Jelly Max

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?