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People make fun of me but I'll never skip a chance to complain about how large these phones are. I hate it so much. I have a standard iPhone, not a max, and it
by danielvaughn 7mo ago
People make fun of me but I'll never skip a chance to complain about how large these phones are. I hate it so much. I have a standard iPhone, not a max, and it causes real pain in my wrist if I use it too much. Was honestly thinking about downgrading to the last SE model even though it's several years out of date.
- devmor 7mo agoI don’t think anyone should make fun of you for it but I’m in the opposite boat. I’m so glad that they make the pro max variants because most smartphones are so small that it hurts my fingers to bend them in the unnaturally inward way it requires to hold and interact with them.
- foobarian 7mo agoFor me it's not the fingers, it's the eyesight.
- Telaneo 7mo agoIt wouldn't be so bad if both options were available. By all means, have your giant pro max or whatever if you want, but that shouldn't be the only reasonable option.
- devmor 7mo agoI agree, and ideally neither should be tied to the phone’s technical specs.
- amenhotep 7mo agoBoban Marjanovic posts on HN? Would never have guessed.
- mavsman 7mo agoGreat reference. It's a shame most people seeing this comment won't get it.
- zem 7mo agoI switched from a pixel 3 to a pixel 9 pro over a year ago, and I still miss the smaller form factor. the pixel 3 really was the perfect size for me and I am sad I can no longer get a smallish phone with a high end processor.
- 1024core 7mo agoI still have my Pixel3. I use it without a SIM for random stuff, and miss the small form factor. It is half the thickness of a Pixel 10, my current phone!
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- drillsteps5 7mo agoI switched from Pixel 4a to Unihertz Max (5G phone with 5 inch screen from a small Chinese startup). Love the form factor, I can keep the phone in my front pants pocket again, next to my keys or wallet. I'm somewhat reluctant to put anything sensitive on that phone (like my email), but happy overall.
- nomilk 7mo agoFunnily, the large display is the most important thing for me. I find my efficiency directly proportional to display size (which holds for laptops too). If a 30 second task can be done in just 20 on a device with a larger display, that's absolutely worth it for me. Also larger device tends to imply longer battery life too.
- mattnewton 7mo agoIf the task can’t be done in a few taps I feel I’m better off opening a laptop anyways. However the market agrees with you so I must be missing something. I used to think it was driven by media consumption on phones, and that I try to avoid, but this isn’t the first time I have heard people tout phone productivity gains from a slightly larger screen.
- nomilk 7mo ago> I must be missing something I wouldn't assume that. The expression 'fat fingers' concerns the phenomena where users (including myself) lack the eyesight and finer motor skills required to type accurately on a small keyboard, so a slightly larger display makes all the difference. Perhaps you simply have those fine motor skills (and good eye sight) so a larger device isn't necessary to prevent typos and remain productive.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- pinnochio 7mo agoI was able to thumb type at high speed and accuracy on the 3.5 inch iPhones. On modern iPhones, I produce more typos than ever, because apparently Apple thinks it knows which key I meant to hit better than I do, even with all the autocorrect and suggestions turned off. I've banned social and don't use my phone much anymore, so it's less of an issue than it used to be, but it's really frustrating when I'm clearly hitting the right key and it insists on pretending I hit an adjacent key.
- EduardoBautista 7mo agoI have found the iPhone Air much easier to hold than the iPhone 13 Pro it replaced because of how light it is, even though the iPhone Air has a bigger screen.
- layer8 7mo agoThe 17e weighs roughly the same at a smaller size, and the mini weighs significantly less. Not to mention the first SE, compared to which even the mini is heavy. Yes the Air is lightweight compared to the Pro, but that’s a low bar. The other thing with the Air is that you can’t really use it one-handed, which is what most people who like small phones are after, besides pockability.
- miki123211 7mo agoThe first SE was the best form factor I've ever owned. Incredibly small. Incredibly light. Pretty thin, even in a case. Had a headphone jack, Lightning and Touch ID. The only thing I like about the new iPhone designs is the action button. Having an automation which automatically turns silent mode off or on based on whether I'm home or not is pretty cool. You can't do that with a physical switch.
- layer8 7mo agoAgreed about the SE. I’m still depressed anytime I take it in hand that we don’t have something like it anymore.
- Telaneo 7mo agoWe made fun of phablets, only for them to become the default.
- sysguest 7mo agowell we have galaxy fold tablet-as-phone, so... maybe not all is lost?
- andrewmutz 7mo agoCompletely agree. And to make matters worse, I can't even switch to android without losing the ability to reliably send quality video to iPhone users. Apple suffered for decades from Microsoft's anticompetitive OS monopoly, and turned around and did the same thing to the android ecosystem. I have no idea why this sub is full of Apple fanboys. I was an Apple fan 10 years ago, but these days they no longer deserve your support.
- dismalaf 7mo ago> the ability to reliably send quality video to iPhone users. Just curious but why? Is it iMessage lock in?
- andrewmutz 7mo agoYes exactly. RCS exists but unless an iPhone user goes and turns it on it won't work. Which means no one has it turned on.
- indecisive_user 7mo agoI don't think that's true. Every iPhone user I've texted in the last 6 months at least has had rcs turned on, and that's including some very non tech savvy friends that I doubt did it manually
- rswail 7mo agoIt's also dependent on the telco supporting it. Australian telcos don't.
- rswail 7mo agoRCS compatibility with iMessages relies on the telcos to implement it, particularly for group chats. iMessages work using SMS 1-to-1, but group chats require the telcos to enable RCS instead of SMS. Of the 3 telco network operators in Australia, none of them have enabled it.
- 7mo ago
- sephamorr 7mo agoThe phones get larger and the UI gets less information dense every release. More padding, more offsets, more dead space.
- danielvaughn 7mo agoI'd pay good money for a small phone with nothing but a unix terminal
- watersb 7mo agoTermux on Android. Lots of hardware choices.
- BLKNSLVR 7mo agoApple needs all that space so that the aesthetic can fit in.
- rrgok 7mo agoYeah, this is what bothers too much. Retina displays for low density content? We could've remained at 800x600.
- watersb 7mo agoI'm typing this on an iPhone SE (2020). It runs the latest iOS, although it's likely missing some of the new bits. I prefer the size, although the screen that spans the entire front surface would be the superior device; I like the iPhone 13 Mini.
- Tade0 7mo agoMy SO has the latter and switched from the former when it started behaving erratically. It's the very last reasonably sized iPhone and one of the very last in this category overall.
- dncornholio 7mo agoI rather have the fingerprint button!
- drillsteps5 7mo agoI dived into a niche world of small phones recently while looking for replacement to malfunctioning Pixel 4a (which is apparently now considered compact phone). There's a few small manufacturers in China making some, with 4 inch or 5 inch screen, like Aiphor or Unihertz. And by "small" I mean "they use kickstarter to fund their R&D" small. Other than that... Nobody's really bothering with compact phones anymore, in the US or in the rest of the world. Bummer.
- vbezhenar 7mo ago> Nobody's really bothering with compact phones anymore, in the US or in the rest of the world. Bummer. And the worst thing is that app developers do not bother with testing their apps on small phones. So even if someone would produce small phone, many apps would be broken on that UI. So there's no way back. PS 4 inch is not a small phone. iPhone 4S had 3.5" display and it wasn't small, it was normal. Small is something like 2" screen I suppose. All modern phones including these "iPhone Minis" are egregiously huge.
- normie3000 7mo ago> All modern phones including these "iPhone Minis" are egregiously huge. Agreed - going from the original SE to the mini meant a big downgrade in usability for me, as it's now hard to reach the top of the screen.
- iso1631 7mo agoMy assumption is that very few people who like Dom Joly sized phones use them one handed
- iso1631 7mo agoI don't give a stuff about the vast majority of "apps". Webpages work fine. Built in ones work fine - mail, safari, music, maps, photos Major ones work fine - bbc sounds, slack+teams, whatsapp, various authenticator programs
- eptcyka 7mo ago
- SingAlong 7mo agoFormer small phone person here: I went from a small iphone to a large one just to substitute not having to carry around my ipad. I really wish iphone fold is here sooner.
- ghiculescu 7mo agoI just bought a refurbished SE. It works great with newest iOS, Liquid Glass, etc. Do it!
- normie3000 7mo agoWhich gen of SE?
- Drupon 7mo ago>it causes real pain in my wrist if I use it too much LMAO
- trvz 7mo agoYou should look into grips that attach via Magsafe.
- RileyJames 7mo agoI’m still running an SE2020. I was expecting the latest update (with liquid) to be the death of it. But performance has actually improved significantly! Very unexpected. It’s been a great phone!
- operation_moose 7mo agoSame. I'll probably try to run it out for another year and end up with the 18e. Its been a great phone, but its days have to be numbered.
- carefree-bob 7mo agoI want to +1 every comment in this thread. Phones are too big now. I don't understand Apple's weird obsessions, first trying to make all the phone so thin you cut your hand holding it, and then making it too big to fit comfortably in your pocket unless you are walking around in camo pants. You know what I would like? When I tap on the search and type the first few letters of an app on my phone, and the app appears, and I click on that -- I would like the app to open. Only happens about half the time now. UI is getting worse with every release.
- dkersten 7mo agoI loved the size of my iPhone 6, and very iPhone that I’ve used after that has been too big.
- tromp 7mo agoWhy do almost all phones have to be in that narrow band of 6.5 to 6.9 inches? I wish there were more size choices on both ends of the spectrum. While most people prefer more choice below 6", I would like some choice above 7", since I keep my phone in my belly pouch, and never use it one-handed. My current Huawei Mate20X is actually ok at 7.2" (but worse than the Mediapad X1 I had before which at 7" was actually wider) but is way behind on Android updates, and will soon stop running my banking app.
- lloeki 7mo agoQuick reality check that - 7" used to be tablet category, e.g the Nexus 7 - anything above 6" would be considered phablet Phones are really just like cars now, size inflation included.
- volemo 7mo agoWhile I agree with the spirit of the thread and dearly love my mini, I think this reasoning doesn’t account for a substantial reduction in bezels: my iPhone 5S had more than a centimetre of black bars above and below its 4" display (altogether it was 5.4" in diagonal), I bet those phablets you mentioned had even bigger bezels and were closer to modern 8.5" phones.
- brightbeige 7mo agoI have a pet theory about increasing phone sizes > Screen size is area (x^2) and battery size is volume (x^3). As battery life is a critical feature, a bigger screen supports (a nonlinear) better battery life. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44588733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44588733
- Someone 7mo agoI think it’s even better than that. Your cellular modem (on all the time) scales at O(1) with phone size. Same for on-board tasks that do not involve the screen. Powering your RAM (also on all the time) is similar, but larger (more expensive) phones may tend to have more RAM.
- majewsky 7mo agoThis does not square with especially Apple's unending obsession to make phones as thin as possible. Which is doubly stupid when it makes them so fragile that the first thing you do after taking it out of the box is to wrap it in a thick rubber shell.
- hbs18 7mo agoWhat obsession about making thin phones? iPhones are pretty thick and have been that way for years. The Air being an outlier, of course, but it's an intentionally thin phone in a lineup of thick and heavy ones.
- dncornholio 7mo agoI had a Sony Xperia Z1 mini, that was close to the size of a SE but had double the battery lifetime.
- pja 7mo agoSame. The Pixel 4a was the perfect phone for me: Light, screen exactly the right size to navigate with a single thumb whilst holding the phone in one hand, enough battery life, small enough to fit in my jean pockets comfortably. But people buy big phones in preference to small ones, so that’s what Google & Apple manufacture. Nobody (from the POV of Apple/Google decision makers) buys these smaller phones.
- dncornholio 7mo agoI did downgrade back to my SE (from iPhone 16). Big selling point (aside from its size and rounded corners) is the physical button with fingerprint. I missed that even more than I disliked carrying a big phone around.