The vanishing of the small high-end smartphone

AlmightySnoo 🐢🇮🇱🇺🇦@lemmy.world to Android@lemmy.world – 351 points –
The vanishing of the small high-end smartphone
smh.com.au

Manufacturers don’t make displays under 6 inches available for purchase, with special cases (such as the iPhone Mini) being made under exclusive contracts. The best lead they have so far is to try to use displays designed for the front part of a foldable phone, but they’re yet to strike an agreement.

TIL that display manufacturers are also part of the reason why we aren't getting small phones and why it's probably even harder for manufacturers like Fairphone to make them.

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My zenphone is small and has good battery life. Wish more would shoot for this type of form factor

the sad reality is many people will say they want a small phone like this, but then not buy it for some reason or another, then they sell less, and so companies abandon making them.

I am a very happy owner of a ZF10 too, lovely device.

"Won't buy it for one reason or another" meaning the manufacturer intentionally builds the device so shittily that the feature you want is drowned out by 15 year old hardware and high prices. I've seen it happen a hundred times already.

I really hate this argument since it implies every phone is a 1:1 copy of the next and the only difference is the headphone jack, or SD card slot, or removable battery and "see! nobody wants this one feature anymore because ObscurePhone 22 had it and nobody bought it!" Never mind the fact that ObscurePhone 22 was built by child slaves using secondhand parts from old recycled Gateway computers, the screen is CRT, and they cost $5000 each, but yeah, "nobody bought it because people hate headphone jacks now."

ZenFone is the same size as an iPhone or an S23, pretty sure there is no lack of people buying phones at that size. But also I would consider that a standard size, not 'small'.

If you look at the S or iPhone series you'll see that the larger versions sell far far more.