Kinda sad the mini form factor didn’t pan out. I wished Apple would have done a iPhone Pro mini; would have purchased one in a heartbeat.
deleted by creator
Eh, I think the problem is customers just prefer bigger phones. I mean, personally I prefer the mini, but I think it’s clear I’m in the minority.
Using a rebrand to try and downplay the compactness may work for sight-unseen buyers, but in the end if they’re shown the bigger phone in-store, past sales would suggest they’re likely going to pick the bigger phone. (Phones ended up so big in the first place because people preferred them, too.)
deleted by creator
Very well said. I will also be stuck with my 13 mini for as long as it works, mainly because - as you said - I want a portable tool with the full Apple ecosystem access.
Eh, I think the problem is the customers just take what apple gives them
My girlfriend loves her iPhone 13 mini. Yet when she needs a new phone, she will get the iPhone large whatever.
They know this and don’t care to please the small portion of their fan base that want a smaller phone.
Having a mini line is just an extra cost to them and apple cuts all the costs they can to maximize profit. Not to please their consumers.
Eh, I think the problem is the customers just take what apple gives them
I think this is true to an extent, but my argument against it would be to point to the period where Apple resisted making large phones, while Android phones were getting bigger and bigger. (This would be approximately the era of the 5/5S) In the more wild-west product lineup of Android, it became clear that bigger screens equaled more sales, for better or for worse.
Did apple make their own screens during that time?
Heard apple doesn’t make them and just read that Samsung is going to supply 2/3 of the OLED screens for the iPhone 14.
Maybe apple wanted to make their phones bigger, but they had limitations.
If you have contracts and stuff getting 3rd party screens, you can’t just switch so quickly.
Apple is better to play it off that they don’t want to rather than can’t. You don’t want to be a company that can’t.
I don’t think Apple has ever made their own phone screens. They are a not a manufacturing company.
The limitation was the size of the human hand. Jobs wanted it designed to be single hand navigable. This was widely broadcast and know since the introduction of the first iPhone, and criticized once android phones got larger.
The last form factor Jobs oversaw was the 5. The screen did change so a preexisting contract wasn’t constraining the size. The screen got slightly taller but was kept the same width. It had the smallest screen of major phones released that same year, and was still smaller than the flagship android phones of the previous year.
The first form factor that jobs did not oversee was the larger 6 and even larger 6plus.
Three phone iPhone XS, iPhone and iPhone XL. It’s the higher spec options that keep people from the minis to at least some extent.
deleted by creator
doesn’t even have to be an iphone, any recent pro mini type phone would be appreciated
@Bobicus @tst123 same here. I type this message, like all messages, with my thumb only. I really like having one hand free. Sooo much more efficient and relaxed. And yes, my hands are big, but not that big.
There’s that solution of not using the upper 1/3 of your screen, I know. But it’s difficult to access that option. I’m open to suggestions how to do that quickly.
And I have an iPhone 13 mini and indeed…keeping it as long as possible.
Agreed. Give me the long lens/3 lenses on the mini form factor and that’s the sweet spot for me.
Posting this from a 13 mini. It’s the best phone I’ve ever owned. Fits comfortably in my hands, easy to use one-handed, doesn’t feel bulky in my pockets. It’s a shame that the trend is towards bigger phones nowadays
Or the mini will become the new SE? I don’t even bother keeping up with phone releases any more. As long as you have a phone that came out in the past few years you are fine.
deleted by creator
I can’t see Apple stopping the “will they, won’t they?” since it probably drives sales or doesn’t set expectations ahead of time but I’m convinced (although I could absolutely be wrong) that the 2020 SE’s launch kneecapped demand for the 12 mini since it came out months earlier with no sign of any mini phone on the horizon. Since my 8 met with a horrible fate at the time I bought a 13 mini, looks like we might be here a while.
deleted by creator
Maybe I’m wrong here, but I definitely feel I can get another 2 years out of my 13 mini easily, especially with a battery replacement once that starts to fade. I had the se 1 for about 4 years, and 5 years of support for iPhones is pretty standard for Apple. I do hope though that the SE becomes the new mini moving forward. One every 3-4 years I think would be just fine, and would be a welcome push back to the “upgrade every year” mindset, IMO.
deleted by creator
Fair enough. I’m not sold on the vision pro yet, personally, and imagine its use cases for most people may take some time to pan out, but I can see your point. Certainly agree that some actual guaranteed upgrade path for the mini would be nice, but I’m betting, like the iPad mini, they’ll just upgrade it periodically every now and again for the dedicated user base.
deleted by creator
Dont know if you should upgrade. Phones have peaked performance from past 4-5 years. I don’t see a reason to upgrade. People give reasons like refresh rate etc. It doesnt bother me , I can do basically all tasks that a phone suppose to do. Dont care about refresh rate, 200mp camera etc
No, never. The SE also was about stock management. So the most sold old model would become an SE. If it comes it wil be the base model size.
My 11 pro max ultra absorbent™️ is still doing what it needs to and that “capitalism itch” has been there for years I just haven’t had a reason to update.
Maybe this year.
Jokes on you, my 14 Pro Max HeavyFlo® hasn’t needed to be changed for 8 hours
The only reason I went from my 11 pro to a 13 pro was 5g. Otherwise I had no complaints at all with my 11 and would still use it today.
That’s a shame. I absolutely love my 13 Mini
Same, all new iPhones are just utterly massive.
My kid cousin randomly came up to me and said “why is your phone so tinyyy”…that’s when I finally understood small phones like my 13 mini really aren’t a thing for most 🥲
I don’t see the value on huge phones.
I have a pixel pro I got for app development, but I only use it for wordle and Sync (which has been better than the iOS lemmy apps I’ve tried). It’s so large that I can’t imagine lugging it around.
I can see a kid who’s watching YouTube and TikTok and playing Fortnite for 8 hours a day wanting a big phone, I can see somebody with a purse having one, but I do not do those things.
For me the shock was less so “kids want big phones”, and more like people think it’s natural for phones to be a certain size nowadays (just like house ceilings are usually 8-9’ high)
Also, what about Sync is better? Am curious cuz I’m contributing to an open source Lemmy app on iOS right now 😏🙈
Which one, I’ll try it out!
Many of the iOS ones are wrappers for some kind of web view, so they’re missing smaller details like native views.
Voyager for example never felt better installed than it did a PWA, and it would get itself into some weird states. I had issues with the text editing not feeling right.
I tried Memmy and it’s pretty good, but kind of buggy (for example the match system theme setting doesn’t work for me and it wouldn’t jump to the correct message in long threads when clicking a reply in my inbox).
I’ve been trying Avalont which is the best so far, does feel better being a native app, but the scroll component on the comment text box is very buggy, and refreshing my inbox doesn’t use the native pull to refresh action so it only works after I scroll down and up again.
Sync benefits from being many years old, so everything works really well and it’s very full featured.
The one feature no iOS app does: different settings for different accounts or communities.
Edit: I do appreciate the effort on all the new lemmy apps, I know they’re a lot of work and most of the devs aren’t getting paid.
Mlem! Yea, native experience is one of top reasons I use/contribute to Mlem (beta is full I think, so you’ll have to try the App Store version)🥲
I love Avelon’s in-line media viewer for sure. I have like 10+ lemmy apps, and all of us have strengths and areas that need work…it’s like 2009 all over again :) I did use Voyager (wefwef) and Memmy for a bit too :p
Just downloaded it, it feels good to use (best I’ve tried for iOS yet)
Kids don’t own computers/laptops as much anymore. Use their phones to watch way more video than older folks do. I sort of understand the younger generation wanting larger phones on that context. Pretty much every new flagship that comes out is bigger than I want a phone now unfortunately.
This is honestly the phone I should’ve bought when I had the chance. Big phones are just too damn big.
You can still buy it if you go to Apple Stores. They’ll be selling until the new model hits the stores.
Problem is, they don’t make the Mini anymore. There is no new model.
Hopefully they announce it next year as the SE
I would like something like this.
I made the mistake of checking the equivalent Reddit thread on this topic, it was a good reminder of why I’m enjoying Lemmy more.
So many comments about mini owners being out of touch and shitting on them.
There are also a bunch of comments complaining they don’t want the mini to become the new SE and be smaller despite the fact that the mini is already larger than the SE…
Out of touch…?! No, it’s the children who are wrong!
If people want big phones it’d be cool if they could just buy iPads and let us have usable devices.
How long will they do battery replacements for the 12 mini? If there’s no mini I don’t really want to buy another phone.
Until it’s added to the “vintage” list, which will be a while (another 3-5 years). Until then they will stock repair parts for the 12 mini.
Thanks, if there’s no mini or reasonably sized phone I might least keep this one on life support.
