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Comment by drBonkers | Hacker News Reader

> I knew many people who said they wanted an iPhone mini, and were super excited about the rumors at the time, and said they would get one. Not a single person I know, directly or not, bought an iPhone mini.

I was one of those people, and I bought the mini. Now you know at least one person.

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I have a theory that if they had named the 12 mini just "iPhone 12", people would've bought it so much more because it would've appeared as The Default iPhone. Not sure if so many bigger variants would've existed in that imaginary world though.

I have no research on this of course. I just have an anecdote that my mom didn't even consider the mini (and just bought the regular 12) even though a few years back she did complain how big all the phones were. I guess an average person just gets used to everything and aren't as nit-picky on all the details and ergonomics as myself.

I still long for one-handed flagships. Maybe I'm just a weirdo for whom 5" phones from a few years back (e.g. Pixel 1) were perfectly operable with one hand. For a lot of the population those phones were already two handed devices in most use cases I guess? Couple this with how phones are the main computing and media consumption devices for most people nowadays... why not have it remarkably bigger I guess.

Yeah, for me (YMMV with your hand size), Nexus 5 was the ideal maximum size. (I even ended up removing the perimeter protection I bought because it made it cross the threshold into "too big".)

Bought a mini. Also guided a friend's wife to the mini when she surprised him with a new phone for Christmas, because he had told me he hated how big phones had gotten (iPhone X maybe?) and his next one was going to be the smallest one available. We're both very happy with them.

It's a great phone. Bummed to hear rumors than the 14 will drop the mini form factor.

I also had a Pebble Time and loved it, so I guess I'm just a fan of great-but-not-quite-popular-enough electronics...

Badly want a Pro mini, not a 13 mini. With zoom lens, ProMotion. Some battery tradeoff is fine.

They won't do it, because otherwise how would they differentiate the normal pro?

I have a 13 mini myself and am very happy with it.

I don't really care about ProMotion on my phone, if I could steal any of the Pro features it'd be the zoom lens and lidar. Unfortunately two parts that take up a lot more room than ProMotion does.

I don't think there's a winning way to do that, in order to add the "Pro" features you have to make a battery tradeoff, and then instead of reviewers saying "Battery life isn't great, but at least it's cheaper" you'll get a whole bunch of "IPHONE PRO MINI COSTS SO MUCH AND BATTERY STILL SUCKS?!?"

> Now you know at least one person.

The fact that they updated it recently tells me that there were more than a few who bought it.

Not really. Apple plans their phone line ups well in advance, and given that it's hardware it might be very difficult to change it on short notice. The mini significantly undersold expectations, leading to Apple even cutting production [1]. If you want further proof that the mini bombed, consider that every rumour has it gone from this year's lineup.

1: https://www.xda-developers.com/iphone-12-mini-sales-reported...

I actually think they’re carving out an odd model line with their small iPhones. They’ve gone back on the larger is better meme twice to make the first SE and then the Mini. I suspect we’ll get another mini model after enough demand has backfilled enough. I’m guessing it really is a size preference for certain people and budget for others.

The model line of “cheap enough for the people who absolutely have to wait until price drops to their level to upgrade.” And also whose numbers swell just enough every 3-5 years.

The SE is very important as an in road in countries and people with less available money. The price point is key. Vs the Mini which isn’t cheap.

And there’s lag unaccounted for in the anecdote. I’m one of those apparent hypocrites who asked for a mini but doesn’t have one—because I haven’t purchased any new phone yet; my current one still works fine.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some correlation between preference for a less obtrusive phone and avoiding superfluous consumption.

Are we talking about the SE?

If so, I have one too. Closest thing to the iPhone 4, which I consider the peak of the line.

No, I think they mean the iPhone 12 Mini: https://www.apple.com/iphone-12/key-features/.

In that case, the reason I know people who didn't get the 12 Mini was it competed with the new SE, and they didn't want to upgrade during the pandemic when they were trapped at home. They're thinking about the 13 mini or the new SEs now that they are available.

I actually bought a second phone just so I’d have a mini and a max. Serves its purpose well (backup to main phone and for when space constrained).

I have a regular size iPhone13Pro (which I really only bought for the depth camera), but I regularly leave it at home and just carry my iPod Touch, which is a much more svelte size, and does almost everything I need from a phone (so long as I can get wifi or tethered cellular wifi connection for it).

add me to the list. i would have a mini today if it had three cameras and the promotion display. absolutely hate large phones.

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