Weekly poll results: people say they want small phones, but that is not apparent in sales numbers

14 February 2021
Sales data for the iPhone 12 mini, perhaps the only proper mini flagship on the market right now, is not encouraging. 

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I want small phones but I dont have 800 dollars
I want small phones in 200 dollar

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • JTy
    • 14 Feb 2021

    Dometalican, 14 Feb 2021You may be right but even if $150 more, convince anyone to ... moreV60 is already better than iphone 12/12 mini.
    Despite downgrades from V50.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • JTy
      • 14 Feb 2021

      CompactPhones5ever, 14 Feb 2021"Sales are proof small phones are doomed." not ev... moreSE would have sold even more if it was the body of 8+.

      Many Apple users like touch ID.
      Touch ID is reason I would buy old versions of ipad pro over current one.
      I hate gestures.

        CompactPhones5ever, 14 Feb 2021Exactly. I hate how some people look at the sales of a very... moreTrue that. I don't want to spend like $800 on a phone and don't want iOS, so I wouldn't get the 12 Mini but that doesn't mean I don't want such a phone. It's only that there aren't a lot of options to choose from, like there are for regular phones

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • JTy
          • 14 Feb 2021

          CompactPhones5ever, 14 Feb 2021"Sales are proof small phones are doomed." not ev... moreNow imagine iphone 12 mini with 120Hz as ppl here demand.
          Mini has only sub 6, not mmwave.
          Mmwave uses even more power.

            • V
            • Viv
            • YcP
            • 14 Feb 2021

            Just shows that a lot of polls on here are not a true representation of reality. Just look at the comments section...

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • p%B
              • 14 Feb 2021

              Anonymous, 14 Feb 2021The battery life is horrible, the notch was annoying. Peop... moreThe iphone 12 mini didn’t sell so good, because of two reasons: 1. The price was too close to the other iphone 12 models. 2. All the people who wanted a smaller iphone already have bought the iphone SE couple of months earlier.
              But, at least Apple tried something. Samsung quit rapidly after the S10e failed to impress (numbers wise). And the chinese brands are stuck at 6.5”-6.8” displays. I am sure if Xiaomi or Realme will make a good phone at 5.8”, lots of people will be interested in it.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • g3$
                • 14 Feb 2021

                The battery life is horrible, the notch was annoying.
                People want a small size phone but not just shrieked version of bigger phones.
                What apple did was a formality and they could have done better if they intended to.
                Companies go for larger phones because of more profit margin.

                  • S
                  • Shiny Dave
                  • mpm
                  • 14 Feb 2021

                  It's interesting that there's so little demand new for the 12 mini. I can see it becoming a "cult classic" phone that has enormous second-hand value retention (even by Apple standards) as Apple responds with "see, nobody wants small phones anymore" and produces nothing but phablets from now on.

                  A midranger might be the better place for something truly compact. Maybe there could be a Pixel 5a along those lines, seeing as the Pixels are already at a size advantage by not joining the multi-lens camera wars...

                    Exactly. I'm looking for new phone and I definitely won't a "phablet". (Does somebody remember this word? My wife's first tablet had 7 inch screen and today's phones are approaching this size.)

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • 3Z5
                      • 14 Feb 2021

                      This are Apple overpriced show-off phones, you have to be brainwashed to buy any of their phones. If there was an 8 inch they would buy them... show other phone sales, samsung, xiaomi, sony... android phones, not this stupidity

                        • j
                        • jason
                        • Jiy
                        • 14 Feb 2021

                        people do want small phones, the problem is that companies cut to many corners on introducing them, in this way it forces the consumer to buy the more premium product because it has all the bells and whistles that they want/need, then they can say well we made a small phone and nobody wanted it and so small phones get tossed aside, it happened years ago in the android world and everyone just gravitated to larger phonesnow the iphone 12 mini is in the same boat, only this time not only was there too many corner cut, but alos that crazy price of £700 for a 64gb phone in 2020, the SE 2 was released not 6 months prior at a price point of almost HALF of that, and in a year of covid and people watching their spending more then ever, i think unless you can make a mini model with comparable specs to its bigger prother then small phones are doomed to continue to fail, we should scrap this stupid Pro moniker from phones as well, why not just bring out a large phone and a small phone, same specs (Battery aside) and price them accordingly

                          Anonymous, 14 Feb 2021Compacts phones have higher R&D costs. As the other use... more"Sales are proof small phones are doomed." not even close. S10e and iPhone 12 mini sales were (somewhat) poor but iPhone SE sales were absolutely THROUGH THE ROOF.

                          Also, the battery is not as bad as you make it look like. Check the iPhone 12 vs iPhone 12 mini battery tests on youtube, e.g. the PhoneBuff test. iPhone 12 gets 9 hours SOT, iPhone 12 mini 7 hours 40 mins. Not exactly day and night difference is it?

                            Anonymous, 14 Feb 2021Wait. You want LG to make a phone way better than S21 for ... moreYou may be right but even if $150 more, convince anyone to get the S21 over this thing. Lol. This phone would devastate the iPhone 12 mini and S21.

                              Anonymous, 14 Feb 2021Samsung = S3 mini, s4 mini and s5 mini all failed to sell w... moreFirst off, the bezels were much thicker back then which meant the compact phones used to have such a tiny screens it compromised their usability even for regular tasks. We have moved past that. Phones can now have 5.5" screens and with bezel-less design they can still be compact.

                              Also, I'm not saying that if iPhone 12 mini had high refresh screens it would save the sales. There are tons of reasons why people don't want the phone. The issue is that there isn't enough supply of compact phones to people actually pick what they like. If you want large phone you have literally hundreds of options, if you want compact flagship phone you can choose between iPhone 12 mini and iPhone SE.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • JTy
                                • 14 Feb 2021

                                CompactPhones5ever, 14 Feb 2021You are looking at it the wrong way. Only 1 in 10 people bu... moreCompacts phones have higher R&D costs. As the other user mentions, the engineers have to find ways to fit everything inside much smaller body. With all big phones pack today, it is impossible. You can never have S21 Ultra cam system inside phone small as 12 Mini. Not even triple cam is possible.

                                Phones that small cant even fit a 3000mAh battery. With 5G and more than 90Hz, they would not even last until 2p.m ...

                                Companies stopped to make small phones because they know the market. Sales are proof small phones are doomed. Samsung S10e was poor seller compared to even S10 5G, phone for few markets only.

                                Rumors are very strong about the fact there will be no iphone 13 mini.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • JTy
                                  • 14 Feb 2021

                                  Dometalican, 14 Feb 2021Galaxy S10e was the last good compact with zero compromises... morePhone would not have less than 15cm.
                                  Cant be "mini".

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • JTy
                                    • 14 Feb 2021

                                    Dometalican, 14 Feb 2021Galaxy S10e was the last good compact with zero compromises... moreWait. You want LG to make a phone way better than S21 for lower price.
                                    When Samsung has much more in-house components and buy much more volume, which help to lower the costs.

                                    V60 with many cuts was almost $800.
                                    This one of your dreams would never be less than $1000.
                                    It is way out of reach of non-chinese brands to make phone like this for $800.

                                    For example, S20 FE does not have same 1/2.6" UWA as S20. It also lacks ddr5 ram.
                                    Plastic back. No jack. Only small 8MP "telephoto".




                                      Domestoboto, 14 Feb 2021How do you expect other OEMs - especially the benevolent Xi... moreYou are looking at it the wrong way. Only 1 in 10 people buy the mini. Sure. But compare it to how many options are there for compact flagships right now. If you take that 1 in 10 people want a compact phone and realize that only around 1 in 100 phones are compact, the demand numbers are actually enormous.

                                      And don't even get me started on brands like Xiaomi. They are releasing new phone pretty much every week, there is not reason for them to NOT make a compact phone if 1 in 10 people actually want one.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • vG4
                                        • 14 Feb 2021

                                        biggle, 14 Feb 2021Small phones tend to be more expensive. Pricing is a major ... moreWell said.

                                        The more widespread it is the cheaper it is.

                                        Within next 10 years i am hoping for

                                        Cheaper OLED Laptops

                                        Cheaper Foldables.