Ryan Haines / Android Authority
In case you missed it, Eric Migicovsky, the founder of Pebble, wants to return the little Android phone. He even went so far as to create a website and start collecting signatures on a petition. It’s a big goal: as a younger person, I like smaller phones that even I can use with one hand. However, Migicovsky’s wish list paints a picture of the little Android phone that never was. It overlooks some very important issues that prevent you from recovering your beloved little phones.
Now, I will not stay here and tear up your wish list. I would love for the phone to work. That said, it’s important to sit back and think about why small phones disappeared in the first place. After all, if the market was asking for them out loud, don’t you think we would still have a few to choose from?
See also: The best small Android phones to buy
Big goals, small footprints
David Imel / Android Authority
Everything comes at a cost, especially when it comes to smartphone design. Each function you add to one device will be done at the expense of another. Samsung decided to be small (at least smaller) with its Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus, and the battery suffered. The Galaxy S22’s 3,700 mAh cell is the smallest of the Galaxy S10’s 3,400 mAh, and Samsung is asking for much more from its new flagship.
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The Galaxy S10 base was content with 4G LTE and drinking energy from its cell, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a different kind of beast. We’ve repeatedly seen what it does with battery life and device temperature on behalf of power. Migicovsky wants to take the same powerful chipset, or some other badge equivalent, and wrap it in a much smaller body. This means that an even smaller battery struggles to keep up with the same demands.
A small battery with a power-thirsty chipset is the perfect recipe for disappointment, fast charging or not.
Yes, we’ve seen Apple go a long way toward small iPhone batteries, but even the iPhone SE and iPhone 13 Mini are disappointing in the long run. They’re almost perfectly optimized and push batteries of less than 2,500 mAh to the length of much larger Android cells, but they can’t come close to the longevity of the normal iPhone 13 or 13 Pro Max. Combine a small battery with a high power demand and I don’t know how you can offer this dream Android phone to Migicovsky’s wish list.
I had the pleasure, so to speak, of doing our review of the iPhone SE (2022). I drove the little Apple phone every day, with its powerful set of chips for a long time. As soon as we clicked “Publish”, my SIM went to something else, anything else, with more substance. I liked the Touch ID sensor and the A15 Bionic chipset, but typing seemed like a chore on the 4.7-inch screen. Playing videos of any kind made me feel like one of the parents of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
That said, I have no argument against the camera options on the wish list. Combining the Pixel 5 with a wide, ultra-large camera has already proven to be a great focus, and a perforated front-facing camera seems like an obvious choice. (A single rear lens like the one on the iPhone SE won’t cut it in 2022.) Of course, processing will go a long way in determining the effectiveness of the cameras, but expectations are reasonable for once.
See also: The best Android camera phones
What does the market really want?
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
You and I can sit here and order a small, amazing Android phone, but the market has spoken. People overwhelmingly want bigger phones, and the small crowd of phones is just a vocal minority. We are dozens of us. Okay, there are more than a dozen, but it’s hard to argue with cold, hard data. Samsung released the results of a study that listed an expansive screen among the top priorities of customers. Expansive is not exactly a word that gives much hope to little phone lovers.
The data doesn’t just paint small Android phones in a difficult light. The Consumer Intelligence Research Partners group found that sales of Apple’s iPhone 12 Mini and 13 Mini accounted for only 3% of purchases in the second quarter of 2022. That doesn’t exactly fill your hopes when the wish list Migicovsky basically asks for an Android version. the iPhone 13 Mini. Those lousy sales figures were enough for Apple to (probably) withdraw the small phone from its next line of iPhone 14s, so why would an Android maker line up to jump into that segment?
Apple’s small phone sales should be enough to keep any manufacturer away from a small phone project.
It’s hard to know how many units have 3% of iPhone sales, but it’s sure to be more than the target of 50,000 Migicovsky signatures. Apple moved millions of iPhone 13 units during the 2021 holiday season, so it’s hard to see a fraction of that number moving the needle into the production phase. Remember: these 50,000 signatures are for interested people only, there is no guarantee that they will buy the phone.
Beyond the difficult numbers, the contents of your phone are no longer optimized for small screens. High-quality Netflix content doesn’t have the same impact when streamed to an iPhone SE; believe me, I tried it. Mobile games require large screens and large batteries if you really want to stay in action for a long time. A small phone will not tick any of these boxes.
Migicovsky also calls his little dream phone to run Android stock out of the box with an unlockable boot loader. There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting stock of Android, but there’s a reason other OEMs don’t use it anymore. Samsung has given many twists to Android on its One UI skin, usually for the better. Google doesn’t even use its stock operating system, but it does add a light layer of Pixel UI on top.
The many flavors of Android: our favorite Android skins
Satisfying with not so small phones
David Imel / Android Authority
We all agree that we will never see a really small Android phone again, at least not in the 5.4-inch direction. This is not so bad. Instead, it’s time to dump her and move on. Bevels are shrinking, which means we can fit a larger screen into a smaller body.
Want to guess the difference in height between the 4.7-inch iPhone SE and the 6.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S22? It is about 8 mm. The difference in width? About 3 mm. There’s a little more space between the Galaxy S22 and Migicovsky’s beautiful iPhone 13 Mini (about 15mm high and 6mm wide), but your pocket won’t notice much difference. The results are the same even if you add the Pixel 4a to the image size. Samsung’s flagship is 2mm taller, 1mm wider, and 0.6mm thinner than Google’s budget offering, but includes a larger 0.3-inch display.
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 the Pixel 5, both of which I would consider “small” phones. My pocket couldn’t tell so much difference between any of them, but my experience certainly changed. The Pixel 5 was probably the nicest of the group, despite its mid-range processor and two cameras instead of the Galaxy S22’s three. He also marks most of Migicovsky’s boxes while making 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 this phone to come true. I want to see how a small Android phone holds up and where it’s expected to falter. It’s not impossible to overcome some of the biggest issues with small phones, but this project has an Everest-like mountain to climb. If it turns out to be a resounding success, I’ll shave my head. You heard it here first.
Interested in Eric Migicovsky’s little Android phone?
110 votes
Yes! The smaller, the better
55%
No, I’ll stick with my 6-inch phone
45%
If you’re interested, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. Head to Eric Migicovsky’s small Android phone site to sign your petition.
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