The launch of the iPhone 12 Mini has gotten smartphone fans in a tizzy. It begs the question: why wasn’t there a Galaxy S20e?
Credit: Apple Opinion post by C. Scott Brown Way back in January (which feels like a lifetime ago), I wrote an article titled “Will the Samsung Galaxy S10e go down as just a one-off experiment?” You can give it a read if you missed it, but I’ll give a quick summary for you: We realized that Samsung wasn’t going to launch a Galaxy S20e alongside the rest of the Galaxy S20 series and it made me sad because the Samsung Galaxy S10e was such a terrific phone. Fast forward to this past Tuesday. That was when we saw Apple launch the iPhone 12 series, which included the first-of-its-kind iPhone 12 Mini. During the launch, Apple summed up the phone succinctly: “With its compact size, the iPhone 12 Mini has the exact same features as iPhone 12. You’re just choosing between two great sizes.” I’m sure many people watching that live stream were already taking out their wallets when Kaiann Drance finished that second sentence. However, I’m also sure Samsung executives were hanging their heads. After all, the Galaxy S10e was essentially the Android equivalent of an iPhone 12 Mini — but Samsung abandoned the line before it even had a chance to take hold. It’s too late now, of course, but the Mini is more proof that Samsung made a huge mistake by skipping the Galaxy S20e. Also read: What Android could learn from Apple’s iPhone 12 iPhone 12 Mini vs Galaxy S10e: Similar but distinct If you reread that quote in the previous section from the Apple launch, you’ll probably notice that it doesn’t accurately describe the Galaxy S10e. While the S10e did carry over a lot of the same features as the larger Galaxy S10, it was a weaker device in multiple respects. It had less RAM, no in-display fingerprint sensor, a weaker camera, and a few other downgrades. The iPhone 12 Mini, though, is literally as Apple described it. The only specs that don’t carry over to the smaller phone are battery capacity and display resolution, which makes perfect sense because the phone is physically smaller. Everything else, though, both phones share equally. Related: iPhone 12 series comparison: Which should you buy? This probably was Samsung’s big mistake with the Galaxy S10e. Instead of trying to exclusively appeal to customers who want a smaller phone with no compromises, Samsung tried to hit that potential base while simultaneously going after the budget shopper. That’s clearly not Apple’s ambition with the iPhone 12 Mini. Apple knows that there are a lot of people out there who want smaller phones but don’t want a budget device like an iPhone SE.
