After Apple debuted the new iPhone 15 line at Tuesday’s Wonderlust event, the company reconfigured the rest of its smartphone lineup — which led it to sunset the iPhone 13 Mini. The smaller-size phone with a 5.4-inch display has officially been discontinued, and by doing so has effectively ended the Mini phone size that debuted with the iPhone 12 Mini in 2020.
Even though the iPhone 12 Mini and 13 Mini had fans, that love didn’t necessarily translate into big sales numbers. Various reports in 2021 claim that the iPhone 12 Mini had weaker demand in the market, with Counterpoint Research stating that the iPhone 12 Mini amounted to only 5% of iPhone 12 sales in January 2021.
By the end of 2021, neither the iPhone 12 Mini nor the 13 Mini cracked the top 10 list of best-selling smartphones, according to Counterpoint, even though the list included several other iPhone 12 and 13 models. The iPhone 13 Mini didn’t crack the top 10 in 2022 either, but three other iPhone 13 models did.
More from the Apple event
Apple didn’t make a Mini size model of the iPhone 14 nor iPhone 15, instead opting to debut the iPhone 14 Plus last year to provide a larger-screen option that’s less expensive than Apple’s Pro Max models.
With the end of the iPhone 13 Mini, fans of small-screen smartphones have few remaining options. Apple still sells the $429 iPhone SE with a 4.7-inch screen, but it has a dated design that includes a home button with a lot of bezel.
You could also look over to the Android side of the market, with the Asus Zenfone 10 including the fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor on a phone that has a 5.9-inch display. While we found it a good phone, its limited support of two years of Android updates is too short a lifespan to recommend.
And on the higher-end foldable phone side, both the Motorola Razr Plus and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 act like small phones when folded up. But both foldable phones cost $1,000, which is quite a bit higher than the $729 price the iPhone 13 Mini started at in 2021.
Otherwise, when it comes to new iPhone models that include Face ID and multiple rear cameras, the smallest display size they will come in going forward is 6.1 inches.
Watch this: Everything Apple Announced at Its iPhone 15 Event
Source: CNET
