Other Would you buy an iPhone 17 Mini Pro Edition?

[ToddH]

There is nothing negative in my answers… I know how capable iPhone cameras are, and I love using them for what they are. In the end it all depends on the person using them... that's why even the 'old' 13 Mini is still capable device for daily usage.

Like you said, for real work (when you get paid) or for specific tasks you’ll use your professional equipment, but for casual usage, like taking family photos or shooting on the go, iPhone will be your chosen tool because it's more convenient carrying around and still can get good results. And in a certain situations im sure you can reproduce photos taken with DSLR with iPhone, but lets see what will be the result when you need to capture moving animal 100m away from you, or MotoGP bike that flying at 300km/h…

As for Apple event, it didn’t blow me away to change my mind… and I still prefer having small and light iPhone then carrying over sized 15 Pro Max.

I totally understand your reply. Thanks for giving your feedback. Whenever I use my DSLR I usually have to plan for it. I also do not own any long lenses greater than 105mm. I generally just shoot portraits and do some landscape work and occasional astronomy whenever I can get to a dark location. The longest lens that I ever had for my Nikon was a 300 mm F/2.8. It was nice, but at times it wasn’t long enough but good enough for the bird blind that I was shooting from. I don’t have the Nikon system anymore or that lens, I now have the one Sony A7RV, 50mm f/1.2 GM, Sigma 85mm DG DN, & Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Art. That’s really all I use nowadays. I don’t really care for using wide angle lenses much, and I am a normal two medium Telephoto shooter and that’s my comfort zone. I lost interest in wildlife photography, I don’t really care for motorsports or football, mostly portrait work and taking photos of people via street photography…. when I can. Otherwise, like I mentioned, I stick to using my iPhones. I have two 15 pro max phones that I carry with me on a daily basis.

 

[ToddH]

What kind of photographer can hit the advance lever and not realize there is no film?

A very young one just starting out. That was back in the 1980s. The Nikon FM2 had a very strong yet smooth film advance lever and it counted frames with and without film when advanced. It felt the same with and without film when advanced.

 

[scrane]

It felt the same with and without film when advanced.

Hardly.

 

[ToddH]

Hardly.

Whatever… know it all!

 

[cmcbhi]

I totally understand your reply. Thanks for giving your feedback. Whenever I use my DSLR I usually have to plan for it. I also do not own any long lenses greater than 105mm. I generally just shoot portraits and do some landscape work and occasional astronomy whenever I can get to a dark location. The longest lens that I ever had for my Nikon was a 300 mm F/2.8. It was nice, but at times it wasn’t long enough but good enough for the bird blind that I was shooting from. I don’t have the Nikon system anymore or that lens, I now have the one Sony A7RV, 50mm f/1.2 GM, Sigma 85mm DG DN, & Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Art. That’s really all I use nowadays. I don’t really care for using wide angle lenses much, and I am a normal two medium Telephoto shooter and that’s my comfort zone. I lost interest in wildlife photography, I don’t really care for motorsports or football, mostly portrait work and taking photos of people via street photography…. when I can. Otherwise, like I mentioned, I stick to using my iPhones. I have two 15 pro max phones that I carry with me on a daily basis.

And, I see your point.
In my case, I don't do portraits but I do sport photography a good bit. When I do take photos of people, but I don't want to be up close, so I use my Nikon 70-200 f2.8 a great deal. Same lens for outdoor landscapes, add a 2x converter for sports. I have a fisheye to play with and my "walking around" lens is often my 24-120 f4.
I use zoom to compose a LOT so the iPhone would be awkward for me.
Also, I can see that a big camera w/ more than one lens could call attention to a street photographer, so an iPhone might work better.
Since I post process a lot and I'm a "pixel peeper", shooting RAW and using Photoshop works best for me.
Different strokes.

 

[verity]

Interesting question. I've been thinking about this, being generally horrified by the ever bloating phones and cameras. Just look at the historical perfectly acceptable sizes. I would of course sacrifice a couple hours of battery for a normal sized phone.

Most people I meet that notice I am using a Mini compliment it in some way. I guess Apple will figure out some way to cash in on that market opportunity in the future again, but I wonder if they will learn from their previous missteps.

And the mini iphones have higher pixel density than all the others. To me that's a better screen.

 

[theorist9]

No! I would not. Mini iPhones are useless to most people. Why use a phone with a screen just slightly larger than a business card? Battery life will be lousy, etc. I know it’s larger than a card, but really. What’s the fascination with a tiny iPhone? One handed use? It’s easier to loose, the camera is not pro and basic at best. An iPhone 5s still may be located…

"with a screen just slightly larger than a business card"

Sorry, but that's a complete mischaracterization of the Mini.

The iPhone 13 Mini has 1.65 x the screen area of a standard 3.5" x 2" business card.

That's more than the differential between the Mini and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which has 1.52 x the screen area of the iPhone 13 Mini. So saying "the Mini has a screen just slightly larger than a business card" is even more off-the-mark than saying "the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a screen just slightly larger than the Mini." And I suspect you wouldn't let the latter statement go unchallenged.

As to why people like the Mini, it's simple:
(1) It's about the largest phone you can comfortably put in a front pocket.
(2) Some find it easier to hold.

If you always carry a handbag or pocketbook, #1 wouldn't apply. But many, especially men, do not.

 

[schnitzel-pretzel]

Depth (actually thickness is the word you’re looking for) was the same on 12 and 13 Mini as on the 6.1” equivalents. Therefore, if this imaginary phone did not have a camera bump it wouldn’t have the same thickness.

This leaves either using camera sensors/lenses which are generations behind (thus, it wouldn’t be a Pro), or making it very thick.

Even if a phone that thick is a marketable option (it isn’t), adding all the features to make it a Pro would lead to a severely compromised battery life.

As much as I loved my 12 Mini, I wouldn’t buy another, not because of the cost but because of painfully inadequate battery life.

Pretty sure you misread what they're saying. They're saying the phone would be THICKER. Hence why they also said it would have a larger battery.

They're asking for a phone with a small screen, more thickness, and a ProMotion display with Pro Cameras

 

[theorist9]

Pretty sure you misread what they're saying. They're saying the phone would be THICKER. Hence why they also said it would have a larger battery.

They're asking for a phone with a small screen, more thickness, and a ProMotion display with Pro Cameras

Plus the main reason phones larger than the Mini aren't comfortably front-pocketable is their length and, secondarily, width. Some additional thickness wouldn't be an issue.

That's a big appeal of the Z-Flip5--even though its folded thickness is 15.1 mm (nearly double the 7.65 mm of the iPhone 13 Mini), it easily fits into a front pocket because of its short length.

There's essentially two things you can do with foldability--offer a super-large screen in a near-normal sized phone, and offer a normal-sized screen in a super-compact phone. Samsung does both, and I hope Apple does as well.

 

[scorpio vega]

Honestly I would definitely buy a mini with pro features. The 12/13 mini really just felt like a Gimped version. There was really no differentiating factor outside of it being smaller and because it was smaller it was actually weaker in battery life than every other model in the family.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

I bought a 13 mini when the 14’s were announced. My favourite form factor was my old 5 and wanted something like it. I thought I would keep it until it fell apart. I still think the screen size and handiness are ideal, but the battery life was just ok. I also would have wanted a zoom lens

When the 15’s were announced, I bit the biscuit and got a 15 pro. I have adjusted to the screen size and the size of the phone. I love the pictures these things take, especially macro photos, and the battery is good.

I don’t know how a 17 pro mini could have a usable battery life

 

[theorist9]

I don’t know how a 17 pro mini could have a usable battery life

You'd do this by making it thicker than the 13 Mini.

If you increased its thickenss from the current 7.65 mm to, say, 10 mm, you wouldn't compromise its handiness or pocketability.

Yet that would be a 31% increase in volume. From eyeballing a Mini teardown, the battery takes up about 25% of the Mini's voume. Thus if you increase the total volume by 31%, and don't change anything else, you'd be able to increase the battery volume by more than 2-fold.

In practice, other components might change as well, and you might not be able to fill up every bit of extra space with more battery (and my 25% estimate might be off). But those are just details—this back-of-the-envelope calculation at least illustrates that an acceptable increase in thickness could give you a lot of extra battery capacity.

Note also that battery performance (energy/volume) will also see an increase between the 13 Mini and the 17th-gen iPhones.

 

[theriddler]

You'd do this by making it thicker than the 13 Mini.

If you increased its thickenss from the current 7.65 mm to, say, 10 mm, you wouldn't compromise its handiness or pocketability.

Yet that would be a 31% increase in volume. From eyeballing a Mini teardown, the battery takes up about 25% of the Mini's voume. Thus if you increase the total volume by 31%, and don't change anything else, you'd be able to increase the battery volume by more than 2-fold.

In practice, other components might change as well, and you might not be able to fill up every bit of extra space with more battery (and my 25% estimate might be off). But those are just details—this back-of-the-envelope calculation at least illustrates that an acceptable increase in thickness could give you a lot of extra battery capacity.

Note also that battery performance (energy/volume) will also see an increase between the 13 Mini and the 17th-gen iPhones.

Yes, thickness doesn't matter but width does. Candy bar phones are comfortable to hold because they fit in the contours of the palm. Big phones are slippery slates.

 

[RoadWarrior56]

I love the iPhone Mini, and I will keep using my 13 Mini for the foreseeable future. However, I don't see the feasibility of building a Mini Pro, notwithstanding the fact that it didn't apparently sell very well and a Mini pro would probably sell even worse. I don't think a 5.4" phone is physically large enough to house the latest cameras, along with 3 lenses, plus leave enough room for a usable battery. I was content with the Mini as a regular iPhone, I never wanted the "features" of a pro. For my uses, the standard iPhone cameras have been good enough going back several years.

 

[Porco]

Yes, but I’d still wish it was smaller, like the millions of iPhones Apple used to make.

 

[RoadWarrior56]

Yes, but I’d still wish it was smaller, like the millions of iPhones Apple used to make.

But those earlier phones didn't have 3 cameras included and they didn't have so-called "pro" features. I miss smaller phones too, which is why I am using a 13 Mini. I think part of the current phone trends are symptomatic of a mature market. They keep having to add new features to get people to upgrade their existing phones. My iPhone upgrade cycle has been 3 years since 2013, but I think I will be going to 4 or 5 years, going forward.

 

[LSUstang05]

Original mini didn't sell well at its original price. Doubt paying just shy of $1000 would help that figure in any way.. 6.1' iPhone will be the smallest configuration available from Apple from now on.. If you look at the competition, none of them offer a device as small as the mini so it's not like they have any interest in that market either

It was also hamstrung and wasn't the best phone in a small form factor.

The only reason I did not purchase the iPhone Mini was it did not have the camera's the Pro line had. Make an iPhone Mini Pro and I'm all in. I have short stubby fingers and I can't hit the opposite corners even in the regular phone size.

 

[theorist9]

It was also hamstrung and wasn't the best phone in a small form factor.

The only reason I did not purchase the iPhone Mini was it did not have the camera's the Pro line had. Make an iPhone Mini Pro and I'm all in. I have short stubby fingers and I can't hit the opposite corners even in the regular phone size.

That was my suspicion as well. People weren't buying the Mini to save money, they were buying it for the size. I thus suspect a Mini Pro would have been more appealing and thus garnered more sales. Though that's just my guess. The only entity that likely has the data on this is Apple.

BTW, in case anyone's interested, the Mini 13 represented 3% of US iPhone 13 sales and 5% of iPhone 13 sales in China.

iPhone 13 Mini sales continue to disappoint as rumors claim the iPhone 14 Mini may be axed

A report by Counterpoint Research has now provided a look at sales of Apple's iPhone 13 range in China. The iPhone 13 dominates as expected but the iPhone 13 Mini comes in last by quite the distance, further buttressing rumors of Apple axing the iPhone 14 Mini.

www.notebookcheck.net

 

[scorpio vega]

The mini failed not because of it was too small and nobody wanted small phones. it's because nobody wanted a small phone with severe compromises that made it worse than the other phones in the line-up.

The 12 and 13 mini are only appealing because they are smaller than the others yet when you get significantly less use out of it, it becomes a Con.

It would need to have Pro features with a stronger battery. I dont expect a HUGE battery like the actual Pro sized models would get but something more than what the old minis got. There has to be a thin enough and efficient enough battery to do so.

I'd definitely rock a Mini PRO proudly.

 

[theorist9]

It would need to have Pro features with a stronger battery. I dont expect a HUGE battery like the actual Pro sized models would get but something more than what the old minis got. There has to be a thin enough and efficient enough battery to do so.

Agreed, and the nice thing is that you wouldn't need new battery tech. You could do this with existing tech just by making the phone a bit thicker.

 

[krspkbl]

no. i can't use tiny phones and if i'm buying a toy sized phone i expect the price to be as cheap as possible so it makes no sense to want pro features. apple experimented with the Mini and decided it wasn't worth it. i'd rather they focus on making phones people wanted to buy.

 

[Apple_Robert]

It won't happen.

 

[DoctorKrabs]

Personally I won't be satisfied until they sell a 7.2 inch iPhone 17 Pro Double-Max alongside the smaller 7.15 inch iPhone 17 Pro. And also the base model iPhone 17 Amateur.

 

[kevink2]

I didn't buy the 12 Mini because I wanted the Pro camera. So I would be tempted for a 17 Pro Mini.
I'm about to replace the battery on my 12 Pro, so should be ready to replace phone in 2 years.

 

[okkibs]

I think the current iPhone size provides a good balance between display size and device dimensions. 5.4" are too small for me to type on reliably. 5.9"-6" are optimal and the 6.1" of the iPhone are just about the maximum I find acceptable. I would like the device to be as small as possible but trying a 13 Mini I quickly realized that tiny screen was not usable for me. A reliable folding phone (without the noticeable display crease) in the size of the iPhone Mini would be perfect.

I hope Apple releases a folding phone that does away with all of the issues Android foldables have. I don't care to see a regular iPhone Mini again.