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Phones

Palm Phone

4owners with an opinion
67%of verdicts positive
0/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for portability and design; criticized for battery and performance.

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Doesn’t like it
I agree that phones are too big. I refuse to switch to two-handed phone use. I used the Palm Phone PVG 100 with a 3.3" screen as long as I could, but software got too slow and battery-hungry, and my now-wife was annoyed when my phone would die halfway through our text based conversations lol. Used a chunky 3.5"er (Soyes S10Max) for awhile but it died after a year. Now I use the Motorola Razr 2025. 90% of the time I just keep it closed. The outer screen is 3.6" and a square, but the screen doesn't seem to extend all the way out. It's kinda heavy at 6.6oz (compared to the Palm Phone's 2.2oz), but with a ring, it's super easy to use one-handed. And it has battery life and compute power to handle today's unnecessarily compute-heavy apps. You can also split apps in half when it's open so you can just use them on the bottom half of the phone. Pictures: https://www.middleendian.com/phone.jpg https://www.middleendian.com/phone-with-keyboard.jpg Main disadvantage is that when it's closed, you only have a "selfie" camera as the back camera is facing you and the front camera is inside. So it's hard to quickly take pictures of things I see outside (usually funny birds). Other annoyance is that if you open the phone, use it, and then close it, the outer keyboard resets to the default keyboard and you need to "change the keyboard layout" to get it to use your preferred keyboard (Microsoft Swiftkey in my case)
Likes it
6" doesn't register as small to me at all lol. The HTC 8X was 4.3" and that was a "normal" sized phone for me. I used the Palm Phone (PVG100) (3.3" screen) (basically the size of a credit card) [ https://www.ricklohre.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/dsc_097... ] as long as I could until it became too slow to use as software got slower and increasingly battery-hungry and I had to give it up last year. Right now I have a Soyes S10Max, which has a 3.5" screen (same screen size as the original iPhone), but it's kinda chunky. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRZ47T53?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_... The specs are more than strong enough to handle whatever I need on a daily basis. But I miss the slimmer size of the Palm Phone. Right now I've pre-ordered this phone https://aiphor.com/products/bluefox-nx1-4-0-android-smartpho... with the 8gigram+128gig storage capacity. Has an even stronger cpu than the Soyes, but I am slightly worried about the resolution of 540x1168px because some elements may end up overlapping. Even though it's 4", it has a tiny bezel so it's only slightly bigger than the Palm Phone, although a bit thicker cuz of a bigger battery. But still relatively slim, especially compared to the Soyes. Front comparison: https://preview.redd.it/dtwnubx05scf1.png?width=3840&format=... https://preview.redd.it/s2391amd7hbf1.png?width=320&crop=sma... Will see!
Neutral
As far as physical size goes, I use the Palm Phone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_(companion) https://palm.com/cdn/shop/products/Palm_inHand_1024x1024_2x_... Despite its marketing, I do not use it as a companion phone, it is my sole mobile device. It's an Android phone with a 3.3" 720p screen. It's very light (2.2 oz. / 62.5g) and fits in my pocket easily. I can also effortlessly swipe-type on the bottom of my screen and swipe-gesture from the top of my screen with just one hand. It doesn't have that irritating yellow/green light that tells me when I've missed notifications, although I have most notifications disabled, including voicemails. To my delight, even that presidential alert test did not seem to reach my phone. I also have a great excuse for not installing corporate software on my phone (literally unsupported in many cases). But it is a device from 2018 and sadly they do not seem to be interested in making a new one. I don't need it to do anything it didn't do when I first got it, but sadly, software companies specialize in making consumer UIs slower and updates in general are no longer an optional thing, so they have no incentive to improve. Even loading my texts, answering my phone, and checking my email is becoming noticeably slower (and it is not an old battery issue as I have replaced a broken Palm phone within the last 12 months). I'm not sure what I'll replace it with when it becomes impossible to use. The Unihertz form factors are strictly worse, sm…
Likes it
I'm still using my Palm Phone, as I find it better looking and I think the form factor is nicer than the Unihertz phones. I am able to type pretty easily with Microsoft's swipe text keyboard. But as it was not particularly fast in 2018, it's only a matter of time until software becomes too slow to use on the phone. Even opening the text messaging app has a visual lag nowadays. The battery life is also not great; I don't really care but it seems to annoy my friends lol. Eventually I'll probably end up with a Unihertz, but I'm still holding out for a new similarly sleek small phone from Palm.
Neutral
I've been trying to wean myself off phones completely since the demise of the SE, but life in Moscow without a phone is basically impossible (taxis, deliveries, electric scooters, bikes etc. all become pretty much unavailable). As a compromise I've been using the Palm Phone[0] for a while now (before that the Unihertz Atom, which is quite the chonker, albeit with a small screen). It's the size of a credit card and has terrible battery life, but it can do all the things I need so I've just learned how to deal with it. I don't really have a solution for music on the go yet, as you can't connect normal headphones to modern phones without adapters (and those adapters actually draw a surprising amount of power if they have a DAC!) and Bluetooth is completely useless in large and densely populated cities. Maybe some iPod-like devices are still around ... [0]: https://palm.com/pages/product
Likes it
For me, iOS 16 focus modes and a cellular Apple Watch is working for this. I've been able to pretty much just stop carrying my phone when I need to be connected but don't want the distractions. I have tried the Palm Phone in the past to reduce my use of smartphones and really liked it but did not like the lack of integration to iCloud and that you couldn't de-Googleify it.
Likes it
I like the idea of the litephone except it's the opposite of what I use a phone for. I don't care much about phone calls, they're mostly useless except that my doorbell is hooked up to my phone (which is of course set to silent lol) and sometimes I need to talk to banks or recruiters. I want maps, chat apps, email, lyft, a browser, etc. but also to disable 99% of notifications 99% of the time. Right now I still use my Palm Phone (PVG100) and I'm bummed that it looks like they won't release another one. Gonna use it until it's impossible for it to function in the modern world.
Neutral
When I took my long term "sabbatical", I got some of my best programming done in a park without any internet. Occasionally I'd look stuff up on my phone, but since it's a Palm Phone with a 3.3" screen and not very much battery life, I didn't do it very frequently. Every so often I'd need to download libraries and whatnot, or I'd really get stuck on something, so I'd head home or to a coffee shop to continue. But yes, I'd say more often than not, I had a great time programming without the internet, even though one of my targets was the web.
Likes it
Same here. It's my daily driver. It does everything that a larger phone does (except NFC and WIFI hotspot) and it fits in the coin pocket of my jeans. I can sit on this phone and it does not break (granted I have the mophie extra battery case around it). Oh, and I seldom need the extra battery since I'm running a verizon sim and the battery even without life mode lasts all day if I'm not on it constantly. This is the answer to OP's question, although it's a shame that it's slightly sim limited (can't change the APN so can't use visible) and there apparently won't be any updates or newer models. The only other viable small option is the mini iphone, which while it fits in my coin pocket is not as small as I'd like and will be much too easy to break.
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
I tried out the Razr and Z Flip 4 at a store but I thought they were too hard to use while closed and way too big when open. If you check /r/smallphones I'll post a review of the NX1 in a couple months (or whenever I get it + a week or two). It looks like the closest spiritual successor to the Palm Phone (although the single button on the foot with multiple actions will probably never be beat)
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
The Palm Phone has a higher resolution and an extra ⅓" diagonal, so it's a bit easier to browse the web size-wise (although it has only half the memory). Of course, things Youtube or Instagram are hopeless, but I consider that a feature, I just tell people they won't load on my phone lol >TV show wikis TV wikis are a challenge to use even on a PC if they are hosted on fandom.com :P