People on a budget deserve having choice too. Currently, you can only get a small mid-range iPhone; a large mid-range Galaxy; and a small mid-range Pixel.
Generally, my job involves complaining about things phone-makers get wrong. However, every now and then I’m pleased enough with certain upgrades/decisions that I sit down and make sure to tell you about it.
One of those recent Martin-pleasing events was the small revival of “small” flagship phones – mainly thanks to the new Pixel 9 Pro, Vivo X200 Pro mini, Xiaomi 15, and of course, the already compact as ever Galaxy S24 and iPhone 16/16Pro.
However, it just so happens that not every person on the planet can afford an expensive compact phone – can you imagine! Or even if they could, it doesn’t mean people feel the need to spend $800-$1,100 on a premium flagship when the only feature they really want/need is the compact size.
This brings us to a (surprisingly) brand new topic I’ve never discussed on PhoneArena – and this doesn’t happen often…
Why don’t budget and/or mid-range phones come in… two sizes?!
To all phone-makres: Why do flagship phones come in multiple sizes but budget/mid-range phones don’t?
OK, to be fair… I sort of touched on this topic in a relatively recent story, where I ranted about the sheer lack of compact but affordable phones on the market. To this day, the most affordable compact phone (if we don’t count the ancient iPhone SE 3) is the Pixel 8a – and this one’s not nearly as affordable as some would like it to be.
However, the broader argument I decided to leave out was phone-makres don’t really need to make affordable compact phones… only. They can make large affordable phones too – at the same time.
To get more specific, here’s the iPhone SE 4 case, which (ironically) is a counterargument in this story, because it’s a small mid-range phone that might be too small for some people.
