I've seen a lot of people on the web being interested in acquiring a small size phone and/or a dumb phone and during my research I found about this Xiaomi subsidiary called QIN that have recently dropped what basically look like the best dumbphone "qin f22 (actually runs android unlike Nokia garbage dumbphones) " and the best small size phone (5 inches ) "qin 3" on the market.
I haven't bought any of the above since I can't currently afford any of them but I know quality when I see it, and I doubt a new company that only sell such niche products would want to destroy its image by sending bad products.
I am not affiliated in any way, just wanted to share the end result of my several days long search for a dumbphone to play java games again .
My only issue is that it's not Snapdragon and not quite dev/root friendly, but otherwise it ticks all the boxes - including a 3.5mm jack and an IR Blaster!
The qin3 ultra match a lot of his demands for under 220$ but it's lacking quite hard on some others( mainly camera ). What he's asking for is a premium small sized phone but since it's a niche product with limited sales, making a premium quality varient would make it a niche within a niche, so I highly doubt we'll see it one day.
There have been some small phones that run Android over the years. These days it’s less common I suspect because the devices are used for so much more these days. Having more of our lives involving the mobile smart device makes a larger screen just more sensible.
But over the years there have been some. I have a few in my collection. I think Nokia has had some. Also a couple of Sony Ericsson Xperia models I think. Some others too.
But current tech I just don’t think manufacturers want to bother because I don’t think the potential customer base is good enough to be able to make it worth making.
Not a dumbphone, but Unihertz makes some actually small phones - like ones that can fit completely in your palm. These things are great to have as a backup phone, or something you can take with you while you go out for a run or the gym.
Wow, even the soc specs are great. Tho the screen being 3 inches is way to small for my shitty eyes, but the otherwise they look like solid phones.
I am actually interested in the keyboard of the dumbphone to, as i said before, play java games the way they were designed to be played since touchscreen is garbage.