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Comment by nkrisc | Hacker News Reader

I keep waiting but the phones only get bigger. Seems I’ll have to eventually replace my iPhone 12 mini with a 13 mini, or ditch Apple entirely.

The Google Nexus 4 was my all time favorite smart phone in terms of overall size. But I suppose it’s unlikely Apple will ever make a phone anywhere close to that size ever again.

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Just buy an iPhone duo and never open it.

It’s still big and the heaviest and thickest (with camera plateau) iPhone to date, hardly suitable for one-handed use (the SE1 was the last that truly was), and not light in your pocket.

Are there any actual small phones on the market, now?

Not that I’ve seen really, but I haven’t looked much outside the mainstream as my 12 mini is still going strong.

But seems I’m either in a real minority with regards to phone size preference, or at least the manufacturers believe I am.

Maybe you’re in the minority; but you’re not alone. I went the hassle of signing in on mobile just to upvote you! Sincerely from a 13 mini user, still grumpy about having to give up my se 1.

People that want small phones, me included, are unfortunately a vocal minority. The small flagship phones just don’t sell that well. Loved my iPhone 12 mini and rode it until Apple Intelligence was announced and I got suckered in because I love exploring AI.

My suspicion is small phone users buy phones less often, and thus are less represented by the market. This may be borne out if a company randomly produces a small phone and it proves popular

The 2022 SE is still supported with latest iOS and works fine for me. No need to cling to a SE1.

Same here. It’s a market that would sell millions of units per year like the mini did, just not hundreds of millions like the remaining iPhone linup combined.

There are dozens of us. Dozens.

The modern "flip" foldables like the Samsung Flip and Moto Razr let you do a lot on the front cover screen these days. When folded they are pretty comparable to early smartphones, like a wider more square Palm Pre.

There's a few small traditional phones from companies like Unihertz but they don't have the same support or power.

Unihertz Jelly series makes being small their whole selling point. They're not just average sized, they're small small. You could wrap your whole hand around it. Often suggested to help combat phone addiction because apparently smaller screens do something for that.

> Often suggested to help combat phone addiction because apparently smaller screens do something for that

Which has been my take on why there are no more small phones. Manufacturers noted that bigger phone equals more engagement. I am still on my 2022 iPhone SE for this reason.

Not branded/high end ones sadly.

It depends on what your definition of "small" is. If you consider the iPhone 13 mini as small the only thing that comes to mind is the Unihertz Jelly Max.

quite a few: Qin has some models. Sometime there are some startup on kickstarter that do small phone. Ikko mind one

I think we already have enough technology to make a mobile phone that is thinner and smaller than current ones.

Curious to see what happens when the fashion cycle runs its course and skinny jeans are in again and these big phones don't fit in our pockets anymore. Will phones get smaller or will we stop carrying them around and instead use wearables and retinal implants?

I don’t think that’s going to happen. Fashion, like all other segments of society and the economy, bends around the smartphone, not vice versa. The market decided a long time ago it wants big phones and to get handbags or other accessories if their clothes don’t cooperate.

> Fashion, like all other segments of society and the economy, bends around the smartphone, not vice versa.

Man, I hate my Hanes pajama shorts right now. The pockets are way too shallow. Probably even for the iPhone Mini. My phone falls out all the time. And I’m too lazy/cheap to buy new shorts, because they’re good shorts otherwise.

Whoever designed them definitely did not get this memo.

You can have clothes altered

I’m sticking with the 13 Mini as long as possible. iOS 25 public beta is probably faster than 26 on it.

Still rocking a first gen iPhone SE. But iOS 16 requirement on a lot of apps is slowly killing the viability of this...

Such a shame because I hate the bigger size phones and I want a headphone jack!

Is the headphone jack that much of a deal breaker? USB-c headphones seem pretty common now.

Almost all hifi headphones/earplugs use the standard audio jack

And they work with adapters do they not? Do you really need hifi headphones at all times with your portable phone? Seems a little strange.

The adapters are not pleasant to have to rely on.

I have a 13 mini and I'm in the same boat, but curious why would you not have already have upgraded from the 12 to 13 mini at this point?

Because my 12 mini still works just fine and I haven’t needed a new phone yet.

it's marginal

battery life is significantly better on the 13 mini

I had a 12 mini and although batt life could be a complaint for me it was fine since i charged in car on cummute 2x a day and was never farther 10 feet from a charger if required so it actually worked really well. This is the same argument EV proponents make when people complain about lack of card with 500 mile range. In practical terms its just very rarely actually needed.

I guess but an EV costs $30k+ but an iphone 13 mini costs like $200 and a brand new battery for it from apple costs $100

Im not talking about cost im talking about relative size of batterys.

there is still an iphone SE 2016

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