Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

Part of the problem with this brand is that this "Android 13 Smartphone" will probably stay that forever. Updates are very very minimal.

I have their first jelly and it didn't even get the upgrade they promised.

Other than that, it's not so bad. Swype-typing makes a small keyboard still useful. But the updates really are the achilles heel here.

It's a bit too small, but I like that it's a thing. However, for my own use, I want something in-between. A 4" phone would be ideal.

I'm still confused how there aren't any phones for people who still use a computer as their primary means of accessing the internet. Even for this one, the media review section makes it look like it's "to distract oneself from social media". As if a phone's primary purpose isn't to be a communication device for when you aren't near your computer.

This is cool as an option. But, why oh why mustn't we have any 5 inch Android phone on the market? It's not as if there's no demand, as evidenced by iPhone SE on the iOS side. The last real Android choice was the Pixel 4a and beyond that, everything has been mega huge.

I've been using this phone as my full time phone for 1 year. It's a great compromise for people that ideally would not want a smartphone, but need to have one since many life situations require it.

I basically only use it for WhatsApp and music, but when some other need arises, it can do everything a normal smartphone can do.

The only problem is that the build quality is not good. The audio jack of the first one I bought (off the initial kickstarter) broke after 6 months or so. I bought another one, and the up volume button recently broke. But otherwise, no complaints.

I had one of the predecessors to this (the Jelly 2) as one of my strategies to cut down on smart phone usage.

It was a nice idea (as it introduced pain points of using it as a distraction device), but the battery life ended up being abysmal to the point that I couldn't trust it to complete a day. Having a tiny smart phone and then having to take a battery pack for it was absurdity.

It also led me to appreciate how much I'd come to rely on always having a good camera in my pocket. The picture quality was poor enough that the photos would leave me feeling genuinely quite sad.

I've been using one of these for about a year. It's been great having a device that I can actually reach all of, and the small size also helps to not be a distraction.

About the only thing I miss from the Pixel series is camera skills and unnatural photo enhancements. It takes some nudging to get my jelly star to focus properly.

This Jelly thing is the first Android phone that makes me think about switching from iPhone to Android.

I have been waiting for iPhone Nano for years. At this time Apple could make absolutely amazing mini phone if they wanted.

Imagine something like two Apple Watches put together. UI could be something similar to Watch OS with only the essentials, maybe with a bit more capabilities.

Now I'm hopeful as Apple discontinued iPhone mini. To be honest 12/13 mini was OK but it was too close to SE and it didn't really deliver the promise of a small phone. It was good but not inspiring or super exciting. I think they should try to blow us away with something really small and innovative.

Meanwhile I'm going to try Jelly Star as secondary phone. I was surprised how good it was, being full Android phone in a small size. Even typing with such a small keyboard worked surprisingly well.

Jelly Star is really small, I doubt it's usual as an actual smartphone (but I understand the "under-smartphone" usage). For the people who want the just-big-enough-to-be-usable-one-handed (for average man hands let's say), the upcoming Jelly Max should fit better.

My current daily driver which fits that just-big-enough is Qin 3 Ultra. Its size is perfect, but it is no longer available (unless you want to use their original firmware, which ugh, no)

(Also anecdote, I once ordered a phone from Unihertz, I never received it. I couldn't cancel the payment because it was a kickstarter with few months delay...I won't buy directly from them again)

Of course none of the devices I mentioned (both Qin & Unihertz) are compliant with GPL and release their kernel source code...

No affiliation - saw a colleague use this the other day. He said it helped him reduce his screen time, while still being able to use WhatsApp etc. to stay in touch with family.

My first iPhone (original SE) was a choice 95% because of its size and 5% out of curiosity for iOS. At that time (2016-17) when Androids had already started ballooning up. 12 Mini's new battery was insufficient and that is why I had decided to move to iPhone 14 and not just replace that battery as that would have not been good enough either. Original SE was my favourite, second was mini.

If there is going to be a "private" enough Android (even if that is a bigger phone) with stricter Play Store and clamping down on rampant permission devouring by apps, I will stop buying iPhones. Because if I have to anyway buy jumbo phones I'd rather buy cheaper Androids. Had hopes from Nothing phone in privacy but they are into just gimmicks like funny lights on the back and all.

But I don't think Google will do it or let it happen.

I'm curious if people actually use the IR in place of their TV remote as in the promo. For me personally, I think the friction of having to fire up an app first would preclude me from ever using it in earnest.

Some years ago, for a reason I can't remember, I was browsing tiny phones (not smartphones) in a Chinese e-commerce site. I was amazed by the vast range of devices in this category (at the time).

After a few Google searches trying to understand why there was demand for such small phones, one article suggested that these phones are perfect for getting smuggled in prisons "you know how". Don't know if this is true, but it sounds plausible and the vast range of devices could be explained by this.

They were tinier than the smartphone in this article, though.

This makes a great, capable, burner phone for traveling to high risk countries.

The low price, decent performance, small package is perfect for travel and you wouldn't have to worry if it was lost or stolen if you only load up minimal things in there and it doesn't have all your banking apps, etc.

Why offer a crappy default Spanish translation when you can just not?

- The name of the product is broken "Jelly Star Estrella" instead of Jelly Star

- "Descubrir Jelly Star Estrella" instead of "Descubre Jelly Star"

- "Jelly Star Estrella Presenta un diseño" consistently uppercasing the first word disregarding their product name in the sentence

- "Jelly Star EstrellaLa luz LED" or just not leaving spaces

- "Aparece en dos colores" instead of "Disponible en dos colores"

I got tired reading an IA generated translation not reviewed by one single human that spoke the language, that went through some quick copy and paste.

Concept looks cool, I just can't trust them on quality.

Guaranteed Security Updates until? Not even mentioned? So it's just e-waste.

I miss really small phones.

My favourite two small iPhones were the small-by-contemporary-standards iPhone 5S and SE.

My favourite phone ever, small or large, was the Sony Xperia Mini Pro (the second of the Xperia Mini devices, with the slide out keyboard). An absolutely amazingly useful, chunky little device with a super keyboard, an unusually good camera for the time, and an actual shutter button for it.

I'd have used that phone for a couple of years longer had the ambient light sensor not failed. Hard to use a phone that doesn't turn off the touchscreen when it's pressed against your ear.

And it has a headphone jack! Seriously considering this.

Steer clear of Unihertz. If they ship a phone riddled with bugs, the phone will remain riddled with bugs.

Japan has some nice small phones for kids. Although the specs are quite basic. https://youtu.be/AmthGJ5Qwvk?feature=shared https://onlineshop.smt.docomo.ne.jp/products/detail.html?mob...

If size is a large part of your sales pitch you need to show an image with some reference in it.

https://www.noypigeeks.com/android/unihertz-jelly-star/

While hands come in different sizes the picture there gives an immediate feel for the product. Next you might feel you want one. 95.1 × 49.6 × 18.7 mm is more accurate but there is no feeling.

I recently got this phone, and it really sparked joy.

It does everything I need to function in 2024 (messaging people, navigating cities, managing tickets, NFC payments etc), while not tempting me into the dark/addictive side of smartphones.

Only problem is mine seems to be defective. After some time of usage everything hangs and I need to restart it, sometimes 4-5 times a day. Other people I know don’t have the issue. Luckily they’re cheap!

I had one of their earlier models. It wasn't a great phone and the software had some issues. But I suppose it was plenty small. I think I stopped using it because the carrier I switched to didn't support it.

I wanted to keep it as a backup phone for emergencies but the battery didn't last long enough to be relied upon.

Life has taught me so many lessons. No matter how good, humble and honest you are to them that doesn’t mean that they will treat you the same way. I married my husband for almost five years now with no idea that he was cheating on me. I noticed some changes in his character and I decided to confide in a friend who introduced me to a hacker whose name is Vladimir. This guy did a wonderful and perfect job for me by hacking his phone call log, facebook messenger messages, phone messages, whatsapp, Skype, database and so on. Contact: ( SPYRECOVERY36 @ GM AIL C OM )

For people worried about the keyboard typing, I've been very curious about the Titan Pocket as an alternative option. Square screen (fun!), "real" keybaord... the biggest problem seeming to be that the keyboard is intentionally a bit weird in the layout to avoid dealing with Blackberry ...design patents I think https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan-pocket

As a former iPhone 12 mini user (whose spouse is on their second one because the other phones are getting too big)... I don't need the screen to be tiny but I legit wonder what people with smaller hands/pockets/whatever are going to do.

Looks like there might have been some creative recycling of very old tooling to make this, the design language is reminicisient of Android phones from a decade ago. Especially the presence of dedicated navigation buttons, which were phased out starting from Android 4.0.

Temu is loaded with devices like this. Why would I spend $200 on this when I could spend $75 for a device with virtually identical feature set and manufacturing methods?

Blah blah blah "because it isn't from Temu." Like any domestic retailer is any better these days.

I still use an iPhone SE (original 2016 version), probably the most beautiful phone ever and quite functional, though this year it finally stopped being supported by a lot of apps due to its iOS. Surprisingly, most apps work just fine until they are just removed from availability. (I'm not gaming on it or anything!) It is the perfect size and with no notifications enabled, is dang near ideal as long as you don't need great photos (but if Apple ever returned the form factor which will obviously never happen, I am sure a decent camera is viable). That said, I really can't believe we are still stuck with these devices, which are mostly anti-social and too tempting to distraction. Though Humane was laughable, some kind of thing that gives me access to information when I need it but otherwise doesn't really interrupt the flow of life would be pretty awesome.

I have a Jelly Pro, used it for about a year. It fits in the useless pocket of your jeans, and gets you plenty of weird looks. I got it planning to utilise the annoyance of a tiny screen to use my phone less, but it works as well as I thought it would (that's addiction for you).

That aside, two things I would really like in a phone like this are a better camera, and the ability to plug in the phone to a bigger screen (some apps have an equivalent web-app you can use on a laptop, but there were enough that didn't have that that I had to stuff around on them with the phone). Also it is quite thick, but this didn't bother me very much.

Would rather wait for the Tiq Mini M5 to be back in stock. [0] as the small Android device you should be waiting for.

[0] https://www.tiqphone.com/

I personally think the original iPhone’s 3.5” screen was perfect, and I’m sad that my iPhone mini didn’t survive as a product line. My next phones screen will be big, and I’ll hate it but live with it.

This reminds of my Huawei Ideos with Android Froyo back in 2010. It's that many years. Right now I am typing this from Pixel 4a it's strangely noticeable how phones became big, powerful, and lost some buttons and audio jack.

Huawei Ideos: 104 x 54.8 x 13.5 mm (102g)

Jelly star: 95.1 x 49.6 x 18.7 mm (116g)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei_IDEOS

I like this. The only things I really use on my phone is the camera, gps and music. Occasionally, I'll check things on the web- but often, I will wait with that until I can sit down at my desk.

Unforunately, I'm somewhat involuntarily locked into the Apple "app ecosystem".

Would Google Fi support it? ... Interesting that they say it has "Google Certification" but no Fi support, which imho has International support (I live in the USA, but have traveled internationally with Pixel phones on Fi service with 0 issues for me )...

My 4yo son has to have a phone to control his medical devices, we use a Kin Kong mini 3, which is pretty good. It has a few draw backs, but it being a bit more rugged than the jelly phone is useful.

I would think this would be difficult to use for most apps.

It’s not 2009 anymore. App developers just assume a certain minimum screen size. While layouts are flexible they often just don’t work on smaller screens.

Recent Android versions are not very well suited for such small screens. But if it is possible to make such small phone, why not to settle on more reasonable phone size of about 4 inches?

Ticks a lot of boxes for me: microSd and 3.5mm jack alone make this very useful. I'd pay extra if it supported video-out and some kind of desktop environment like my Samsung.

Unihertz is a chinese company which might be fine if I could replace the OS. But seems like there are no official LineageOS versions for this.

Other than that, this phone looks very nice.

There’s a new model on the way, with better specs: Jelly Max

I have an original Jelly and I love it. Highly recommend getting a tiny smartphone if you want to minimize your screen time

Might be slightly too big to smuggle in the old prison pocket

I'm glad translucent plastics are coming back in style.

It is over 18 months old. Why is being promoted here now?

I don’t think the latest Android is designed for 2000mAh phones. Maybe Android 4 or lower could theoretically work better with this capacity range.

If you can’t swallow it it’s not small enough.

Might be interesting device for kids, though I'd disable the camera and put it on a separate (guest) VLAN.

Wouldn't you want small bevels on a small phone to maximize the screen size for the overall package?

I am surprised by the lack of eSIM option, which unfortunately is a dealbreaker for me. :(

If I ever needed a second phone for work, something like this would be nice.

“3.5 mm Audio Jack”

Shut up and take my money.

Anyone recommend any other wild or weird good Android phones like this?

I keep this in my bag with a prepaid SIM for emergencies

Why is it so overpriced? You can buy a smaller used iPhone or even Xiaomi for much less. I guess some people will buy anything if it is small enough.

The perfect smartphone to smuggle.

esp. for such a small device a better screen to body ratio would be desirable.