Unihertz Jelly Star, The World's Smallest 4G Android 13 Smartphone Transparent Design LED Light NFC OTG, Blue (Support T-Mobile & Verizon only)

I bought this for my teenage daughter. She wanted a small smartphone that would fit in her pockets. There don't appear to be many options out there that are really small. She really likes this phone. It does all she needs, and runs the apps she needs, and it does indeed fit in her pockets. We have Verizon Prepaid, and just used the sim card from her previous phone. Worked like a charm.She has said that using Google Maps on such a small screen is a bit of a pain, but it does work and she has navigated all over the place with it.(I should add that Google's Messages app didn't seem to work quite right. Certain RCS messages failed, but wouldn't send MMS. I'm not sure if that was us setting it up wrong, or something with the phone, or just related to switching the sim card between phones. She is now using Verizon's messaging app and it's working fine. I add this to note we did have this problem, but I somehow suspect that the problem is not really with the phone since every other app works fine. In any case, she loves the phone despite this very slight hiccup.)

This has replaced my iPhone 14. Can still use tap to pay and turn by turn nav, don't need an extra device for my podcasts and music, have my banking apps. Runs android 13 well, had more storage than my iPhone. Swipe to text is easy with minimal corrections needed. It took my screen time down from 11 hr daily average to three. It's so small and friendly looking even the worst texts from my boss don't feel as threatening. Fits inyour pocket and is thick enough that it doesn't disappear down seat cracks when you drop it. I genuinely love this phone. When it dies I will be replacing it. The only complaint is that the camera is pretty mid to poor. Good in a pinch but can't take pics like other smart phones. If you're considering a change or just trying to have your phone take up less space in your life this is a great little phone and only 200$. Take the plunge and try it out

I really really really wanted to love this phone. And I kinda do, but it fails in one really important way: reliability. Let me elaborate:I wanted a small phone because I want to emphasize the point that this is a tool. And I want this tool to be optimized for it's primary use case in my life: to speed up information flow. I want to be able to quickly pull it out of my pocket, jump to an app, do some quick interactions and information consumption, and put it back in my pocket. Or, do some focus work or reading on my bed, like I am typing this review out now on the jelly star. All with minimal hiccups, distractions, and interruptions.Anything else, like videos, games, social media- I don't mind if that experience sucks, because those are better saved for being intentionally done on a computer where the experience is gonna be way better than any phone ever could be.So, "reliability", and does it consistently "speed up information flow" in my life? No, unfortunately it does not. I'll highlight why in order of importance: Verizon issues, fingerprint reader issues, charger compatibility issues, battery life, Android issues.Verizon: The only thing worse than trying to get driving navigation on a 3 inch screen is that you also have no signal most of the time. I'm impressed that it works* on Verizon, the Jelly Star isn't certified and all the critical features appear to work- when I have a connection. The issue is that I have been experiencing way more signal dead zones around Seattle than I'm used to. On paper, the phone has LTE bands 2, 4, and 13, which to my knowledge should be everything needed for Verizon LTE, but something isn't working as well as other phones.The fingerprint reader fails more than I'm used to, to the point where it would be faster on average to turn off the fingerprint sensor and get used to typing in the pin every time. It should be done better than this, other fingerprint sensors are fine for me.I often charge my phone using Apple USB c MacBook chargers. But this phone doesn't accept charge from some of them, some of the time.The battery life is not good. On paper it should be okay, but in practice it is not. I lose about 20% per hour of active use, and a staggering 4% per hour of standby. So if I go to bed with it at 36% and it's not on the charger it will probably be dead in the morning.What all these issues build up to is that this phone ends up failing its primary purpose for me -speed up information flow in my life- because it constantly interrupts me with these annoying functional issues. It's arguably worse than being interrupted by social media apps! I believe there are better tools available for that job, not because I think they have a design better than the jelly star (they don't), but because they're more reliable- and that matters a lot to me.4/5 stars because there's so much good here. I'd encourage you to check it out if you think you'll like it, because most of the issues I've had are fickle and could be better for someone else. But I also think that most people considering this phone are also looking for a reliable "tool" rather than a distraction box, and in that way I can't really recommend it based on my experience.I could see myself owning a future successor to this phone. Please make more phones like this Unihertz, or anyone. Preferably with ergonomics more like the iPhone 4- and don't forget to make it a reliable tool.