[HN Gopher] Jelly Star - The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone
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Jelly Star - The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone
Author : f_allwein
Score : 64 points
Date : 2024-07-13 21:19 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.unihertz.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.unihertz.com)
| f_allwein wrote:
| No affiliation - saw a colleague use this the other day. He said
| it helped him reduce his screen time, while still being able to
| use WhatsApp etc. to stay in touch with family.
| rostayob wrote:
| I've been using this phone as my full time phone for 1 year. It's
| a great compromise for people that ideally would not want a
| smartphone, but need to have one since many life situations
| require it.
|
| I basically only use it for WhatsApp and music, but when some
| other need arises, it can do everything a normal smartphone can
| do.
|
| The only problem is that the build quality is not good. The audio
| jack of the first one I bought (off the initial kickstarter)
| broke after 6 months or so. I bought another one, and the up
| volume button recently broke. But otherwise, no complaints.
| DidYaWipe wrote:
| Interesting. The headphone jack would be my main reason for
| buying this thing.
|
| Recently forgot my iPad on a trip, and couldn't listen to
| anything on the plane because my goddamned iPhone lacks a
| headphone jack. So offensively stupid.
| rostayob wrote:
| Note that I was fairly careless with it, and I'm pretty
| clumsy. It probably fell 20+ times. But still, it feels very
| cheap (and I suppose it makes sense given the price).
| fragmede wrote:
| why didn't you buy the Bluetooth adapter from the bestbuy
| kiosk in the airport to use your airpods with the plane's
| headphone jack?
| jzymbaluk wrote:
| Why not just get a 3.5mm to lightning adaptor? They have
| knock-off/generic versions at gas stations that cost like 5
| dollars and it beats lugging around a whole extra device just
| to use your headphones
| ThinkBeat wrote:
| I can only imagine that the typing experience on such a tiny
| phone is sub optimal. When you say WhatsApp are you actually
| typing in messages ?
| DidYaWipe wrote:
| And it has a headphone jack! Seriously considering this.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Part of the problem with this brand is that this "Android 13
| Smartphone" will probably stay that forever. Updates are very
| very minimal.
|
| I have their first jelly and it didn't even get the upgrade they
| promised.
|
| Other than that, it's not so bad. Swype-typing makes a small
| keyboard still useful. But the updates really are the achilles
| heel here.
| hagbard_c wrote:
| This is not as big a problem as you make it out to be due to
| the availability of alternative Android distributions. A quick
| search shows that LineageOS 20 already runs well on this device
| which means it should be possible to keep it up to date for a
| long time. I'm using a Samsung SIIIneo from 2014 with LineageOS
| 18.1 (Android 11) for which LineageOS 20 is available as well
| while Samsung dropped support at Android 4.4. Since I prefer
| the 'clean Android' experience over whatever vendor
| embellishments have been added I tend to switch to LineageOS as
| soon as I get a new (or "new") device anyway. I'm using
| LineageOS as an example but there are plenty of alternative
| AOSP-derived distributions for those who want something else.
|
| What I'd actually like to see is an updated Motorola Defy [1],
| a waterproof/shockproof device with a 3.7" screen, a user-
| changeable battery, headphone jack, a good _loud_ speaker, uSD
| card slot, etc. Just give it enough battery capacity to last
| for a week with mild use like the Defy+ offered, enough memory
| and storage to last for 10 years of Android development and
| make sure the bootloader can be unlocked by the user. That is
| one device I 'd buy as a 'working' phone (i.e. a device which
| can withstand the rigours of farm life), what I use that
| Samsung SIIIneo for now. It already survived three falls from a
| 8.5m high barn roof while I was installing solar panels, my
| daughter's Defy+ survived going through a full wash/spin cycle
| when she left it in her trouser pocket. That is what I want
| from a phone, not some silly 'AI' gimmicks.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Defy
| nobodywasishere wrote:
| I used LineageOS on a number of devices for a number of
| years, and had to upgrade to a new device every year due to
| either performance, bugs, or official support being dropped.
| Can't tell you the number of various bugs I ran into that
| completely made it unusable, until the point I just started
| getting two of every device to be able to have a backup, and
| be able to do clean version updates.
|
| Being able to just get one device and use it for 5+ years is
| such a relief, and gives me a lot less to worry about day to
| day. Custom roms are best left to tinkerers who are okay with
| their device randomly breaking with no rhyme or reason, and
| spending hours either trying to fix it or reflash/restore to
| stock and set everything back up again.
| flawn wrote:
| You got unlucky with your devices (having unfortunate
| hardware compatibility) or the ROM maintainers (being
| inexperienced or just not good). LOS is really great and
| rarely has any issues coming from the pure source of the
| OS.
| skavi wrote:
| That's the first I've heard of the S III Neo. What an odd
| product. Came out 2 years after the original S III, in
| practically the same chassis, but with a few parts swapped.
|
| I wonder why it was made.
| phh wrote:
| Jelly Star is really small, I doubt it's usual as an actual
| smartphone (but I understand the "under-smartphone" usage). For
| the people who want the just-big-enough-to-be-usable-one-handed
| (for average man hands let's say), the upcoming Jelly Max should
| fit better.
|
| My current daily driver which fits that just-big-enough is Qin 3
| Ultra. Its size is perfect, but it is no longer available (unless
| you want to use their original firmware, which ugh, no)
|
| (Also anecdote, I once ordered a phone from Unihertz, I never
| received it. I couldn't cancel the payment because it was a
| kickstarter with few months delay...I won't buy directly from
| them again)
|
| Of course none of the devices I mentioned (both Qin & Unihertz)
| are compliant with GPL and release their kernel source code...
| whyoh wrote:
| >the upcoming Jelly Max
|
| From a quick search it looks like it's gonna have a 5" screen
| and be 15mm thick.
| dtx1 wrote:
| Guaranteed Security Updates until? Not even mentioned? So it's
| just e-waste.
| rbanffy wrote:
| As @hagbard_c pointed out earlier, LegacyOS runs well on it, so
| you can continue using it when updates cease to appear.
| pwildani wrote:
| I've been using one of these for about a year. It's been great
| having a device that I can actually reach all of, and the small
| size also helps to not be a distraction.
|
| About the only thing I miss from the Pixel series is camera
| skills and unnatural photo enhancements. It takes some nudging to
| get my jelly star to focus properly.
| f_allwein wrote:
| Then you could even buy a separate digital camera...
| nunobrito wrote:
| Try their Tank Mini. Double the pixels, double the battery and
| still tiny enough: https://www.unihertz.com/products/tank-mini
|
| We have it here in the house, it is a really good phone too.
| jsheard wrote:
| Looks like there might have been some creative recycling of very
| old tooling to make this, the design language is reminicisient of
| Android phones from a decade ago. Especially the presence of
| dedicated navigation buttons, which were phased out starting from
| Android 4.0.
| GaggiX wrote:
| The perfect smartphone to smuggle.
| cwillu wrote:
| "3.5 mm Audio Jack"
|
| Shut up and take my money.
| lotophage wrote:
| I'm curious if people actually use the IR in place of their TV
| remote as in the promo. For me personally, I think the friction
| of having to fire up an app first would preclude me from ever
| using it in earnest.
| montroser wrote:
| This is cool as an option. But, why oh why mustn't we have any 5
| inch Android phone on the market? It's not as if there's no
| demand, as evidenced by iPhone SE on the iOS side. The last real
| Android choice was the Pixel 4a and beyond that, everything has
| been mega huge.
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| I keep this in my bag with a prepaid SIM for emergencies
| rvz wrote:
| Would rather wait for the Tiq Mini M5 to be back in stock. [0] as
| the small Android device you should be waiting for.
|
| [0] https://www.tiqphone.com/
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