170
Report: Apple is testing foldable iPhones, having the same problems as everyone else
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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Technology
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Why don't we get back to smaller smartphones like a decadr ago?
Same reason you can't buy a new small pickup truck. They don't make them because the mass market isn't there
Cmon! If I promise to put truck nuts on it and drive aggressively will you let me get the small one?
Sorry, it's not burning through enough diesel
They also can’t charge $70k for one, even though it only cost $200 more to produce than the $18k striped compact truck.
Because they don't sell.
If you ignore screen size (which people erroneously use as a metric for phone size, since it's an easily findable and easy to understand number) and instead look at actual phone dimensions, most phones now aren't actually dissimilar. Bezels have shrunk a lot.
Galaxy S24, Jan 2024: 147mm x 70.6mm
Galaxy S5, Feb 2014: 142mm x 72.5mm
S24 frontal area = 10,378mm²
S5 frontal area = 10,153mm²
The S24 is only 2% larger than its decade-old equivalent. Not something you'd even notice.
If you include the thickness of the device, then the S24 is actually 4% smaller than its decade old equivalent.
Now sure, there were smaller phones, especially if you go further back, like an iPhone 3G genuinely would be considered tiny now.
It's just worth noting that phones aren't actually growing each year anymore like people say they are, and they haven't for a while. Bezels shrinking is a huge change in design for TVs, monitors, laptops, phones.
People are just hearing things like "6.3 inch screen" and they think "wow, my old phone only had a 4.5 inch screen. This phone must be so much larger!"
I would really like to upgrade my 12 mini to an newer Mini model if they ever made one!
I have an iphone mini… you need smaller than that? Why? It’s pretty darn small already.
They quit Mini business at iPhone 13.
Ahh that sucks. Probably not enough people bought them then.
I also have one, and it's a damn shame that Apple stopped the mini series after the 13. I don't need half a tablet in my pocket, I need something that easily fits in my pocket and can take halfway decent pictures. I'm not sure that my next phone will be an iPhone because of this, and I've exclusively used iPhones since the 4S.
Well we’ll just have to wait and see. They stopped making the mini ipads for several years, then brought them back in 2020, so anything’s possible.