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I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

smallandroidphone.com

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Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#61

Post by ncallaway »

DANK_YACHT wrote: post #45
erohead wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I touch on this on the site. 5% of iPhones sold are minis. That's 10m sold per year! That is more than enough demand to cover the NREs and costs of making a phone. * https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/21/cirp-iphone-13-best-selling-l...

5% seems quite small and not worth the trouble. It might be worth it if a small phone generated 5% in additional sales, but most people buying a small iPhone would likely buy a normal-sized iPhone if no small version was available rather than making the switch to Android.

5% of 100 phones is 5 phones.

5% of 200,000,000 is 10,000,000.

5% can be a huge number, or a tiny number, depending on what it's 5% of.

I switched from Android to Apple specifically for the iPhone mini, and if they killed it, I would switch to the smallest phone on the market.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#62

Post by bityard »

hammock wrote: post #32

Shameless plug for the Jelly 2. https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-2 It's not a "flagship" but it is fully featured - nothing spared - and half the size of my palm. The screen is just small enough to be too annoying to do anything really distracting on. I have gotten NOTHING but compliments on it since I started using it a month ago (on a reco I picked up here).

Oh man, that thing is _adorable_ and the price is certainly right.

(Unfortunately I am personally looking for something in between this and today's "phablets".)

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#63

Post by vvillena »

DANK_YACHT wrote: post #45
erohead wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I touch on this on the site. 5% of iPhones sold are minis. That's 10m sold per year! That is more than enough demand to cover the NREs and costs of making a phone. * https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/21/cirp-iphone-13-best-selling-l...

5% seems quite small and not worth the trouble. It might be worth it if a small phone generated 5% in additional sales, but most people buying a small iPhone would likely buy a normal-sized iPhone if no small version was available rather than making the switch to Android.

If the iPhone mini is managing to capture all of the "I want a small flagship phone" market, it's worth it. As long as the Mini exists, it's impossible for other manufacturers to try and compete.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#64

Post by rsyring »

erohead wrote: post #2

I’m a long-time small phone Android user. But after the Pixel 5, I have not been able to find a suitable small Android replacement. The Pixel 6 is gigantic, and the Pixel 7 looks like it is also destined to be huge. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve resorted to using an iPhone Mini, biding my time and hoping desperately that some Android OEM would step up. But it’s increasingly clear that a small premium phone is not on t…

The Pixel 5 was just right IMO. I upgraded to a Pixel 6 after the fingerprint sensor had problems. The first thing I noticed was it was too big. I liked the size of the five much better.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#65

Post by moffkalast »

orangepurple wrote: post #11

Has anybody tried the $32 SOYES XS11 or $70 or UNIWA XS11 It's a 2.5 inch 3G Android phone. http://www.cwell-hk.com/products/SOYES_XS11.aspx Lots of small Android phones are in the recommended section on cwell-hk in the $40 range.

> Android 6.0 Operation System

They're kidding, right?

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#66

Post by Dunedan »

perardi wrote: post #6

“matching size and design of iPhone 13 Mini” So, by all accounts, the iPhone mini has been an extremely slow seller. https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopula... Why would that form factor succeed in the Android space? --- I see these meme on tech sites all the time: “oh phones are too big I just want something simple”. That is a valid sentiment that I think is shared by basically no average consum…

> Why would that form factor succeed in the Android space?

Because it's not Apple selling them and Android smartphone manufacturers operate with much lower margins.

Take Motorola for example, which isn't even one of the 10 largest smartphone manufacturers. They released ~30 different smartphone models in the past year alone, so they apparently make money, even if they don't sell millions of units per model.

Yet none of the models released in the past year has a height shorter than 159mm or a weight lighter than 155g.

I believe the reason why no smartphone manufacturer offers small phones anymore is not because they want to, but rather because there is some non-obvious reason why they can't. My personal theory is because it's difficult to get proper display panels for smaller phones nowadays. The fabs producing the panels switched to larger sizes due to demand and efficiency, which resulted in no smaller panels with up-to-date specs (high-refresh rate, HDR, low power consumption, ...) to be available. I'd appreciate if somebody could proof me wrong, as that'd be quite a bummer otherwise.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#67

Post by masklinn »

perardi wrote: post #6

“matching size and design of iPhone 13 Mini” So, by all accounts, the iPhone mini has been an extremely slow seller. https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopula... Why would that form factor succeed in the Android space? --- I see these meme on tech sites all the time: “oh phones are too big I just want something simple”. That is a valid sentiment that I think is shared by basically no average consum…

There are two big issues with SFF, really:

- people tend to correlate size and price, and by default the correlation is direct (for some things it's inverse), so at similar capabilities (and thus prices) consumers will tend to go with the larger version

- for a smartphone specifically, there's a direct relationship between battery size and device size, and battery life is a really valuable convenience

The iPhone 13 mini has a 2400 mAh battery, the 13 has 3200. 33% more battery capacity is a lot, and at 2400mAh I don't think the mini doesn't survive an entire day of relatively heavy use without a charge.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#68

Post by eddieroger »

MrRiddle wrote: post #24
akmarinov wrote: post #13

The article person might want one, but people don't. That's why the iPhone Mini doesn't sell and is being axed.

5% sold were Mini. But I guess let’s axe it if it cuts into profit just a bit.

It is a business, though, and if 5% of sales cost disproportionately more than 5% to produce, market, support, and all those things, then it’s fair to say “it doesn’t sell” and axe it.

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#69

Post by arkad »

hammock wrote: post #32

Shameless plug for the Jelly 2. https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-2 It's not a "flagship" but it is fully featured - nothing spared - and half the size of my palm. The screen is just small enough to be too annoying to do anything really distracting on. I have gotten NOTHING but compliments on it since I started using it a month ago (on a reco I picked up here).

> The screen is just small enough to be too annoying to do anything really distracting on

I'm a happy user of Jelly 2 for a half year now and I bought it for this single reason. It's fully featured so you can do anything, but the screen is so small that you do it only when there's a real need, so I'm not wasting time staring at the phone for no real reason.

Cons: My co-workers make fun of me :)

Edit: formatting

Re: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone

#70

Post by pmlnr »

IMO a lot of the visual appeal of smartphone apps, mainly social media, would go away with small screen. I remember using my HTC desire to read the web and if it wasn't text, it was not great.

BTW the best form factor phone I had was the Nexus 4, at 4.7". I would very much like that back, but without that slippery glass back, repairable, held together with screws, with replaceable battery, shipped with LineageOS or /e/. Yep, I'll keep dreaming.

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