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Ask HN: Is there any iPhone SE first gen -sized phone?

10 points by fxtentacle ↗ HN
Dear HN,

I wonder if I'm the only one wanting this, or if I'm just bad at searching, but I cannot seem to find any halfway decent phone that is roughly the size of the 1st gen iPhone SE.

The old iPhone SE was 124mm tall and had 2GB RAM + 64GB ROM in the most popular model.

Putting that into GSMArena tells me that there hasn't been any suitable phone released since 2016.

https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nHeightMax=125&nRamMin=2000&nIntMemMin=64000

Why is there such a big hole in the market here?

7 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 41.2 ms ] thread
runjake
Because there isn't a big enough market to warrant them.

Or maybe there is. The iPhone 12 Mini was just announced and will be released this month. It is nearly the size and form factor of the original SE.

Other than that, my guess is you'll be looking at phones for third-world and ultra-low-budget markets.

fxtentacle
The iPhone 12 Mini appears to be 12mm taller, but apart from that, it looks good. I hadn't heard of it, so thank you for pointing that out.
st1x7
> It is nearly the size and form factor of the original SE

Not quite. The 12 mini is still closer to the 6/6s/7/8/SE2 line than the 5/5s/5c/SE1 line. It's nice to have the flat edges back though.

SE 1st Gen - 123.8 x 58.6mm

SE 2nd gen: 138.4 x 67.3mm

12 mini: 131.5 x 64.2mm

[dead] pozdnyshev
Why not just buy the 2016 one?
snyena
You're definitely not the only one wanting this. I hadn't been able to find anything either so went I for iPhone SE (2020). Not happy with the size though.
approxim8ion
The Unihertz Jelly 2 is even smaller at 95mm tall, and actually has decent specs outside of maybe the screen, but even that low resolution should look fine on the 3 inch screen. It's a bit of a toy but I quite like the idea of it.

Pretty comprehensive review linked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxUDmGHl7Eo