How many people really want a small smartphone? If you sort small phones in the Pricewatch from 2020 – maximum 15 x6,6cm for example – then you will only find two models: the iPhone SE 2020 and iPhone 12 mini, not coincidentally from the same manufacturer: Apple.
In the category of slightly larger phones, there is plenty of choice with, for example, the Google Pixel 4a and Samsung Galaxy S 20, but those phones are a lot bigger. A new phenomenon is not: phones have been getting bigger for years and Sony’s Compact series of small smartphones started way back in 2013.
With the arrival of the iPhone 12 mini, the question arises whether this step by Apple will find. In short: will we now see more smartphones with a really small housing?
Figures An average phone has become increasingly larger in recent years. This is evident from figures in our Pricewatch. If we look at the size of the average telephone, then every year a little bit is added, especially in length.
In figures you can also see this: the average goes from 14, 5x7cm in 2014 to 16 x7.5cm now. But what is striking: phones in 2014 weren’t really small either. For example, the iPhone 12 mini is 13, 1×6.4cm, a lot smaller than the 14, 5x7cm of the Moto G 2nd Gen which was average in 2014.
This shows a clear trend: phones are getting a lot longer and a little bit wider. That corresponds to screen proportions: where phones in 2014 to 2016 almost all have a 16: 9 screen, it now fluctuates between 19: 9 and 21: 9. This has resulted in screens appearing much larger – diagonals of 6.5 “are now quite normal – while screens are mainly longer.
The width has increased a bit, but even wider phones hold less hold tight and don’t fit so well in trouser pockets, which are some of the reasons why phones have gotten longer.
An iPhone 12 mini can be called small with 13, 1×6, 4cm The same goes for Sony’s Compact phones from a few years ago, the latest of which is the XZ2 Compact from 13, 5×6.5cm. As telephones are now longer, we have taken 14 x6,6cm as the limit for a small phone.
If you fill in that and look at how many phone models comply with it, then that will indeed become less and less. In 2014 these were 30 percent of all models, now less than 1 percent. Except d e iPhone 12 mini only satisfies the iPhone SE 2020 to that format
But maybe that is unfair and so we have used another calculation method. How many phones have appeared with no more than three-quarters of the surface – length times width – of an average phone of that year?
The percentages are lower, but the picture is the same: many phones have around the same area. Obviously, there is arguing about where you should set the boundary of ‘small’, but the picture is that the number of small telephones in absolute and relative terms has fallen to almost zero in recent years.
The why Would you buy a phone with a single camera, without 5G and with a battery life of half a day? If you think this does not sound like an attractive offer, you will immediately see why hardly anyone has a small phone in their range anymore.
Because the number of components that manufacturers want to put into phones is serious grown. Multiple cameras, some with large sensors, a high capacity battery and the antennas to receive 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, wifi, bluetooth, NFC and GPS all take up space.
Sony – the great example in the Android field that compact phones are possible – looked for the thickness with its Compact series. The XZ2 Compact from 2018 is therefore relatively small, but with 12, 1mm very thick; the average at the time was around 8.5mm. This allowed a 2870 mAh battery in it.
The battery capacity is also where iPhones sacrifice. The iPhone SE 2020 has a 1821 mAh battery, the iPhone 12 mini does it with a 2227 mAh battery and that’s about half the that of an average smartphone today. The housing thereof is 7.4 mm or thin again.
The fact that Apple can get away with that is partly due to the economy of iOS: Apple’s phones squeeze a relatively long battery life from their small batteries. . The iPhone SE scores about average on our battery tests, maybe slightly below.
That is also what top people of Xiaomi subsidiary brand Redmi have said. Smaller phones are possible, but then you lose battery life, Wang Cheng Tomas said on Weibo this summer. Other manufacturers don’t let on the record know anything, but the portfolio speaks volumes: Samsung has stopped smaller models such as the A3 phones and the S 10 e did not get a successor either. Xiaomi also did not give smaller models a successor and Sony stopped its Compact phones. Google is the only one to make the opposite step this year: the Pixel 4 XL didn’t get a successor, and the Pixel 4a and 5 are among the smallest phones released this year.
These are all technical reasons , but there are other considerations as well. The use of telephones is increasingly about video on, for example, TikTok, YouTube or Netflix. So many people want a bigger screen for that reason. A smaller screen is more suitable for users who mainly use phones as a means of communication, for example WhatsApp and e-mail.
Figures on this are difficult to find, but when it comes to smartphones with small screens you can do conclude the following: if they had been a big and resounding success, we would have seen more small telephones by now. Manufacturers such as Samsung and Sony would never stop with small phones if there was sufficient demand.
Outside the mainstream, some niche phones with a small housing have appeared. Among these are, for example, last year’s Palm Phone, although it only worked as a secondary telephone with the American provider Verizon Wireless. Another initiative is the Unihertz Jelly 2 from earlier this year, a 3 “screen phone that was available to order through Kickstarter. The campaign has been successful, so he’s coming to backers next month There are 5323, which sounds like a lot until you consider that more than a billion smartphones are sold annually.
Finally The release of the iPhone 12 mini will be followed with great interest in all boardrooms of smartphone makers. How do users respond? What is the battery life? Do people think this size is fine or is it too small? It is like a large-scale user test for the smartphone market.
If the iPhone 12 mini flies out of the stores and produces satisfied users, then it is obvious that there will also be Android models with smaller cases – if only to try and get a piece of the pie Each phone is a compromise but which compromises are the most acceptable? Could the battery be smaller? Can a camera be removed? Can there be a function? How fat can we make him?
Those are all questions that could arise. But with the disappearance of the XL versions of the Google Pixel phones and the appearance of the iPhone 12 mini in any case it is clear that the compact phone is not completely gone yet. The market segment still exists, but the question is whether it will grow in the coming period or whether it will remain small.
