They will have to pry my iPhone 13 mini from my cold dead hands! Small phone gang unite! ✊
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I want a smaller smartphone but not an iPhone. It's sad that Apple is the only manufacturer still producing reasonable sized phones. Small phone gang unite and push for other manufacturers to follow Apple on this one!
Unfortunately even Apple has announced they are discontinuing their smaller phone, citing poor sales, so it seems the small phone gang is too small to have any market power.
Small people want small phones. Small people have small hands. Small hands can't carry very much money.
It's simple economics.
I don't believe the small phone gang is small, we just have one option: a pretty expensive iPhone mini.
I want a small phone but not an iPhone, I have no option therefore manufactures assume I want a humongous phone. That's flawed logic.
If it is actually a larger demographic, then it would be huge opportunity for any of these other phone makers, especially those that are struggling. I highly doubt they are all unaware of the opportunity to make a smaller phone, so I suspect they have stayed away because they don’t think it will be a profitable market.
As production quantities go down, costs go up, and with the lower prices that these vendors sell at compared to Apple, their margins are already much thinner, so they have much more risk than Apple in introducing a smaller phone unless they are confident there is a large enough market for it. They simply have much less wiggle room than Apple in which to create a profitable product out of a smaller phone. Since Apple is pulling out and the others haven’t even bothered to try to compete with them in the decade that this big phone trend has been trending, I don’t think there’s any other conclusion that we can draw other than the small phone market is not large enough to pursue, but I’m open to other possibilities.
Edit: Someone else mentioned the small Asus Zenphone, which was also discontinued due to poor sales. That means at least one other manufacturer tried to make a small phone, and they came to the same conclusion that Apple did, so I see even less reason to doubt them.
I was going to say that the Mini should be pretty cheap now that it's two generations old -- the 13 is down to $629 new, after all, and the Mini ought to be $100 cheaper...
But it looks like Mini demand has actually driven prices much higher than the normal 13. Strange, almost as if there IS demand for small phones...
I have a theory about small phones:
I see so many people asking for smaller phones, and, at the same time, the sales aren't very good when companies give it a try. How can both be true?
I believe (from my anedoctal observations) that small phone users tend to be people who don't want to replace their phones just for the sake of getting a newer one, and use their devices for several years, resulting in fewer sales than expected.
You see so many people asking for smaller phones in the forums and places you frequent.
They do not necessarily represent the views of the common public. I personally could do with a slightly smaller phone because the compact size allows for easier holding with single hands. But, sadly, I have not seen folks around me deciding which phone to buy based on their screen size. Neither is that a priority for them. Simply put, our Venn diagrams do not fully overlap.
I see a lot of people around me asking for smaller phones, from my family to work and friends. Perhaps it's something cultural, I don't know.
But I'm well aware that our perception can trick us in so many ways, and can't speak for itself. I would love to see atual data on phone size preferences around the world.
Still, I doubt that there aren't enough people wanting smaller phones to sustain a market niche.
I prefer smaller phones but none of them have the specs I want. I'm never looking for bleeding edge flagships either. I just want a good enough camera, good enough screen, goddamn micro SD slot damn it, and flat glass edges with a bit of a bezel so I can put a case and tempered glass on. And whatever the maker needs to make available for custom roms to be possible because I'm damn well going to keep using it after official updates end.
They wouldn't even need to make a new model as frequently, maybe minor revisions to replace no longer available components. USB port update shouldn't be needed for a good chunk of time since c seems pretty great. There's probably a shitload of tooling and supply chain issues to work out even ignoring the likely toxic workplace politics though.
You meet them online, but they’re a vocal minority. Especially when a smaller phone means a smaller battery and worse camera system, two of the consistently top priorities for consumers.
People have been saying this for the last 5 years and will continue saying this for the next 5 years. They make less smaller phones cuz people don't buy them
That will be a side effect of them locking abitrary features behind the bigger and thus more expensive models, if there was feature parity smaller phones would probably still be the norm.
There was a time where 7" was a damn tablet (looking at you, my old pal nexus 7)
Using diagonal screen size to measure phones doesn't work because of bezels and taller aspect ratios. The 5.5" iPhone 6 Plus (2014) is pretty much the same size as the 6.7" iPhone 15 Pro Max
Personally, the Pixel 5 was the perfect size and weight for a phone.
No bulky cameras. No thick chassis. No glass adding pointless weight. Very usable as a one handed device. Symmetrical bezels.
Typing this from my pixel 5. The best sized phone ever. I think imo the use case for big ass 15 feet phones is a little overkill. Most people are just buying it because it's "premium".
Ooooh nexus..
My Nexus 5 and 5X were the best phones I had ever owned, period
Hey, your Nexus 5X has called... actually it can't because its still stuck in a bootloop.
I believe the (old but still decent) best small Android is the Samsung s10e
That's still my current phone. Newer phones just look so absolutely massive.
Same, holding on for dear life with my S10E. It's the best form factor, great power button finger print reader, dual SIM, I mean, what's not to love. (battery is kind of meh, but I've added a halo ring and a magnetic induction battery).
Except for the Bixby button, I mostly like my s10e. I have large hands, but still wish it was slightly shorter.
What irks me about the larger phones is that there is so much wasted screen real estate. The phone doubled in size, but can only show me half the number of items on my shopping list?
That sounds more like an iPhone problem than a large phone problem. You have complete control over both text size and display scaling in Android.
I bought an unlocked pixel 7a because of lots of custom roms once it goes out of support
It's huge and doesn't have a headphone jack or SD card slot but it's very fast and has a good camera
My dream phone would be:
-
Unlocked bootloader
-
Replaceable battery
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Small
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Expandable storage
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Good camera
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IR blaster
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Updates provided for a long time
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Stock Android
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Very durable
I just want phones that are shorter. They keep getting longer, which means more risk of breaking, and means the keyboard is unusable in landscape since it blocks the textfield.
Agreed.
Manufacturers seem to think that we all need a massive screen to watch films and play games on.
I want a small phone with easy replaceable battery and a plastic sturdy screen.
I'm still on my pixel 3 which is line at the cusp of the size i can handle. I want smaller but every new phone is bigger. It's so infuriating.
I remember the last time this got brought up and I complained about my thumb not being able to reach the other side of the iphone 3 mini. Well, I tried the Samsung Z Fold the other day and I really like how narrow it is to the point where my thumb can effortly reach the other side when the phone is folded. Perhaps I'll get that phone in the future when my current iPhone 13 mini dies. At the same time, I do enjoy my Apple Watch though and I appreciate the longetivity of the iPhone compared to other brands.
It's a nice idea, but I'd be worried about the wear and tear on the folding screen. I can't imagine it would hold up through the years of use I put phones through.
The Z Flip is hard to wrap a hand around? Was this written by a toddler?
I think the main smartphone market is kind of like the market for cars. The only people that can afford to buy them, can afford to keep up heavy consumer traffic, are the ones who are convinced they need to swap to the top of the line model with some sort of trade-in payment plan, where they want every new trendy thing, and every piece of bullshit technology that's not going to last even to the next flagship model. Basically, stupid people who are rich and are insecure about it. I'm certainly vulnerable to that to, just as I'm vulnerable to the unbearable lag on even just like a 6 year old phone, which should really not be that old, and then security updates and support are always a concern, I suppose. I think maybe the solution, individually, might just be to root my phone, or install some linux alternative operating system, cause I don't wanna keep up with this bullshit anymore. I'm trapped in a world of large 19:9 and 21:9 smartphones, unusable with one hand, and with screen space that's useless 90% of the time. I'm stuck without aux ports, and without any physical style keyboard, no nothin. I also want stuff like the DS stylus port and the flip camera they had on the zenfone 7, that shit is cool.
On the contrary, poorer people tend to buy oversized phones since that's the only device they have
Every 5th grader I know has a phone (I'm a parent not a creeper). So it's not just the rich and stupid. Cell network companies give these things away under 2 year plans that most can afford. And it's not just two year plans, my kids have $50 phones from Motorola that are +6". I think most people like a big phone and it's only us few that want to see sub 5" phones.
I wanted small phone after 4 years with op7t and went logically for S23. But few years back it would be massive phone. Nowadays I found it like a perfect sweet spot of size, weight.. Performance, software and camera wise it's the only option.
Asus, Samsung and Sony are still making some very handy phones. Apple and Xiaomi can go suck it. Admittedly smaller phones in 2023 tend to be on the premium side, but imo they also last longer...because you don't drop them as often.
Especially the Sony Experia 5 (I through V) is the perfect balance between an old school width where you can easily hold and use the phone in one hand but also have more space to scroll vertically. Its got a beautiful 21:9 display, so cinematoc content looks dope as well.
Still love my Asus Zenfone 9. Although I have to say, while the hardware is awesome, the software can be a mixed bag sometimes.
Their idea is but I giant phone or a watch phone. I love the mini. It’s too bad.
I found my old ipod touch (5th gen, 4 inch screen) in the closet and power it on yesterday. Can't believe how small it is. I swear the screen was a lot larger when I bought it years ago. I guess my perception is skewed by modern smartphone screen size which keep getting bigger.