iPhone 12 Mini explains why there are no small Android flagships, and more

Your Tech News Digest via the DGiT Daily Tech Newsletter for Tuesday, November 10th, 2020. Don’t forget about Apple’s big event todayhow it digs Intel x86 CPUs.

1. Oh yes, that’s why there are no really small flagships

Reviews are off the iPhone 12 Mini and while it beats the smol phone (wired), the reduced battery life is a compromise. And it’s bad enough that it clearly shows us why Android smartphones are now so monstrous.

Not all reviews have been worried about this, and not all reviews see it as more than a mediocre problem. It’s worth knowing, but to some extent it’s part of the laws of physics: smaller area, smaller battery, less battery life:

• Joanna Stern: “I haven’t loved the size of an iPhone since the iPhone 5. It’s just a shame about the battery life.” (WSJ).
• Engadget says the same thing, “I love this phone, but I can’t trust its battery.”
• The Verge describes the battery life of the iPhone 12 Mini as below average: “I don’t want to gloss over it or treat it excessively badly, but the battery life of the iPhone 12 mini is noticeably worse than the iPhone 12, which itself was a step down from the battery champion iPhone 11. It’s good enough, but it means I’m already using it differently from bigger phones.”
• And the attempt to offer a view is Daring Fireball: “Yes, I found that the Mini’s battery life wasn’t quite as good as the 12 and 12 Pro (and the 11 Pro that I used for a year and the XS that I used the year before). But for that reason I wouldn’t hesitate for a second buying a 12 Mini. The battery life of the Mini is good enough in the worst case. ”
• In my opinion, it’s probably fine for people who want a small phone, but it will be a nightly charge.

But the point I want to make here is that I may be wrong. I said this in DGiT Monthly and looked at how the iPhone SE made Android respond and that the iPhone 12 Mini will too:

“… It is possible that the iPhone 12 Mini will have a bigger impact on Android in the coming months. People want flagships, but not always that the max specs are the max size phone. Why not great specifications in the compact version too?”

• The reason is the battery life. It’s always been battery life.
• I now firmly believe that a lot of Android manufacturers have opted for larger smartphones, not because they believe consumers love the creeping magnification and the 7-inch size for phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the S20 Ultra with 6 touch. -9 inches.
• The OnePlus 8 Pro is 6.78 inches, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 6.67 inches.
• I bet these smartphone makers would love to offer a slightly smaller phone, but the engineers can’t. That leaves the problem to marketers in driving the big-display-is-best-and-beautiful arguments.
• I mean, you just can’t buy a full-fat spec Android flagship anywhere near the 5.4-inch model of the iPhone 12 Mini, which undoubtedly feels nice to hold. The Samsung Galaxy S10e has been hailed for the 5.8-inch size, while the Pixel 4a is that 5.8-inch size too.
• But none of these (nor the Pixel 5) offer the latest specs and 5G. Apple does.
• It is possible that only Apple, with extremely tight control over its hardware and software, even offers all-day battery life that overwhelms the reviewers but doesn’t strike at all.
• Perhaps by 2021, when the new flagship chipsets like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 will be able to reduce compromises by integrating the modem, offer more performance with higher energy efficiency and give phone manufacturers more internal space to increase the battery size. without doing it by simply increasing the size of the phone.
• The heat is on.

2. Break: Amazon faces antitrust fees in Europe – this is currently being published and includes fees against Amazon services in Germany and France, the largest markets, as well as big data to take advantage of its position. One statistic: Amazon sells its private Amazon Basics label goods in 10% of its total products, but generates 50% of the profits from these categories. Note that these are fees, not fines / worse yet. (Politico)

3. These were the top 10 smartphones worldwide for Q3 2020. Samsung had 5 of the top 10, but I bet you won’t guess the best-selling device (Android Authority).

4th report: Huawei sells Honor to a Chinese consortium as part of a billion dollar deal (Android Authority).

5. This unusual smartphone patent has eight rear view cameras, two on each corner. Probably not for me, but it’s something (Android Authority).

6. Pixel 5 Review: Google Spends Its BOM Budget Unwisely (Ars Technica).

7. Former Vertu employees bring a new luxury smartphone (Engadget) onto the market.

8. Alphabet will use rays of light to provide the Internet in Kenya: Project Taara (Engadget).

9. Other Apple product reviews: “The Apple MagSafe Duo charger is overpriced and underserved” (The Verge), and the materials seem sub-ideal and unconvincing (TechCrunch). This product seems to be one of the worst new products from Apple in a while. Over on the iPhone 12 Pro Max – is it worth it for the camera? MKBHD: “The differences are mostly imperceptible” (YouTube). The Verge notes that the camera is great, but the differences come in low light, not during the day. And that’s almost too big, while the 60 Hz screen lags behind all its competitors in this airspace of over $ 1000. But the battery life is great, and I think the refresh rate problem isn’t too big.

10. Mashables had a data leak: 1.4 million accounts, including full names, locations, email addresses, gender, IP addresses (The Daily Swig).

11. Speaking of which, a company was forced to change its name which could (playfully) have been used to hack websites: I can’t even include the company’s original name here as it might trigger email servers! But the new name: “THIS COMPANY whose name is used to contain HTML SCRIPT TAGS LTD” (The Guardian).

12. The PS5 could have been bigger somehow: “When I started drawing, it was a lot bigger” (Washington Post).

13. NASA chief says he will resign when Biden takes office (Gizmodo).

14. “Who are some women who are often overlooked in history but who have made important contributions to society?” (R / askreddit).

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