I wanted to ask the HN community if anyone has tried this kind of handheld pc as a smartphone replacement. It doesn't have to have a sim card slot, my idea was to use a feature-phone with personal hotspot functionality in conjunction with a micro PC.
my 2 fears:
* despite feature phones normally having very long battery time, this is probably not the case when using personal hotspot - this problem could be eliminated by getting a micro PC with sim card slot, but those are much less common and I would not have as much choice.
* these handheld PCs are really small, but not really as pocket sized as a smartphone (well, modern smartphones have become pretty big! But still, there seems to be a size difference) Regarding size: I would like to have a keyboard but I could also live with something more similar to a Steam Deck, if that means having a smaller device that I can keep in my pocket.
It depends what you want to use it for. It doesn't have GPS, or a camera, or NFC, so you won't be using it to navigate, take photos, or pay for things. You also aren't going to have much fun using it to make phone calls, and it won't run Android apps - at least not without a serious investment of effort. It also runs warm, and can only sustain 8 hours or so of screen-on time.
That said - yes. Folded, it's almost exactly the same size as my Unihertz Titan smartphone. Open, it is an extremely capable machine for googling things, buying tickets to events, checking train times, chatting on WhatsApp, watching YouTube, and wasting time on Reddit.
> despite feature phones normally having very long battery time, this is probably not the case when using personal hotspot
if you don't mind USB tethering, i'll bet that's a lot more power friendly (and if the feature phone still drains fast, lets you keep it powered for as long as you need the hotspot). i think most "feature phones" nowadays run Android -- which should support USB tethering though possibly conditional on your carrier if you don't root it first.
my 2 fears:
* despite feature phones normally having very long battery time, this is probably not the case when using personal hotspot - this problem could be eliminated by getting a micro PC with sim card slot, but those are much less common and I would not have as much choice.
* these handheld PCs are really small, but not really as pocket sized as a smartphone (well, modern smartphones have become pretty big! But still, there seems to be a size difference) Regarding size: I would like to have a keyboard but I could also live with something more similar to a Steam Deck, if that means having a smaller device that I can keep in my pocket.
So, has anyone tried this?