The iPhone 13 mini is dead | Hacker News Reader

The iPhone 13 mini is dead

arstechnica.com

38 pointsiamacyborg30 comments

Best phone I ever owned. A small phone with a great camera, all the modern niceties (Face ID, fast processor), and a beautiful design. I'll keep this baby until its final legs.

I owned one and returned it. The biggest flaw was the battery life just wasn’t long enough, which is coupled with a relatively slow charging speed.

I might be more fond of the form factor once phone technology advances ten years or so.

That's a very accurate representation of the battery life, however the reality is that it has the best battery life of any phone with that size + performance combo on the market for my usage - its just that more "regular" sized phones blow it out of the water.

Edit: I negate this somewhat with a Magsafe magnetic wireless battery.

I owned the 13 pro. Gave it to my daughter and bought a 13 mini for myself. I don't see how anybody carries around the bigger model in their pockets, but maybe that's just me.

Many people use their phone as their primary or even sole computer. I think many things would be hard if the screen were too small.

But I mainly use my phone to quickly glance at things, use a map, and a few things like that. And occasionally talking. So I'm with you: less is more. These days I often go out without the phone and just use my watch. Works great.

I had one of the "megaphones" (plus sized) for a while and it was horrible.

I suspect there's a Parkinson's Law like effect at play. Phones increase battery capacity to meet demands of software which expand to fill available battery life. If a phone is going to have a smaller battery, which is a necessity for a SFF device, it can't be expected to perform the same tasks at the same speed as a full-size phone. But I haven't heard of any OS adapting in such a way. Power management is optimized for the average which is larger than the mini. And not only the OS but the user has to adapt to expect a more frugal experience with a small phone. I don't see that attitude with a lot of people. Nor do I believe advertisers would be happy with a platform that has "use fewer apps" has a selling point.

Uninstalling Facebook extends battery runtime.

For the ability to comfortably use my phone one handed, I found the battery trade-off worth it.

But I don’t really travel far enough with just what’s on my person for it to be noticeable. At the very least I have a small bag, and some form of small power bank has always been in there. The 12 Mini charges incredibly fast in my perspective.

I was stubborn enough to use an iPhone SE until almost the release of the 12 Mini, and that thing has atrocious charging speed and battery life. But back then I was just amazed at how much better it was than the 5 I’d been holding out with previously.

Sure it was a downgrade from the X I used for 6 months battery wise, but I just never got used to the size. Maybe the long battery life was partially because I hated and avoided using it the whole time.

TLDR: Every 4-5 years Apple releases another small phone, and I generally refuse to upgrade until then.

Face id to me is an anti feature driven by the desire to eliminate a hardware component.

Particularly with the old school LG back of device sensor, I could have the device unlocked by the time it exits my pocket.

Face ID may be good for driving and Ubers, but my phone is not always pointed at my face.

I’d love if they put TouchID on the power button like on the iPads

Only thing I really don't like about my 12 and 13 minis is face ID. It is SUCH a pain to always have to bring it in front of you, or turn your head, or whatnot. Yes, it works in the dark, mostly, and yes, it's "one less thing to do" but... if I'm grabbing my phone, I'm already holding it. Putting my thumb on a button to unlock so that it's already usable by the time I bring it to my eye level saves so much time. And... by pressing the button, I'm always 'back to the home screen' instead of whatever app I was on before, or 5 pages in. Thumb on touchID button I get a faster and more consistent unlocking experience.

There's a setting called "Require Attention for Face ID" that you can try turning off. Your phone will be a little less secure that way, but it might help.

You still need to bring it to your face and look at it, just not necessarily make eye contact :)

Some people (such as my Better Half) have small hands, and greatly prefer the Mini form-factor. She finds it annoying to use the larger models.

I hope that Apple hears from many such customers; and re-introduces a smaller, current-generation phone.

Had a 12 mini and just upgraded to the 13 mini. The unofficial rumor mill last year was that mini sales were lower than expected. But apparently the 14 Plus also has had lower than expected sales as well.

It’s my opinion that neither the mini nor the plus need annual updates so here’s hoping we see an every-other-year cycle for the mini and plus starting with a 2024 16 mini.

I love my iPhone 12 mini I'm glad I was able to get a full rebuild under warranty 6 months ago. The main board died but as a side effect the battery life is back to a like-new state.

I don't really want to get a "full size" phone. My only hope is this phone lasts until the next SE refresh and that it is a decent phone.

I’d buy the mini if they packaged the better camera in this size. The only reason that I buy the pro max is for the best camera. If that were available on the mini then (as like a mini-max) - I’d be buying smaller. I can’t stand the size of my gargantuan phone. But the photos are great!!!!

> Market research has consistently shown that most users want bigger screens and batteries, which are incompatible with a smaller phone.

Bigger batteries are not incompatible with smaller phones if you don't idolize thinness as Apple does.

RIP to the best phone / form factor in the market today. I really hate the size of smartphones today. The 13 Mini is the just perfect for my hands. I hope it lasts long enough until Apple decides to bring it back.

i love my iphone mini form factor, but i have to charge mine twice a day. and if i'm traveling, i have to carry an external battery pack, which severely diminishes the form factor advantages.

I'd be happy enough if they blended the SE and the mini and updated it every couple years. That's a fine phone for somebody who wants to be inside apple's ecosystem without needing to be bleeding-edge high-price.

everyone says they want the small phone, yet the "PRO" devices sell like hot bread.

numbers don't lie.

I would prefer a small phone too . but we're just a drop in the ocean compared to the people who want the big flashy phones

The 15 Pro is slightly narrower and shorter than the 15, though a touch thicker and heavier. Same thing with the Pro Max vs the Plus - so I’m not really sure what you’re getting at here.

All the smaller devices do not come with the flagship hardware. This is the problem. I'm an android user but give me a 5 inch phone with flagship camera, screen, battery and processor, I'll be on it. Samsung seems to have finally given in and put Super AMOLED on all the S9 tablets, not just the Ultra, and that's good. Give us the same device, just change the screen size. That'll be a better statistical comparison. Comparing substandard hardware and then thinking bigger is better is just flawed.

I wanted a mini but the ergonomics of the SE 3 are so much better for me.

I purchased a 13 mini, but in retrospect I think the SE is the better device

as someone who owns se 2020- 13 mini was my next planned upgrade (because of camera & like the colors).. when my current se dies or at least battery life decreases substantially that is.. which it doesn't! :D

Well, at least now they'll let repair shops fix the screens cheap, right?

I'm off the smart phone market when my current 13 mini is dead.

rip love mine

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