I know how it works, but it’s pointless for me to mimic a smaller phone on a big screen.
Have you tried it? 
The FP4 is so unwieldy, even with my large hands it’s very uncomfortable to use with one hand.
I personally wouldn’t want to live without that feature anymore, it’s a (sadly necessary) solution, that works great in the moments you need it.
I’d buy a smaller Fairphone immediatelly, but since that’s not an option, I’m very happy with that feature 
2 Likes
Yes, I tried it, but not with a Fairphone.
It’s like using a step to reach the top drawer. It might be necessary, but it’s only a crutch in my eyes.
Well, beats not having it, like people on stock FPOS at the moment.
I’m open for better solutions, but I don’t think we’ll get any …
I don’t understand what you mean by “using only q part of the screen”. Everything uses the whole screen but you can use ways to avoid your fingers need to reach every possible place on it.
I discovered this year’s ago on a Meizu phone that was 6,5" and it made it comfortable. I hope the implementation in Android 12 is as good as it was in the Meizu for people who find the FP4 too big.
Edit; reading How to enable and use one-handed mode in Android 12 | TechRepublic, I understood what you mean and I can only say there exist better approaches to handle big screen with one hand. Knowing Google, it should come in some years.
Well that all avoiding the fair trade aspect which so far outweights the others that I consider it a joke even to tlak about the size etc.
I don’t know what you mean by sustainable, but again size is not the issue.
If sustainabilty referes to repairability then you can look at Shift phones, but if the sustainabilty is improving the working condictions and wages of the labouers then size has to take a back seat, very far back, behind sustainability.
Welcome to the Fairphone community.
There is no market for smaller versions as all manufactures have realized. Even Apple has stopped making the mini version with iPhone 14 and released the iPhone 14 Plus instead.
I can fully understand your demands, as I also like smaller versions, even my FP3 seems to bulky for me, but we are not relevant for the market situation.
2 Likes
Maybe there’s no market for the other classic manufacturers, with “classic” buyers.
Fairphone ain’t like any other company, the Fairphone ain’t like any other phone, and the community buying Fairphones is different than the classic buyers.
I’m sure that some of the current owners, minimalists, people with lower budgets, with small hands, and with a conscience would buy a smaller Fairphone.
But It might need a proper survey too know, and maybe a crowdfunding campaign.
Engineering-wise, it might be better (but harder) to engineer the hell out of the smaller phone, and use the modules for the bigger Fairphone, and boosting some caracteristic (batterie, screen definition, SoC frequencies, etc…)
2 Likes
Not a big market. Given the niche, yet primary, Fairtrade aspect, which clearly isn’t on many people’s agenda, then as you note it would be very expensive to produce a phone that has modules that are even smaller.
So this dream/hope is pretty much dead before it comes out of the mouth
2 Likes
I’d buy the smallest phone I could get if it’s ethical.
2 Likes
My gf refused the FP3 as too bulky, she prefers a FP2 which I must admit I like too for its size. It has a perfectly adequately sized screen and only weighs 173 g (FP4 with case and leather flip-case = 341 g!!)
Ethics is in the buyer not the phone. What are your ethics? You cannot save the planet or anyone else, but you can work on how you treat others and in that you can either do all the work yourself or ensure what money you use isn’t used to exploit the poor.
Ethics is just business. Who you want to support comes down to who you want to rely on.
I think the “one size fits all” mindset only works for a while.
When FP wants to expand, then at a certain point smaller customer groups (woman, children) get more interesting.
But I see another reason for FP to be openminded about size and functionality in future developments:
Smartphones get available for kids earlier and earlier. Smartwatches, too.
Nowadays, the computing power of good Smartphones is enough to use it for a normal office computer. I believe that this will become quite common in a few years.
Shiftphone has a project like that, where the Smartphone also delivers the OS and computing power to a tablet screen (and optional keyboard).
Now, more and more development time gets invested into KI, AR, and VR. I think we’ll get a revival of Google Glass within 10 years time frame. Almost every new smartphone has way enough CPU and GPU power to render a small overlay screen in some glasses and do some AR and KI stuff, too. All it needs is WiFi/Bluetooth, a battery, some kind of screen and somethink to keep it falling of your head.
My point is:
We feel like we did get very far from the times when telefones always had cords and no screen.
But, (and just in case humanity doesn’t kill itself even faster than expected) the big transformation is still to come. It’s a huge market for the tech giants, too. All are investing (first I wanted to write ‘infesting’…) in KI and VR and since they want their investments back as soon as possible, they will advertise new services very broad.
At max. it will take 10 years until Metaverse and others will have at least as many users as WhatsApp today with exponential crowth.
So, FP must stay openminded or it will lose everything it worked for in this big transformation.
Kids are quite happy to use two hands, as am I, as for power, that’s exponential like consumerism.
That implies what they are working for is consumerism, however I see the issue as Fairtrade so they have already succeeded it doing what they want. If consumers are more interested in the product than the production then it doesn’t matter.
That’s true in it’s own way. Fairphone is producing something (Fairtrade) for consumption.
But this is not the point I meant.
I made the comparsion with the old analog phone and a new smartphone to make the quick changes visible. And these changes (I called it ‘big transformation’ before) will get faster and faster.
So, I believe we’ll see a big difference in how we see smartphones and how we use them now and in ten years. And maybe we call the next generation tools not smartphones anymore since the word ‘smartphone’ is connected to old fashioned technology.
You dont want to be a couchmaker, if everyone is buying and using motorized cars.
1 Like
My wife used my Fairphone 2 for about a year when her previous phone died, but she found it virtually impossible to text one-handed, as the phone was too large to stay in her hand.
When we had to work in the USA one year, I ordered her a second-hand Sony Xperia XZ1 compact – its significantly smaller than the Fairphone 2 (about the size of an iPhone 5, I think), but had the internal specs of a flagship phone when it was released – and also has global 3G and 4G LTE bands. When it breaks or becomes obsolete, I don’t know what phone to suggest to her, because she really would like a phone that fits her hand.
Given that lots of people have smaller hands, I don’t understand why phone manufacturers keep saying there’s not market demand for smaller form factors. Also don’t understand why no one has made a modern, open smartphone with a small screen and a physical 12-key pad that one could text one-handed using T9 prediction. (I know, I’m really showing my age here, but I do remember using T9, and loved that it was tactile.)
Because there isn’t much demand.
Given that lots of people have smaller hands
Smaller is relative and lots isn’t a number to build on
I always use two hands and it’s not that difficult. 
One to hold the phone one to navigate
I really resent the fact that the FP3 is so much larger than my FP2. I think that, for me, the FP2 is the perfect size.
Unfortunately the FP4 is even bigger and Apple discontinued the “mini” series after the 12 and 13 mini.
I guess my next phone would be a 2nd-hand iPhone 12-or-13 mini ; or an SE, for lack of a better, more sustainable alternative.
EDIT : I perused up the topic and noticed the SHIFT5me. The fact that it’s on Android 8 (!) and with a ridicule amount of battery (~2400mAh) doesn’t really inspire confidence in the future-proof nature of the phone. It’s a shame to consider smaller phones to be economy models, less worthy of the trouble in a way… i can’t even find when it came out
Hi, thanks for the info. A lot of it is in German, and it’s hard navigating this space for me.
Maybe my referential is skewed cause from my days of looking, screen-to-size ratios were much smaller.
Take the
FP2 : 143 x 73 x 11 mm, 5" screen, okay size
FP3(+) : 158 x 71 x 9,9 mm, 5,6" screen, too big.
SHIFT5me : 141.5mm x 71mm x 9mm, 4,95" screen
Conclusion : for me, max 5" right ?
not so sure !
I’ve done a bit of comparing and I must remind everyone looking for a smaller-factor phone doesn’t mean comparing screen size. I was reading an article that outlined that 6.1" screens does not mean that the phone is too big!
If we take current flagship phones, i.e. Samsung S23 and iPhone 14 (so no Pluses, Pros, Ultras nor Maxes):
S23 : 146.3 x 70.9 x 7.6 mm
iPhone 13 : 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8 mm
… and they’re both 6,1" screens !
their screen is larger than the FP3s while being roughly the same size as the FP2.
Now, does that mean I should start to look for 6,1" phone screens ? i don’t think so. After all, the top of my FP2 (where the screen would continue in newer phones) is not accessible with one hand either. Add to that the constraints in terms of reparability and ease of service with phones with no bezels.
If we go back to the
iPhone mini : 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm, 5,4" screen
So in the end, it didn’t really change my mind about the iPhone mini. But it certainly gave me pause and opportunity to think about how the market has evolved and consider 5"-5,5" screens.
So I thought, just put it out there, that the total height (143mm for the FP2, 158mm FP3, 146mm base flagships, 131,5 iPhone mini) are better indicators than screen size, for my purpose at least.
2 Likes