Because for a lot (most?) people their iPhone is their primary and only personal computer. I also want a smaller phone. I bet Apple designers would love to sell you a smaller phone. They've certainly tried with my beloved and retired iPhone mini and the same size but thinner iPhone air. But the market keeps rejecting it because it's not just a portable companion to some other computer, it is the computer. If you're doing all your work on it then you need more real estate. Aging populations across the globe probably need more screen real estate also for bigger text.

Apple Watch with cellular is effectively iPhone mini. There are 3d printable cases to make it into a bar phone.

https://makerworld.com/en/models/1022751-watch-phone#profile...

It's battery life.

I was an iPhone 13 mini user for the last few years. I would buy a refurbished one off Amazon whenever my current one broke. I really prefer the smaller screen size.

Recently, I broke my phone again and my wife happened to have a larger iPhone laying around unused (through some accident of e-commerce). I felt weird buying a new phone when we had a perfectly good one laying around, so I decided to give it a shot.

I don't watch any video on my phone and most of my screentime is Kindle and Safari. My screentime is only like 2-3hrs per day. And yet, I still found myself chronically running out of batteries on the 13 mini. I actually now would prefer to keep my new annoyingly large 16e just to not have the battery anxiety.

(A hidden assumption in the above is that larger screens make more room for battery.)

One day the stockpiles of iPhone 13 minis will deplete to the point where making new products in that form factor is economically viable.

Until then, off to eBay we go. There are more than enough sitting around completely unused. You aren't missing out on much with 5 iPhone generations these days.

I really deeply wish they had attempted a profile that was 64mm wide folded and double unfolded. Height is less important.

The whole advantage of having any screen at all when folded is something quick to access and *one handable*. Just looking at the Duo, it appears too wide for that by a large amount.

If I’m forced to two hand the thing I’ll just get a phablet: no folding mechanism, no unfolding step before using properly, no gigantic price hike (guessing).

I gather that for many people, their smartphone is their only computing device. Doesn't have much appeal for me, but if that was the case, I could see that nudging people towards bigger devices, even if it makes them less practical as phones you carry around / try to grasp with one hand.

A lot of people who are "mobile-only" prefer larger phones.

> But I have big hands, and I can't use my iphone 17 now without two hands.

I've never been able to use a smart phone with one hand, even an original iphone. So this is probably a really niche complaint that you and Shaq have.

Bigger phone = bigger battery = more time between charges

For the Duo to make sense at all, it basically has to fold out into a screen which is big enough that (quite often, at least) you don't feel obliged to bring along a second, larger device anyway, or to wait until you get home or back to the office to "do real computer". That means that hitting a large-enough unfolded size and a suitable unfolded aspect ratio had to be Priority 1.

> Why do they insist on every new phone being bigger than the phones before them?

Because the common user for some strange reason has come to prefer phablets to mobile phones.

I think the iPhone 3G was peak iPhone design. It felt good to hold and was small. Later small models hand sharper edges and didn’t feel as good in the hand.

The Duo’s folded size has the same screen size as the iPhone mini, so they did go on the smaller size, rather than trying to unfold a Pro Max. It remains to be seen how the aspect ratio impacts one-handed use.

I’d take a small foldable over a large slab.

Nobody bought the hp veer. Small phones stopped being valuable when phones got good enough to be the only screen a layman would see in a single day. It's now a game of 'movie theater in your pocket.' For better or for worse.

Even Samsung offers their 'smaller than a normal phone unfolds to a normal phone' as secondary to the flagship fold. The Flip, to me, is almost marketed as a kid's phone for your teenager.

I specifically have an iPhone SE for this reason. I should be able to reach the upper right corner with one hand.

The data shows that people want to consume video content on their phones So bigger screens are better

That is it. Nothing else.

It’s crazy that the reason we can’t have a comfortable-to-hold one is that a product that only sells 5 or 10 million units a year isn’t worth their time.

> Why do they insist on every new phone being bigger than the phones before them?

Others wrote complicated or bs jokes, here is my SIMPLE tip:

It has to change otherwise people would not buy new. Size can not change randomly so it has 2 ways: decreasing and later it becomes an iwatch, and tablet becomes a phone: this is stupid because harder to increase price.

So increase it is. If you do not like it, use a watch+earpiece as a phone.

I would guess more people care about battery life and the features that more battery capacity afford than ergonomics

I like bigger phones. Being over 50, my eyesight is crap and I need a bigger screen. Yeah, I miss one handed operation, but I already accepted that loss years ago. This will be the year I finally switch to apple though(18 pro max, most likely). Bye bye Pixel.

One of the reasons I plan on purchasing the iPhone Duo is actually because it has a smaller outer screen size than any of the other iPhones. Agreed that it is wider, but I think it can still be used one handed for most people

The phone that grabs most attention always wins. Consumers don't do multi-year procurement processes unlike government agencies selecting a device - they literally gravitate towards bright light and pick up the device on the demo stand. So there's always going to be an arms race of more bigger and ever more glittery phones. That is, until a massive disruption like a flip-phone-to-smartphone transition comes and all those obnoxious peacocks gets instantly wiped out and doves come filling in the void.

Who wants bigger phones: Tens of millions in higher end market.

Who wants smaller phones: Tens of thousands in lower end market.

I also have huge hands, but a few years ago started to develop a persistent thumb sprain due “reaching” with it across my phone. This is problem that would not have happened if my phone was the size they used to be.

Cars also seem to get bigger with each iteration. Then the introduce new smaller models that are the same size as the earlier model..

> Why do they insist on every new phone being bigger than the phones before them?

Because every time, they want it to be the next big thing.

Yeah. A foldable that is the size of the 12 mini so that you can use it with one hand but still fold out to watch something etc.

But instead we got the largest screen before unfolding…

Maybe an increasing share of their market are people like me, that is, old and blind :-D

For a second there from the name I was really hopeful that iPhone Duo _could_ have been the replacement for my iPhone 13 Mini.

The Duo is also pretty heavy at 254 grams (almost 9 ounces). The Fold8 is only 201 grams.

While I agree on screen size, Apple does give a good amount of thought into application side of things - screen-layout fall into either the iPad like layout or single-column one of a regular phone. This is a bit easier for App developers. Also force-upgrade of OS is also better for those targeting iOS compared to the Android world.

For me it's fitting the damn thing in my pocket. And unfortunately, width is the main limiter there, making this far WORSE than any other, despite the smaller screen. I can't imagine what this thing would do to your jeans. Apple needs to sell tiny man satchels with this thing.

Presumably they are a trillion dollar company because they know the precise size of phones that will sell to the most people. Hacker News is full of the 100 people (me included!) that love small phones but the general public LOVES their gigantic horrible loud phones :)

When you're old enough to need reading glasses, larger is better.

I'd love a tiny phone. I just can't see it anymore.

It's smaller though, until you unfold it

I’m still stuck on my iPhone 12 mini because I like the size

The problem is people don't buy small phones. ASUS' Zenfone 9 and 10 were, in my opinion, basically perfect; small, someting I can actually hold in my non-athletic hands, but they didn't sell well at all, and ASUS abandoned the small phone market entirely with the Zenfone 11 Ultra.

Agree. I miss the mini. My girlfriend still has hers and is reluctant to upgrade for the inflation in size that happens every generation. Pretty soon we'll all look stupid with tablet-sized phones hanging from our necks by a lanyard.

I think mini phones will have a resurgence.

i do. i do reading and watching on my ipad mini. i can stop using that if i can get two in one device like this.

The size of the iPhone 16e is quite reasonable.

>Why do they insist on every new phone being bigger than the phones before them?

Wait until you get old enough to have to put readers on to use your devices like most older people do. And while I am yelling at the kids on my lawn, let me add every UI/UX person at apple - the idiotic and unnecessary choices they make for the sake of "cool design" infuriate me on a daily basis.

> But I have big hands, and I can't use my iphone 17 now without two hands.

Are you a woman by any chance? I am currently typing this one handed on an iPhone 17 pro (not the pro max) and don’t consider my hands to be particularly large, for a man, but my wife has to two hand her android which is roughly the same size

The iPhone 18 Pro has the exact same dimensions as the iPhone 17 Pro. It's only the new iPhone Duo that's bigger.

They released a number of small iphones over the years, and those always failed to reach meaningful sales numbers. Stated vs revealed preference I guess? People keep picking the larger model, so the models keep getting larger

>Who wants bigger phones?

If we go by history, consumers. And when Apple last offered a smaller phone, consumers did not go for it.

The reason they keep getting bigger is because Apple is rotting. When a tech company rots, it gets bloated. That bloat seeps into the products.

totally agree with this

[dead]

I don't see it as a bigger phone.

It's a new thing.

Not a phone. Not a laptop. Not an iPad.

It's an agent terminal.