And then because on screen keyboards suck so bad we had to make phones BIGGER which meant they needed to be THINNER which meant cameras needed to stick out, and here we are, in a world where an iPhone Pro Max takes up the full height of my jeans pocket and digs into my hip when I sit down. Yeyyy.
That’s for sure why it was discontinued. I’m sad it’s gone, but I do understand I’m a minority in that feeling.
I was just offering it as a counter point (from as recent as last year) to the onscreen keyboards necessitating huge phones that the comment I replied to was suggesting. Plus an option that is still modern enough to use. Using the mini keyboard isn’t much worse than the pro. It’s feasible, these minis type well, I don’t think it’s the reason for bigger, thinner phones with cameras popping out. I’d blame content more.
Hard disagree. 4-inches screens were a thing because that’s the perfect size for a human hand. Phones became huge when content consumption got prioritized over ergonomics.
I agree and it’s incredibly ridiculous that we’ve reached a point where phones don’t even fit our hands.
If you disagree, touch the bottom of your screen, then touch the top, I promise it wasn’t effortless.
Steve Jobs was very careful about designing the first iPhone to mold into our hands. It’s no surprise they immediately got bigger once he passed.
Unfortunately, people want it because as you say “bigger is better”. Call me elitist, but they don’t know what they want. A phone isn’t the size of a tv. Making it 2 inches larger doesn’t really solve anything when it’s already so small.
Same goes for reducing the bezel, another obvious “solution” that wasn’t needed. The bezel was meant to give your palm some room so it doesn’t touch the screen.
When you see people put handles on the back of their phones, we have a problem with function. Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave at the sight of these flip flop phones.
Woah, decrease in usability? Let's slow down there a little bit.
There's a legitimate case for big phones, in that they make typing somewhat easier. Typing on my iphone is pretty annoying to me, so I'm actually happy that a 5 inch size is coming to be more standardized.
Besides software changes, I'd look at the hardware.
The newer iPhones are all too big for many peoples' hands. I thought that the iPhone 4S size was just about perfection: it felt like I could easily reach every single spot on the screen while holding the device with one hand and not straining. Everything since then has felt much harder to comfortably type and control while using.
And unfortunately, I think it might be very easy for the market to misread the sales data and think that many customers continuously want bigger and bigger screens. If the only size options available are all too big, then it makes some sense to just optimize for a better gaming/movie experience if the typing experience is going to suck no matter what so many people might just end up buying the biggest phones even though they want a much smaller one.
Give me an iPhone 4S sized iPhone with a modern camera, processor, and screen, and I'd be perfectly happy with that experience.
Smartphones got much larger. I think if it were just Apple, we'd still have tiny screens on our phones and iPads for general purpose computing at home. Thankfully there is competition and people voted for larger phones with their wallets, so now our phones are as large as we "need" them to be.
Phone manufacturers have tried selling small phones. Sony couldn't make a business of it. Even Apple reportedly can't make it go round.
Face it, you're a tiny minority. My wife made fun of my iPhone Pro Max, until she inherited my old one and now she can't go back, it's huge but the screen real estate is really nice to have.
There's also those of us who are just bigger people. From fingertip to palm my hands are on the order of 10 inches long. The standard phones of a few years ago were incredibly difficult for me to use. I still have an iPhone 4S that I use in a speaker dock for media and I can easily (and regularly) press 4 keys at once with one touch.
That said, there's clearly a market for smaller phones still, just not from me, and I don't understand why the manufacturers don't see this.
It's ridiculous. I thought I remember someone saying the iPhone 1/3/4 size was designed to be perfect for the human hand and I agree. It's easier to make things larger, it's hard to make them small, how are we regressing?
Reminds me of how mobile phones used to be huge and then they did everything possible to make them smaller until they were way too small and had to double back a bit. Now the same thing is happening with thickness.
When I said “almost as big as the phone” I didn’t mean square inches. I meant volume. Look at those things. That’s not an unused accessory like a port or jack. Its making your phone half again as big. It’s a third of your phone doing nothing.
We just went through this battle. Thin phones won. Danger is out. So is Nokia. It’s possible this is a fashion statement and those can and change, but whoever tests that theory had better be prepared to fail. And if it *is down to fashion? Expect to lose your keyboard again in another ten years.
I agree. Today, mobile phones are lighter and thinner than before, and users are more concerned about larger screen size that make phones bulky and uncomfortable in your pocket or hand. The point I was trying to make is that Apple is obsessed about marketing fads to sell their devices, and the Motorola Razr - https://www.businessinsider.com/the-inside-story-of-how-the-... - was a game changer in this field in terms of both marketing and technology.
It's all in the eye of the beholder I guess. I felt forced to get the Pro Max because it was the only acceptably large phone in their lineup, and still smaller than most competitors.
I have worked in tech retail and the customer's needs are actually quite flexible with a bit of marketing. In any case the thinner and bigger trend seems to have ran its course: With the current UX design in iOS and Android, phones with screens larger than 5in are uncomfortable to a lot of average people and thus manufacturers can no longer cheat the thickness game by making the screen and chassis bigger.
I would love to be able to unfold it to be twice as wide when surfing or maybe playing games.
But that’s impossible.
It would either have to be twice as thick, which is a deal killer, or I could have had a phone the size of my current one that’s half as thick. Which means it could be as thick as today but with more battery/power/features.
That’s not saying anything about the screen problems like having a seam or it not be perfectly flat or needing inside + outside screens.
> the sheer amount of screen real-estate and convenience is really unparalleled.
Personally, that's my exact complaint. I miss smart phones I could operate with one hand without straining my thumb to reach the opposite corner. I want a quality smart phone with a screen size ~4.5". I don't really want a screen larger than that. It would be nice if the big brands made a small version instead of a "normal" and "XL". The iPhone homepage currently has the motto "Welcome to the big screens". If I wanted a tablet, I'd buy a tablet.
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