Someone recently remarked at how small my phone was. “It’s a baby phone!“, they said when they saw it lying out on a table on one of those rare moments when I needed to charge it.
Ignoring the comment itself (as I did), it made me think about the size of phones, and how strange the evolution of their sizes have been.
Because, let’s face it, phones are huge these days, and growing larger. Does this make any sense?
Tech gets smaller
I remember my family’s first mobile phone. When we would go on long trips, my dad would “get out the car phone”. I don’t remember the model or anything, but it probably looked like this:
Obviously, this part of the story is no different from the computers-used-to-be-the-size-of-a-room story. Gadgets get smaller, more compact, more efficient. An Arduino now has more computing power than your average desktop computer from the 80’s.
Tech gets weirder
But along the way, something went a little haywire: phones started getting bigger again.
I looked up the size of every iPhone ever, for purposes of comparison, and the results were striking to me. Check this:
- The original iPhone was 4.3 × 2.4 inches.
- The iPhone 4 was 4.5 × 2.3 inches.
- The iPhone 5 was 4.9 × 2.3 inches.
- The iPhone 6 was 5.4 × 2.6 inches.
- The iPhone SE brought things back down to 4.9 × 2.3 inches again, but that was discontinued.
Today, the smallest model you can buy is 5.4 × 2.6 inches, and the largest is a whopping 6.2 × 3.1 inches. I’ve seen books smaller than that.
Okay, but so what? We all know that phones aren’t really for talking now. These days, it’s a portal into Facebook and Yelp and Google Maps and arguments with your partner.
Mobile no more?
Why does size matter?
Well, from an ergonomics perspective, it starts to contradict the first word in the phrase “mobile phone”.
If nothing else, it’s getting harder to fit those things into your pocket.
The ability to put something in your pocket might seem banal, but it’s empowering. You don’t need any other equipment with you to carry something in my pocket. My wallet fits in my pocket; I don’t need a bag to hold it.
Steve Jobs never built an empire on “1000 songs that can barely fit in your pocket.“
You have no choice
But maybe the pocket thing doesn’t matter to you. You might not even wear clothing with pockets.
But here’s what does matter: if you want a smartphone, at the time of writing, you basically have to buy one that’s over 5 inches long and almost 3 inches wide. You have no choice.
If Apple and Samsung say that you want a large smartphone that you can’t even hold with one hand then you have to obey.
I don’t know about you, but this is kind of like being told that t-shirts only come in L, XL, and XXL.
It’s like being told that you are only allowed to be in relationships with certain people and not others. Who would make anyone do that? (Oh wait.)
If the norm works for you, that’s great. And perhaps for a lot of people, it does. But what if it doesn’t? Shouldn’t you have a choice?
I don’t know about you, but I’ll stick to my current phone, which is a paltry 3.8 × 1.9 inches. That size will fit in any pocket you care to put it in.
