Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact

After years of lurking, I wrote a post over on /r/android on this... in 2019. By then the small phone minority had been loud and vocal for some years already. Based on the responses and trends observed since then, I don't think this is ever going to happen. Tech savvy users for tech savvy products are gone. It is now a consumerism and popularity driven market, small phones simply don't have the bling factor to sell. Even if this was not the case, logically, if you have only one mobile computing device, you would be better of getting a big one so you that you can do more with it. Read more e-mail, watch more content, play more games, take better pictures (bigger phones tend to have more space for more options). And for us die hard small phone folks, well, all of us need a phone, right? And since all of our phones stop getting updates after a few years (iPhone notwithstanding), we will complain loudly about the lack of small phones... and then buy a big phone anyway. The best we can hope for is for manufacturers to make a loss leading mini line. Like Sony, Samsung, and Google used to do. Now that they do not, I own an iPhone 13 mini, and I hope to use it with battery replacements for at least 4 years. I put my money where my mouth is for the longest time. My phone history: iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, Sony Z1 compact, Sony Z3 Compact, Sony Z5 Compact, Sony XZ1 Compact (good golly gosh what a fantastic phone that was), Pixel 3, iPhone 13 Mini. But our market is too small. RIP small phon…

> that’s not likely to happen. Why not? It has happened before. My Xperia XZ1 Compact: - runs Android (I'm on Android 10, but might upgrade) - measures about 14cm diagonally and 8-9mm thick - uses around 10-15% charge per day of light use (without Google services) - has a standard headphone jack - has stereo speakers - has decent front and back cameras, with no bump - has a microSD slot - has a USB type C port - has a fingerprint sensor (I disabled mine) - is water-tight and dust-tight (IP68) - supports VoLTE - supports WiFi calling My previous phone was similar, and a bit slimmer. The one before that didn't get such good battery life, but its physical keyboard, swappable battery, and even smaller size made up for having to charge more often. Obviously, these devices are not common, but they are made from time to time. I'm looking at hardware right now that proves there is no technical barrier. I don't see any reason to dissuade people from asking for a new model.

Man, I wish they still had the compact line. I had an XZ1 compact and it was amazing. I still use it for playing music (via the headphone jack) and it is just wonderful every time I pick it up - so small and light compared to this humongous pixel 6 I replaced it with. I keep thinking of going back to a flip phone. Man I miss that little phone. Wish there were something non-Apple to replace it with.

samsung's s10e is only slightly bigger than the SE and its still a decent phone and has a fingerprint sensor on the side where god intended for it to be. wireless charging. lots of things you dont get on a lot of "premium" devices these days, sd card slot, headphone jack, extra programmable button. sony's XZ1 compact is smaller than the SE and still works great, but i only use it as a music player so im not exactly doing anything that taxing. phones plateaued for me a few years back so keep that in mind. all the new "features" that phones have these days dont really seem like anything i need

I think there are actually a lot of demands that are unserviced in the phone market. There really isn't a way for the consumer to signal this, though. In lieu of consumers I think companies tend to listen to influencers and journalists. I got that impression from watching the evolution of the Xperia Compact which solicited a lot of hate from journalists for its appearances and the misalignment from the norms. Hate to which Sony in many aspects decided to bend a knee to, much to my chagrin. I will say however, that I expect the biggest confounder is the expense to tool and maintain a niche phone makes it less feasible given the limited demand. It nonetheless does exist, and I hope that such costs can be reduced so the market can diversify its offerings and I can have another XZ1c experience.