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Back to the iPhone 5S

technologynotes.net

156 pointsmpweiher114 comments

Most of the top comments here are people expressing their preferences regarding screen sizes. Some are very happy with the larger screens, some are disappointed in them.

To me, this suggests that there is not a "winner" for what the "best" screen size is. It seems that this is a personal matter and many users have different preferences for their own reasons. It is clear that for some number of people bigger is not better.

What confuses me is the fact that Apple did not find it worthwhile to continue providing a smaller form factor. They (quite correctly) identified the demand for larger screens, but have they failed to observe the demand for the smaller ones? Or are the people who prefer smaller displays enough of a minority that they are worth ignoring in favor of simplifying the product line?

> What confuses me is the fact that Apple did not find it worthwhile to continue providing a smaller form factor.

I couldn't agree more. I'm still using the 4S because I want something that comfortably fits in my side jeans pocket. The 6? Forget it. When my 4S breaks... I'll probably just buy another one, used. I find it almost impossible to believe that the segment of consumers who want a phone that fits comfortably in a side jeans pocket -- since this is where a huge proportion of guys keep it -- is too small to cater to. (Yes, I've tried a 6, and it technically fits, but it is not comfortable.)

If things keep up the way they do, I'm hoping Apple is finally forced to come out with an "iPhone Mini". I really hope they do.

I printed out mockups for the 6 and 6+ to get a feel for them before they came out. Tested them with pockets etc... I'm fat so they actually do fit in my pants pocket (the plus by a hair).

My pants usually press against my leg when I am sitting, and I am almost certain this pressure would, over time and repetition, bend the phone. Possibly not the 6, but I'm sure it would with the plus.

I do like the larger screen though. Colbert had a joke where he was going to have a large pocket sewn into his suit jacket to carry his ipad around, and I actually considered having a phone pocket added to my jeans. But I think I'll stick with my 5 for a while longer and if needed upgrade to the 5s at some point.

Colbert might have been joking, but I've seen clothing tags advertise "Interior pocket fits iPad Mini."

Keeping support for small devices isn't free. I expect the 4S sized screen to be completely deprecated in a few years. It's fine if you want your phone to be just a phone and poor web browser. It's less fine if you want it to be a pocket computer that performs a wider variety of tasks.

Not saying it can't be done, just that it has a not insignificant cost.

But that's exactly it -- I want my phone to be a phone and use phone-appropriate apps, like Evernote or Spotify or Shazam or Hipchat or Yelp or Moves or FitnessFast or the camera app or the weather app and so on...

And be a web browser of last resort, when I need to look something up quick while on the street. I've got, you know, a laptop at work and a laptop at home that work a lot better for web browsing.

Sorry, that's not the future for most people. Even apps like Evernote and Spotify and what not are really, really hard to cram into a teeny tiny screen. It's not a great experience. Then if you consider internationally how many people use their phone as their primary, if not exclusive, computer and yeah. That's just how it adds up.

App developers no longer have to worry about 320x480 resolutions. They effectively don't worry about small from 3:2 aspect ratio displays. Soon they won't have to deal with it at all. For the vast majority of users this is a good thing. For a slim minority it's a bad thing. =[

My hypothesis is that they will bring back the smaller size once the larger sizes have been legitimized. If they had simply introduced different sizes, the community might see the new (pixel) sizes as "alternative". Developers might be annoyed at having to support something other than the one-true-size-that-Jobs-left-us. Instead they dropped that one true size and made it clear that an iPhone now comes in multiple, larger sizes. These will now forever be canonical sizes, even when Apple continues the smaller size.

Rumors have it that in 2015 they will introduce an upgraded version of the 4 inch phone (the same size as the 5s)

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/apple-iphone-6-mini,news-20072.h... http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/02/chatter-getting-louder-abo...

That would make sense to me. I have a 6, but I have pretty small hands. I like the bigger screen size now, but it took some getting used to.

I can't imagine that they just failed to observer the demand for smaller form factors. For one they surely have pretty accurate data on what most customers really want and they are still selling the 5S.

If they see that demand for the 5S is higher than expected or that too many customers are unhappy with the larger devices they will accept this reality and release an updated iPhone 6S that is smaller.

I went the other direction: I moved from an iPhone 6 to a 6+. I'm over 40 and I find that the bigger screen (with the phone's new "Display Zoom" mode turned on) makes it much easier to read the screen. As a result, I use my phone much more. Previously, with the screen so difficult to read, I only used the phone for voice calls (basically, never) and used an iPad for actual app use. Now the iPad sits unused, while the phone meets all my needs.

I've got small hands, so I'm still figuring out how to best hold it, but being able to read text on my phone screen more than makes up for it.

Lately I've been considering switching back to the iPhone 6 (better for pocketing, less likely for my small hands to drop) and using an iPad Mini for everything, including voice calls, via Continuity and bluetooth.

The 6+ is awkward to hold and almost impossible to use one-handed, but for me, the bigger screen and longer battery life (almost double) more than offset the shortcomings of the form factor.

It also seems to have louder speakers than any iPhone I've compared it with. (now if they would just add another speaker on the top end to get stereo when watching movies or playing games).

> speaker on the top end to get stereo when watching movies or playing games

Are Stereo speakers actually noticeable on a device the size as an iPhone? Wouldn't the speakers actually need to be further apart so your ears can hear the difference better?

In my experience: not really noticeable. I think people like the idea but in real use with a blind taste test I'd be surprised if people noticed a difference. Of those who could discern a difference, ask them how much extra they would pay or what other features they would be willing to give up (battery life, size, et. al.) You want stereo? Put your headphones on, and it will sound better to boot.

Besides, how important is audio fidelity when you're watching movies on a five inch screen? Can barely see the faces of the actors, but hot diggity does it sound good.

I'm inclined to agree - I use a iPhone 6 daily, and while the bigger screen is nice in some ways, the loss of usability is aggravating.

"Reachability", to be blunt, is an admission of defeat - and I know this is a tired trope - that would not have happened under Jobs. Sure, Jobs may have surrendered to the trend of larger screen sizes, but he would've insisted on something that wasn't so plainly awful as Reachability.

The bigger screen is beautiful and I love looking at it, but I hate touching it. I also hate the fact that the top right corner of all apps is now no-mans land, covered with touch sensors as a matter of obligation than actual usefulness. Expect app developers to start treating the top right corner of the screen as non-user-interactive space only useful for displays.

It's too bad that Apple evidently doesn't have any intention of continuing the 4" form factor. I'd like to have seen multiple screen sizes given priority.

You could just use both your hands. A very small problem compared to all the benefits of a bigger screen.

You could just squint. A very small problem compared to all the benefits of a more compact device.

Having to squint is not a solution, especially if you have poor eye sight. Using both hands is a minor convenience at best.

> "Using both hands is a minor convenience at best."

For some lifestyles sure, for others it's a dealbreaker - I'm not using this phone in the back seat of a car, or with my groceries in the trunk - I'm using this while holding onto a subway pole, or carrying my groceries in my other hand.

One-handed operation is absolutely a requirement for a mobile device in urban settings.

> Sure, Jobs may have surrendered to the trend of larger screen sizes, but he would've insisted on something that wasn't so plainly awful as Reachability.

Like what? A different way of shrinking the screen, or are you thinking there's a way to enable one-handed use without shrinking?

Here's a comparison of the existing shrinking techniques.. you be the judge: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Whose-one-handed-mode-do-you-...

The cool thing about Apple's approach is that it doesn't actually shrink any tap target sizes. Also it seems easier to enable (2 light taps vs. swiping from the bezel edge). Having said that, I never use it, I just shift the phone in my hand, like a ninja.

The samsung one is pretty much perfect, since it solves the issue of screen height AND width. I wish i had that available for my Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, since even for that medium sized phone my thumb is too short to even reach across.

> "Like what? A different way of shrinking the screen, or are you thinking there's a way to enable one-handed use without shrinking?"

This is a hard problem - one that I would've preferred avoiding altogether by keeping screen sizes sane ;) But alas, that ship has sailed.

I wasn't aware of the Samsung or LG way of doing it - IMO both of them are pretty shitty also and an admission of defeat. This is the vendor saying "totally unusable one-handed without throwing away half the pixels". Apple's way seems marginally slicker, but still sucks.

Unfortunately the best idea I have is probably not particularly tenable - we have to abandon the top of the screen for interactive elements. Google has already in some ways done this with material design - back, home, and switcher are all lined up along the bottom, and all primary actions confined to the Floating Button, also at the bottom.

But getting third party apps to buy into abandoning the top third of the screen is probably not going to happen.

Alternatively this is a chance for more gestures to come and play. On iOS the top of the screen is predominantly taken up by the Back and Confirm actions (top left and right, respectively). We already have the edge swipe for back, which works so well that I practically never use the actual back button anymore. Perhaps what we need is an equivalent gesture for "Confirm". That way the two most common uses of the top corners won't require touching the button at all.

Honestly, the LG / Samsung method seems vastly preferable. Swiping from the bezel edge is a much easier motion than the double tap on the home button (which is sort of awkwardly placed for easy access given where you hand needs to be to balance a larger phone). Tap targets shrink, but they're not any smaller than they would have been on a smaller form-factor phone.

> Tap targets shrink, but they're not any smaller than they would have been on a smaller form-factor phone.

That's only true if the screen was a "magnified" version of a smaller screen to begin with. That may be the case with many Android phones but the iPhone 6 has the same PPI as the 5, meaning the 6 maintains the same tap target sizes and actually fits more information on the screen.

In other words, if you can comfortably shrink a screen's tap targets then it wasn't an optimal screen to begin with.

I actively looked for larger screens when I recently bought a new smartphone. I have really large hands / long fingers. For that reason, I looked again at the iPhone. It's nice for me to have choice in a phone that I can actually hang on to.

Isn't there something you want to see and not touch, or touch less often you can put in the top? The top of almost all my screens is usually occupied by a weather/calendar/email/news/etc. widget up top

> It's too bad that Apple evidently doesn't have any intention of continuing the 4" form factor.

It is in Apple's interest to keep the product marketing of the iPhone 6 focused on "it is bigger" and leverage the iPhone 5s manufacturing process as much as possible. My guess is that for the iPhone 6s they will release a iPhone 6s mini.

I'd appreciate it, but the problem is that these "mini" devices most likely will have other shortcomings like inferior internal hardware, missing features, etc. - basically the budget device. If the screen size remains the only difference I'm in, no doubt.

I'm hoping the only concessions will be battery and maybe camera. A 4" iPhone 6s with an A9, 2gb of RAM and 32gb disk would be my next phone.

Out of curiosity, which had are you using? Is this solved by simply using the other hand or both hands? I have fairly small hands and can't ever think of a time I've had trouble using large screens (I have a Note 3, but the 6+ feels fine when I use it). But using two hands to me isn't a big deal, and I'm comfortable switching hands when doing one handed things.

I do think Apple needs to fix the UI guidelines so that "stuff you need to touch" sits at the bottom half, while "stuff you see and interact with rarely" should be in the top half.

Perhaps this is why it was so easy for Android phones to move to large screen sizes - the back button is always at the bottom of the screen; whereas, the iOS equivalent is usually in the farthest corner.

Reaching to top right corner is NOT going to be an issue soon. In the next iPhone version, Apple is going to duplicate the top right and left buttons on the bottom around the centered HOME button.

This is not a leak. It's what I would do if I were a designer at Apple.

The worst part is that ios always has the most pressed button, back, in the top left corner - the most unreachable position. What apple has to do is just put a physical back button on the side of the phone for your thumb and 50% of all reachability issues are solved.

When I first got the 6, I felt the same way immediately, and was going to return it the following weekend. But after that week was up, a strange thing happened ... I started looking at iphone 4's and 5's and thinking to myself

"gosh, that screen is kinda tiny"

I never did return my iphone 6. I noq love the big screen, that I hated so vehemently when I first got it.

Precisely. I do Android programming, which leads to a lot of exposure to different screen sizes. Spend a week on a Galaxy Note, which is initially shocking, and going back to something smaller has the same shock value that the Note did in the first instance.

I must admit I can't see how or why people bother with less than 5 inch devices now, but each to their own.

The other side effect of this is bigger phones make the idea of tablets seem ridiculous. Were I Apple I'd reintroduce the 4 inch iPhone and kill the iPad mini.

Same experience, but I use the reachabilily hack several times every day, and every time I picture Steve Jobs rotating in his grave. How is it that Apple just don't set their design guidelines to have controls at the bottom of the screen? A back button in the top left corner (without swipe option) should mean being booted from the App Store if you ask me...

I would like to hear female users chime in. I don't think one-handed operation has been feasible for a large portion of female population even on iphone 5. Once you get used to using two hands, I don't think it matters if something is 4.7" or 5.5". You just have to use two hands.

This would be interesting.

After directly comparing my coworkers' 6 and 6+ this week, I remarked that I might opt for the 6+, since one-handed use is effectively out for me even with the 6.

Relatively small hands be damned...

There is a way to facilitate one-handed use, I'm not sure if it's built-in or an app, but I've seen people using it

It's a built-in feature called Reachability. I've tried it and it feels like a bandage at best. I imagine getting accustomed to it would probably help, but it slows things down quite a bit.

(And the phone is still quite wide, which may be a less bemoaned issue than the distance of upper corners, but is still an issue for me.)

I just asked my wife. She could reach the entire screen with the iPhone 5, but unlike many of us on HN (including myself), she thinks the Reachability feature is good for her. She currently uses both the iPhone 5 and 6, one for work and one for personal, and she uses them both all the time, and she says she has no preference.

Asking my partner, I asked her to go back to the message list without swiping the conversation view, forcing her to touch the "< Messages" menu item. Do you know what she did? She released the grip on the phone so it slid down a bit, caught it and then pressed it, having to then awkwardly move the phone up again.

Not pretty.

Regarding myself, I've found I hold the phone differently, resting the back on the tops of my fingertips, giving me much more flexibility.

I've dropped my 6 a couple of times doing the slide maneuver :-(

I'd speculate that pocket size is actually a bigger concern for women than one handed use. With skinny jeans it has been extremely common to store a phone in the back pocket. I can't see that happening with the iPhone 6. And I can't see young women giving up skinny jeans anytime soon.

So that means one of two things:

1. Young women start putting their phones in purses again.

2. Stick with the iPhone 5s or switch to one of the few small Android phones. (doubt it)

I wonder if either of these has borne out yet or if it's too early in the upgrade cycle?

Are we nearing the end of the back pocket era?

Women don't use pockets, they use purses. Even most pockets in tight jeans are fake. That's why the first Note was a big hit with older women. Big screen was easier to read and it didn't make a difference to their purse.

Well, I'm a woman and I use my pockets.

I'm a woman and I hate fake pockets. Loathe them to the extreme. I want my wallet and phone in pockets. Purse is for extras you don't need ON you every second, but are useful to have nearby, like eye drops or advil. My purse goes to meta-locations, like to the office, or in my car, but I don't take it everywhere with me (I don't take it inside stores, for example).

My opinion is not unique, but women are not given many choices about fashion and pockets or lack thereof. You can say to vote with your wallet, but it's hard enough to find clothes that fit properly (I am both overweight and have a very small waist in comparison to my hips, finding jeans that fit over my butt without having like 3 extra inches in the waistband is near impossible), without having to exclude jeans that only have back pockets.

Every woman loves an outfit that manages to be cute and still have pockets. It's like the holy grail of womanhood.

Bullshit. You carry your purse around the office with you, into every meeting? You schlep your purse onto the dance floor? No. Just no.

It's really nice to be able to leave the house without a goddam purse. Tuck a credit card, a $20, a metrocard, a phone, and keys into your pockets and go for a walk in the park with your hands and shoulders completely free and unweighted.

Oh, and a phone in a purse? Harder to hear ring or beep, and you sure as hell won't feel it buzz.

And that's before even mentioning one-handed use, which as someone else pointed out above, is crucial when you have to hold a subway pole or carry groceries.

Women carry purses? Men carry backpacks and messenger bags. They still put their phones in their pockets and get annoyed when they can't. Or would you say it's ok for a phone to bend when you leave it in your pocket because you could just carry it in your backpack instead?

Not a woman. But I keep my phone in my front pocket because I used to keep it in the back and one time sat down and broke the screen. I had been able to sit on it before...just this one time I must have shifted on it a certain way.

The iPhone 5S is the most comfortable phone I've ever had. It's not perfect and the battery could last a bit longer, but it's sufficient and it charges up quickly enough that I don't really have any hassle with it. iOS is nimble and I have no complaints about it.

Ages ago I had a Lumia 800 and I liked it. It was a good one-handed size, and Windows Phone was also quite minimalistic and smooth to use, but when it became clear that the phone was basically deprecated and would never receive Windows Phone 8, I abandoned it and switched to an iPhone 5S.

Last year I received a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 as a gift and ended up returning it after a month because it was simply ridiculous. Couldn't safely keep it in my pocket, couldn't even dream of using it with one hand and in all it was just a horrible experience--though some part of the crappy experience I chalk down to Android. Even if I had rooted it and removed all the junk that comes preinstalled, the lag is simply not something I could tolerate after iOS and Windows Phone.

So I stuck with my iPhone 5S and haven't really looked back. It does everything I need it to do. If I couldn't use it as a portable hotspot or if it lacked apps I might consider a Lumia 635 or something--not that I've tried one out, mind you.

I tried an iPhone 6 when it was released and I could tell quite quickly that it would be frustrating as hell, so I didn't upgrade. There was simply no need to increase the size of the phone other than to pander to Samsung people and appeal to the masses. I personally don't think that was what Apple was ever about, and I think the iPhone's small size was a good design decision much like the avoidance of touchscreens on MacBooks.

Now all the Windows Phones are pretty big as well, and my dislike of Android rules out quite a few smaller smartphones available, it looks like I'll be stuck on the iPhone 5S for the foreseeable future.

The lag isn't due to Android, it's due to Samsung's Android Skin called Touchwiz. My HTC One M8 doesnt lag at all, and it runs Android too. I've also used a Galaxy S4 and it was annoying.

Somebody gave my mom a free 5 when they upgraded to a 6. She had previously seen how my Note 3 works, pen, etc. and asked me to come over to compare. She decided she liked the bigger screen better, and in her purse it wasn't a huge difference, but she can type better on the larger screen and old eyes can see better.

> I don't think one-handed operation

I have average size hands and I got the 6 Plus - I find it fine to use with one hand. The most common thing I do is just scroll through web pages, twitter, email etc

http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/09/the-iphone-5-ad-that-apple-wan...

I can type a lot better on the iPhone 6, like really a lot better.

But apps that don't support "swipe to go back" are really pretty annoying now (Twitter for instance). Scrolling to top and back are just way harder.

Also, I still constantly shut the phone off when trying to take a picture in landscape mode. Power switch is just in the wrong spot.

Twitter's own iOS client most certainly supports swipe to go back.

I got a Nexus 6, which is a 6 inch phone (I don't recommended it to people because the screen is poorly calibrated). And I love the size.

For me my phone is a an Internet-enabled general purpose device, which includes email, Skype, Facebook, Hangouts, YouTube, browsing websites and reading technical documentation. For me this device works less as a phone and for my use cases the large screen is great. And it has other benefits as well, like much better battery life.

Speaking of slippery phones...

I recently bought an Xperia Z3 which is the first phone I've had that has a glass back along with a glass front. As a result, the phone is extremely "slippery". I have always had a habit of setting my phone down on top of my wallet. With the Z3, I was noticing that within a minute or two the phone would slowly but surely slide off the wallet and onto the desk. I even noticed this a couple of times on surfaces that were quite flat, including if I set it on top of the cardboard box it came in!

Anyway, this all came to a head about 3 weeks after I purchased the phone. It slid off my wallet and onto the floor and the front screen shattered. The screen was $275 to replace, but I have found the replacement screen to be of lesser quality and am now having minor audio issues as well. Disappointing so early into the ownership cycle for a device.

In any event, I am now using a case for the phone, which seems to be an absolute necessity for this device if you want it to not slide off of anything you put it on. The choice of the rear glass cover seems like it offers a large practical disadvantage for an aesthetic advantage that most people wouldn't care about.

I switched from the 6 to 6 plus. Reading is great. I'm 5'11" with hands average of that height. I think the only reason this has climbed so high on hacker news is because it has Apple's name on it. More choice is better. As people are consuming more content on their phones, like this website, bigger screens are helpful. Consider PDFs.

More choice is better, you mean "More larger choices are the only thing you have so I guess they are better."

They still sell the 5S, and the next generation will include the same size as the 5S.

Link for that assertion? That Apple will include a 5/5s sized iPhone the next time around?

Yeah, I'd love to see this. I'd even consider holding out with my 5S until whatever comes in 2016 if I could have an equally performant device in a smaller package.

It's a rumor at this point [1] but if they completely kill small screen phones on the next release I'll eat my hat. Since the 6 came out, I've noticed that smaller people of either gender really prefer the smaller screen size. There's a gigantic market for the 4" screen, Apple already has support for it in their OS, and they're not the type to throw away billions that people are offering them for this size of device.

[1] http://www.techtimes.com/articles/21559/20141205/apple-iphon...

I have no idea why they don't just move the control buttons to the bottom of the screen. The real estate is great - they just need to break the paradigm of sticking the most importance tap targets at the unreachable top of the screen.

You know what phone did that? Windows Phone. And it was amazing. And no one could figure out where the menus had gone to, because everyone was so used to iPhone and Android. So then all the developers, including even Microsoft, got enamored with the hamburger menu as the new action bar, and that was the end of that experiment.

I really agree with you, to be very clear; this is one of many things where I think that Windows Phone had the benefit of hindsight and actually delivered a superior experience to the competition. But Windows Phone is repeatedly finding that there's too much inertia behind iPhone and Android's existing UI metaphors, so Microsoft has steadily been turning Windows Phone into more of an Android-with-fewer-apps than a real alternative.

If Microsoft, with a need to distinguish itself, and a fresh user base, could not move the control buttons to the bottom, I do not have high hopes for Apple at this point.

Later this year we will have even more choices of screen sizes for visual input/output: with Apple Watch joining iPhone5s/5c/6/6+/?, iPad Mini, iPad and perhaps a larger iPad. We also have the range of mac laptops and desktops which are not (yet?) touch-screen but have keyboards, trackpads and mice.

For all of these devices we have a choice of audio input/output, from (for me clunky) Beats headphones through to the classic Apple headphones, earpieces and other non-Apple devices and of course built in mics and speakers on most devices.

We will put these together in our own way. Tiny screens for glances and simple tasks, larger screens for two handed use and longer or more complex tasks, and computers with keyboards for the most complex tasks. We can increasingly use audio to control and get output from any device, so the large device might sit in a bag or pocket while the voice commands or watch drive actions.

So someone might be content with an iPhone 5S sized phone, but they may also have an iPad for reading. Alternatively an Apple Watch, iPhone 6+ and no iPad could deliver the same solution in a different way.

I'm not sure how it will play out, not for me let alone anyone else. I didn't ever expect to get a vast screen phone, but after trying an otherwise unusable Sony Z2 on a trip I realised that the 6+ could be incredibly useful - and it is. The old 5 looks tiny now.

I'm just glad there are choices - within the ecosystem of course.

I can't wait until we can deliver pizza with our iPizza Delivery Device. Until then, no pizza for we.

Yes, I agree. I've also had the iPhone 6 since launch. One the second day I accidentally dropped it and the screen shattered. I was told by an Apple Genius to get AppleCare over the phone, which I did, and then I replaced my phone using that. That night, I bent it because I accidentally sat on it in my back pocket. I subsequently got this replaced under the free warranty, so frankly I'm satisfied with the level of care I've gotten from Apple regarding these problems.

In the past few months, I've gotten used to it, but I prefer my iPhone 5. I still have my iPhone 4 and 5 lying around, and the iPhone 5 is still nice to hold.

I always feel like the iphone6 is going to slip from my grasp. I never felt that with my iPhone 5. As well, the larger screen just doesn't do it for me. Too many buttons or links for "Next", etc are in the upper right or left hand corners, and I never can reach them with one hand. The overall usability of the iPhone 5 is much better.

I do like using ApplePay, and it is much easier to read websites with the iPhone6, especially when in landscape mode. In the end, I'll just adapt, but it's not like the iPhone 6 is a clear home run vs the iPhone 5, and that is probably meaningful in terms of how the pace of their innovation is slowing down.

> That night, I bent it because I accidentally sat on it in my back pocket.

Do people really keep phones in their back pockets?

For that matter, do people really still keep anything in their back pockets, except as an ephemeral thing that you take out after a few seconds? Sitting with things in your back pockets is known to create spinal problems.

When I'm up and walking about, sticking my phone in my back pocket is pretty convenient - I try to remember to remove it before I sit down, but not always

I put my phone in my back pocket often, when I need to stick it somewhere briefly. I think in that particular case, I was picking up one of my kids, and I slid it into my back pocket, and then subsequently forgetting it was there. I never had a problem with sitting on my iPhone 5.

Well... when dancing bachata it's considered good etiquette to take things out of your front pockets and put them in your back ones.

But I wouldn't sit down with a phone in my back pocket, it's uncomfortable as hell.

Reading a lot of the comments about this story, the takeaway should really be that people prefer different sized devices. I like the size of the iPhone 5. After iPhone 6 came out, I have even considered looking at some of the android devices, but all of them are actually bigger than the 5 as well.

That being said, I can see how people can prefer a phone with a bigger screen. Apple makes 3 different sizes of the MacBook, the 11, the 13, and the 15 inch. They also used to carry the 17 inch one, which my dead would have loved, because he is looking for a new laptop with a 17+ screen. All he does is sit's with it in his arm chair and listens to music, so portability isn't a priority for him. He is currently using a 17 inch Lenovo.

In any case, a 4.5 inch, 5 inch, and 5.5 inch iPhone product range is quite reasonable. For the really crazy amongst us, make the iPad Mini and the iPad also phone capable, and sell that to people if they really need to have the biggest phone they can possibly have. There are already data capable iPads, so they have the hardware necessary. Make it work like a phone with headphones, and there you go, it's just a software tweak away.

The other big problem with the new iPhone 6 line is the ridiculous amount of space that's wasted below and above the screen. If you hold the phones side by side, you will realize that the screen from the iPhone 6 can easily fit into the body of he iPhone 5. Apple has really painted themselves into the corner with the home button. Back in the days of the iPhone one they has space for a huge physical home button. But now, not so much. The home button, along with the fingerprint sensor, can be moved to the side of the phone, for use with your thumb or the pointing finger (for left handed people amongst us). This way they can make the 4.5 inch iPhone to be the size of the 4S, the 5 inch iPhone would be the size of the 5S, and the 5.5 inch model can be the size of the current iPhone 6.

Problem solved, big screens, small phones, more choice. And..... it will never happen :)

Part of the problem are the iOS design guidelines, which place the “back” button in the top-left corner (or did so in the past). A larger screen avoids the feeling of crowdedness, at the expense of reachability. If you rarely need to access the top part of your screen, the trade-off is usually at least acceptable if not worthwhile – less so with many iOS applications.

I mostly use my smart phone to browse the web, and I think one of the things Windows Phone got right was to place the navigation bar on the bottom (although I don't use Windows Phone, my phone does the same). Thus, unless there are controls at the absolute top of the page, I don't have a problem reaching anything (most native apps on my phone support gestures, which rely less on absolute finger placement).

"Back" is now a swipe from the left edge of screen to right.

I couldn't agree more. I have been very reluctant to upgrade my 5S to a 6. Admittedly, I tried once soon after the release, but the Apple store was out of AT&T phones. Since then, I've decided I might as well wait and see what happens. I've even caught myself wondering if there are any decent ~4 inch Android phones out there.

Then again, I'm the guy who was disappointed in the switch from the 4S screen to the 5. Even that screen increase was pointless for my purposes. I would still much rather have the internals, thinness, and lightness of the 5S with the screen size of the 4S. I anxiously await the day the industry returns to small phones. It's bound to happen some time.

If you're not too attached to iOS, I've just recently upgraded my old Samsung S3 to a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact. It's a ~4.5" phone with phenomenal battery life. It's got all the power of a flagship phone, but is the only flagship that is <5" that I could find. I've been using it for about 9 hours today so far (since charging) and it's still at 96% charge.

That's the Android phone that usually gets recommended in these discussions. It looks decent enough, especially for Android hardware, but it's basically the same size as the iPhone 6, and the "cost" to me of switching to Android isn't yet worth the benefit of upgrading from my still-excellent 5S. I think it will be another product cycle before I seriously consider any phone upgrade. If I really think about it, I'm probably using a phone less and less every year.

I've heard that durability is an issue on the Z3. I'd love a phone that small which is tough enough not to need a case. (Currently I have an LG G2, which I find too large, despite my large hands; I had to get a case for it after dropping it twice and smashing the screen).

I always thought the position of the back button in the top left corner is the worst part of iOS, even back before iPhone4s. I also can't reach the top left corner of my phone, but luckily I don't need to, on my Lumia (920).

This could be easily solved (if it is a problem) by making the icons scroll vertically instead of horizontally.

I don't understand the problem though how many people use a phone one-handed all the time? I can see for some things but all the time so much that it's a problem reaching the upper left corner (if right handed).

It's funny though I was just looking through some old phones today my old N95, Nexus One and my current one an S5 a difference of seven years (2007 to 2014). https://i.imgur.com/3cjBkxH.jpg

And thus the pendulum of fashion swings in the other direction. Maybe.

I never understood the obsession with large screens on phones until I was confronted with the idea of using a phone for literally everything. Using a computer 5+ days a week makes me want a reasonably sized mobile device that strikes a good balance. Were I only to have a mobile device I imagine I would want the largest screen I could get for watching video and handling my day to day miscellanea.

Those of lamenting the loss of smaller mobile devices will probably be forever outvoted by the average consumer.

I suspect the problem isn't just the physical size of the screen, but how does the UX fit it. iPhone apps were always designed with a very specific screen in mind (consider the back in the top right, for example).

Apple is facing a problem: they can not increase the screen size without breaking lots of apps, or breaking the current UX paradigms they drilled into users' muscle memory in the last 5+ years.

What wonders me is that they should have known better: we had the same issues 10+ years ago, with computer screens increasing in size and DPI.

I think the size of the phone is just a small problem. In my opinion it's the software the needs work. Right now, iOS is just scaled up and that's just not ideal.

For example, take how the Home screen icons stick to the top. You can in theory have 5 rows of icons with a blank one on the bottom. This may have worked well on previous iPhone's but with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus it makes it even harder to reach.

These are things I hope Apple addresses in iOS 9. Right now it's just scaled up for big phones. It's now time to optimize it.

I could see myself going back to a smaller phone. I use an iPad most of the time; when it comes to my phone, portability and usability on-the-go are much more important than readability.

The additional screen real estate is significant and nice, but you don't realize how much you depend on decent one-handed operation until you lose it.

That said, my 5S stays at home/office and I still carry around a 6. When paired with the leather case it's just such nice piece of hardware to hold in your hand.

I still really like mine, I especially enjoy the thinness of it. If I drop it and it breaks I'll get another one, I don't want to feel anxious about using it, since I use it a lot. I never use the reachability feature, I feel like that is more relevant to the 6+. I feel like that phone is just way too big, hilariously so, but I don't mind the size of the 6.

I upgraded to the iPhone 6 from the 4S. For the first time ever I got a case for it. The phone is so light and slick in my hands; when using it one-handed I often felt as though I were about to drop it. That said, after about 2 weeks I grew very comfortable with the larger screen. It also fits fine in my pocket even with a case. I'm very happy with it.

This is exactly what I've been saying since the release of the 6/6+.

Though I might even go so far as to say I miss the old 3.5" screen.

I for one have switched from Android (I mainly develop for Android) the first time to an iPhone (6 Plus) because Apple finally provides a "phablet" and I'd definitely switch back to Android if they should stop selling this form factor in the future.

But I agree that the accessibility feature is useless, so I've just turned it off.

When the reachability mode was first announced everyone seemed to laugh it off as a joke but I use it quite a lot. Sometimes it does cause a little bit more of a delay than I'd like but usually after pressing the intended button it will quickly jump back. I'm curious how many others use it?

Turned it off. Ratio of useful invocations to accidental ones was tiny, and it was never that useful. I'm typically reaching for something on the far side of my 6+, not the top.

When the rumors about enhancements for one handed operation started, my guess was a new standard control palette/keyboard radially extending from either bottom corner. Still think that would have been better.

I use it. I had trouble reaching the top of the 5S so the 6 is impossible for me. My issue though it that I don't think about using reachability until I have failed to reach a button up top and am already frustrated.

The iPhone 5S just managed to fit in the zipped pockets of the running shorts I wear (several different brands). The iPhone 6 does not (I bought it for ApplePay). Now I have a Garmin running watch that I probably wouldn't wear previously. I need an iPhone 6 minus.

The more I use the iPhone 6, the less inclined I am to use it while on the go and the more interested I am in the iWatch.

I doubt Apple intentionally released larger iPhones to spur such interest, but I'm curious if others out there are having the same experience.

I completely agree. I used my iPhone 6 for a month or so before I gave up and switched back to my iPhone 5s. There are things I miss about the 6, but I like the size of the 5s way more. I really hope Apple makes a top-end 4" iPhone again.

I have fairly large hands and long fingers, I've actually considered the iPhone 6 because of this. The normal iPhone always felt too small for me. I also have trouble finding gloves that fit right, the fingers are just too short.

Admittedly, I don't own an iPhone 6. But when I've tried it in the Apple Store, I must say that my own iPhone 5C fits my hand better than the iPhone 6 does. I love the 5C, it's the perfect size and shape.

Presumably the 5S is also going to have a nice long iOS support lifetime given it's the first of the 64bitters and that's the type of line Apple has been known to draw.

Also TouchID and secure enclave.

iPhone 6 confirmed to me what Steve Jobs had said about the importance of screen size.

If I was using my phone mostly like a micro-iPad for gaming and watching movies, a big screen would be desirable. But for mostly one-handed use (phone, exercise assistant, etc) it's too big.

My next phone will be the 5s. Or maybe the rumors will be right that there'll be a mini-iPhone.

Yep, I recently lost my 5s and I'll be replacing it with another one.

I really enjoy having a bigger screen. You don't -- that's okay.

It's okay, but it does suck for those of us who enjoy smaller screens, since there are no longer any flagship smartphones for us. :)

Z3 Compact? If there's a market for certain devices, companies will sell them. What do you expect companies to do here? I don't understand this discussion.

People here are complaining about a 4.7" screen phone and you counter with... a 4.6" screen phone. I think you've demonstrated baddox's point.

I still miss my Xperia mini pro. 3in display and a slide-out keyboard. Beautiful little thing... but too underpowered to keep using 4.5 years on.

Screen size isn't phone size, particularly when it comes to iPhones, since they have very large bezels. Here http://j.mp/1uIZZ6f is a size comparison of the 5S, 6 and Z3C.

I certainly don't blame any companies or the industry. I suspect they usually know what customers want and that I am in the minority.

I think the issue is that a lot of people wish that Apple would've continued making a NEW iPhone 5-sized phone with upgraded internals along side the 6 and 6+.

He must have really short arms if he can not even reach across the screen of an iPhone 6.

Someone has to be the cynic – Yay another article about personal whims.

PRO TIP: Do people forget you can lightly tap the home button twice to bring the top of the screen halfway down the screens length to make it reachable with one hand?

I don't think so, given the many comments about reachability. It seems many don't feel it's an intuitive solution.

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