Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Are small phones REALLY dead?”.
I love small phones, but there was a time in the past where the bigger a phone was the better it was for me like. I wanted my devices to be just a jack of all trades. I I wanted them to be able to replace my laptop if I’m out and about, and I Need Just A Computing device to do something simple and I’m not here on my desktop PC to actually do the real work. I wanted my phone to be able to be a tablet if I’m on a flight – and I just want to play some games or I just want to watch some media. So a bigger screen is better if I’m doing remote gaming, if I’m just playing a game from my PC over the cloud or from my PS5, a bigger screen would be a better experience and to an extent you know I just felt like I wasn’t compromising by Picking the bigger display every time I was giving the option, but you know I feel, like I’ve changed and in a lot of ways the industry itself has changed like I still remember when the iPhone 12 mini came out and it was kind of around that period Where it felt like a revelation for me, it felt, like you know, look at this. It’S a flagship device that doesn’t compromise in its internal specs and pretty much compromises where it needs to a smaller screen with, unfortunately mediocre battery life. But you know that kind of comes with the territory, but at the end of the day you get an experience, that’s so different and so pocketable and so one-h handable that you kind of have to live with a device like that for a period of time.
To actually see how accustomed we have gotten to carrying around these huge screens in our pockets, and maybe some of you can relate to this shift like in the past. I I wouldn’t identify with what I’m about to tell you, but if these days I’m given the choice between a pixel, 8 or pixel 8 Pro just talking size, I’m going to go pixel 8. If I want an s24 I’m going to go regular instead of s24 ultra and if for iPhones, it’s probably going to be just the pro and not the pro Max and the problem, is you kind of have to compromise to make this choice in a way that You probably shouldn’t, but it’s kind of convenient for Brands, the way that they step up the price going up the ladder that you have to actually make some choices that go beyond just the device’s size and at this point we’ve been accustomed to the compromises like the Big device – oh only this one – can have the big 200 megapixel sensor. Looking at you Samsung or oh no, we can’t have the Periscope lens on the smaller device. Even though kind of the entire mechanism is mostly predicated on having a thicker device which most of the times, the ultra devices aren’t really thicker, but you can’t, if you want the Periscope Zoom, you got to go for the bigger model, and this year we’ve even seen. Uh things get weirder like Google kind of nerfing 4 gigs of RAM for the regular pixel 8 and just giving it 8 gigs compared to 12, and then just keeping software features for the 8 Pro and then maybe later for the 8.
If people complain enough and we’ve been accustomed to these compromises and the fact that they’re so linked to the device size, I feel like that’s where us, as consumers, have kind of been sort of robbed. The choice for device, sizes and and certain segments of the market are particularly bad when it comes to this like try to find a device these days in the budget, territory that isn’t 6 in 6 and 1/2 in and and and it kind of becomes a problem. That’S sort of self-propel itself, like most people, don’t care too much about their devices size. Sure some of them prefer bigger or smaller, but if the industry as a whole only gives them uh sort of bigger device options, then they’re kind of just going to pick the bigger device and then economies of scale sort of take over the rest and um big Phones are apparently what everyone wants and then now you don’t have a choice that much – and this is I’ll stop with my Doom and Gloom. Small phones are dead kind of narrative because I don’t believe it like I’ve seen this year, where, for example, Asus um in the past, their their Bastion of small phones. The last stop.
If you want a tiny device, the Asus Zen phone 10. I mean this phone. Is not going to get an upgrade as far as we can tell the replacement, for it is a ginormous device, that’s about the size of the Rog Phone 8 Pro, and you know, if you see these two things side by side. You kind of just forget how you know tiny. It is, but it’s all about the comparison like if I do this magic trick, where this tiny device in the eyes of a lot of people and this you know normal device, the iPhone 15 Pro. If I get this thing in front – and I put this behind and we line it up as best as possible, where did the iPhone go and it kind of is the truth in a lot of ways like don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a mini iPhone.
This isn’t an HTC 1 M7. Those devices were much tinier, much more compact than even this tiny guy, but the thing that makes the biggest difference when it comes to day-to-day usage is the width of a device. That’S why bigger devices are so much harder to handle.
It’S just because they’re wider and your hand is much more stretched, and then you can’t reach as far with your thumb, but devices like this are not dead. The regular 24 is not much bigger than this, and it kind of feels about the same when it comes to oneand usability and the regular iPhones are another example, and this year we’re probably going to get a smaller pixel 9 Pro, which is probably going to be About the same size as all these devices, so in a lot of ways, small phones aren’t dead. Tiny phones are definitely in a little bit of a hibernation period, since Apple decided to stop with the minis and when it comes to other device sizes and for other ranges in the market, especially for the budget.
Then, yes, small phones are dead and uh. It’S only big phones in that particular area, but you know here’s my pitch. Here’S my pitch for Brands. If you want to keep you know, keep this going when it comes to Big devices. Part of the reason why I saw myself going back to small devices over the past couple of years is because I’ve pretty much just embraced some of the limitations that come when you try to push all the tasks into a singular device like sometimes you want to Watch a movie in your TV or even on a tablet just because the screen is nicer and bigger and you have better sound or if you want to do some gaming, I mean you can just get the Rog Phone 8 Pro and you know 24 gigs of Ram a terabyte of storage, Great display all the best of the best that you can get for gaming and triggers and adapters and coolers and two USBC ports. But at the end of the day, you’re still just going to be playing mobile games on a phone.
And it’s not going to live up to how good a gaming experience you can get on A PS5 or a gaming PC or if you want the best of the best camera and you go for the Ultra Samsung phone uh and you just spend uh. Whatever the difference is these days between the regular s24 and the s24 ultra, maybe you can just buy a better camera with that budget and just keep the smaller device and all of its physical advantages and just embrace the limitations just embrace them because it gets to A point where, yes, a smartphone, can replace a lot of devices in in your life, but your question really should be uh. Should it should it replace other devices, or should it just be an option? If you want that option – and just you know, options are good. People should embrace options and the fact that you can’t get Sometimes the best of the best Flagship experience on a smaller device kind of sucks kind of sucks that you have to increase the display size.
If you want the better camera kind of sucks, you have to increase the display size for more RAM for AI features, Google kind of sucks and uh, and it’s done in a very convenient way. The way the price letter goes up, which kind of sucks. I just really feel that an ultra device or a pro Max device or even a pro device, should really be just that a larger display with a bigger battery, and that’s it everything else. The ltpo displays the extra Ram, the extra camera, the bigger sensor, all that should come to a model with the same name except removing the Ultra part and just have it that way. Don’T just put these features on the biggest model because chances are you’re, just removing choice for people and choice is good, but you know just let me know in the comments below, if you think uh like me, if this makes any sense to you or if you’re, Just firmly a big phone kind of guy and you think I’m insane for even suggesting it and if that’s the case, you know how dented how dented is that pinky finger? Just let me know in the comments below okay. Thank you very much for watching and um I’ll see you very soon. Bye, .