Because every time a manufacturer releases a small phone, nobody buys them.

Because small phones have a small viewing area, which is a pain in the ass to see, especially as you get older. Which is why I prefer foldables. The more screen real-estate I can fit in my pocket, the better.

“Why can’t we go back to small phones”

Company releases small phone

“No one” buys it

Company stops making small phones

People complaining why there are no small phones

Because apparently people want big phones.

For the last 10-15 years it’s been a boiling frog situation really - .1 or .2" increase every generation until 7" somehow becomes the norm (for a phone, not a tablet, mind you).

I wish there were more small hi-end phones too.

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.

You can. Ditch Apple and join us. Plenty of small phone selections here on the other side. Edit: you know what. Android doesn’t have that many either.

If they’re going to make only bog phones they could at least bring back all the hardware features they’ve removed over the years.

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.

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

Bigger screens mean bigger and more obtrusive ads.

I’m convinced this is 90% of the reason right here.

I don’t know how you youngsters do it.
One hand eternally glued to this big phone and now they need the other for a soup thermos they suddenly feel the need to drag with them everywhere.

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?

Seriously.

I don’t want a tablet in my pocket all day.

I bought my current phone because it was small and the options I had when looking for small phones were extremely limited.

I’m not trying to seriously game on a smartphone. I’m not trying to watch full length movies. It’s in my pocket 90% of the time. I want it to be small.

Too small, can’t phone

Why is the article using diagonal screen size as their measurement for phone size? In that case you could have a phone the exact same size get “bigger” just because bezel sizes have shrunk over the years.

They specifically call out the iPhone SE as a “small phone” that they seem to want. But the newest iPhone, the iPhone 16 is only 6% bigger in width and height. Fractions of an inch larger. I can totally understand why somebody would want a phone with smaller overall dimensions, but why on earth would your metric for an ideal phone be a smaller screen?