A big phone works for everyone but you

But in bounding after large screens, phone makers seemed to ignore the usability issues that accompany them. Small studies have shown before that 4.3 inches is about as big as a phone can get before people start struggling to use it. The time to operate the phone slows down significantly because one-hand use is awkward – and that’s for average men’s hands. Assuming a normal distribution, for half of men and most women, a phone bigger than 4.3 inches – like the current smallest iPhone – is too big.

The increasing size of smartphones is one of the big mysteries of the technology world. The mystery lies not in phones getting larger – a lot of people prefer it – but in smaller phones, which a lot of people also prefer, disappearing, or being treated as second-class citizens.

Such an odd development.

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