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When Apple introduced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro this week, the company noted that they’d have the same $799 and $999 starting prices as last year’s flagships. And, as is often the case, the company also announced it would keep some older models around at lower prices, which means you can now pick up an iPhone 14 for $699 and up, or an iPhone 13 for $599 and up.
But one thing Apple didn’t go out of its way to draw attention to? The iPhone 13 mini is no longer available, which means that Apple is officially out of the business of selling “mini” phones with flagship-level features.
When the iPhone 13 mini launched in 2021 it was a phone with the same processor, camera, and other features as the company’s iPhone 13. The only major differences were that the iPhone 13 has a 6.1 inch display, while the iPhone 13 mini has a 5.4 inch screen and a smaller battery.
And that made it unusual in the modern smartphone space, where most flagship phones have big screens. The only other phone maker I’m aware of who was pairing high-end features with small(ish) screens was Sony, but even that company has been moving away from “compact” phones in recent years.
But while there are some die-hard fans of small phones, it seems like they’re in the minority these days, where the lines between phones and tablets have been getting blurry.
Half a year before launching the iPhone 13 mini, Apple may have already known that the writing was on the wall for small phones: the company reportedly slashed production of the iPhone 12 mini by more than 70 percent in early 2021.
So it wasn’t all that surprising that the company never introduced an iPhone 14 mini or iPhone 15 mini. In fact, it is a little surprising that the iPhone 13 mini ever saw the light of day. Maybe it was already far enough along in production that Apple figured it’d cost more to scrap it than release it. Or maybe Apple wanted to use it as a final test case to see if there was demand for premium phones with smaller screens.
While the iPhone “mini” now appears to be dead, you can still buy an iPhone with a small screen. It’s just that your only current-model option is the iPhone SE (3rd-gen), which is a cheaper phone (with a starting price of $429) that was released in 2022.
The iPhone SE does have a reasonably fast Apple A15 processor, but the phone’s 4.7 inch display is surrounded by large bezels and features a physical design ripped from Apple’s 2017 and earlier playbook, as well as other compromises including a single rear camera.
It’s still probably a better bet for folks looking for a small screen phone in 2023 than some other options like the Unihertz Jelly 2E though.
Or you could look for an iPhone 13 mini from third-party retailers, while supplies last. Best Buy is currently selling the phone for $630 and up, for example.
Yeah, the Jelly Star, or BlackView’s N6000, which also has the MTK G99 – too bad neither of these two has a proper edge-to-edge AMOLED display, but I had the ASUS Zenfone 8, and it was a neat little phone apart from the speakerphone issue.
I got an iPhone 13 Mini last year to replace my 2016 iPhone SE. Hopefully when it’s time for me to replace my 13 Mini, Apple tries making a smaller phone again.
I hope they eventually bring back an iPhone Mini. Maybe every few generations.
It’s true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDIrurq2MXI
iPhone, I hate your price gouging ways, you help give the excuse (“Veblen goods”) to keep the price of all smartphones exorbitantly high. We need a competitive manufacturer to step in and set the prices of smartphones across the entire spectrum of budget to high end at half of what prices currently are.
I was hoping Apple would bring back the mini with the iPhone 15. I would have considered the an iPhone 14 mini if Apple ever made one, but ended up getting the iPhone SE, which is nearly identical to my iPhone 7. Yes it has the top and bottom bezels, but that bottom bezel provides a place for a nice big physical Home Button, and the top bezel provides a place for the front facing camera and sensors that doesn’t detract from the screen. I don’t need a bigger screen anyway. The SE is not a high end phone, but I don’t need that either.
Hopefully they come back to smaller phones in the future.
Imagine if iphone users weren’t locked into the Apple claustrophobic social ecosystem, then only an idiot would pay so much for a lackluster standard smartphone. The idiots that buy these think they are social status symbols not realizing how cruddy iphones are for the price.
The problem is that Android phones don’t really come in small sizes either. There is Unihertz, which makes ones if you’re looking for very small devices and are willing to accept lackluster software support, and there are unknown brands which make ones if you’re willing to accept no software support and probably some malware installed at the factory. Otherwise, those like me who like small phones are basically out of luck. I get it, I’m in a minority and most people don’t care about that preference. Still, there’s a reason why I’ve still got an iPhone SE and, when IOS 17 is released in a couple weeks, I can install it.
While Xiaomi Qin3 is mostly disappointment, I still hope that it is a step in a right direction for Xiaomi, and eventually they will make a decent compact phone.
There is also ASUS Zenfones, which are just under the 6” mark. Still too large for my liking, though.
Despite what Asia pushed in its marketing campaign / with reviewers, the Zenfone is not anywhere near a small device.
My original post in the original ZP10 thread bears repeating:
Sad to see that this is considered ‘compact’ these days. It’s hardly smaller than a Pixel 8, ~4mm shorter and 3mm thinner, and only barely thinner than an S23:
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Asus-Zenfone-10,Samsung-Galaxy-S23,Google-Pixel-8/phones/12162,11999,12143
You can see how drastic the difference is to the iPhone SE (OG), the last truly compact phone; the iPhone 13 mini is barely too big for one-handing, and that is still a significant difference there: https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Asus-Zenfone-10,Apple-iPhone-SE,Apple-iPhone-13-mini/phones/12162,10001,11637
I’d love to go back to the iPhone 5/Galaxy S4 mini days…
*Asus, not Asia… -.-;;
The XiaoMi / DuoQin Qin 3, on the other hand, looks to be exactly what I would look for in a phone’s dimensions… an iPhone 5/SE-shaped, full-screen model. Too bad it’s China only & all that goes with that…
All that makes something a status symbol is people believing it is. And iphones still have better cameras and in particular better camera integration into installable software, better processors than anything else even though most users rarely use anywhere near that power except when using the camera and can’t because of apple’s strict limits on what installable software can do, and they have the network effect of imessage that has grown so powerful that some people, especially if you’re a schoolkid, will absolutely refuse to talk to you if your text bubbles appear green.
Then consider that privacy and freedom are NOT valid arguments in a debate over computer hardware and software choice, because most people either do not care, don’t understand why anyone would care, or even consider those who care to be insignificant monsters cowering in the darkness like roaches that scatter in the righteous lights of Big Tech, and are swiftly banned in all things for their wretched opinions on things.
iPhones have everything they need to be status symbols.
i just tried texting between my Android phone and my iPhone, and only the outgoing text bubbles on my iPhone are green. How would some else even know what kind of phone is texting them?
My mistake. I’ve never used an iphone, but I end up feeling a lot of pressure to do so every damn time apple launches a new one. Point being, iphone users have an increasing tendency to exclude android users from group texts.
The send arrow (on the right of the text) is either green for SMS, or blue if the phone number (or username) which is the addressee is found on the iMessage system. Also, the number appears in either green or blue when you complete typing it out in the addressee bar.
So yes, the sender definitely knows if someone is using iMessage or not before sending.
Oh, and it also says ‘Text Message’ over the first message received/sent in a thread which is an SMS and not an iMessage…
on which device are you finding this behavior, the Android or iPhone?
OK wow you’re right. I never noticed this before. But I tested it out with my two iPhones. If I send a message from one iPhone to the other it exclusively uses iMessage, but if I send either to/from my Android phone it uses text messaging. And just as you said, the conversation is labeled either “iMessage” for iOS conversations, or “Text Message” when an Android device is involved, and blue outgoing bubbles and up arrows for Text Messages, and green outgoing bubbles and up arrows for iMessage. So an Apple device can tell when it’s another Apple device and not a generic text message because the Apple devices exclusively use iMessage when communicating with each other. But the Android user has no idea what he is communicating with.
Darn I wish we could edit our posts on Liliputing. I had it backwards. It’s the green for text and blue for Apple iMessage.
That sucks. I got an iPhone 13 Mini last December since there wasn’t a 14 Mini. I hope mine lasts and stays fast enough for a long while.
In the end I guess the market spoke. Even if the Mini sold millions, the other models sold many more millions.
I really wanted the iPhone 13 mini, but unfortunately the pricing wasn’t there. I ended up getting the normal 13, because my carrier consistently had promotional offers that took several hundred dollars off the price. They never once discounted the 13 Mini.
My understanding is that these promotional offers come from Apple directly. If the 13 Mini wasn’t selling well, it was likely Apple’s fault.
My guess is that they never intended for it to sell in high numbers. It’s likely just an example of “decoy effect” marketing. Make it in 3 sizes, and consumers will pick the middle one, and you can concentrate manufacturing that one in huge volume.