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It’s not Mini, it’s me.
Almost five years after its launch, the 13 Mini is still the best phone ever made. It hasn’t changed; that’s all Me has been changed. And as painful as it is to admit this, after using it for a few weeks, I think it’s time to retire my iPhone 13 Mini.
Mini is small. An outsider. I am amazing little phone that Apple tried to sell twice, failed, and immediately stopped. If you pick it up after using your smartphone it’s a little funny. The little baby phone in the world of Maxes and Ultras.
But smaller phones are better. I can use the Mini with one hand without fumbling and trying to reach my finger on the screen. I can carry it in my coat pocket and forget it’s there. It fits in the front pocket of my jeans, or an evening clutch, with storage space. They don’t really make them that way anymore; The Samsung Galaxy S26 is the smallest Android phone you can find today, and it’s 18mm taller than the Mini.
13 The Mini was over a year old when I bought it in 2023. When Apple launched the iPhone 14 series in the fall of 2022 without a successor to the Mini, I thought it was my last chance to buy a new mini phone before it disappeared from the world. This turned out to be true, unfortunately.
Despite being the small phone that it is, the Mini is a surprisingly complete package. My 13 Mini has MagSafe – something the latest 16E lacks. There’s also an ultrawide camera, which you won’t find on the new iPhone Air. And what I really like is the actual return: physical SIM tray.
In fact, that has been one of his most valuable assets over the past few years. It acts as a bridge if I’m using an Android phone with a physical SIM and need to switch to an eSIM-only iPhone. The most reliable way I’ve found for this fix is to put my physical SIM in the 13 Mini, change it to an eSIM, and transfer it to any iPhone I’m testing. Is this a wonderful, phone-loving reason? Oh, and also, the Mini is an amazing, well-known phone.
I realized a few weeks ago that I haven’t used my Mini in, I don’t know, months? When I try the phone I log inI installed my phone line and used it as my only device. I usually use my 13 Mini as a support between reviews, but it was collecting dust. I’ve been busy testing a lot of other phones, but I’ve also been trying to delay the inevitable – time to think about the death of my Mini.
My suspicions were right – I think this Mini’s time has come. But what surprises me is that its thin screen isn’t my biggest problem. It’s a battery. My 13 Mini says its battery is still at 97 percent of its full capacity; It makes sense, because I don’t use the phone all the time. But it only takes a full day now, even if most of the day is spent at home on Wi-Fi. I took it on a business trip last week and had to plug it in as soon as I got to my hotel room. I can’t stand the battery worry.
Big phones have turned me into a monster
I want to sing Liquid Glass for chewing up the poor Mini’s battery, but I don’t think it’s the main culprit. I think it’s me. I’m used to using big phones with big, new batteries and doing all kinds of hacking. I’ll leave the screen on to check the cooking process and cook dinner, and create a hotspot instead of asking the barista for the Wi-Fi password. I watch more movies than I used to. A few years ago I’m sure I could look through my Instagram feed and see tons of photos – now it’s about 90% vertical videos from accounts I don’t follow. And I’m rambling! Like a trained monkey! Without caring for my battery! Big phones have turned me into a monster.
There is also the Lightning Cable Problem. The 13 Mini’s Lightning port isn’t a problem most days. I charge via MagSafe; I use it with wireless headphones. But the cable we use for CarPlay is USB-C, and if I need an emergency charging cable or wired headphones, USB-C is easier to find these days than Lightning. And I don’t know where to put my Lightning headset adapter. I’m used to the convenience of a single cable and other accessories that work with all the phones I try, and keeping track of my Lightning cable feels like a step back in time.
However, the Mini means too much to me to leave it alone. I won’t trade it for anything Apple has to offer me at this point. I will continue to use it now and then; when I can get away with it in the balance between work trips. It will faithfully replace the physical SIMs for me until Apple stops giving me new versions of the OS.
Some of the characteristics of the Mini be on the iPhone Aireven its 6.5-inch screen doesn’t make it a small phone. And some of the smaller players like Unihertz are they are doing what they can keeping the dream of small phones alive. But I doubt we’ll see anything like the Mini from the phone maker anytime soon. So when it’s time to take a break from my work, I just found a place for it: on the shelf next to my pink 4GB iPod Mini. They just don’t make them like they used to.
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