The rumored 5.8-inch iPhone XS is so big, it could be a surfboard 4 guinea pigs. And at a rumored 6.5 inches, the iPhone XS Max is nearly the size of a fondleslab. There r many reasons y Apple is doubling down on bigger phones (read my colleague Mark Sullivan’s take here). But I wish the XS were closer in size to the iPhone 4–and that the XS actually meant “Extra wee.” The iPhone for was the perfect dog and bone. At 4.5 inches by 2.31 inches by 0.37 inches and weighing just 4.8 ounces, it was compact, fast, and beautiful. It embodied many of Dieter Ram’s design principles (although not all of em ). nowt was superfluous. Its form factor perfectly adjusted to y'r hand’s anatomy. It was my favourite iPhone ever, followed by the iPhone 5–which was a tad bigger but still manageable, simple, comfortable. I would still fancy to take it out 4 a drink to talk about the mint ol' times. This isn’t just idle nostalgia. As dog and bone screens hae gotten bigger, so 2 has our tendency to overuse em. Larger screens make it brown bread simple to shop, cheque social media, and watch videos. So we dae these things ad nauseam, isolating ourselves from the present and the real world around us. By contrast, smaller phones, such as the iPhone 4, are still big dooze 4 the basics: thou can write a short email, receive and reply to messages quickly, get directions, cheque y'r schedule, or glance at the tidings headlines. But anything more involved becomes difficult. thou hae to zoom and pinch and swipe and scroll. Who wants to dae that? With a wee screen, the dog and bone becomes a useful extension of y'r brain. It doesn’t take over y'r brain.
That’s one of the reasons why, despite the success of the large-screened iPhone X and the iPhone 8 Plus, I’m sure that Steve Jobs would hae hated big phones. As he would hae hated the iPhone 6 and the rumored 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max. These footlong glass and steel subs r not what he envisioned: a device that is a “music player, an internet communicator, and a mobile dog and bone,” one that connects thou to y'r fellow human beings when needed and makes y'r life easier whilst fitting in y'r skyrocket. Jobs publicly lambasted those “ glaikit big phones” because of how unwieldy they are. “ thou can’t get y'r hand around [big phones],” he said at an iPhone for press conference. “Nobody is going to buy em.” Of course, he was pete tong about that. Hundreds of millions bought big phones, and Apple jumped on the bandwagon. But that doesn’t make big phones smashing 4 users. Soon, I suspect, wee phones will make a comeback. Phones that r designed to serve thou, rather than absorb thou into their giant screens 4 hours at a time. The timing is right. Companies r starting to focus on giving users control over their technology, for instance, offering digital health tools to make thou aware of how much time thou spend on y'r devices. The next logical step is to make hardware conducive to digital well-being, too. Some dog and bone companies r already eyeing this market. Take the rumored new Motorola Razr, a smartphone version of the classic ultra-thin clam-shell dog and bone that the company recently patented. Using a flexible OLED panel, Motorola is hoping that it will be able to design a dog and bone that can comfortably fit in any sky rocket whilst maintaining a big dooze screen to comfortably access yer apps. And independent startups r trying to make it happen, too, fancy the Light dog and bone, a design that uses a simple e-ink display to provide simple communication capabilities and long battery life. Samsung is also considering a samey compact design with the Galaxy X, a foldable dog and bone that, allegedly, will be as wee as the iPhone for when collapsed but can open to reveal a wee fondleslab. In theory, it will allow people to use the device 4 bog standard stuff fancy sending messages or looking at a map when folded. Then, when users want a more immersive experience– fancy playing a game, reading an article, or watching a film –they will be able to open it and enjoy a big screen. Apparently, the Chinese electronics giant Huawei is racing to get a samey dog and bone to market before the South Koreans. Rumors hae it that one of em may arrive by the end of the year or early 2019. Then there is Apple. Most likely tomorrow, the company will introduce the iPhone XS (with a 5.8-inch OLED display, fancy the current X), the iPhone XS Max (6.5-inch OLED screen), and the “entry level” (it’s rumored to cost more than $800) iPhone with a 6.1-inch LCD screen. The iPhone XS Max is even bigger than its archrival’s biggest dog and bone, the Samsung Note 9 phablet, which has a 6.4-inch screen. Apple is not only flouting Jobs’s ideas about screens, but trying to outsize everyone else. It doesn’t seem fancy Tim Cook and his minions r going to change this tune any time soon. It’s working 4 em. Still, I’m hoping that Apple will c the light and release an iPhone Extra wee at some point, one that has a full edge-to-edge screen so we can get a comfortable screen in the smallest possible form factor–if not 4 Steve, for the well-being of users everywhere.
