It’s time to ditch my iPhone Mini

It’s not Minnie, it’s me.

Nearly five years after its launch, the 13 Mini is still the best phone ever made. This has not changed. It’s just that I change. As much as it hurts to admit it, after using it again for a few weeks, I think it’s time to put my iPhone 13 Mini to rest.

Minnie is the underdog. Strange. that it Strange little phone Which Apple tried to sell twice, but couldn’t, and He gave up immediately. If you pick it up after using any modern phone, it’s laughably small. A little phone for kids in the world of Maxes and Ultras.

But small phones are very nice. I can use the Mini with one hand without fumbling while trying to reach my thumb across the screen. I can carry it in my coat pocket and forget it’s there. Fits in the front pocket of my jeans, or an evening handbag, with room to spare. They literally don’t make them like that anymore; The Samsung Galaxy S26 is the smallest Android phone you can find these days, and it’s 18mm longer than the Mini.

The 13 Mini has been out of date for over a year When I bought it in 2023. When Apple introduced the iPhone 14 lineup in the fall of 2022 without a successor to the Mini, I thought it was my last chance to buy a new mini before it disappeared from the face of the Earth. This turned out to be true, unfortunately.

Despite being a small phone, the Mini is a surprisingly complete package. My 13 Mini has MagSafe, which the newer 16E lacks. There’s also an ultra-wide camera, which you won’t find on the all-new iPhone Air. And my personal favorite feature is real bounce: Actual SIM tray.

In fact, this has been one of its most valuable assets over the past few years. It acts as a kind of bridge when I’m using an Android phone with a physical SIM and need to switch to an eSIM-only iPhone. The most reliable method I’ve found for this maneuver is to put my physical SIM card in the 13 Mini, convert it to an eSIM, and transfer it to whatever new iPhone I’m testing. Is this a weird, niche reason to love a phone? Yes, but also the Mini is a weird, niche phone.

I realized a few weeks ago that I hadn’t used my Mini for a long period of time in, I don’t know, months? When I test the phone, I go through everythingI put my phone line on it and use it as my only device. I usually use my 13 Mini as a treat between reviews, but it was collecting dust. I’ve been busy testing lots of other phones, but I’ve also been trying to delay the inevitable — the moment when I have to reckon with the death of my Mini.

My suspicions were correct, and I think the time has come for this Mini. But what’s surprising to me is that its relatively small screen isn’t my main issue. It’s the battery. My 13 Mini reports that its battery still has 97 percent of its total capacity; This makes sense, because I don’t use the phone all the time. But barely a full day goes by now, even when most of that 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 afford to worry about the battery.

I’d like to blame Liquid Glass for chewing up the poor Mini’s battery, but I don’t think that’s the main reason. I think it’s me. She had adapted to using larger, newer phones with larger batteries and committed all sorts of battery crimes. I’ll leave the screen open to check the recipe while I cook dinner, and create a hotspot instead of asking the waiter for the Wi-Fi password. I also watch a lot more videos than I used to. A few years ago, I was pretty sure I could scroll through my Instagram feed and see most of the photos — now nearly 90 percent of my vertical video is from accounts I don’t follow. And I keep scrolling! Like a trained monkey! Without any regard for my battery! Big phones have turned me into a monster.

There is also the Lightning Cable issue. The 13 Mini’s Lightning port isn’t an issue most days. I charge it via MagSafe; I use it with wireless earbuds. But the cable we use for CarPlay is USB-C, and if you need an emergency charging cable or a pair of wired earbuds, it’s much easier to find USB-C these days than Lightning. And I have no idea where to put the Lightning headphone adapter. I’ve grown accustomed to the convenience of one cable and one set of accessories that work with all the phones I test, and keeping track of my Lightning cable items feels like a step backwards.

However, the Mini means so much to me that I can’t let it go. I wouldn’t trade it for whatever pittance Apple would give me at this point. I will continue to use it here and there; When I can get away with it in the lulls between work trips. It will continue to faithfully convert physical SIM cards until Apple stops providing it with new operating system versions.

Some features of Mini Live in iPhone AirAlthough its 6.5-inch screen hardly makes it a small phone. And some smaller players like Unihertz are as well They do their best To keep the dream of the little phone alive. But I doubt we’ll see something like the Mini from a major phone maker any time soon. So, when it’s time to completely stop using my device, I have a place for it: on the shelf next to my pink 4GB iPod Mini. They don’t make them like they used to.