I’m now firmly ensconced in the Android ecosystem for better or worse. It has the apps I use and more freedom than IOS, so despite it’s shortcomings, I’m in there for the long haul.
Except am I? Increasingly there seems to be precious little in terms of handsets suitable for me. I look back on the halcyon days of the Nexus 4 wistfully. I traded my Nexus 4 against a Nexus 5 but the 5 is probably a smidge too big for my liking. My phone more or less lives in my front trouser pocket, and with jeans a five inch phone isn’t the best fit. The 4 didn’t really have enough storage or 4G and if it wasn’t for that I’d still have one. If the battery was easily replaceable, I’d buy a second hand one tomorrow.
My Nexus 5 is now suffering from intermittent dead spots on the touchscreen and the device itself is warped by several years of sitting in the front pocket of my trousers but I can’t find anything to replace it with and the frustration is beginning to mount.
I don’t think my tick list from a handset it at all unreasonable. All I want is something with a sub 5 inch screen, 4G, 32GB of storage/microSD slot, Gorilla Glass or equivalent and a reasonable build quality. But such a phone doesn’t exist. Screens are getting bigger and bigger- 5 inch is now the old 4 inch, and most manufacturers tie the screen size into other premium features like 4G. It’s frustrating in the extreme.
There are a few potential handsets, but the Sony Z3 Compact seems to have very fragile glass, the HTC One Mini 2 has cheap build quality and is sloooow, and I’ve never wanted one of Samsungs plastic phones. I want a smaller version of the Nexus 5 or a smaller Motorola X.
If the Windows Phone running Lumia 735 ran Android I’d probably be the happiest person out there right now. It wouldn’t take much- double the RAM in it and you’re ready to go.
