either settle for a narrower phone, raising questions about whether that width can meet my vision needs, or accept a longer phone, and figure out how to test that with front pockets of my jeans and chinos, because buying a whole new wardrobe to accommodate a phone is ridiculous. Phone in pants pocket is a hard requirement: purses, belt pouches, backpacks, "on the desk next to you", and dresses are unacceptable solutions. I want the safety of having it actually on my person (harder to separate from me), and I want to be able to feel vibrations because most of the time the sound is turned off in public. (Granted, "in public" has been rare of late, but I hope my next phone outlasts the current restrictions.)

Other factors besides size:

• I want this phone to last for a few years, so 5G seems prudent. All the 5G phones except iPhones seem to be huge?
• I'm pretty solidly on Team Android. I'm not a fan of either Apple or Google when it comes to how they treat people, but I'm less of a fan of Apple and I'm already used to Android. (Also, my tablet is Android.)
• I take pictures sometimes, and am even trying to learn to use the non-default settings on the camera, but "has a camera that doesn't stink" is likely to be good enough. Lots of phones these days hype their super-megapixel 4-lens cameras; I don't think I care. If I should care, please clue me in.

Does anybody make a phone that might meet my requirements with a more pleasant aspect ratio (and thus form factor for vision and pockets)? Short of reading specs for phones one at a time, how can I find out? Searching for things like "5g android 16:9 2021" isn't producing hits.

Comments

[loosecanon]

I use a site called phonescoop.com to sort by these kinds of details.

I don't have the ability to parse your needs, but this or other sorting sites may help.

[cellio]

Thank you! That looks like a useful way to search.

[(Anonymous)]

One thing I did when looking for a replacement cellphone just recently (though my list of requirements was somewhat different from yours) was to fold up a piece of paper to the specified height and width of the phone, to get a feel for how it might lay in the hand. It wasn't perfect, but it turned out to be pretty close to reality. You could do something similar for your issue with pockets: glue a few pieces of cardboard together to something resembling the specified thickness (you have a cat, I'm sure you get lots of cardboard from time to time when ordering online, and even if you don't, most stores are happy to get rid of leftover boxes; all you need beyond that is a good pair of scissors or even better a sharp knife, and some hobby glue or similar to stick them together), cut it down to the specified size, and play with it. If you want to go fancy, you can even take a pen and mark the physical size of the screen. It obviously won't help to get an idea of the size or crispness of anything that's displayed on the screen, but it will get you a good idea of how the physical size of the particular model might work out. /Your Friendly Internet Neighborhood Dog

[cellio]

Oh, what a good suggestion! Thank you. And yes, I always have cardboard waiting to be recycled, between pet stuff, produce deliveries, and miscellany. And I do have both X-acto and utility knives for cutting.

[madfilkentist]

I wouldn't be too worried about 5G, unless you need the higher bandwidth and are in an area where it will give you an advantage. 4G will be widely supported for some time; if I had to put a number on it, I'd say at least till 2025. It's not like the CDMA vs. GSM battle of a few years ago, where phones that used one technology wouldn't work with towers that used the other.

[cellio]

Thanks. T-Mobile upgraded the towers closest to my home to 5G this past winter, but I don't know how much of a difference that would make. Speed tests on my 4G phone seem acceptable. Sometimes the connection randomly drops and I need to kick it (toggle airplane mode to force it to resync); I don't know if that's them or my phone.

[dsrtao]

Pixel density: Above a certain density, even people with 20/20 uncorrected vision don't care. That density is somewhere in the 300-360 ppi range, depending on the exact subpixel geometry. Today's 400-600 ppi phones are calculating pixels needlessly.

The smallest flagship class phone right now is the Asus Zenfone 8: 148 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm.

Phone widths don't actually vary that much: my "best ever form factor" phone is the LG G2, which had the same hardware as Google's Nexus 5: 71mm wide; the gigantic Samsung S21 Ultra is 78mm wide.

Phone Arena has a size comparison feature:

https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Samsung-Galaxy-S21,Asus-ZenFone-8,Google-Pixel-5/phones/11508,11727,11394

5G is not interesting for most people, and won't be for at least 3 more years. It doesn't improve latency, and cell towers are mostly limited by their backhaul bandwidth, not their mobile bandwidth.

The limit on smartphone lifetime is battery longevity; as far as I can tell, all of them start wearing noticeably in 2 years, and are suffering seriously in 3 years. Only a new battery swap (not always available) or a new battery technology will fix this.

[cellio]

Thanks for the information! Yes, I was very frustrated when buying my current phone (four years ago) when I discovered that batteries were no longer user-removable. When doing battery-intensive things with my previous phone (tourist taking lots of pictures, for example), I would carry a spare battery that fit (in its case) easily in my pocket. Now if I think I'm going to be battery-constrained I need to carry a portable charger, which is considerably bulkier. Plus, I have to manage it, since it's not always easy to use the phone while it's charging like that. I'm pleasantly surprised that the battery in my current phone has lasted as long as it has, but I'm definitely seeing significant degradation -- one of the factors that's making me consider replacing it.

[metahacker]

How I fit my phone in my front pocket:

- Be a tall person
- Wear guy-coded clothing with very deep pockets
- Get "mid-sized" iPhone

I suspect none of these ingredients work especially well for you, sadly. FWIW I also cut a cardboard blank to the size listed and tried carrying it in my pocket to see if I could stand it; I didn't end up wrinkling the corners too much, so I deemed it acceptable. The other option is an external carrier, which I don't care if they're out of style, and you might not either.

Pixel density--I don't think it's too important to stress over; once you're above 200 dpi or so, it's hard to notice (unless you have 20/10 corrected vision the way I used to). I _do_ notice the DPI loss with my current monitor, but that's down at 110 dpi.

[cellio]

Yeah, I can't do much about my reduced height. :-)

I try to buy "guy-coded" pants wherever possible -- jeans, casual non-jeans (like chinos), that sort of thing. I can't buy actual "men's" pants because I'm not shaped like that, but I avoid "women's" pants, look for the standard five-pocket layout, and then just hope the front pockets will be large enough. (I mean, if shopping in an actual store one can check, but they tend not to have what I need.)

I don't care if external carriers are out of style either. Do you happen to know if you can still feel a vibration through them? Do all such carriers require a belt?

Thanks for the info on pixel density. It's good to know that even people who see very well don't care! And thanks also for the cardboard-mockup suggestion; I should have thought of that, but didn't.

[marahmarie]

*woman, curvy, waves*

I'm concerned about pockets. Women, especially curvy women, if you carry a larger phone in your pants pocket, what's the secret?

The secret is pockets deep enough to do it; ymmv wildly. I have more than a few pairs of jeans and shorts with back pockets that can handle it and just as many jeans, pants and shorts that can't. Secret recipe (might solve your screen res issues too; haven't read the other replies yet):

1) Buy a Samsung Galaxy 6 (edit: forgot 3G support for all Galaxys stops this December - which will basically brick the phone), 7 or 8 (unlike the 6 these have 4G and OLED screens; very high res). Anything above 8 is too long, too narrow, too slippery. I prefer Galaxy Actives myself - they're thicker, noticeably heavier and virtually indestructible.

2) Get this thingamajig. It, with the phone inside of it, fits in a lot of my back pockets. The clip on the back goes over the outside of the back pocket to hold the whole thing in place.

3) ???

For jeans/pants/shorts and on those rare days I wear dresses the same thingamajig gets carried in my hand, or in an over-the shoulder bag of some sort. Can't win them all, I guess (though I haven't read the other replies yet).

ETA: I don't pay attention to how most men carry phones but as a human, much less woman/woman with curves, regardless of pocket size/depth I would not carry a phone, especially a larger one, in my front pocket (done it; speaking from experience) as it's uncomfortable. It either rides or slaps against your leg depending on how tight the pants/jeans/shorts are and is hard to get in and out of said pocket.

That said, a nice say, "gender neutral" solution might be if clothes could come with outer pockets or bands or Velcro strips that could hold the phone in place securely near or at the top or side of the front pants leg (this design could conceivably work for dresses, too).

I have a pair of pants that almost does the thing - some inches above the knee it has a phone-sized top band to slip something (say, the clip from my phone case) onto, but not the bottom band to keep the phone in place and from slapping against my leg when I move.

[gingicat]

I do not know how handy you are, but one of my coworkers managed to attach a slender and long purse strap to her phone case.

(I myself cannot *safely* carry around a phone without a fairly thick case.)

I am not allowed to wear jeans to work. That said, I have one dress with amazingly large pockets, and the wide-leg linen capris I bought this summer have such deep pockets that switching back to three-year-old gabardine pants was sadly disappointing and my phone fell out of my pocket multiple times.

If necessary, I believe that the Android phones have text-to-speech functions.