Please don’t kill the iPhone Mini

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

According to one of the most trusted sources of Apple rumors, we can expect four new phones later this year, two with 6.1-inch screens and two with 6.7-inch screens. There are four phones in this picture.

I was made to gasp because of what was missing. There is nothing close to the screen size of my beloved iPhone Mini.

I know, many people prefer big screens, and the iPhone Mini wasn't a success according to supply chain reports.

Seven of my colleagues still agree that the rest of the world can shove it, despite the fact that I and 11 other Verge staffers were against it.

We have small hands or a desire to use our phones one-handed while juggling other responsibilities, and there is nothing else like it. In the US, the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Mini are among the only full-fat compact smartphones on the market, and they are arguably in a class of their own: rivals like the Sony Xperia 5 III are much taller. It wouldn't stop all of us if those phones started at $1,000.

My wife and I both own the Apple iPhone 13 Pro, and I can tell you that neither of them is a viable alternative to the Mini: their 5.8- and 6.1-inch screens now feel huge by comparison.

Despite the iffy battery life of the iPhone Mini, a significant number of us here at The Verge believe it's no better. It means Apple is done offering a yearly upgrade path for people like us if analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's prediction is true.

Small phone lovers at The Verge agree that it doesn't need to be yearly. We could wait. That might line up nicely with the other revelation that he made this week.

The new A-series chip is usually given to you when you buy the new iPhone. Not in 2022, says Kuo. The new A16 chips will be exclusive to Apple's new series of phones, and the same chip that came with the 13 will be used in the 14. If true, that means Apple was already planning to change its annual upgrade cycle in 2022.

Only two Pro models would upgrade to the A16 processor, while the 14 & 14 Max will remain the A15. All four new models will likely come with 6GB RAM, with the difference being LPDDR 5 (14 Pro & 14 Pro Max) vs. LPDDR 4X (14 & 14 Max). https://t.co/tHcszIz6gX

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) March 13, 2022

It would be in time for a new, more efficient processor to help with its battery life if Apple offered a Mini in 2023 instead of 2022. The previous solution was to make the iPhone 13 Mini's battery nine percent bigger than the iPhone 12 Mini's pack.

It could be brought back in 2024 as a new iPhone SE, the phone that pioneered the idea of bringing back an ancient Apple form factor every now and then. The first iteration of the iPhone SE was a remake of the 5S with a 4-inch screen. In 2020 Apple brought us a remake of the iPhone 8 with a larger screen, but also added 5G to the phone for people who still want a physical home button.

Allison concluded in our review that the five-year-old design of the iPhone SE is probably its last chance. I'm hoping that the iPhone Mini will come in at 5.4 inches, because it offers far more screen in a smaller form factor that I find more comfortable to hold.

It would be foolish to suggest that Apple should bring back the iPhone Mini this year because the decisions about which shapes to cut out of aluminum and which screens and batteries to procure likely happened long ago. It's probably why we still have an iPhone 13 Mini after reports that the 12 Mini didn't sell.

We're not asking Apple to bring it back in 2022. Our phones will hold out for another year or two or more, as long as their batteries don't dwindle down. We are asking you to give your customers what they want, not to kill it off.