You can. Ditch Apple and join us. Plenty of small phone selections here on the other side.

Why is the article using diagonal screen size as their measurement for phone size? In that case you could have a phone the exact same size get “bigger” just because bezel sizes have shrunk over the years.

They specifically call out the iPhone SE as a “small phone” that they seem to want. But the newest iPhone, the iPhone 16 is only 6% bigger in width and height. Fractions of an inch larger. I can totally understand why somebody would want a phone with smaller overall dimensions, but why on earth would your metric for an ideal phone be a smaller screen?

I don’t see why we don’t already have an iPod size device. I just need something for music and if a phone call happens to come in - great! It was so simple then.

I miss the times when I found 5" phones big. Now they just seem small because everything else is pushing 7"

Bigger screens mean bigger and more obtrusive ads.

I’m convinced this is 90% of the reason right here.

I held on to my iPhone 4S as long as I could. Now I have a 12 “mini”. I know I’m in the minority, though, because I don’t spend all day staring at my phone. I do like having all the features, but I use them only occasionally–say, once a week or less. I prefer my internet use on my gaming computer with a big monitor, and a full-size keyboard.

I expect I’ll end up with a huge phone for my next one, that I don’t need, just to keep access to the functionality. Like everything else in life, there’s always compromises to be made.

“Why can’t we go back to small phones”

Company releases small phone

“No one” buys it

Company stops making small phones

People complaining why there are no small phones

I believe I saw where you hear that people want small phones, they make them, and then they sell poorly. So, to the company at least, it doesn’t look like people want the smaller devices.

Now, I saw some comments in here about the smaller devices usually being less robust than their normal/pro counterparts, and that could also be a major reason small phones don’t sell.

I bought a pixel fold because the screen on the front is small and it opens in a wide format when I need to look at tables

There is a feature called single hand mode on most keyboards. Makes it something like this. I do however agree that small phones are nice.

I do, I bought smallest phone available from known company. But most of those companies just decided you need huge phone that can’t fit everywhere, removed sdcard slot, removed headphone jack. Last time I remember nobody asked them to remove those features. I think it is the same enshittification like with everything, they no longer make cheap houses, smaller cheaper cars, actual budget gpus etc, etc. Feels like every company targets top 20% and the rest - gtfo and be damned.

Because most people use their phone as their main, if not only, device, so a bigger screen is more desirable to consume content.

Answering single handed on me iPhone 12 mini on latest iOS 😇

It is a great small phone!

There were benefits to the comically-large form factor, though. Touch keyboards worked significantly better with larger screens,

No, the tiny soft-keyboard on my old Galaxy Xcover is significantly easier to type than any modern phone. Less movement of the finger, easier targeting of the buttons. I’m always surprised anew, each time i dust it off and play with it.

I don’t want a small phone or a slide out keyboards.

I want :
Replaceable battery.
Non glass back.
3.5 jack.