Any suggestions for small smartphone?

Laveila · May 18, 2014, 10:58am

Ok, I started to have huge problems with my current smartphone. Constant freezing, unable to pick up a call, or finish a call, constantly gettin Sony Xperia home is not responding. And applications crashing constantly. I loved the phone until the last update released by Sony which apparently makes the phone freeze more. Lot of people complained online. And nothing is helping to resolve this and i am not sure I dare to do rooting. Unfortunately its not hardware problem as the phone is still in warranty (2years one) for last few months.

So I am considering switching and keeping this waterproof phone for weekends in the mountains etc. My main problem is I want SMALL smartphone. My current phone has 3.5inches screeen and I love the size. Its easy to hold and easy to use in one hand, it fits into my pockets, including the inner pocket for my sportish jacket. I would like phone with the same size, not too expensive, meaning I do not mean the newest and latest, but one which would run more smoothly than this.

The problem is that my experience with Android is all cheap phones seems not to have enough ram, the 500 something on my phone is nowhere near enough, I did disable what i could from those preinstalled applications, but the ram still seems full (not sure why). Also I do not like the idea of 50 preinstalled applications by the manufacturer, if I use less than 10 out of those, including Camera, contacts, messages, etc.

So here are my needs:

I use it as regular phone, calls, sms.

I use skype and hangouts, I use 2 email addresses (personal and official with my name on it), both syncing regularly. I do use Kindle when I want to read or Adobe Reader to use my field related pdfs (studying).

I do very light browsing. And usually only when I need to find some information.

I dont take photos on the phone, apart from occassional shots when my camera is nowhere near. I do not watch videos and I use my very old MP3 player for listening to music (saves phone battery).

I do not play games on the phone.

I want phone with ideally 3.5inches screen, maximum would be 4inches. This excludes most phones.

I would say in middle price range. Or may consider a second hand phone if the price would be good.

As I realized that there are not many phones like that out there, so the platform does not matter. I would even consider BB if it would do what I do on it.

Anyone has any suggestions?

anon47165311 · May 18, 2014, 12:14pm

Motorola G. Asda £100 unlocked just swap your SIM and your off. Wife and son just got one each. It is now owned by Google so it is driven by Google search. Check it out

Laveila · May 18, 2014, 12:32pm

Well, yeah, but its 4,5"! I really would rather not go abover 4. I tested it in shop and I hate big screens on phone, especially since I have tablet. And 4,5" is not what I call compact. I want phone I could take with me to a ball, to school, to work, even to mountain trip and which would fit comfortably into sportish cloths. Which my 3,5" does, but I know if I go above 4" I would have to get a second dumb phone and swap sims

I know. I am weird with my phone prefences. And I am looking for a phone which does not exist it seems. Well, quick check revealed very few out there, like the Iphone 4s or maybe Nokia 620 with 3.8 inch. Not sure if BB has phone like that.

I was hopeing someone would have some ideas apart from these.

I am wondering why they do not produce small smartphones these days. After looking at the internet, I found I am not the only one struggling with this. And some people just go back to dumb phones rather than big smartphones. If my tablet had data connection, I would consider it, but it is wifi only. And I do need access to the emails, mainly my official one.

bigfish69 · May 18, 2014, 1:14pm

If you want a phone that doesn't constantly update, keep away from Android.

I hated my last two Android phones, so nearly two years ago purchased a Windows Nokia Lumia. It has without doubt been the best mobile I have ever owned.
It's due for an upgrade buy it is still 100%, so no point in a new phone - Good battery, no scratches and rock solid build quality.

Check out the Nokia 620 or 630 which launches in June.

jg · May 18, 2014, 2:55pm

IPhone dare I say! 3 offer is good at the moment £19 per month with unlimited mins/texts (99 quid upfront)

jg · May 18, 2014, 2:56pm

Iphone 5c that is....

Laveila · May 18, 2014, 6:20pm

I do not mind updates, just hate when soon after the phone is becoming unsable and resetting to factory settings every week or 2 is not an option. Plus before this update, with skype and another application running I still had round 120 ram free. Now I am lucky to have this with none of my applications running. So after update to new Android, the phone is barely usable.

I am considering the Lumia 620, the 630 will have too big screen.

I guess my options are Iphone 4s or 5c, more leaning to 4s, smaller screen and cheaper, Lumia 620 or possibly BB Q5.

Sum_Sub · May 18, 2014, 6:24pm

Just a consideration, if you go for an older phone it will have less processing power than its newer cousin which means as updates become available the phone will slow down.

anon92065733 · May 18, 2014, 6:50pm

As a user of samrtphone for long time i have used, Motorola, nokia, iphone, htc AND samsung. After using all those phones i came to the conclusion that samsung is one of the best makes and been using it ever since. IMO you should go for samsung and galaxy 2/3 or 4 should be cheaper as the new 5 is out. If you feel that they are too big for you than samsung do a range of mini as well.

The best thing for you is to go to mobile phone shops and look at the sizes and decide what models you are interested in and than look over the internet for the best price and best deal. I normally take sometime before i choose a model as you gotta live with it for 18-14 months on a daily basis.

Quiet_ones_are_worse · May 18, 2014, 7:00pm

I would suggest Samsung Galaxy s3 mini or galaxy Fame both now cheapish.

Laveila · May 18, 2014, 7:40pm

I know older phones will have less power, but I could avoid updating it. But the problem is my phone got to the point its not usable. And I really disliked how the manufacturer was pushing more and more apps on it during each update. I mean why do I need 50 preinstalled apps from them if I use the most basic 10?

And I mean that 4inches is my absolute maximum size, I do not want phone above it. I did try it and it is just too much for me. I have smaller hands, I have smaller pockets and I have smaller handbag which I use for theatre and balls and the phone must fit there alongside my purse and keys. And after spending lot of time in show room I can say I cannot live with phone above 4 inch screen as I hated the screen after 5 minutes and I cannot imagine living with it for the coming 2 years until warranty expires if I get a brand new phone. I know I am picking on the display size maybe too much, but for me its main criteria and then I need to pick a phone which will allow me to do my daily job without freezing on me all the time.

I guess I have the below choices for new phones:

Iphone 4s, 5, 5s, 5c -5s way too expensive, even the 5c is. so leaves 4s or 5.

BB Q5 or Q10

Nokia Lumia 620

Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini, but I do not like their colour reproduction. I think they are over saturating it.

And I will have to hope times will change and smaller screenphones will show up. I know lot of people hate big screenphones. I have friends who got tablet with data connection and use dumb phone. If the screen on phones continue to go the way it is going, I will be going the same way in the future.

Haras75 · May 19, 2014, 4:04am

bigfish69 wrote:

If you want a phone that doesn't constantly update, keep away from Android.
I hated my last two Android phones, so nearly two years ago purchased a Windows Nokia Lumia. It has without doubt been the best mobile I have ever owned.
It's due for an upgrade buy it is still 100%, so no point in a new phone - Good battery, no scratches and rock solid build quality.
Check out the Nokia 620 or 630 which launches in June.

You know you can turn updates off ??!!

Haras75 · May 19, 2014, 4:08am

My son has a galaxy fame which is brilliant ,small and cheap !!

Laveila · May 19, 2014, 8:26pm

Yeah, but who could know this update would mess the phone up? Looking at the internet I think it was Sony messing it up and then not doing anything about it. Unfortunately would not be the first time they did it apparently with the middle range phones. Annoying.

As its updated, its either root or forget the phone. I had just kindle running and my mom called and I could not pick the phone. So it has to go perm I am afraid.

Galaxy Fame cannot be bought easily, its not stock anymore in this country and I would be worried about the 512 MB ram. I have it at current phone and I think with Android it may not be enough.

Thanks for the tips. I will have to make my decision soon. My friend is selling iphone 4s, which is under warranty under autumn and I am considering getting it. With the price, it would be worth grabbing.

Quiet_ones_are_worse · May 20, 2014, 7:03am

I would still recomend the samsumng s3 mini over the i phone however if you friend is selling it cheap this maybe a better option but you would have to get used to the different opperating system I would also get it reset to factory settings first.