I wonder if this is why BlackBerry phones (best ones ever made) went extinct. Because the media used to grab attention more aggressively, images and short videos essentially, are better experienced on a bigger screen. That's why there are no more iPhone minis. It's either convenient for Big Tech to keep us engaged to that type of media, or just simply user preference. Guess I'll never know, but I do miss smaller phones, and especially a physical keyboard.
I'm convinced BB went extinct because despite having first mover advantage in their game changing blackberry messenger app, RIM refused to make it cross platform. Instead of becoming Whatsapp, they built a moat around themselves thinking it would sell more handsets but instead everyone just walked away from their castle.
A messaging app wouldn't have saved them. Messaging apps didn't make money, enterprise subscriptions to the BES ecosystem did.
The Whatsapp comparison doesn't make sense. Blackberry was a profitable B2B communications company with thousands of employees and deep hardware and networks expertise. Whatsapp was like 10 guys who never had a revenue strategy, who got acquihired by Facebook and were never heard from again.
I think the minis have a 5.4" screen, meanwhile the SE has a 4.7" screen. I own and prefer an SE.
>I do miss smaller phones, and especially a physical keyboard.
There's these "Clicks" but it's a rubber slip case that has an extended keyboard at the bottom. They're pretty hideous.
I also wanted a physical keyboard, so I waited and found on EBay a Moguls Mobile iPhone 6 Keyboard case, which actually fit the SE after I dremeled-out the camera hole a little! My rose tinted glasses were a bit strong though, because swype is faster than thumb physical qwerty.
I fondly miss when HTC was making innovative devices, when everything was up in the air. I had the G1, a mytouch4g slide, A Samsung Galaxy S relay. All QWERTY slider phones and all amazing experiences.
The last SE had a smaller screen but the actual device was larger than the last mini (13 mini). Both are discontinued now, sadly.
The 16e is the smallest phone in the current lineup, which is bigger than both.
I really like the 13 mini, I had been on Android since since maybe iphone 4. Not sure what I'll do when my current phone dies, I don't like having a big phone in my pocket.
> a device that has so many features that it becomes "too useful."
I don't think it is the features, it is that too much information comes into the phone and then distracts us, because the senders of the information really want to you to listen to them.
If a "feature" is useful it is good to have it available when you NEED it.
Consider the feature "flashlight" on my phone. It's great to have it when you need it.
Or Clock. And Alarm. And Timer. I use them all the time.
