Introducing Unihertz Jelly Star - The world's smallest Android 13 smartphone with a transparent design and LED light. This phone packs advanced features into a credit card-sized body, including an Octa-Core 6nm MediaTek Helio G99 processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB of storage memory, and a powerful 48MP rear camera. With a 3-inch screen, the Jelly Star is incredibly portable and perfect for on-the-go use. Plus, its unique transparent back and LED light make it a conversation starter. Don't miss out on this innovative phone that has received overwhelming attention from phone tech enthusiasts. Order yours today from the official Unihertz store.
Go and check the link, but essentially:
small
2023 release (Android 13)
HEADPHONE JACK (I was almost sold here)
NFC
8GB RAM (that is powerful)
256 GB internal storage
Dual SIM or SIM+MicroSD
IR BLASTER (whatttttttt)
LED indicators (front AND BACK)
fingerprint scanner
face ID
FM Radio
PROGRAMMABLE BUTTON (ok I’m in love already STOPPP)
I mean… this list is mindblowing. So…
What’s the downside?
Honestly, you can go and check all reviews… but this phone is virtually perfect for the size, the only issue I have is that the screen is a bit too tiny, 3 inches, and 480p, and I think this will make many people run away.
It should make me look elsewhere also… but where? Any other small phone with a bigger screen is pretty bad, old, etc… and I really needed a new phone, so I realised this was an opportunity to commit to the cause, and buy and hopefully push this form factor from Unihertz to mainstream brands.
Hopefully one day we can get one with a slightly bigger screen, I believe 4 inches and 1080p would be brutal. But for now… I think I’ve found my new phone. In fact, I bought it 3 hours after knowing its existance.
If you are not sold yet…
Go check reviews on YouTube (example). Honestly, you’ll see every reviewer falls in love with the device, even non-small phone lovers. It looks like it performs pretty well, it’s decently fast, battery is solid, screen is bright and colorful, the LEDs are really useful, even Face ID (which I’ll probably disable) is quick, it does not heat up at all, and even photos are pretty decent…
And it’s something like 200 $. Come on. What a deal.
@BeatTakeshi@unknowing8343
asus had a gold on their hands with compact zenfones, then they had to mess it up by 2 years of support and an unlocked bootloader (which i would be personally fine with if the support was more than 2 years)
I realised this was an opportunity to commit to the cause, and buy and hopefully push this form factor from Unihertz to mainstream brands.
You seem to forget that all phones used to be small. They didn’t stop making them because OEMs didn’t like them. They stopped making them because consumers didn’t buy them.
So while I appreciate the effort, I fear it is in vain. You’re swimming upstream.
Yeah, this seems like a targeted ad written by some llm. I have a larger phone and still cannot stand the size of the “keyboard” on it… Can only imagine how fun it would be typing on that screen, even if the keyboard was fullscreen.
I guess a compliment. Sorry, this last year or so has made me very skeptical of anything I see online that seems a little spontaneous. So many companies trying to act like bros and just find something amazing they have to tell us about. Unfortunately it’s clouding up the posts where people actually do find something amazing. I like this, and would actually look into it if it had better comments on the U.S. coverage or bands. Still not sure how I would do with the keyboard, but I do like the small form factor. Apologies again if you are a real person. In the meantime I am going to need you to click on every picture that contains a gopher. :)
No worry, I understand. As I said, I will report back, and I am even thinking of uploading videos about this, specially if it turns out as good as it seems. I hate that neither MKBHD, LTT, JerryRig… No one showed this bad boy while they all cried that small phones are dying… Well, now I am starting to believe they might be part of the problem…
It’s actually a bit more subtle than consumers not buying them.
When LTE came out, it was inefficient and used lower frequencies than cell phones used before. So they needed big phones that they could stick big batteries and antennas in.
Smaller phones existed, but often lacked features of big phones, and battery life was terrible due to the aforementioned power consumption problem. Likewise, reception suffered.
Now, the power problem has been solved and LTE uses less power than CDMA techs did. Antenna and radio design has improved to mitigate reception issues so smaller antennae don’t hurt as much as they once did. However, now phones have giant camera modules in them and antennae for a plethora of services and features they think people want like UWB, NFC, wireless charging. (They all have their place, just stating this because they aren’t “essential”.)
People stopped buying small phones because they were “terrible” by comparison. Then manufacturers claimed people didn’t want small phones, so they stopped making them. Now we are stuck because all the junk they throw in phones need all that space.
Tl;dr: the wireless industry killed small phones and blamed consumers.
More so they upsold people to the bigger models. If they had exactly the same specifications other than size, I bet a much larger set of people buy the smaller one. The phone in this post does look a bit too small though.
I mean other than screen size and battery size, they could have the same specs. It was a theoretical though, people like buying features they don’t need or just like to have the best they can, even if that means having a larger phone. I think anything past ~6 inch screens is just way too large, but some people enjoy their phablets, so I wouldn’t like to see that option disappear for them either.
I have not forgotten. And this is not so much swimming upstream but rather, as Captain America said, it’s more like planting yourself like a tree and say “no, you move”.
Nah, OEMs had to make them larger to provide sufficient cooling surface area for the battery and cpu.
That was the first driver, and then marketing took over to make larger phones seem like a better choice.
Now that Android is much more power efficient (and the hardware is too), we could have smaller phones with only a modest reduction in performance.
Stuff like ceramic or glass backs were also as much about cooling, but marketed as a cool feature.
Ceramic and glass transfer heat far better than plastic. So when you’re running your flagship phablet at max to play a game, it can shed that heat much more readily, and also charge the battery at 15watts.
Wow Headphone jack, programmable button, IR blaster…
Honestly, I love having a large phone because I have fat fingers and bad eyesight. I would absolutely buy this phone if it were larger. I might buy it anyway and learn to live with a small screen.
There are a lot of 3" Chinese Android phones, but I’ve never seen one actually having normal specs (well, besides the display perhaps, I suspect its size isn’t the only issue).
I got a Jelly 2 a couple years ago to reduce my smartphone addiction, and I loved it. It runs well and the build quality is great. (I ended up switching back to my normal phone, but that’s not the Jelly 2’s fault. I’m just weak)
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A bummer that Asus dropped the compact zenfone this year… Hope they bring it back, maybe every other year
@BeatTakeshi @unknowing8343
asus had a gold on their hands with compact zenfones, then they had to mess it up by 2 years of support and an unlocked bootloader (which i would be personally fine with if the support was more than 2 years)
New band name, I called it!
I am squatting on Jacuzzi Infection.
They have another one with Android 8 that is 2x lighter:
https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-pro
Unfortunately the main use of smart phones is still web browsing, which continues to demand bigger screens and faster CPUs.
Unrelated, but I just want to say thank you for actually posting content that is relevant to the community. It’s enjoyable and appreciated.
I love the idea! If there was good support from something like GrapheneOS or /e/OS I would be looking at one of these.
The bands wouldn’t work for me. I’d be outside coverage most of the time. The price is more than an A15 5G… Seems like old tech at a premium price.
You seem to forget that all phones used to be small. They didn’t stop making them because OEMs didn’t like them. They stopped making them because consumers didn’t buy them.
So while I appreciate the effort, I fear it is in vain. You’re swimming upstream.
Yeah, this seems like a targeted ad written by some llm. I have a larger phone and still cannot stand the size of the “keyboard” on it… Can only imagine how fun it would be typing on that screen, even if the keyboard was fullscreen.
Oh, damn, so I write like AI, should I take that as compliment or criticism?
I am just a dude with small hands that did not know this phone existed until now. And I fell in love. That’s it.
I guess a compliment. Sorry, this last year or so has made me very skeptical of anything I see online that seems a little spontaneous. So many companies trying to act like bros and just find something amazing they have to tell us about. Unfortunately it’s clouding up the posts where people actually do find something amazing. I like this, and would actually look into it if it had better comments on the U.S. coverage or bands. Still not sure how I would do with the keyboard, but I do like the small form factor. Apologies again if you are a real person. In the meantime I am going to need you to click on every picture that contains a gopher. :)
No worry, I understand. As I said, I will report back, and I am even thinking of uploading videos about this, specially if it turns out as good as it seems. I hate that neither MKBHD, LTT, JerryRig… No one showed this bad boy while they all cried that small phones are dying… Well, now I am starting to believe they might be part of the problem…
It’s actually a bit more subtle than consumers not buying them.
When LTE came out, it was inefficient and used lower frequencies than cell phones used before. So they needed big phones that they could stick big batteries and antennas in.
Smaller phones existed, but often lacked features of big phones, and battery life was terrible due to the aforementioned power consumption problem. Likewise, reception suffered.
Now, the power problem has been solved and LTE uses less power than CDMA techs did. Antenna and radio design has improved to mitigate reception issues so smaller antennae don’t hurt as much as they once did. However, now phones have giant camera modules in them and antennae for a plethora of services and features they think people want like UWB, NFC, wireless charging. (They all have their place, just stating this because they aren’t “essential”.)
People stopped buying small phones because they were “terrible” by comparison. Then manufacturers claimed people didn’t want small phones, so they stopped making them. Now we are stuck because all the junk they throw in phones need all that space.
Tl;dr: the wireless industry killed small phones and blamed consumers.
More so they upsold people to the bigger models. If they had exactly the same specifications other than size, I bet a much larger set of people buy the smaller one. The phone in this post does look a bit too small though.
Except that’s physically impossible. Apple got very close but still no one bought them.
I mean other than screen size and battery size, they could have the same specs. It was a theoretical though, people like buying features they don’t need or just like to have the best they can, even if that means having a larger phone. I think anything past ~6 inch screens is just way too large, but some people enjoy their phablets, so I wouldn’t like to see that option disappear for them either.
I have not forgotten. And this is not so much swimming upstream but rather, as Captain America said, it’s more like planting yourself like a tree and say “no, you move”.
That idea is fantasy, much like Captain America.
Nah, OEMs had to make them larger to provide sufficient cooling surface area for the battery and cpu.
That was the first driver, and then marketing took over to make larger phones seem like a better choice.
Now that Android is much more power efficient (and the hardware is too), we could have smaller phones with only a modest reduction in performance.
Stuff like ceramic or glass backs were also as much about cooling, but marketed as a cool feature.
Ceramic and glass transfer heat far better than plastic. So when you’re running your flagship phablet at max to play a game, it can shed that heat much more readily, and also charge the battery at 15watts.
Lol it’s really easy, people like big screens - nothing else.
No they didn’t. They put the same CPU in smaller models.
@unknowing8343
i kinda wish the screen was a bit wider, 16:9 doesnt really work in this size imo.
Then use it on landscape mode 😉➖
@unknowing8343 that seems even worse tbh, no offense.
It was a joke 😅
The spech is amazing, that’s practically what I want in a phone, although I have one more requirement: Qualcomm CPU. I wanna install custom ROMs
North america only frequencies, just so you know.
Same stuff palm was sniffing?
Wow Headphone jack, programmable button, IR blaster…
Honestly, I love having a large phone because I have fat fingers and bad eyesight. I would absolutely buy this phone if it were larger. I might buy it anyway and learn to live with a small screen.
I think Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro has a jack and IR, iirc, not sure about the programmable button
Thanks!
There are a lot of 3" Chinese Android phones, but I’ve never seen one actually having normal specs (well, besides the display perhaps, I suspect its size isn’t the only issue).
Hopefully everything goes fine!
Yeah, I want a proper mini flagship.
Yeah, I want a proper mini flagship eventually.
I got a Jelly 2 a couple years ago to reduce my smartphone addiction, and I loved it. It runs well and the build quality is great. (I ended up switching back to my normal phone, but that’s not the Jelly 2’s fault. I’m just weak)
I loved this phone! I had a jelly 2. It didn’t work with my train ticket app, so I had to switch to something bigger. Great conversation piece too.