The truth is no electronic will suit everybody right now. Everybody has different circumstances, wants and needs. How small can electronics be?
The Beauty Of Downsizing
I am always looking for scaled down or compressible items to save space in my bags. I scale down my writing utensils, notebooks, sticky notes, lunch containers, water bottles, mirrors, clips, nail clippers, haircare, skincare, etc. This works FOR ME because of MY circumstance & values. Depending on the material + composition, smaller things could be less heavy.
Think of your electronics as your bags. Depending on your wants and needs, a bag could change size & shape. My bag shape is square. Think of UI, UX, speed time, storage, and headphone jack, as multiple containers & products in the bag that could change as well. For example, some people value expert gaming, so a tiny phone isn’t gonna work unless it cools down enough.
Tiny UI
Here are some appropriate uses for sizing down applications.
Some windows are useful to have in front of others on desktop devices. Microsoft Teams is a perfect example of sizing down a meeting window containing easily clickable buttons! Microsoft Notepad is a simple text editor I use for quick notes and hope will not get deprecated soon! I can zoom in & out and change text size with a smaller window.
This picture, showcasing a 128 x 96 pixel screen, demonstrates sizing down basic video games with up, left, down, right controls.
Device Shape & Size Influence UI & UX
A lot of electronics regardless of size, have rounded corners & bevels for ergonomics, safety, and aesthetic. The screen shape itself is also rounded or sharp. Round phones are going to feel more “playful” and stylish than sharper phones. You can tell the difference between this smartwatch & this smartwatch. UI is being cut off on the first one.
For app icons, I would make them 100% round unless the icon is a transparent background. This way they look good with round or squared edged phones. I personally don’t like seeing the popular heavy square-circle shape on any electronic. I always feel like it wants to take up space yet doesn’t! I also think it makes the phone look “cheap”. If it is square-circle, I like 1-5px border-radius so it’s not competing with the shape of the phone. For widgets that do or almost take up 100% width of the screen, I don’t mind if it’s sharp or 5px or 2px border-radius.
Tiniest Phones
Here are my favorite picks! Most of these phones are not flagship phones. If big brands start making phones this size, it would be cool.
I like small stylistic photos and do not mind low resolution photos. At first, I was shocked these phones can fit 16-32GB. Then I remembered USBs can fit hundreds more. AI is great for making tables!
Zoom in to see the table with more mini phones.
| Tiniest Phones | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Model | Brand | Size (mm) | Screen | Processor | OS | RAM | Storage | SIM Slot | Charging Port | Headphone Jack | Front Camera | Rear Camera | Battery | Network | Software | Bluetooth | Wi-Fi | MicroSD Slot | Release Year | Price (USD est.) | U.S. Network Compatibility | GPS | NFC | Other Features | |
| Zanco Tiny T1 | Zanco | 46.7x21x12 | 0.49″ OLED | MTK6261D | Feature OS | 32MB | 32MB | Single Nano | Micro-USB | No | None | None | 200mAh | 2G (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) | Basic proprietary firmware | No | No | No | 2017 | $40 | Limited (2G phased out in U.S.) | No | No | Voice only | SMS |
| Vphone S8 | Vphone | 46.7×37.3×9.9 | 1.54″ LCD | MTK2502 | Non-Intel OS | 64MB | 128MB | Single Micro | Micro-USB | No | None | None | 380mAh | 2G (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) | Feature smartwatch-style OS | Bluetooth 3.0 | No | No | 2018 | $50 | Limited (2G only) | No | No | Music player | Bluetooth tethering |
| Zanco Tiny T2 | Zanco | 61x30x16.5 | 1.0″ TFT | MTK6276A | Feature OS | 128MB | 64MB | Nano + SD | Micro-USB | Yes | None | 0.3MP | 500mAh | 2G + 3G (WCDMA 2100MHz) | Feature phone OS | Bluetooth 3.0 | No | Yes | 2020 | $80 | Partial (3G mostly discontinued) | No | No | MP3 player | video playback |
| Soyes P40 | Soyes | 86.4×43.8×10.2 | 2.5″ LCD | MTK6580 Quad | Android 6.0 | 1GB | 8GB | Dual Nano | USB-C | No | 0.3MP | 5.0MP | 700mAh | 3G (WCDMA 850/2100MHz) | Android | Yes | Yes | No | 2019 | $90 | Partial (3G phased out in many areas) | Yes | No | Google Play | hotspot support |
| Soyes XS20 Pro Mini | Soyes | 88.4×45.2×11 | 3.0″ LCD | Quad Core | Android 9.0 | 2GB | 16GB | Dual Nano | USB-C | No | 2.0MP | 5.0MP | 1000mAh | 4G LTE | Android | Yes | Yes | No | 2021 | $110 | Good (supports most 4G bands) | Yes | No | Touchscreen Android | Wi-Fi hotspot |
| Mony Mist | Mony | 89.5×45.5×11.5 | 3.0″ LCD | MTK6739 Quad | Android 9.0 | 3GB | 32GB | Dual Nano | USB-C | No | 0.3MP | 13MP | 1250mAh | 4G LTE (Global Bands) | Android | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2021 | $130 | Excellent (works with T-Mobile | AT&T 4G) | Yes | No | Fingerprint sensor |
| Unihertz Jelly | Unihertz | 92.4x43x13 | 2.45″ LCD | Quad Core 1.1GHz | Android 7.0 | 2GB | 16GB | Dual Nano | Micro-USB | Yes | 2.0MP | 8.0MP | 950mAh | 4G LTE (Cat 4) | Android | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2017 | $120 | Good (supports U.S. LTE bands 2/4/12) | Yes | No | GPS | accelerometer |
NEW PLUGIN PREVIEW…
Does this table look really big? That’s on purpose. Soon I will be sharing a WordPress plug-in I made along with Perplexity AI that works with almost any screen size. Here’s a preview of it. It will take a big table like the one above to this:
This will be responsive. Don’t want to scroll through a big table? It will have a search bar displaying a dropdown of options. View this WordPress Plugin Update post for more info on how to generate plugins with AI. Don’t judge the styling, the UI & UX is still in the beta phase…