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They will have to pry my iPhone 13 mini from my cold dead hands! Small phone gang unite! ✊
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.
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.
What about Asus Zenfone?
Discontinued after the 10 🥲
ASUS has denied a previous report about the possible shutdown of the Zenfone division. The company issued a press statement, rubbishing claims from a Taiwanese media outlet that reported that the Zenfone 10 would be the last flagship in the Zenfone line.
https://www.androidauthority.com/asus-zenfone-division-shutdown-official-statement-3358842/
Thanks for the news, you made my day! I have an 8 which still works very well. I was on the verge of getting a 10 while I still could…
Did they cite any reason for the discontinuation?
Lack of sales
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…
Small people want small phones. Small people have small hands. Small hands can’t carry very much money.
It’s simple economics.
Lol. You would think that, but I’m a small person counter example, and the market is proving there are more like me than those who want small phones.
They haven’t made it in two years now. They stopped with the 13.
Right, but I’m pretty sure they never said anything about discontinuing it altogether when the iPhone 14 came out, and most people just assumed they were just skipping a year on it. It wasn’t until right before they released the 15 lineup that they said the smaller phone was actually discontinued.
They never officially discontinued the mini line in the first place. They just didn’t release new models after the 13. The announcement that they discontinued it was that they were discontinuing production of the 13 mini, which they had kept making alongside the regular 13 after the 14 lineup was released. Up until the release of the 15s, you could still buy the 13 mini new from Apple. Discontinuing the 13 mini killed off any way to buy one new.
There’s still strong rumors that they might use the mini frame for the next SE model. It has pretty close to the same external dimensions as the 3rd gen SE, but would bring more screen real estate in the same package since it would be edge to edge instead of have the bezels. And it would also fit the rumored “release a mini every few years” strategy since they only release an SE every couple of years anyway.
The SE cannibalized mini sales because, for the most part, people that wanted the smaller size cared more about price than features, and the SE was the same size and quite a bit cheaper. Replacing the old iPhone 8 based SE with an iPhone mini based SE would kill two birds with one stone. It would let them use up a bunch of the excess stock they have laying around due to the poor sales, would bring the mini to a lower price point which would make it more popular, and would remove the competition between the SE and the mini.
Yeah, we’re saying the same thing, but for the sake of brevity, I might have spoken in a way that led you to believe I’m saying something else. I did not know about the rumors of the new SE using the mini frame, so that is some slightly good news for the small phone gang.
They say that all the time because it disposes of the issue without them needing to provide any evidence.
What’s your alternative theory?
What do you mean?
They don’t want to make a product. They say “consumers don’t like it”. You ask for evidence. They say it’s confidential, or they deliberately sabotage the availability of the product and say, “see?”
It’s standard marketing.
I’m asking for your theory as to Apple’s reason for cancelling the small phone since you don’t believe the reason they’ve provided.
Deciding to make or not make a product is not a simple thing. Lots of decisions are part of it.
They just don’t want to talk about it and want you to buy one of their other products.
Yea i wanted iPhone mini as well but it’s hard for me to miss abilities such as using OG Firefox (not some stupid skinned safari) with ublock origin and NewPipe.
There is the samsung galaxy base line up of the ‘S series’.
The base galaxy s is the same size as a base iPhone. 6.1 inch screen.
There’s nothing mini about it in the least. The iPhone mini had a 5.4 inch screen.
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Asus makes small phones (for now).
I still have an SE 2020 and now wondering if I can get a Mini. I had a 6+ and got rid of it because it made my hand cramp. I hate big phones.
Damn, Steve Jobs got his posthumous hooks in ya
Fellow 13 mini user here, and I’ve never loved a phone more.
The 13 mini made me switch to apple after years of android and even Ubuntu phone.
The form factor is the only reason I buy a new phone so let’s hope there’s still be a market for people like us.
iphone 13 is gaint! I don’t I’m on the same page as you lol
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.
That is deadass how it died and I was big sad
Same for me actually. In my case it died during travelling, which was also super inconvenient. Then it got repaired, even for free although slightly out of warranty. Then it happened again shortly after. Such a dumpster fire of a ticking time bomb.
my first ever smartphone was the 4. it was my favorite for the longest time. i kept using it as a backup and i have 2 others I’ve harvested for parts. i love how easy it is to take old phones apart :D
6 was the best, period. Could still be on sale today and be an awesome phone
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”.
Currently using an Essential P1 running Lineage (Android 13) and I’m about to switch to a Pixel 4a of all things, because of size, weight (its plastic), cheap as hell (so I can keep a hot spare around and do testing for a low cost), and it has one of the highest NIT ratings of any unlockable phones.
The 5 looks good too, just not as bright, slightly larger, and a little heavier.
I’m still using mine.
Yeah I wish my 5a was a little smaller, it’d be perfect. Still been a great phone so far. But my screen is scratched to hell because I forgot to put a protector on it.
I recently busted out my Pixel 5 (currently using Pixel 7) to try out Lineage OS and absolutely love how it feels in my hands. It’s light and easy to reach all of the screen with one hand. Man I miss that phone.
I believe the (old but still decent) best small Android is the Samsung s10e
Except for the Bixby button, I mostly like my s10e. I have large hands, but still wish it was slightly shorter.
Have you looked into remapping the button? I use Button Remapper and I have it configured to open Google maps and Spotify
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).
What’s the point of a small phone if you’re going to stick a big battery to it?
My phone is big, but I don’t need an external battery. I’m curious to see the size and weight comparison between my phone with a big built in battery, and your phone + battery combo.
Using this right now. If they revived the galaxy mini line (~4in screen) I’d absolutely buy it.
Pixel 5 and Zenphone come to mind, too.
I’m currently in the market for a new phone because Samsung ended security updates for my current one, not because there’s anything wrong with it. And I’m noticing that my choices seem to be buy a phablet or buy a total POS.
Remember when Samsung made a flagship phone in multiple sizes, and then also made a giant phone so big it had a built-in stylus? It wasn’t that long ago. Now the flagship phone comes with a stylus.
Look into rooting it and putting a different Android rom on it, I’m sure there’s something for your phone to extend its life quite a bit.
…unless you’re tired of that phone.
Yeah, I’m still weighing that as an option.
It’s dumb, but I’d sort of hate to take a nice, private rom and then sully it with Google Play services so I can get the apps I have to use for work.
You may want to take a look at Fairphone if you want a phone that gets updates for a long time. The current one will be supported at least until 2028, maybe 2031.
I’d love to get a fairphone, but the 4 is only available on T-Mobile (or it’s MVNOs) which doesn’t work for me, and the 5 has no plans for a US release.
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.
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So it is. I wasn’t ready for a new phone when it came out and I’m still not a fan of punch hole cameras. I’d rather have a forehead and chin.
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The #a line is usually a bit smaller then the flagships. The 4a was the perfect size. 3a was huge compared to it. 6a is slightly larger than the 4a. The 6 is massive compared to the 6a
I’m on a pixel 3 also. The size is important but the front facing speakers are amazing. I can’t find anything else like it.
cries in Pixel 6a I miss my pixel 3…
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.
This is the angle that makes me reconsider folding phones. Either fold direction, and you’ve got a smaller screen that’s usable in one hand.
My friend got the original galaxy fold and kept it until this year when she bought a fold5. She still has the original fold as a backup phone, too. I’m not sure longevity is necessarily a worry, by that metric.
I got the fold 3 and the one thing that suprised me above everything else is how sturdy the phone is. How durable it is. Ive had it for just over 2 years and i domt think i will upgrade when the contract ends. Its exactly what i need and is still working perfectly without a scratch on it.
The Z fold is 67.1mm across in folded mode. The iPhone 12 & 13 Mini is 64.2mm.
Have the new Z Fold after years of owning borderline-phablets and the usability is much better. My previous phone (Galaxy S20+) felt too big and painful to use one-handed, yet typing with two hands felt awkward. This splits the use cases. Slim one-hand phone on the outside. Mini-tablet typing monster on the inside. 🤌
I appreciate the longetivity of the iPhone compared to other brands.
I used my galaxy 4s mini for literally a decade.
My phone is about 15cm (~5¾ in) tall, and to me, that’s the absolute maximum. It’s slightly too big. The width, about 7cm (~2¾ in) is totally fine.
This (Galaxy XCover 5) was the smallest phone that seemed to exist (and I wanted one woth durability, removable battery, SD slot, headphones etc). It was very expensive though.
Trying to find cheaper ones for various people in the extended family, they all specified “oh, not bigger than my current one”, but it was impossible. There’s basically nothing less than 16cm tall, and most are even bigger.
I’m scared of this one breaking. The XCover 6 is 17cm x 8cm.
That size os about the max for me too. I wonder what I’m gonna do if my current phone fails…
If it were shoes I’d say “just get ten sets of what’s the right size”, but the problem with tech is we’re still going to want more ram, more storage etc.
Like who is going to keep all the buttons, ports, dimensions and connectivity, whilst upgrading the innards?
Like a Thinkpad of phones?
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.
If you can figure out a way to cram all of the shit in a 15 Pro Max into a form factor the size of an iPhone 4 not only will Apple suck your dick in the form of a well-earned half million dollar salary but you’ll likely get a Nobel Prize for breakthroughs in quantum computing and also making atoms smaller.
Yeah, I only got the Pixel 6 Pro because of the zoom lense…i would not have chosen it otherwise. It’s too big…
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.
You also got a lot a bigger and taller on this years.
I’m actually using a Titan Pocket currently. Works well enough for me. The security updates are lagging behind that’s getting me considering switching back, but I’m otherwise cautious how I use it.
It’s a nice feeling device, and makes me wish they’d make more BlackBerry style phones with bigger displays and Android capability.
People see you whip the titan out and think “oh he’s doing that rollback technology thing”, then you use Android Pay and they really flip out lol.
I hope more manufacturers would adopt the Blackberry style of phones. Titan Pocket has proved that you can have Android running decently on such a device. So why not bring back QWERTY keyboards?
Same experience when i was using the Jelly 2, people loved it when i pulled it out to pay with NFC.
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Still love my Asus Zenfone 9. Although I have to say, while the hardware is awesome, the software can be a mixed bag sometimes.
hey king. I’m curious what you don’t like about the software. it feels like mostly stock android and i think Asus did a good job by not loading it with bloat. what are your thoughts?
Honestly, it’s a lot of little things that are coming together that other companies like Samsung are doing better. Connecting to Wifi takes ages, and if one try fails, starting the next try takes forever. Also, some apps don’t support floating windows, there are also some quality of life settings that I miss every now and then. And then there’s some other minor things that I just notice in the moment and immediately forget about again lol. But I definitely appreciate that they don’t try to push their own app store, like Samsung, for example.
Personally I’ve just had issues with pocket mode not registering and combining that with liking tap-to-wake, lift-to-wake I ended up calling my emergency contact way too many times. Still not fixed.
Also, I thought it was standard to allow for forward/backward by long pressing the volume buttons, but that option isn’t available apparently either.
It’s battery optimization is also a bit shite to be honest, however I don’t know of any manufacturer that doesn’t run afoul when it comes to that aspect.
Minor gripes really, but it feels like it could be more polished and while the UI isn’t modified too atrociously, given the above issues I’m wary of what else they’ve modified under the hood.
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You replied to a comment about width and discussed size in general, with a focus on height
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“Fucking massive” you say, whilst they are all of similar width.
Their idea is but I giant phone or a watch phone. I love the mini. It’s too bad.
Smart phones killed small phones. Really, a small smart phone runs into usability problems.
I loved my old Kyocera slider, but all it was good for was phone and SMS.
1" screen, phone is about the size of a credit card.
2G is dead in most places
“Small smart phones run into usability problems” for you.
Samsung S4 Mini was fantastic for me. Still own a couple. I’d be happy with an updated version.
Well, yeah, I have giant, manly hands. :)
I had to get the pro max because the 12 pro was getting too hard for me to read comfortably 😭😭
I just turned 40
