zlacker

I believe the bit about power users is the HN effect at work, the main customers for small phones are people with small hands and/or pockets, who are disproportionally women.

Women are also overrepresented in the Really Big Phone market, and wield them two-handed.

They also trend heavily iPhone in the US market, but that leaves plenty of alpha for the manufacturer who serves the actual market for small-form-factor Android phones.

>>samatm+(OP)
I agree with this. Power users are a tiny market compared to “people who can’t reasonably fit a modern phone in their pocket.”

But if you have to keep your phone in a purse anyways, why not just get a big one?

So mostly the people in that market who still care are the ones who can’t or don’t want to carry a purse, which is also a smaller market. (I’m in this market though, so i am sad)

>>stormb+96
Not everyone wants a phone that they have to operate two-handed -- particularly those with small hands to begin with.

>>samatm+(OP)
As a non-power-user, I mostly keep my phone in the pocket, where I’d like it to be small.

I’d almost go for a dumb phone, almost... but then I need emails, maps and WhatsApp.

I don’t need 50 filters, 3 cameras, razor-thin (yet somehow enormous) body, more Storage than my laptop, etc etc...

>>rich_s+nc
Yeah, I really wanted to ditch owning a phone at all when my last one broke but I realised that too many services require having some sort of authenticator or phone for two factor authentication. Banks literally require having a mobile phone as they will require you to authenticate transactions through their app. So I'm still chained to the damn thing.

>>rst+S8
The evidence suggests that most folks do, though.

I don't, to be clear--I'm on your side here. My iPhone 11 is way too big, I just needed a new phone during that spot where the SE was long in the tooth. But people genuinely seem to like dinner plates as phones.

>>samatm+(OP)
Android manufacturers besides Samsung already don’t make any money. The last thing they are going to do is go after an even smaller niche.

>>rst+S8
Again, i think the phenomenon here is similar: if you can’t even get a phone you can operate one handed properly, you may as well get a bigger screen anyways.

I’m not saying that this is people’s preferred choice, I’m saying it’s a logical decision given the choices available that seems counterintuitive from first principles (and assuming a market with real choices).

>>stormb+YF
And it's been a long time since any available phone could be operated one handed by most users. An iPhone Mini isn't really one-handable either.

I am the small-phone-lover this article is addressing, and I did sign up to their list - I have an Xperia XZ1 Compact and no plans to upgrade because there's nothing to upgrade it to - but my biggest complaint about the Compact is that it's too big already. I'm a not-quite-six-foot man and I can't reach to buttons in the corners one handed. So why bother? It seems that my preference is not entirely rational after all.

>>rich_s+nc
> As a non-power-user, I mostly keep my phone in the pocket, where I’d like it to be small.

> I’d almost go for a dumb phone

But nobody makes a small dumb phone either! I'd be ok with a dumb phone, if it is small.

>>cannam+BP
This. I would be willing to bet 99.9% of the human population do not have fingers long enough to operate the iphone 13 mini completely onehanded, i.e. reach all 4 corners of the screen without letting the phone slip.

The actual market for a truly one handle-able phone is enormous. It's just not possible to fit modern phone functions into a package that small though.

Who will pay flagship prices for a phone with 3 hours of battery life?

>>Michae+Rb1
Even the SE is rough, and my hands aren’t particularly small.