We can, there’s just less demand for them. Sony was among the last holdouts for small phones with their compact series, but they stopped because they were their worst selling models.

Even Apple stopped selling their small SE model (that was basically iPhone 5 sized) despite it being the cheapest iPhone to get your hands on, because it sold terribly.

Small phones is something the tech community says it cares about, but the market has proven that the average person doesn’t care. Same as the headphone jack and microSD slot.

I don’t like it either, but phone companies aren’t deliberately leaving money on the table. If they thought small phones would sell gangbusters, they’d bring them back.

People don’t buy them for the price they’ll buy bigger phones. That’s it. That’s the whole story.

They have to make the phone cost $300 less to sell in meaningful numbers. Why do that when they could just not make them at all and sell fewer models at higher prices?

Smaller phones do have a place though. I’ve got a 7-year old son with Type 1 diabetes. We wears a Glucose Monitor that requires a Bluetooth connection to get a reading. He needs to carry a mobile phone for this reason, and because of his size, and the fact that he needs to carry it basically all the time, a smaller phone is best. He does not need a camera, or to browse social media.

Too small, can’t phone

I’m just waiting for smart watches to get bigger and bigger and eventually lose the strap.

Well, I can’t speak for everyone else, but I can’t go back because they don’t sell any small phones.

I think it’s a psychological thing.

Like, while thinking about what kind of phone we want - a small phone sounds pretty good. But when it comes time to buy it, we start comparing phones, and we see some small ones, and some slightly bigger ones, and some really big ones. We tend to go bigger than we’d originally intended because of psychological anchoring effects.

The slightly bigger phone is seen as a slightly better phone. “not too big” we think, as we compare it to some monsters; and the key stats such as screen resolution and battery capacity sound slightly better. So we tend to buy that bigger phone even if it isn’t what we actually thought we wanted.

[edit] I should say that I’m saying “we” in a totally generic way. I definitely don’t do this myself. I’ve literally only ever owned smartphone in my life, and it isn’t particularly big or flashy. I have an anti-phone attitude.

because i want to play the entire gamecube library on my phone goddamnit

Because most people want big screens?

I mean, it is simple.

I mean, we are the customers, we choose, personally I went with the iphone 15 pro, because the max is just ridiculous even though I am close to 2 meters tall and have big hands.

If people bought the smaller versions when they are available I am sure phone makers would react

i have a 6a and i think its about the optimal size. not too small, not too big.

by the way, my first post on here… how is this different to reddit?

Phones are already too small. I use a fold because it’s the only way I can get a decent sized phone now!

I’m not gonna lie, as a 6’4" guy, I can’t stand small phones. I understand that I’m an outlier though, and wish there were more options to cater to more people.

people spend more time on their phones than ever before. its substituted sitting in front of a tv, so i guess people want bigger screens the same way they want bigger tvs.

people spend a third of their lives on those things. And while cumbersome, a big screen simply is better for media consumption

only way I see smaller phones make a comeback is if we change our habits or if a new technology comes along