an ode to small phones

I’m currently daily driving an iPhone 14 Pro.

I like the 14 Pro because it’s a “small” phone, with its 6.1 inch display. The base iPhone 17, Pixel 10, and Galaxy S26 all have 6.3 inch displays. The most recent iPhone with a sub-6 inch display was the 13 mini, with a 5.4 inch screen and body dimensions that sat in between the 5s and 6.

That means it has been 5 generations since Apple has released a designated “small” phone. Makes sense for them, honestly. Market data has shown that the 12 and 13 mini sold like hot shit, emphasis on shit. Unfortunately, the audience for small phones is clearly not very large.

Screen size inflation could be explained away by realizing that a smartphone is probably, for most people, their main computer. If you had one machine for messaging, browsing, and doomscrolling media consumption, you’d probably want that machine to be reasonably sized. “Plus” sized phones — that is, Apple’s “Max”, Google’s “XL”, Samsung’s “+” — currently sit at around 6.7-6.9 inches. Non “plus” sized phones sit at 6.1-6.3 inches. Considering that I care this much about phone sizes to write something about it, I at least have to admit that the base phones are not as obnoxiously large as their plus counterparts.

However, it would be really nice to have a sub-6 inch phone again. I’d love if Apple refreshed the mini lineup. Giving up camera hardware is a real pain point but I don’t think most people would notice. I’d certainly be fine with just digital zoom, I don’t need a whole other sensor for that.