that the 6 inches are the standard of mobile phones today, as crazy as it seemed a few years ago, even responds to a logical evolution. Carrying a computer in your pocket has been making more and more sense to the point that many user profiles can more than spend their days without a desktop computer and do all their browsing on the Internet with their mobile.
The panorama of sizes in Android does not look bad, apparently, having these 6-inch options as intermediate models and with mobile phones with a larger diagonal for those who are looking for a larger experience. The problem comes in the practically non-existence of mobiles with less than 6 inches. And this, for lovers of small phones, is an absolute drama.
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Apple as the main exponent of the success and failure of compact mobiles
If there were any person, who in fact will exist, who wanted and needed a smartphone that was as compact as possible and without sacrificing good performance, they would most likely end up buying an iPhone. And not because I prefer iOS as a system over Android, but because Apple is the main reference in high-end mobiles with reduced sizes.
Apart from carrying its flagships with 6.1 and 6.7 inches (iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max), the Cupertino company also offers compact variants without sacrificing power. A good example of these are the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone SE 2022 with 5.4 and 4.7 inches respectively.
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And both they can be the example and the perfect excuse for Android manufacturers to explore a market that, as we will see later, has been largely abandoned. Perhaps the iPhone 13 mini is a worse example in view of its lower than expected sales, but the ‘SE’ aims to shine in the market as was the case with its previous version.
And although this post does not intend to approach what would be an exhaustive study of the market and consumer behavior, we can put some theory on the table. And it is that, that the iPhone 13 mini likes and yet does not sell, it could respond to its price of around 800 euros. The iPhone SE for its part is sold at a price of around 500 euros. A price similar to the mid-high range of Androidimplying that the consumer can even “swallow” with a somewhat old-fashioned design in favor of power and size.
In Android we accept octopus as a pet
If we take a look at the most recent and compact high-end mobiles, we will observe how, with the exception of some such as the aforementioned iPhone, the most compact Android is 5.9 inches. Specifically the ASUS Zenfone 8, which offers very good performance, but we cannot say that it is really a very compact mobile either.
Others like the Samsung Galaxy S22 offer 6.1 inches. As in the case of ASUS, we cannot say too clearly that it can be considered a small mobile. Are they the most compact on Android? Yes, they are and hence the phrase of accepting octopus as a pet, since in the end it is with what we have to settle.
Shell-type folding phones such as the Huawei P50 Pocket or Galaxy Z Flip3 are ideal for this practice of having a compact mobile. After all, https://www.xataka.com/analisis/samsung-galaxy-z-flip3-analisis-characteristics-price-specs and its weight is not usually very high. Although the fact that they reach 6.9 and 6.7 inches unfolded completely detracts from that virtue.
We can also in a way classify as compact those that weigh little. One of the most recent examples is found in the Motorola Edge 30, a device that we precisely highlight its “feather weight” of 155 grams. This is a much lower weight than average and it is very comfortable in hand, although having a 6.5-inch screen is again a problem when it comes to qualifying it as a small mobile.
It is not only a matter of taste, but also of health
Go ahead, in the absence of data and with pure intuition, I personally imagine that most people who prefer a compact smartphone do so as a matter of personal preference. Because they just like it and want to take up little space in their pocket and be able to handle it comfortably in the hand. However, there are somewhat more extreme cases where it’s a health issue.
And I am not going very far to bring an example of it, since my own personal experience serves me for it. Several years ago I was diagnosed with tendonitis, which, fortunately, I was able to heal after a while (although I often suffer some after-effects again). On that occasion I was carrying a fairly robust smartphone and I realized that the use of the mobile was very harmful to me for this injury.
Obviously, the most advisable thing to do in situations like mine is not to use the mobile directly or reduce its use to the essential minimum. But despite this, the few or many times that I had to handle my smartphone they became an ordeal. I took the radical route of selling it and getting a device that met my expectations of something powerful, yet compact. Already from those the small Android mobile market was very fair and, guess? I ended up opting for an iPhone 7 which, by the way, was (and is) identical in size to the current iPhone SE.
There will be many cases like mine and worse and, at least personally, I think it is a blunder on the part of the manufacturers to ignore this niche. I doubt that it is worth it for many brands to launch more and more mobile models with very similar features, that outshine each other in features and with dimensions above 6 inches. Why does no one dare to go all out for a compact mobile, with good features and at a price of around 500 euros like the iPhone SE?
