10 ms·
Still holding onto my 13 mini. Dreaming of another small form factor release one of these announcements.. :'}
by thoughtpalette 7mo ago
Still holding onto my 13 mini. Dreaming of another small form factor release one of these announcements.. :'}
- Alifatisk 7mo agoMy next upgrade if my 12 mini gives up will be an 13 mini. And from there I will probably just stick to refurbed 13 minis until a good alternative comes out.
- mikestew 7mo agoWhere are you finding refurb’ed 13 Minis? Apple only goes back to 14s now on store.apple.com in the U. S.
- dmitrygr 7mo agoFB marketplace and/or eBay.
- Alifatisk 7mo agorefurbed.com and swappie.com, I don't know if they do it on all phones but some of them get their battery changed to a fresh one aswell!
- moralestapia 7mo agoHey man, this is great! Thanks. (I'm also looking to "refresh" my iPhone 13 mini)
- mini13mini13 7mo agoI highly recommend hunting down a 13 mini now (with a lot of battery left) so you can switch when you have to. I did last summer and was glad I didn´t have to organize one on short notice. And if you avoid ios26 - make sure the ios18 on the device is updated because now you no longer get updated within ios18
- Kreutzer 7mo agoI’m currently on iOS 16 with iPhone 12 mini. I don’t even see an option to update to anything but iOS26, so I’m staying put. My worst fear is buying a 13mini that is already updated to IOS26, then I think I would be screwed.
- BatteryMountain 7mo agoWorst part about big phones are that fingers cannot reach around the whole screen when using one hand, so you are forced to always use two hands. They also fall out of pant pockets easily and have no holes for lanyards.
- gentleman11 7mo agoI'd still be using my iphone 5 if the battery didn't swell and if apps still worked with it and updates (sabotages) didn't slow it down so much
- OccamsMirror 7mo agoLikewise, am still holding on to my iPhone 13 Pro for the foreseeable future. Even with Liquid Glass destroying my battery life. In fact, if this phone died, thanks to Liquid Glass I would likely go buy an Android phone. Maybe a Graphene OS phone from Motorola.
- gr 7mo agoSame. And so do many people around me. And many still cling to their 12 minis. Maybe that’s why Apple won’t make them anymore, people like us tend to keep them forever.
- fergie 7mo agoUPVOTED IN HOPE
- cztomsik 7mo ago+1 - if there was a new mini, I'd buy instantly
- snickell 7mo agoI would pay extra to get an iPhone mini, they could sell it as a “pro” feature. Still holding on to my mini too.
- lloeki 7mo agoFor a whole minute because of the display notch and since all iPhones moved to the island I got my hopes up that this 17e was 13 mini sized. So much so that I went on to check the specs but no it's 6.1". Damn, so close, what a missed opportunity.
- Angostura 7mo agoI’m in exactly the same situation. My wife just upgraded from a iPhone 11 Pro to a refurbished iPhone 13 Mini. My daughter just bought a refurbished 13 Mini too. The second hand market for these phones seems pretty buoyant
- duxup 7mo agoI abandoned mine for a 16. It’s not so bad but I miss my 13 at times.
- mikestew 7mo agoMaybe the iPhone Fold won’t be two 8” slabs of glass glued together, I think that’s the only hope for those holding out for another Mini.
- alpaca128 7mo agoThat's true, some foldables like that exist. The problem for me is that I don't want to pay for the folding part, not interested in that.
- layer8 7mo agoIt will be even shorter than the mini, but also wider than the Pro Max. The aspect ratio is different from a normal iPhone. The weight should be in the Pro range, and of course it’ll be relatively thick. Not a mini replacement in my book.
- freetonik 7mo agoHave you replaced the battery? My 13 mini shows 90% battery health but I can’t use it for the full day (and I don’t game or anything, just light use). I wonder if the battery is really ok and it’s the software that is to blame.
- abhikul0 7mo agoI got the base 13 at launch day whose battery health now states 86%. While I have noticed degraded battery performance, the stated health has been stuck at 86% for quite a while now. I guess it's bugged out and would opt for a battery change if you're feeling the battery pains, I'm thinking of upgrading to the new base model this year for the usb c and 120hz display.
- embedding-shape 7mo agoI still have my 12 Mini, changed the battery in a Apple store a year ago (and they broke the screen in the process so got a new screen too) for I think 99 EUR, now the battery still last ~2 days, easily worth it. Maximum capacity says "87%" right now although I don't know what exactly that's based on. I'm keeping this phone until either Apple releses a new mini or until Motorola released a GrapheneOS phone, whichever comes first.
- roughly 7mo ago> changed the battery in a Apple store a year ago (and they broke the screen in the process so got a new screen too) Huh, I had a 12 mini and had the same thing happen at an independent repair shop I used to frequent. I've been pretty salty with the shop, but I guess it's an easier fuckup than I've been giving them credit for.
- trenning 7mo agoI’m down to 75% on my 13mini. I recently picked up a magsafe battery pack that gets me through the day when I’m traveling and can’t charge. I was considering swapping out the phone battery but this is a better alternative for now.
- francisofascii 7mo ago
- tambourine_man 7mo agoSE 3rd gen here as my daily driver. Small form factor and Touch ID. The perfect iPhone IMO. Not looking forward to having to settle for those comically large phones with Face ID for my next one.
- ho_schi 7mo agoWhat I don’t like about FaceID is the premature unlocking. If you pass your phone to someone else it can unlock, especially for taking photos. And to allow strangers to make photos is intentional that’s why the camera app doesn’t need an unlock. Aside from that all the gestures, positions and holding points are annoying. The usage of TouchID is simpler. Apple could at least fix the security issue by unlocking only after swiping up. FaceID? Isn’t fast enough? Well. Than TouchID is better.
- loeg 7mo agoI'm also a touchID / iphone 8 size fan, but the nice cameras/zoom in flagship models are hard to give up. At least Face ID has improved significantly from the early days of iphone 10 -- it's faster and more reliable than it was on the older models if you tried it back then.
- rubee64 7mo agoSame. Home button is sooo much better than swiping gestures
- bubblewand 7mo agoThe physical home button is, no bullshit, one of the greatest pieces of UI ever. No, I am not kidding, I really think that. It’s crazy to me that they abandoned it, the gestures that replace its functionality are overall-worse and cluttering the gesture system with even more of them is bad for the overall UX.
- dilyevsky 7mo agoMaybe you know this but it wasn't a physical button since i think iphone 7 - it was a haptic sensor.
- MysticFear 7mo agoWow, I thought I was the only one.. or very few. Bring back small phones please
- llsf 7mo agoSame holding on the 13 mini, love the form factor.
- danielvaughn 7mo agoPeople make fun of me but I'll never skip a chance to complain about how large these phones are. I hate it so much. I have a standard iPhone, not a max, and it causes real pain in my wrist if I use it too much. Was honestly thinking about downgrading to the last SE model even though it's several years out of date.
- Drupon 7mo ago>it causes real pain in my wrist if I use it too much LMAO
- trvz 7mo agoYou should look into grips that attach via Magsafe.
- RileyJames 7mo agoI’m still running an SE2020. I was expecting the latest update (with liquid) to be the death of it. But performance has actually improved significantly! Very unexpected. It’s been a great phone!
- operation_moose 7mo agoSame. I'll probably try to run it out for another year and end up with the 18e. Its been a great phone, but its days have to be numbered.
- carefree-bob 7mo agoI want to +1 every comment in this thread. Phones are too big now. I don't understand Apple's weird obsessions, first trying to make all the phone so thin you cut your hand holding it, and then making it too big to fit comfortably in your pocket unless you are walking around in camo pants. You know what I would like? When I tap on the search and type the first few letters of an app on my phone, and the app appears, and I click on that -- I would like the app to open. Only happens about half the time now. UI is getting worse with every release.
- 7mo ago
- lurking_swe 7mo agomy wife upgraded from a 13 mini to an Air and she loves it. She thought she hated the larger size of new phones, but after holding the Air in her hand she realized the weight and thickness was the issue for her! It’s a tough call though because the Air has a lot of pros and cons! My wife never takes nature photography or macro photography, so she was OK with the 1 camera compromise. If you truly want a shorter phone, my condolences lol. Apple seems to be ignoring this user segment.
- laweijfmvo 7mo agofor me it's the comfort/ability to put the thing in my pocket.
- lurking_swe 7mo agoI can relate. I actually used to be jealous of the ladies because they always have a convenient purse to put things in. These days I wear a light weight cross-body “sling” bag, and i’m happy as a peach. Easy way to bring my phone, sunglasses, wallet, keys, etc with me. Pockets can be pretty annoying. Maybe 2027 will be the year of the mini? :)
- __patchbit__ 7mo agoMarket the thicclight pocketable without foldline "babysize" iPhone at the expense of ridiculing the fingertip unreachable "neanderthalsize" phablet.
- apparent 7mo agoI tried the Air and went back to the mini because of the camera compromises. One big issue for me was losing Cinematic video, which I use all the time.
- frereubu 7mo agoNow imagine an iPhone Mini Air. I'd be all over that, camera compromises or not.
- conk 7mo agoI moved off the mini to get satelite messaging which I use while hiking. But now that T-Mobile/starlink support satelite on the 13 mini, maybe I’ll go back.
- mikepurvis 7mo agoI stuck with my 13 mini for a long time, and had recently put a new iFixit battery in it too. I did finally make the jump to a Pixel 10 but sign me up with everyone else who misses reasonably-sized phones.
- laweijfmvo 7mo agoSame. This would be an obvious upgrade for me, if the overall size was anywhere close to the Mini. Oddly enough, the announcement doesn't even list the screen size, but I'm sure it's 6" +
- Jonovono 7mo agoIf we could get a 13 mini sized phone with some better battery that would be great
- scott01 7mo agoSame here, just replaced the battery.
- wlesieutre 7mo agoFinally moved on from my 12 mini, but I still have it sitting in my office and when I pick it up I think "wow this feels like a phone from the future." Wish they made a new mini instead of the Air. A friend bought one of those, and frankly I just don't get it. The screen is too big to use it one-handed, and thickness is really the only one of the three dimension of the phone that I don't care about how small it is (within reason). They probably spent billions of dollars shaving off half a millimeter and what do we get with that technology? Phone that's too big. If this keeps up in another 5 years I'll be looking at flip phones and a separate camera.
- sbinnee 7mo agoI don't get Air either. My guess is that Air is just a stepping stone for a foldable iphone.
- wlesieutre 7mo agoI think that's it exactly. Hopefully we're not looking forward to "phone that's too big, and unfolds to be even more too big." I can see a large unfolded phone being desirable if it had a stylus and I could use it like a small notebook, but just as a "watch Netflix bigger for $2000" device, no. Especially if it has the worst camera of all of the phone models like the Air does.
- euroderf 7mo agoYou'll want a replacement stylus 10-pak.
- wlesieutre 7mo agoSomehow not a problem I have - still have my original 2018 iPad stylus, and I don't lose regular pens either. Suspect this is a mindset thing if you mostly use 10 cent Bic pens you'll never care to make a habit of keeping them, and then when you're using an expensive gadget pen those habits carry over. Even a pen that costs a few bucks (Signo UM-151 for instance) I know where they're at.
- joaomoreno 7mo agoJust upgraded from a 12 mini to a 13 mini with more storage. I intend for it to last another 5 years.
- mrexroad 7mo agoBeen thinking of doing the same. My 12 is showing its cycles, but it’s either I have a phone that lives in my front pocket, or I can go phone-less. I refuse to have a phone I have to constantly carry, hold, or move from back pocket when I sit. This damn thing is in my hands enough, I don’t need to increase the surface area for potential distractions.
- subculture 7mo agoOne can only hope... My 13 mini's performance, especially for the Camera and Safari seem to have hit new lows with iOS 26. I'm sticking with the mini for its size, but also its weight. So far the Air is the only alternative I think I could switch to, but apparently that's also on Apple's chopping block due to poor sales.
- layer8 7mo agoThe 17e weighs only 4 grams more than the Air, would certainly be worth the smaller size for me.
- CephalopodMD 7mo agoThey'll pry mine from my cold dead hands! (Until they release a new human hand sized phone at least)
- alpaca128 7mo agoI have large hands but the 13 Mini is roughly the maximum I can use one-handed without doing the weird finger balancing act to shift the phone around. I get why most people like large phones - media consumption - but not everyone is into that. I don't even mind large phones if they're done right. My favorite phone of all time is the BB Passport which you have to use two-handed, but it was actually designed around that and amazing to use.
- sentientslug 7mo agoSorry but if that’s the case you definitely don’t have large hands. If you did you’d be able to use the Pro Max one handed and reach everything except the top left corner by swiveling your thumb (Reachability enables you to reach top left corner)
- alpaca128 7mo ago> Reachability enables you to reach top left corner I thought it goes without saying that poorly made accessibility features don't mean the device is very usable. The existence of that feature by itself is already evidence against that.
- pgalvin 7mo agoThis depends entirely on how you hold your phone in your hand. For some positions, someone would need a 5” thumb to reach the corner. You can’t make such sweeping statements for something with such variation.
- r0fl 7mo agoIt always surprises me that the mini was ~1% of sales and yet the pro mini comments get so many upvotes
- izacus 7mo ago"1%" of the massive Apple base is still more phones than sales of iPhone 1, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and many others. You do understand what a "percentage" means? And that there's a lot of people in the world, right? :)
- ho_schi 7mo agoTenth of millions of devices were sold (somewhere between 20 to 35 Million?). You could build multiple plants for it, with government funding in Europe. The MBAs at Apple noticed: * Big size is a status symbol in Asia. And TV replacement. Their a lot of people in Asia. * Due to vendor lock-in people need to purchase anyway. So just sell them the standard phone. They got the sales anyway. We don’t have a “functional market”. But Apples marketing was weird. They named it Mini instead of Compact or Air. And launched it against the SE? A lot people already refused to move from the SE 1st Gen to the Mini, to due the increased size and missing TouchID. So Apple assumed people want even bigger Max or Air. The Air which is actually much thicker most other phones. Both seem to fail.
- lotsofpulp 7mo agoThe release schedule was crap, as well as the 12 mini being an objectively bad phone. Spring 2020, they released the iPhone SE 2020, 4 years after the previous iPhone SE. This satiated a lot of the demand for people holding out for a smaller phone. Then came the surprise with 12 mini in September of 2020, except the battery life and performance sucked, garnering bad reviews. Then, finally in September 2021, they released the 13 mini, an objectively good, smaller phone. But over the previous 18 months, a lot of the buyers for the 13 mini had already bought the 2020 SE or were burned by the 12 mini.
- SLWW 7mo ago> The release schedule was crap, as well as the 12 mini being an objectively bad phone. I still use my 12 mini; it's by far my favorite iphone I've had since my 5s. It might have had sucky battery life but I was just happy to have a phone that could fit in my pocket. I've replaced the screen twice, battery once (by myself) and I have really very little intentions on moving to anything newer than the 13 mini. I'm not sure why Apple doesn't care about the mini apple users. My friends, when they pull out a 17 pro look absolutely ridiculous, constantly having to pull the phone out when doing any real work since the phone just keeps getting in the way.
- philip1209 7mo agoSame. Many developers are "desktop"-native for their work and reading-focused for their media, so they don't value the gauche pocket TV-era of phones.
- mrexroad 7mo agoI showed my Costco membership QR code to the cashier the other day, and they suddenly exclaimed, “oh my! What a cute little phone!!” It took me a second to even process why someone might say such a thing about my case-less generic 12 mini. Most of my close friends have 13 mini’s so I often feel my wife’s “regular” size iPhone is the odd one out.
- javier2 7mo agoBest phone I ever had, the 12 mini
- WD-42 7mo agoStill rocking mine
- dont__panic 7mo agoStill loving mine as well. I held out with the 2016 SE for 8 years. Sadly it's looking like I might have to do that again with the 13 mini! It boggles my mind that Apple thinks it's worthwhile to sell the 16, 17, 17 Pro, and 17e all in basically the exact same form factor. And then the Air and Max in very similar form factors. Vary it up! I don't need a new mini every year, but something in the 5.4" form factor every 3-4 years would obviously have an audience. I don't care if it's a Pro or an SE/e model, I just need something that'll keep me on the latest iOS for security updates. Sigh. Maybe the Clicks Communicator (at 13cm tall) will get my money.
- barbs 7mo agoI'm on my 8th year of using my 2016 SE. Have replaced the battery and screen a few times over the years. A fair few of the apps I used stopped supporting iOS 15 so I've got old versions of those apps installed, but WhatsApp, Signal and my banking app still actively support iOS 15 so it works well enough for me, for now. I have an iPhone 13 mini sitting in a drawer for when I need to switch.
- dgellow 7mo agoGet an SE 3rd gen!
- layer8 7mo agoThe SE3 is only half a year younger than the 13 mini the parent comment mentioned (and it’s larger and heavier than the mini), so I don’t really see the benefit there.
- dgellow 7mo agoRight, I missed that part. Then get the mini if you prefer it. I’m in the camp of people who hate large phones, the day they remove the SE form factor is the day I switch to android. IMHO the 5S form factor was perfected, any change after that is unnecessary. And I also love having a physical button on my SE, I hope that device will survive for a very long time as I’m not optimistic we will have such options in the future :( Small form factor and security updates are literally my only criteria for phones.
- apparent 7mo agoYeah, I wish they would commit to doing a mini every x years. Last year I bought a 16 and this year I bought an Air. I returned both after just a few days. I can't reach across the phone with my thumb, meaning I can't use it one-handed. The new phones have some neat tricks (satellite connectivity comes to mind), but the on-device AI seems pretty mediocre and I value pocketability and one-handed usability more than the new gizmos. When I asked myself if I would rather keep the new Air or go back to my 13 mini with an extra thousand dollars in my pocket, it was no contest.
- dehrmann 7mo ago> I wish they would commit to doing a mini every x years The problem is all the tooling is pipelined for annual releases. You can't just find a team to do the mini; it has to always be there, and parts of it have to always be working on the next one. Your vendors will get grumpy because it doesn't fit their product cycles.
- Eric_WVGG 7mo agoThis is true. But if they can afford it for the iPad Mini (my other favorite Apple product), then they should do it for the iPhone Mini. an every-two-or-three year release cycle would be fine, ideal even
- AndrewKemendo 7mo agoI’m exactly there with you with my 13 mini and I did realize that it’s not gonna last as we really get into the era of local LLMs Running deepseek 6B on the Private LLM app on the iPhone 13 basically set my phone on fire
- woadwarrior01 7mo ago> Running deepseek 6B on the Private LLM app on the iPhone 13 basically set my phone on fire Hey, I’m the author of Private LLM. I hope you’re joking about the phone catching fire. Btw, there’s no DeepSeek 6B model, you’re likely talking about the DeepSeek Distill 7B model.
- AndrewKemendo 7mo agoYes thank you for the correct correction The last model I tried to run was Dolphin 3B but even Zephyr1.6B kills the phone pretty fast even with a full battery Even Dolphin completely killed my phone so yeah I can’t really use the Private LLM app for anything heavier than the default 1.6B
- woadwarrior01 7mo agoYeah, I agree. Really hard to fit anything larger on the 4GB of RAM on the iPhone 13 of which, only about (depending on what iOS version you're on) 2.1-2.5GB is usable by apps.
- anthonyko 7mo agoi send them an iphone mini request every once in a while through the feedback form hoping it will make a little bit of difference: https://www.apple.com/feedback/ https://www.apple.com/feedback/ still holding on to iphone 13 mini hoping they bring back the perfect size. also trying very hard not to accidentally fat finger a ios 26 update.
- MagicMoonlight 7mo agoBeing the crazy person that spams the feedback form isn’t supporting the argument for a new mini. If people wanted it, you wouldn’t be faking the feedback.
- miki123211 7mo agoYou need a passcode to update. There's no way to fat-finger it. Besides, you can always delete the update (if already downloaded) and turn automatic updates off.
- neuroelectron 7mo agoIt's already starting to get slow too
- EGreg 7mo agoLiterally came here to write this There are some models that everyone wants but companies discontinue or never make iPhone 13s was the last one Another example was the Cadiallac Ciel at Pebble Beach. Only ever appeared in Entourage after that.
- calebm 7mo agoI've still got my 12 mini. Just got a new battery replacement too. Back in my day, phones were cooler if they were smaller.
- randusername 7mo agoMy iPhone 12 mini is hobbling along. A few rare apps are not usable because UI is clipped, the battery is throttling and making it sluggish, and it overheats all the time as a GPS. Many mobile websites are unusable. But I love the form factor and I'm going to keep it going as long as it is reasonably secure.
- _-_-__-_-_- 7mo agoI just eBay'd a 12 mini after my camera started getting blurry. There isn't a viable flagship replacement.
- g_delgado14 7mo agocurious, did changing the battery make the phone faster under the latest OS? If find that after the upgrade to the latest iOS my 13 mini has been struggling with framerate and just overall feeling laggy.
- euroderf 7mo agoLiquid Glass has totally screwed up my 13 mini. Needing frequent soft reboots.
- BSTRhino 7mo agoAlso still on my iPhone 12 mini. A new mini would be an instant buy for me :)
- hedora 7mo agoAre there any androids with a similar form factor? Ideally, degoogled android, of course. (Or even not android?) The 13 mini probably still has a few years of security fixes coming, but after that, I’m going to consider jumping ship, and would like something that’s privacy respecting.
- HoldOnAMinute 7mo agoYou're holding it right.
- Fezzik 7mo agoI stupidly downgraded to a 17 from the 13 mini two-weeks ago and I hate it. It’s the first time I have been earnestly tempted to just get a dumb-phone and be done with it. The constant growth of mobile phones is perplexing to me but I don’t doubt Apple knows what sells.
- markstos 7mo agoThat's a great phone for runners who need to carry their phone. Smaller, lighter, pocket friendly.
- FrenchTouch42 7mo agoOne of us!
- bschwindHN 7mo agoI just "upgraded" to a 13 mini last year, after being on the original SE for so long. Wrote a little post about it here: https://blog.bschwind.com/2025/01/11/the-original-iphone-se-is-the-best-iphone-apple-ever-made/ https://blog.bschwind.com/2025/01/11/the-original-iphone-se-...
- deaux 7mo ago> Still holding onto my 13 mini. That's why they stopped making them, because the people who buy minis are willing to stick with them for 5 years, whereas Apple wants you to buy a new phone every year. Every single person I know who uses a phone of more than 4 years old, uses an iPhone 13 mini. Without exception. Now I'm sure there's plenty of HNers who use other 4+ year old phones, but I'm talking about non-tech people.
- sevenseacat 7mo ago*typing this from my iPhone 11 purchased in... early 2021 I think?
- ajdude 7mo ago> Every single person I know who uses a phone of more than 4 years old, uses an iPhone 13 mini That's because they haven't came out with another small iPhone in more than four years. Half the time when I'm home I still use my iPod touch because it's even smaller than the mini.
- hs586 7mo ago> That's because they haven't came out with another small iPhone in more than four years. I kind of agree with the previous comment. I think if you spend a lot of time on the phone, have a lot of apps then it makes sense to upgrade your phone more frequently and also makes sense to have a larger screen and better battery life. So conversely, there is a correlation between people who have smaller phones and upgrade less frequently. I have my iPhone 12mini for 5-6 years now, and I'd upgrade it now if there was a new small iPhone. But I would upgrade it 3 years ago.
- deaux 7mo ago> That's because they haven't came out with another small iPhone in more than four years. They also haven't come out with another iPhone with a headphone jack, yet no one kept using those. I get what you're saying, but what I think is that the average mini buyer is inherently someone (on average!) who changes their phone a lot less often. They're less likely to be glued to their phones. Bigger phones = more infinite scroll addiction, and so on. Apple doesn't want to cater to the mini buyers.
- vishnugupta 7mo agoiPhone 11 here. Chugging along just fine. Though after the latest liquid glass update the responsiveness has noticeably degraded. They've added lot of animations & moving elements which my poor old 11 doesn't seem to handle all that well.
- otikik 7mo agoSame! Phablets are ungainly