The iPhone mini is no more, and it is not very surprising. As already said, it was still too big, it should have been 59mm by 120mm to be great phone to use one handed. The sad part is that the new camera system and the reduced size of the front cutout would have provided the ingredients that would have made even a photographer switch:
- With the main camera of the 14 Pro, augmented with the flash and Lidar only, we would have a very compact, yet capable camera with 24mm f/6.3 and 48mm f/12.6 options1. If size required, I would even forgo the wide angle macro lens, even though the main camera only offers 1:3 magnification at 48mm.
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We would still have a 5″ screen, enough for information on the go. And with CarPlay a larger size is no longer desired for navigation.
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The improvements in battery life seen in the 14 Pro, including the always on screen, mean that even at the smaller size we can now provide 12 hour active battery life.
I really hope that like with the iPad mini, this phone will be offered on a 3 yearly update schedule. Long enough run to amortize the development costs, and now that annual performance gains are “just” in the 10% to 20% range, it will remain current long enough.
- The Sony RX100 m7 has a lens equivalent to full frame 24mm-200mm f/7.6 – f/12.1. It is f/11 at 48mm, and offers 1:2.1 near macro at 56mm. The m5 had a 24mm-70mm f/4.9 to f/7.6. The other lenses on the 14 Pro are less impressive: f/13.6 for the 14mm, f/24 for the 77mm. ⏎