I backed the Jelly Max on Kickstarter as soon as it was announced. It's larger than the old Jelly phones, which I liked but ultimately stopped using.
I wrote about the Jelly 2 that it fits in every pocket I have, even in my tightest jeans, it runs the apps I need, and if it makes me spend less time on Twitter, that's fine.
Fine, all true, all correct. Why did I eventually switch back to my old Xperia XZ1 Compact?
Part of the story is that the nice guys who build LineageOS for the xz1c kept providing upgrades (here's Android 14), another part is that the bezels on the Jelly 2 ought to be narrower, a third part is that I couldn't find a good phone holder for my bike. I had to switch from the Jelly 2 to the xz1c before a weeklong bicycle trip and… never switched back. I liked the Jelly 2, just not well enough to move Signal and a few other apps back.
Here's a photo of the xz1c (in front) and the new Jelly Max (behind):
They lie flat on the same table. As you can see, the Jelly Max is similar to my current xz1c, but thicker and heavier. It's nicely shaped and lies well in the hand, it has good battery lifetime, much more storage, a nice minimal version of Android, and as usual Unihertz has done an excellent job of many small things. 180g though, against 140g for the xz1c, and the xz1c slides into a pocket in a way that the Jelly Max doesn't.
Which phone will I end up carrying?
The Unihertz Jelly was small and fine, and I did like it but I had to give it up. The battery wasn't good enough for my use when travelling, and now that my eyes are fifty years old I admit I found the screen too small.
At the time I wrote that a smartphone should be small and light, have a large screen and battery, be fast enough, and not have too many bugs. Obviously there's a conflict between overall size and screen/battery size.
Now that Unihertz has shipped a slightly larger Jelly 2 I decided to buy one to try (after worrying for a while about whether the screen was a large enough part of the phone's front). I've used it for a while now.
The phone isn't elegant, chic, stylish or pretty. I want it to stay in my pocket, out of sight, so logically speaking I shouldn't mind its looks. I really shouldn't. On the other hand, it's well-built and feels solid. It lies well in the hand.
There's a visible Torx screw (that does nothing?).
The apps I want to run work, even though they clearly are designed for bigger screens. The battery and screen are OK. A very small screen is a very small strain on the battery, but the screen is big enough for my eyes and I can enter text.
Like its predecessor, the Jelly 2 is not fun. That's a good thing in my opinion. This phone can be used to call, it can speak in my ear and tell me to turn right at the next intersection, it can be used for 2FA and my other apps, and it isn't a timewaste magnet. Browsing Instagram, Twitter and so on is possible, but that kind of thing isn't attractive on this phone's display. This is perhaps one reason that I don't worry about the battery. I charge it I notice it's low and don't worry. If I charge it in the morning, I always have >50% battery left in the evening.
It fits in every pocket I have, even in my tightest jeans, it runs the apps I need, and if it makes me spend less time on Twitter, that's fine.
Many more months have passed, the Jelly Pro is still in my life, and it now runs Android 8.1.
Android 8.1 runs well, but one configuration setting absolutely must be changed: settings → smart assistant → power save manager
and then turn that off. The power saving regime provided by Android 8 is better, and the third-party power save manager
Unihertz has included confuses […More…]
Another few weeks have passed.
I have made up my mind to ditch the Jelly and go back to a bigger phone, in fact I've made up my mind to that several times. And I've also made up my mind that I cannot possibly do that.
It's difficult. One one hand many things work so well on the Jelly. I have apps, for example Google Authenticator, on a device that is unobtrusively small and is not a timewaste magnet. On the other, data entry can be a pain. Last Satuday I wanted to know whether I had time to get to a shop before it closed, and I remembered the shop's location but not its name. I found it, which makes the Jelly qualitatively different from other small phones, but the data entry was impractical compared to a large smartphone.
I don't buy a lot of hardware any more, and nothing out of the ordinary... but I have a credit-card-sized smartphone called Jelly (a Jelly Pro actually, with 2GB RAM).
A smartphone should be small and light, have a large screen and battery, be fast enough, and not have too many bugs. Obviously there's a conflict between overall size and screen/battery size. The Jelly is a very different compromise than most smartphones — most phones fit barely in a pocket, or only in some pockets, and provide large screens on which apps work well. The Jelly starts by fitting easily in any pocket, and makes the apps work as well as possible on a very small screen.
It succeeds on size: I can stick the Jelly in tight jeans pockets and sit down without noticing that it's there. […More…]