Apple’s new iPhone SE 2 shows that even “small” phones are big now

It’s been a bad year for small phone lovers. It is no secret that the average size of new smartphones has increased dramatically in recent years. But this year it seems like the idea of ​​a small phone that you really want to use as your primary device (read: not whatever that Palm phone was trying to be a couple of years ago) is really dead.

Earlier today, Apple announced the second-generation iPhone SE, which is basically an iPhone 8 with the iPhone 11 processor. It officially replaces the first iPhone SE, which Apple released in 2016 and stopped selling in 2018. The new SE shares the appeal. original price and the fingerprint scan start button, but it is a significantly larger device. It has a 4.7-inch screen compared to the original four-inch screen, and the entire phone is almost 30 percent larger.

Sure, the new SE is smaller than the rest of Apple’s current lineup and is smaller than basically any Android phone you can buy right now. But if you were expecting something really small, like the original, it’s not what you were expecting.

Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge

This trend is also reflected in Samsung’s recent Galaxy S20 line. The smallest model available has a 6.2-inch screen and is undoubtedly a Big Phone. The S20 Plus and S20 Ultra intensive go out of their way to push the limits of how big a phone can be. A year ago, Samsung launched the 5.8-inch S10E alongside its larger phones, but this year there is no such option.

Perhaps the worst offender to call a large phone small is OnePlus. This week, the company had the nerve to present its new OnePlus 8 in a “compact” design, despite the fact that it has a 6.55-inch screen and is larger than most other phones on the market right now. The OnePlus 8 may be slightly smaller than the even larger OnePlus 8 Pro, but it’s ridiculous to think that a phone that is over six inches tall and nearly three inches wide is “compact.”

If you’re a fan of bigger phones and all the benefits they provide, like more immersive displays, bigger batteries, and more wireless radios, you may think the idea of ​​a small phone is quaint in the mid-2020s. After all. , your phone is probably the most used computer and the most important device of your life.

But if you’re someone who has trouble using today’s phones in one hand, or putting them in your favorite jeans pocket, you know the 4.7-inch iPhone SE 2 is still a big phone, regardless of the fact that Apple has recommended as a “small 4.7-inch design” in the advertising video featuring the product. Today’s phone makers basically say, “Hang in there and deal with a big phone that may not meet your needs.”

It’s easy to see why Apple chose the larger design for the new model – the company claims this size is the most popular iPhone ever released, and technically it’s easier to put components in a larger frame than one more. small.

Also, Apple has years of experience with this basic form factor, starting with the iPhone 6. In fact, if you bring your memory back to that era, you may recall that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were worldwide box office hits because Apple was finally satisfying the demand for large phones. What was big in 2014 is now small in 2020.

We can talk about those industry trends for days, but all of that would be a little consolation for those who just want a smaller phone.

Rumors say Apple plans to launch a multitude of new iPhone models later this year, including one with a 5.4-inch edge-to-edge display (read: without the thick bezels found in SE 2) that should be smaller. that the 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro is now. But the new model, if released, is unlikely to reach the compact dimensions of the original SE, and small phone users are likely to be left out in the cold once again.