A small phone is useless unless your only goal with it is receiving calls. Even making calls on a small phone is difficult, never mind using the Internet. And losing a larger one still happens, a small one would just disappear like a sock in the dryer.
Sure, there are times when having a bigger phone makes sense, but it hurts a whole lot less when I’m in bed watching something and i drop it on my face.
Why would any of these things be worse with a 4.5" screen? My eyesight is fine.
With one exception, I’ve only had phone that would be classed as small by today’s standards for the past ten years, the largest being a Pixel 4a and the smallest being a Sony X Compact. I preferred the size of the Sony.
I rarely make voice calls. I use my phone for messaging, light web browsing, notes, reading, watching videos, podcasts, navigation, occasional gaming, and photography when I’ve made the mistake of leaving the house without my real camera. I prefer smaller phones because they’re easier to use one-handed.
That one exception is a Pixel 3a XL with a broken cellular modem I bought at a low price to test ROMs and mount on the handlebars of my bike where the vibration is likely to damage the camera. I do occasionally use it for media (video and books) where the larger screen is an advantage, but I would dislike carrying it in my pocket or using it for most tasks where I would have to use both hands.
The death of small phones is why I’m so committed to my flip 4. The space it takes up in my pocket or bag is so much less than any “regular” phone.
Pocket space is only half the problem. The other half is one-handed use and the flip is huge when opened.
I know it’s not everyones cup of tea but…
I ended up buying a Pixel Fold for the Fold aspect. There’s an added benefit that it’s really short when folded so I can reach the entire screen one handed. It’s heavier and thicker than a slate phone, but I actually enjoy the folded experience way better than other phones.
This is true, and honestly my biggest gripe with the phone. I don’t wear small mitts, and I can only comfortably reach 3/4 of the way up the phone. This is exacerbated by the fact that phone application design is in a very top-centric stage right now. I wonder if there’s a way I could extend the android nav bar to take up the top 1/4 of the screen…
On Samsung devices there is an accessibility setting that gives a smaller one-hand screen when swiping down from the bottom bar. But that just feels like a waste of space when you could just have a smaller screen.
Because it’s something you use a lot for small things throughout the day. When you need to quickly answer a message or look at a map you shouldn’t need to stop and place down everything you’re holding.
To me that’s the exact and only purpose of a phone: for it to be a handheld portable computer. For that purpose I should be able to use it with one hand
Praying the Xperia 5 VI is a bit more compact that the previous iteration. That and Sony actually start supporting their services for at least 5 years -_-
Yeah, the lack of software support made me disregard the Xperia completely (well and its price), which is sad because it is otherwise a great phone with actual useful features that other manufacturers have removed.
I definitely think Apple and Samsung can do a smaller premium phone if they want to as Apple makes the lion’s share of profits in the industry and Samsung is the only other manufacturer that makes a significant amount of profit. Heck Samsung can probably do a smaller midrange phone as well. I do not think it makes sense for other manufacturers as they make 3% profit and targeting a very vocal but demanding minority isn’t going to help them improve that.
Small phone users should also temper their expectation, I saw a lot of comments from people saying they didn’t get the iPhone mini because they expected the Pro Max’s specs in the mini form factor. They have to understand that the cameras on the biggest flagships occupy a lot of space and it isn’t feasible to bring it to a smaller form factor. Increasing the thickness might help with the battery but that’s about the only component that benefits with an increase in one dimension.
They have to understand that the cameras on the biggest flagships occupy a lot of space and it isn’t feasible to bring it to a smaller form factor.
Not… Really… Sure it makes some difference, but the much more constraining factor is the money. Cameras arent that big, but they’re one of the priciest pieces of hardware in the device.
The problem is more that they keep trying to sell small phones at cheaper price points. So they end up with much worse screens, socs, and cameras so they perform like shit. People don’t want a small phone because they don’t care about their phone. People want small phones because the standard size is fucking huge. They need to make a high-ish tier small phone instead of low tier small phone that performs like the 50 Walmart shit.
Not… Really… Sure it makes some difference, but the much more constraining factor is the money. Cameras arent that big, but they’re one of the priciest pieces of hardware in the device.
There’s isn’t enough physical space for three sensors on a smaller phone especially if it’s the size of the iPhone mini. They can fit them on a 6.1-6.2 inch device, that’s why the S24 and iPhone 15 Pro have them. However the 16 Pro is supposedly getting larger because it’s getting a larger sensor for 5x optical zoom. If you look at a periscope lens, it needs a substantial amount of extra width as well. A teardown of any recent flagship reveals that camera modules occupy more space than they did if you look at tearsowns from three or four years back. This makes sense because the sensor itself is increasing in size and the size needs to go up both length and width wise to maintain the aspect ratio of the sensor. Heck in some cases like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and Oppo Find X7 Ultra, the camera modules occupy more space than the rest of the motherboard.
The problem is more that they keep trying to sell small phones at cheaper price points.
The iPhone mini was cheaper but it had pretty much the same specs as the regular iPhone except for wireless charging speed iirc. Sales were much lower than the regular model despite that (around or less than 5% of total iPhone 12 and 13 sales). If Apple couldn’t make a smaller phone sell particularly well, I doubt anyone else could.
There’s isn’t enough physical space for three sensors on a smaller phone especially if it’s the size of the iPhone mini
I wouldn’t go as far as to claim that “more cameras” is the complaints being made here. Sure, telephotos make sense as things that take up more space. But most people are using them for like 1 in 50 shots or something. I have an extremely hard time believing that someone would genuinely notice the difference unless they’re an extreme case or they’ve been told the other ones are better. Within reasonable effective focal lengths, these are pretty negligible in the sizes we’re talking about.
If Apple couldn’t make a smaller phone sell particularly well, I doubt anyone else could.
I hard disagree with this. Apple is literally the worst company to try to make this shit work. Apple’s core selling point is the status symbol of it all. People trying to show off having the flashiest phone are not going to buy a product being touted as a half baked smaller and cheaper version of something else. Their entire marketing was about it being mini. Apple customers are not the core audience for something like this, and Apple marketed it as exactly what people disliked about small phones.
around or less than 5% of total iPhone 12 and 13 sales
I find it more surprising that this was below expectations than I do that only 5% of people bought a smaller phone. I doubt much more than 1 in 20 people really is after a smaller phone. I’m sure they exist, but based on the people I know and the number of people I’ve heard interested in smaller phones, I’d estimate it more like 1 in 20 to 1 in 40. It’s not for most people by any means. But 1 in 20 is still a decent number of people.
The S23 and S24 are solid phones at a regular size. So Samsung already do normal sized flagships. It’s the mid-low range that is lacking, they are all oversized in that price range, so people don’t have much choice but to buy an oversized phone.
Yeah they’re regular sized, you could consider the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro as regular sized as well. I think they could probably do a smaller phone about the size of the iPhone 12/13 mini as well if they wanted to. However I’m not sure if they’ll do it since the S22 is their smallest phones since the S10e and they haven’t gone smaller than that unless you go all the way back to the S4 (which itself has a similar width to the S10e). I understand why they wouldn’t do it because it seems the people who want an iPhone 5S to iPhone mini sized phone are extremely vocal but that doesn’t seem to translate to numbers in real life.
People would probably buy smaller phones if given the correct choices, I think the iPhone 15 size is good yeah. iPhone is often a fashion statement, so people usually want the highest end they can get and manufacturers tend to put more features in their bigger more expensive models.
There’s no options in the mid-range for smaller phones, most are over 6.5 inches. So people are forced into buying them, there’s definitely a large market for small phones, but manufacturers force them into larger models. I suspect they are easier/cheaper to make, so that’s what we get. Also bigger numbers = better right, so they’d rather crank the marketing on battery, screen etc.
Small phone users should also temper their expectation
Every time there is a small phone thread here or on reddit most of the comments are from people complaining that there is no small phone with the equivalent features of their near 7-inch flagship. People do not seem to weigh size in the same way as other features and are not willing to make compromises for it. Small phone fans need to think seriously about how important and practical all their supposedly “essential” high end features actually are versus physical size. There have been plenty of chances to buy and own smaller phones in the past and these people didn’t buy them because they weren’t perfect. This is the result.
Yeah it’s strange some of them expect the exact same specs as the Pro or Ultra phone in a smaller form factor. Some sacrifices have to be made to fit components in a smaller form factor as you cannot overcome the laws of physics. I’ve seen many ridiculous comments saying manufacturers can fit the same cameras and all the sensors along with a bigger battery if they made the phone thicker. It’s almost as if they expect the bigger phone to get neutered to maintain parity.
Haven’t watched the video but he is one of the reasons and a strong one. He has really big hands and has been pushing flagship devices since forever.
I have really big hands too, and even with those, really big phone sizes are just not practical, IMHO. Unless one has giant NBA player tennis racket sized hands, past 6” to 6.2”, you just can’t comfortably hold your phone and reach every part of the screen without shifting it around all the time.
I have pretty small hands and I use a 6.7" phone with no trouble. (As a size reference, I can comfortably reach the frets on a 3/4 size electric bass or a guitar, but a full size electric bass is too big for me and I can’t play without moving my hand a lot more than you’re supposed to.)
I don’t disagree you may find it comfortable, I just genuinely don’t understand how you do it. I guess you don’t mind the shuffling around that comes with typing a button in the opposite corner of the screen, but I personally do. When holding my phone with one hand in a position I can type in and the phone just won’t slide down to the floor, my thumb just doesn’t reach the opposite corner of the screen without shifting the phone in my hand.
