Go and check the link, but essentially:
- small
- 2023 release (Android 13)
- HEADPHONE JACK (I was almost sold here)
- NFC
- 8GB RAM (that is powerful)
- 256 GB internal storage
- Dual SIM or SIM+MicroSD
- IR BLASTER (whatttttttt)
- LED indicators (front AND BACK)
- fingerprint scanner
- face ID
- FM Radio
- PROGRAMMABLE BUTTON (ok I’m in love already STOPPP)
I mean… this list is mindblowing. So…
What’s the downside?
Honestly, you can go and check all reviews… but this phone is virtually perfect for the size, the only issue I have is that the screen is a bit too tiny, 3 inches, and 480p, and I think this will make many people run away.
It should make me look elsewhere also… but where? Any other small phone with a bigger screen is pretty bad, old, etc… and I really needed a new phone, so I realised this was an opportunity to commit to the cause, and buy and hopefully push this form factor from Unihertz to mainstream brands.
Hopefully one day we can get one with a slightly bigger screen, I believe 4 inches and 1080p would be brutal. But for now… I think I’ve found my new phone. In fact, I bought it 3 hours after knowing its existance.
If you are not sold yet…
Go check reviews on YouTube (example). Honestly, you’ll see every reviewer falls in love with the device, even non-small phone lovers. It looks like it performs pretty well, it’s decently fast, battery is solid, screen is bright and colorful, the LEDs are really useful, even Face ID (which I’ll probably disable) is quick, it does not heat up at all, and even photos are pretty decent…
And it’s something like 200 $. Come on. What a deal.
Will report back.
So, what do you think?
My buddy at work was looking for the smallest smart phone he could get, I helped him find the Jelly Star. He has been using it for a few months, and he loves it. Fits in his 5th pocket on most jeans and it’s a real head turner, everyone is confused and thinks it’s a dumb phone
I realised this was an opportunity to commit to the cause, and buy and hopefully push this form factor from Unihertz to mainstream brands.
You seem to forget that all phones used to be small. They didn’t stop making them because OEMs didn’t like them. They stopped making them because consumers didn’t buy them.
So while I appreciate the effort, I fear it is in vain. You’re swimming upstream.
I have not forgotten. And this is not so much swimming upstream but rather, as Captain America said, it’s more like planting yourself like a tree and say “no, you move”.
That idea is fantasy, much like Captain America.
Yeah, this seems like a targeted ad written by some llm. I have a larger phone and still cannot stand the size of the “keyboard” on it… Can only imagine how fun it would be typing on that screen, even if the keyboard was fullscreen.
Oh, damn, so I write like AI, should I take that as compliment or criticism?
I am just a dude with small hands that did not know this phone existed until now. And I fell in love. That’s it.
I guess a compliment. Sorry, this last year or so has made me very skeptical of anything I see online that seems a little spontaneous. So many companies trying to act like bros and just find something amazing they have to tell us about. Unfortunately it’s clouding up the posts where people actually do find something amazing. I like this, and would actually look into it if it had better comments on the U.S. coverage or bands. Still not sure how I would do with the keyboard, but I do like the small form factor. Apologies again if you are a real person. In the meantime I am going to need you to click on every picture that contains a gopher. :)
No worry, I understand. As I said, I will report back, and I am even thinking of uploading videos about this, specially if it turns out as good as it seems. I hate that neither MKBHD, LTT, JerryRig… No one showed this bad boy while they all cried that small phones are dying… Well, now I am starting to believe they might be part of the problem…
It’s actually a bit more subtle than consumers not buying them.
When LTE came out, it was inefficient and used lower frequencies than cell phones used before. So they needed big phones that they could stick big batteries and antennas in.
Smaller phones existed, but often lacked features of big phones, and battery life was terrible due to the aforementioned power consumption problem. Likewise, reception suffered.
Now, the power problem has been solved and LTE uses less power than CDMA techs did. Antenna and radio design has improved to mitigate reception issues so smaller antennae don’t hurt as much as they once did. However, now phones have giant camera modules in them and antennae for a plethora of services and features they think people want like UWB, NFC, wireless charging. (They all have their place, just stating this because they aren’t “essential”.)
People stopped buying small phones because they were “terrible” by comparison. Then manufacturers claimed people didn’t want small phones, so they stopped making them. Now we are stuck because all the junk they throw in phones need all that space.
Tl;dr: the wireless industry killed small phones and blamed consumers.
More so they upsold people to the bigger models. If they had exactly the same specifications other than size, I bet a much larger set of people buy the smaller one. The phone in this post does look a bit too small though.
Except that’s physically impossible. Apple got very close but still no one bought them.
What’s the camera like? I take a ton of photos and really need good quality.
There are a lot of 3" Chinese Android phones, but I’ve never seen one actually having normal specs (well, besides the display perhaps, I suspect its size isn’t the only issue).
Hopefully everything goes fine!
I bought one a couple of months ago. I think it’s fantastic both for the size and the price. It’s a bit too small of a screen for my aging eyes, but otherwise it works great. I’m keeping it to or when I travel or other good use. Edit: the cameras are… OK. Nothing great, but serviceable. Gcam helps, Google for versions. Also, yes, you can root it. Also GSI flash works, but you lose functions. The battery charges super fast, given it’s size. It accepts like 10w charging current.
North america only frequencies, just so you know.
I didn’t find any information on long term software security support, and I don’t need phones to chase the latest Android releases, but the security updates are important to me.
I was excited when I bought Palm phone, but they didn’t support the security software soon after.
This. I asked this question on unihertz kickstarter campaign page, and their answer was avoiding the question.
Major android versions are nice, but security updates are a must, or you’ll be taking huge risks with the data on your phone.
That’s sick. I’m very interested, keep is updated.
Such a fun phone, I absolutely love it. It does everything a modern mid to lower mid range phone does. But typing is heavy. I put a custom Thumbkey fork on it, and now it’s… okay :D
There’s a pretty neat gaming case available for this as well https://lemux.minnix.dev/post/203271
Fuck, man. That looks amazing and it kind of turns the Jelly Star into what I always wanted; a fully functional phone with controller hardware, small enough to easily pocket the entire thing. I almost regret passing on this phone now.
Thanks for the solid writeup! 🙌
When you report back;
It says you can switch a sim slot for an sd card slot. Could you choose to do two sd card slots instead? This looks great as a small mp3 player.
I don’t think that is possible, I believe one of the two slots is nanoSIM only, but will report back.
A bummer that Asus dropped the compact zenfone this year… Hope they bring it back, maybe every other year
@BeatTakeshi @unknowing8343
asus had a gold on their hands with compact zenfones, then they had to mess it up by 2 years of support and an unlocked bootloader (which i would be personally fine with if the support was more than 2 years)
Wow Headphone jack, programmable button, IR blaster…
Honestly, I love having a large phone because I have fat fingers and bad eyesight. I would absolutely buy this phone if it were larger. I might buy it anyway and learn to live with a small screen.
I think Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro has a jack and IR, iirc, not sure about the programmable button
I actually just got one a few days ago. Only issue i have is if you have a usb c cable for power and audio for use on a car or something it gets confused and won’t put audio through the cable. However standard usb c headphones do still work if you need them
I didn’t even know something like that was possible!
Can’t say they’d work 100% on this phone, but there are apps that allow you to switch your audio input/output that may help
Do you know of any examples?