So, an introductory thesis: the founder of Pebble, Eric Migikovsky, wants to return to the production of small Android smartphones – even created a petition collection site. But can we go back to the mini format?
This is a serious, interesting and analytically fascinating question, which we will now analyze on the shelves. So put off your Android giants, sit back and fantasize about Android Lilliputians. Perhaps, at least in this way, we can catch Eric’s desires with the edge of adequate consciousness. He, however, for the desire to return to a small format, is silent about some significant problems in the entire industry of production of Android devices – let’s say.
So, for many, small phones were more convenient, because you can control the sensor with one hand. And the idea of return can be implemented, as apple does (consider that Apple rolled back only in the size of the case, but the characteristics of the mini are not bad).
And why did small phones disappear in the first place? Again, if the market advocated for the return of the “kids”, manufacturers would make concessions – yes, it’s a matter of profit.
Everything has its price, especially when it comes to gadget design. Each new function, which the manufacturer equips the smartphone model with, is necessarily implemented due to another parameter. This is a kind of harmony, an adequate ratio – as you wish! Yes, just for this satan to function!
For example, Samsung has decided to make its Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus more compact. The result? Battery capacity, as well as autonomy, have decreased: only 3700 mAh for an expensive flagship – we will not give comments, think for yourself. Compare with 3400 mAh on the Galaxy S10, only the brand requires much more from a fresh flagship!
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The base Galaxy S10 was content with support for 4G LTE and so on, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a beast of a new type! In the name of power, the battery life and temperature of the device are placed on the sacrificial table. So, this crank wants to take the same powerful chipset (or some other flagship equivalent) and squeeze it into a much smaller case. This means that an even smaller battery will struggle to meet the same requirements.
That’s because a tiny battery with a power-hungry chipset is a combination, to put it mildly, stupid in its failure and unsuccessful in its stupidity.
And we’ve also seen Apple go pretty far along with the tiny batteries of the iPhone, even the iPhone SE and iPhone 13 Mini. It’s not a bad EXPERIMENT or EXPERIMENT, but in the long run, standard device models do better and last longer.
But this is the level of Apple, and Migikowski sees Android in his dreams.
What does the market want?
Whatever a few would like, the market has already said its word: the public needs large-sized devices – it is difficult to argue with statistics and data. Here’s the evidence… Samsung has published the results of a study in which a large display was named one of the main priorities of customers. Little? Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found that sales of the iPhone 12 Mini and 13 Mini (remember the guys from Apple) accounted for only 3% of purchases in the second quarter of 2022. And those sad numbers are enough for Apple to seriously consider eliminating the tiny phone from its upcoming iPhone 14 lineup. Among other things, the contents of the phone are no longer optimized for tiny displays.
That is, the experience of American colleagues will allow other manufacturers to evaluate the results in advance, even without producing such products.
In addition, Eric calls for the creation of a small phone on the purest Android, when all manufacturers are already on the path of distancing themselves from pure Android (they make their own branded chips that distinguish smartphones).
On the other hand, we will not urge this person to abandon this cosmic idea – at least because it would be interesting to test such a gadget!