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Comment by ynniv | Hacker News Reader

Ok, but lets actually measure the temperature of the pot every now and then. I just bought an iPhone 8 pre-announcement because my phone was broken and in the store I realized that the (original) iPhone X is just too large. And there wasn't going to be a better, smaller phone after the announcement. The trend might be for larger phones but extrapolated ad absurdum they will be tablets and people will wonder why they don't like phones anymore. I would have paid more for a smaller iPhone X, but that doesn't seem to be an option Apple will entertain.

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The iPhone SE, while not the market maker by any means, still carries a non-negligible share of that market. It seems silly for Apple to just drop that entire size offering when there is clearly market demand for it.

Remember the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle? Historically Apple has known that users care about device size, and us users do still do.

Here's an idea: take the iPhone SE, shrink it 1/4" but retain the screen size by giving it that edge-to-edge screen look like the others. Now you have a sexy iPhone Nano that you can offer to that customer segment before they look elsewhere.

Disclaimer: I am a male with normal sized hands that loves his SE.

The thing about looking elsewhere is— what alternatives are there on the Android side?

The XZ2 Compact is only marginally smaller than the iPhone 7. At this point the 7 (Apple refurbished) is cheaper than even the XZ1 Compact and will probably be viable for longer with software updates. Many Android users consider the S8, Pixel and Essential to be "small phones" now.

Even though the SE is discontinued, it's still eligible for Apple's battery replacement program. So there's a level of long-term support there that most Android phones lack:

https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-power

I'd argue Apple now has an iPhone Nano in its product line: the Apple Watch with LTE. Which is great, but still a generation or two away from being a well-rounded device (especially battery life).

Anyways, I'm surprised and annoyed that Android manufacturers aren't clawing for market share with a small, reasonably priced device. Except for Sony, who doesn't seem to be trying that hard in the US market.

> It seems silly for Apple to just drop that entire size offering when there is clearly market demand for it.

The question is, how large is that demand, and how worth their while is it to cater to that.

(Note, by asking this question, I'm not implying that I think the demand is small. I'm just trying to clarify the issue at hand).

Too late, I’m already looking at Sony Compact again.

Sony Compact phones although are powerful on the spec sheet, they usually perform badly in comparison to SE, specially on the camera department.

Funny but being an 7 Plus owner I opted to skip the X due to it being too small. In particular because it’s skinnier than the 7 Plus, that means most commonly viewed material is smaller, e.g Photos, and landscape video while the phone is held upright.

As you could imagine, I’ll be preordering the XS Max (despite the name).

Why not the XR? You get a slightly smaller 7plus with taller screen and all of the features of XS bar the second camera and 3D Touch which both provide limited added value. On top of that you will have better battery as well.

> taller screen

The problem is that the taller screen is skinnier. And the width is most often the limiting size. For example, if you're watching a movie, a 16:9 image is limited by the width of the phone. So a skinnier screen means a smaller movie. Same for viewing photos. Basically most tasks result in a smaller viewing experience.

The taller screen really only buys you a better experience for reading long text (websites, ebooks, etc).

fyi, the XR is in the same class as the XS Max, it's just 2x instead of 3x. The XR will still give you both more vertical and horizontal space than the XS, all software will present the same as the Max with the split view showing up in landscape, and it's cheaper.

The only benefits to the Max over the XR are:

- even harder to see pixels (not that you'd notice them on the XR)

- 3d touch

- camera

> all of the features of XS

Notably, it lacks an OLED display, perhaps (to me anyway) the best feature of the X.

I personally prefer the font rendering of the lcd screens. Oleds even at 400+ppi do not look as smooth (at least to my eyes). Also not a big fun of burn in.

I agree, the RGB subpixel layout really gives better sharpness over PenTile at the same nominal PPI. I'm sticking with LCD phones as I really don't want to have to worry about burn-in, especially with several years of use.

Same here, except at $1100 for 64GB I might have to consider going back to an android phablet.

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