Ryan Haynes / Android Authority
In case you missed it, Eric Migikowski, the founder of Pebble, wants to return the small Android phone. He went so far as to create a website and began collecting signatures on a petition. This is a great goal – as a younger person I like smaller phones that I can even use with one hand. However, Migikowski’s wish list paints a picture of the small Android phone that never was. It hides some rather big problems that prevent the return of favorite small phones.
I will not sit here now and tear up his wish list. I would like to see the phone come to fruition. However, it is important to sit back and think about why small phones have disappeared in the first place. After all, if the market really insisted on them, don’t you think we will still have a few to choose from?
See also: The best small Android phones to buy
Big goals, small prints
David Mistletoe / Android Authority
Everything has a price – especially when it comes to smartphone design. Every feature you add to one device must come at the expense of another. Samsung decided to get small (at least smaller) with its Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus and the battery got damaged. The 3700 mAh cell of the Galaxy S22 is the smallest of the 3,400 mAh of the Galaxy S10 and Samsung wants much more than its new flagship.
Want a walk on the memory strip? Samsung Galaxy S10 Reduction Review
The base Galaxy S10 is content to sit with 4G LTE and drink energy from its cell, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a different type of beast. We have seen many times what it does with battery life and device temperature in the name of power. Migikowski wants to take the same powerful chipset – or some other equivalent of a flagship – and stuff it into a much smaller case. This means an even smaller battery that struggles to cope with the same requirements.
A small battery with an energy-hungry chipset is the perfect recipe for frustration, fast charging or not.
Yes, we’ve seen Apple take the iPhone’s small batteries a long way, but even the iPhone SE and iPhone 13 Mini don’t do it in the long run. They are optimized to near perfection and push batteries from less than 2,500 mAh to the length of much larger Android cells, but can’t come close to the longevity of a regular iPhone 13 or 13 Pro Max. Combine a small battery with huge energy needs and I don’t know how this dream Android phone can fulfill Migicovsky’s wish list.
I had the pleasure – if you can call it that – to gather our review of the iPhone SE (2022). I drove Apple’s small phone every day, complete with its powerful chipset for a long time. As soon as we clicked “Publish”, my SIM card was aimed at something else, something else, with more content. I liked the Touch ID sensor and the A15 Bionic chipset, but writing on a 4.7-inch display felt like boring work. A streaming video of all kinds made me feel like one of Honey’s parents, I Shrunk the Kids.
All this said, I have no argument against choosing a camera in the wish list. Matching the Pixel 5 with a wide and ultra-wide camera has already proved to be a great approach, and the front camera with a perforated hole feels like an obvious choice. (A rear lens like the iPhone SE just won’t cut it in 2022.) Of course, processing will go a long way in determining how effective the cameras are, but expectations feel reasonable for once.
See also: The best camera phones with Android
What does the market really want?
Robert Trigs / Android Authority
You and I can sit here and ask for an amazing little Android phone, but the market has its say. Most people want bigger phones, and the small phone crowd is just a vocal minority. There are dozens of us. Okay, there are more than a dozen, but it’s hard to argue with cold, hard data. Samsung has published the results of a survey that lists the wide display among the main priorities of customers. Expansive is not exactly a word that gives a lot of hope to fans of small phones.
The data doesn’t just paint small Android phones in a difficult light. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found that sales of Apple’s iPhone 12 Mini and 13 Mini accounted for only 3% of purchases in the second quarter of 2022. iPhone 13 Mini. These grim sales figures were enough for Apple to (probably) drop the small phone from its upcoming iPhone 14 range, so why should an Android maker jump into this segment?
Small sales of Apple phones should be enough to drive any manufacturer away from a small phone project.
It is difficult to say how many represent 3% of iPhone sales, but it will definitely be more than Migikovski’s goal of 50,000 signatures. Apple moved millions of iPhones 13 during the holiday season of 2021, so it’s hard to see part of that number moving the needle into the production phase. Remember – these 50,000 signatures are only for interested people, there is no guarantee that they will buy the phone.
Going beyond the heavy numbers, the content of the phone is no longer optimized for small displays. Netflix’s high-quality content doesn’t have the same impact when streaming to iPhone SE – believe me, I tried it. Mobile games require large displays and large batteries if you really want to stay in action long. A small phone will not check any of these boxes.
Migikowski also called on his dream small phone to launch standard Android from the unlockable bootloader box. There’s nothing wrong with wanting standard Android, but there’s a reason other OEMs don’t use it anymore. Samsung has made many twists on Android in its One UI skin, usually for the better. Google doesn’t even use its standard operating system, instead it adds a light layer of Pixel user interface on top.
The Many Tastes of Android: Our favorite Android skins
Satisfy not so small phones
David Mistletoe / Android Authority
Let’s all assume that we won’t see a really small Android phone again – at least not in the 5.4-inch sense. This is not such a bad thing. Instead, it’s time to accept that small phones aren’t that small anymore. The frames are shrinking, which means we can put a bigger display in a smaller body.
Want to know the difference in height between the 4.7-inch iPhone SE and the 6.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S22? This is about 8 mm. The difference in width? About 3 mm. There is a slightly bigger difference between the Galaxy S22 and Migicovsky’s precious iPhone 13 Mini – about 15 mm high and 6 mm wide – but your pocket will not notice much difference. The results are the same, even if you import a Pixel 4a the size of a pint in the photo. Samsung’s small flagship is 2mm taller, 1mm wider and 0.6mm thinner than Google’s budget offering, but still has a display that is 0.3 inches larger.
Small phones are great, at least as long as we redefine the boundaries of the word small.
As mentioned above, I used the iPhone SE as a daily driver for several weeks. I also spent time with the Galaxy S22 and Pixel 5, both of which I would consider “small” phones. My pocket could not make such a big difference between any of them, but my experience certainly changed. The Pixel 5 was probably the most enjoyable of the group, despite its mid-range processor and two cameras instead of the three on the Galaxy S22. He also checks most of Migikowski’s boxes while drilling holes in some of his other must-haves.
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I will not sit here and tell anyone to give up their dreams. Like I said, I want to see this phone come to fruition. I want to see how a small Android phone behaves and where it is expected to shake. It is not impossible to overcome some of the biggest problems with small phones, but this project has a mountain, like Everest, to climb. If it turns out to be a shocking success, I will shave my head. You first heard it here.
Interested in Eric Migicovsky’s small Android phone?
84 votes
Yes! The smaller the better
56%
No, I will keep the 6-inch phone
44%
If you are interested, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. Go to Eric Migikowski’s small Android phone site to sign his petition.
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