I just got a new Pixel 7a a few days ago. I specifically got that one to get the smallest of the bunch. It’s advertised as the smallest (and cheaper) model, phone size comparisons showed it to be indeed smaller than most competing devices and it’s even listed in some “best small phones” lists.
Now it’s here and it’s massive. If I keep the pinkie below the phone, I literally can’t reach the top of the screen at all, which is the entire notification bar - and my fingers are long! It’s annoying me to the point of being just about to return it to get something like the s22 or s23, just to save those 6mm of height - which is ridiculous, as it’d end up costing me a hundred bucks extra and I won’t get the free buds pro. I’ve been using Android since the G1 and outright refused to even consider anything else over years… But now I’m thinking about the iPhones 13 mini and se, just because I’m able to use them with one hand.
I want to like this device. So, could you people please tell me if I’m… Dunno, just doing it wrong? Like, not getting it or something? How do you pull down the notification bar in apps with one hand? How do you post those top-left buttons to close your current view? Enlighten me, please!
/edit Just in case anybody still sees this: I returned it. Went back to my s10e, which is eol and needs a charge in the afternoon, which is still annoying me less than that massive piece of hardware.
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I hope somebody has a better answer for you but I think it’s just that the world has decided that one has to use two hands to operate a Smartphone now. I’d love a phone with a 5" screen but it looks like we are a (vocal) minority that’s not profitable to serve?
5’’ screen!
I think the biggest issue is the lack of 16:9 displays. With displays reaching upwards of 20:9 nowadays, it’s no surprise people can’t comfortably reach all around the display. On the other hand, even though my old Nexus 6 display was massive, it was 16:9 and simple to navigate one-handed.
It’s advertised as the smallest
Is that actually the case? I’ve never seen them mention size in their advertising (one way or the other) and I have never considered anything after the Pixel 5 as normal sized. Yeah, they’re all big, some more than others.
Okay, so they don’t call it small, granted. They do advertise the screen sizes quite prominently tough, saying “these are our three phone options and the first, bold thing we show is the size”. But yeah, they don’t call it small, the tech journalists do.
the tech journalists do
They like, lost touch, man.
On my pixel 5(?) You can swipe down on the finger print thingie and it will drop the notification bar down. Do it again, and it’ll fully expand.
I miss my Nexus one… One handed, trackball that glowed whatever you had a notification, cheap…
Basically every pixel which has the fingerprint on the back. That’s a feature I will miss from my Pixel 4a
It’s not the same, but you can do this by swiping down on the gesture navigation bar. You can find it in Settings > Gestures > One-handed mode.
Additionally, under the gestures menu you can enable the “Quick Tap to start actions” option, and assign it to “Show notifications”. This will make it so when you double tap the back of your phone, it opens the notifications menu.
It takes a bit of getting used to where it actually wants you to tap though, in my experience.
That solution almost doesn’t scream “imperfect solution to a problem that wouldn’t exist if the phone wasn’t way too big”.
Welcome to the current world 🙃
That’s the main reason why I’m keeping to my iPhone XS and will switch to a 13 mini once it gets too old. I got a Pixel 7 a few months ago and it was way too cumbersome, I ended up sending it back.
I have a Samsung S10+ (I dunno what I’m doing here). I just measured my thumb to pinky distance when doing a hang ten gesture, and it’s about 20cm/8 inches. My phone is about 1/2cm taller than yours. I can reach the notification bar and pull it down one handed, but I think there’s a bit of technique to it. If you describe your fingers as long, maybe you need better technique?
That’s what she said?
Jones aside, as I said, I tend to rest the phone on my pinkie. That way, I don’t need to “grab” it but it just kinda lays in my hand. This way, I can’t also comfortably reach the bottom buttons, which gets annoying if I hold the phone more in its middle by simply grabbing it.
So, maybe the point is not to get a phone that lets me reach the notification bar one handedly (which also works on the 7a, yes) but that this phone doesn’t allow me to reach the whole screen, top to bottom, without adjusting how I hold it.
Yeah, I can reach top to bottom but it involves balancing the phone on the end of my pinkie and maneuvering it. It comes naturally now, but it was probably an issue when I got it. It’s been a couple of years so I can’t remember now.
Shorter phones really are few and far between, but they do exist. Here’s a search that shows any 140mm or shorter, released in the past couple of years and still available: https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2021&nHeightMax=140&sAvailabilities=1&sFormFactors=1,2,3,4,6,10,11&sOSes=2
The Pixel 7a is 152mm tall, this search shows anything 140mm tall or shorter. So phones about half an inch shorter than the Pixel 7a (not screen size, but the actual height of the phone top to bottom). There’s nothing in that list that stands out as one often recommended, popular phones are all big these days.
It’s not a complete solution, but I like one-handed mode. When it’s active, swiping down on the bottom center of the screen makes the whole screen slide down, making the notification shade easier to get to.
See, I loved one handed mode on my s10e. That resized the whole screen to the bottom left or bottom right, allowing me to easily reach all elements, when I double-tapped the home button.
The pixel takes a completely different route. First, it’s a gesture that doesn’t work if you have the system buttons activated, which I have. Swiping down in the bottom area does nothing if the system buttons are shown and there’s no alternative on screen gesture (like double-tapping home). The alternative is to hold the volume buttons for a second or so, which just kind of feels slow… you do something, then you need to access the top of the screen and just look at your phone for a second while you wait for it to recognize the buttons being pressed and held. It just feels weird and kind of takes you out of the “flow” of doing stuff with your phone. Second (and more importantly) the pixel does its one-handed mode like iPhones do: it simply moves everything down about half of the screen. That gives you access to the top of the screen but shifts the whole bottom of your UI area off-screen, so unlike on Samsungs, where you can essentially work in one-handed mode 100% (at the cost of having UI elements being smaller than usually, so you sometimes mis-click), you need to constantly switch between regular and one-handed mode, which is annoying - doubly so with system buttons, which force you to wait a second to turn on one-handed mode.
So yes, there is kind of a solution, but I don’t think it works too well.
/edit Just found out you can enable a button to show up above the system buttons that enables one-handed mode. That’s actually great and kind of redeems a lot of problems I have. Nice!
That’s not on you. If the phone feels too large for you, then that’s what it is.
If I may, I’ve been enjoying the ZenFone 9 for over a year now, and have no complaints. It’s a good 8mm shorter than the 7a, and I can use it one-handed no problem. Other notable traits include a fantastic battery life, a clean software experience, and a headphone jack(!). If you can afford it, you can spring for this year’s ZenFone 10 too.
Maybe it’s too little too late, but if you’re looking to return or switch in the future, that’s my recommendation.
My s10e is still going okay and is just small enough to use one handed. Sad that companies are moving away from the small, powerful phones
The S23 is basically exactly the same size as the S10e btw, as is the current iPhone/iPhone pro.
I also loved my S10e, so it’s great that if I went back to android there is a ready made replacement without the compromise of worse/less cameras like the S10e had.
It’s pretty funny that the best selling phone every single year (regular iPhone), along with another top 2/3 seller (iPhone pro), along with the best selling android flagship (regular S), are basically the smallest phones on the market, yet everyone continues to say people want huge phones.
I’ve got the 6a, which I believe is very close to the 7a, and I have to agree that it really doesn’t feel nice in the hand. I broke out old s10e the other day which is similarly sized but feels so much nicer, and I was also at Best Buy the other day checking out the s23 and it also feels much much nicer than the pixel. So my next phone will probably be back to a galaxy.
I have heard good things about the zenfone line for a good smaller phone but haven’t had a chance to use the latest version.
You’re not doing anything wrong.
I had the Pixel 7. The physical size wasn’t the issue, but rather that the phone is top heavy because of the camera enclosure. Unlike other phones of its size or even larger ones like my friend’s Note Ultra, the Pixel 7 always felt like it was going to fall out of my hand due to the top heaviness. I never got used to it and wound up using my old Pixel 5 for a bit before trading in the Pixel 7 for a Z Flip 5 which is much easier to handle despite being taller when open.
Thanks for asking this question. I learned some things I didn’t know I needed. I have a 6a, and I use a phone strap I found on Amazon. It’s like a rubber band that stretches vertically around the back of the phone case from the camera opening to the charging opening. I got this because when I rest it on my pinky, it hurts. But, I noticed since, that I can do more one handed because my anchor is in the middle instead of the bottom. I tried a few phone grip ideas before I landed here, and learned som things. I can’t stand pop sockets, because the phone doesn’t lay flat anymore. Also, you can prop it up in landscape, but not portrait (at least for the one I had). The rings that stick to the back are also a no-go. They hurt my finger when the weight of the phone is all resting just on the ring. The strap I landed with is removable, reusable, no adhesives, the phone lays flat still, and is comfortable to hold the weight of the phone.
A great site to see phone sizes before you even think about buying:
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Google-Pixel-7a,Samsung-Galaxy-S23/phones/12071,11999
I also hate how big phones are becoming. I went with an iPhone because they’re pretty much the smallest phones on the market while also being the best performing and with a top 2 camera.
Quick cursor. The app is fantastic for this.
