Tech

When I first chose a big phone it was because I was tired of looking up information on web sites that required a lot of side scrolling on a small screen. Bigger screens and higher DPI made them easier to read.

Then the sites got redesigned using newer frameworks, and now sites require even more side scrolling because of all that f*"**ing padding.

Nowadays I don't care about the size of the phone any more, it's all about battery life and weight.

Old infographic, but still relevant…

Also, as others pointed out, bigger phones almost always have better specs overall. I used to have top notch Samsung phones specifically for the camera and battery life, bc I used my phone for site surveys.

I miss smaller phones (<5.5") so much. Went for the smallest one with a decent price, and privacy centric aosp support, I could find.

Bigger screen and longer battery life are the main reasons for me.

For me, I actually never look at the size. There are two criteria: whether there's a supported ROM and battery life. Everything else is tertiary.

Unfortunately, most of the phones with good battery life are big phones. Since mine is face down and just waiting for messages, a big screen doesn't make that much of a difference since it's not on most of the time. Only when traveling do big phones gobble up battery.

I lust for a phone that lasts me a week and has a ROM. It can be twice or even triple as thick as phones today and I wouldn't give a fuck. Nokia and Sony Ericson made thicc phones and it never bothered me.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

i bought the smallest one in reasonable price, but its still big

I've always bought the biggest phone available, starting with the HTC Evo which dropped in 2010 when I was a cellphone salesman. The extra screen real estate always worked great for gaming and reading ebooks.

Since then I've always found that the biggest options just work best for me. I even had the Samsung Fold last year, and finally reached a point where the weight wasn't worth the screen real estate. I've since stepped down to the Samsung Flip, and it works much better for my needs.

There doesn't seem to be any affordable small phones. Small phones don't have a big market so they're usually $500+ and have worse specs than other phones in the same price range.

I would like a small phone.

I have shitty eyes so a big phone is easier to use for me

To me, it's always a lack of choice first, budget constraints second. I personally despise a lot of design choices of smartphones, such as touchscreens (they're battery drainers), lack of physical keyboard and a "make it as flimsy as possible" mentality

A Moto Droid 3 with more up-to-date insides (a midrange spec from 2018 is more than enough) would be an instant buy for me.

I currently have a Galaxy S8, I find it stupidly and needlessly big, but I got it used for cheap and I use the camera a lot, which was the main reason I bought it. Before that, I was using a Xiaomi 6X (MiA2), which was pretty much the same size as the S8, until the USB port got fucked up

I've preferred bigger phones since I had my Nexus 6. Better for YouTube, games (ik, ik), and reading. Frankly, I like a phone as big as I can fit in my pocket. Big phones today don't even feel as big in the hand as that one by comparison because most modern big phones are just tall - the Nexus 6 was effin WIDE.

I mainly used mine for youtube, games and emails. The larger screen just makes everything better. I have since removed 90% of what I use a phone for so screen size no longer matters. I’d rather go back to a smaller screen to save my hands the pain lol.

I'm the gal with a Fold. I consume a lot of media, be it ebooks, manga, or just YouTube videos. My old tablet couldn't take it anymore, and my phone was up for a change after its honorable service.

Including my eyesight going down the drain with age, it makes up the perfect phone for me.

My first smartphone was a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. I'm a woman with all the small pockets that entails, and that phone was a great size. Sony was one of the last manufacturers making a smaller version of their flagship phone without sacrificing performance quality. I would have stuck with this line of phones if it hadn't been discontinued. Alas.

My current phone is a OnePlus 6, a gift rather than something I chose. It's not huge, but it is the biggest phone I have owned. And had I been choosing, I likely would not have considered this model because one of my criteria is that the phone fits comfortably in my pockets.

It was a happy surprise that the current phone actually does fit well enough (mostly). And this has shown me that I can be more flexible than I thought when it comes to phone size.

Not sure what direction I'm looking when it comes time to replace this phone. Truthfully, I'd still probably prefer something a little smaller. But in a limited market, you take what you can get.

Because I felt like I had no choice. I wanted the 5x optical zoom on the Pixel 8 pro ever so slightly more than I thought the size was too big. If there were a smaller Pixel with such a zoom I would have bought it without hesitation.

I had a Samsung S9 which is quite OK size, I like it a lot. But there are no security updates for it anymore so now I have a Samsung S24 Ultra which is way to big, but has a lot of features which the S24 doesn't have but it's not much bigger.

Basically for me it is lack of choice.

The phone I have now was the only one available at the tine that had more hardware features than the one I was replacing. I didn't take the fact that it was larger into account at all.

I’m a guy with large hands, big pockets and blessed with terrible eyesight. But: I’d still buy a big phone if none of those applied. Because small phones tend to have even worse battery life than big ones.

Easier on my eyes. And easier to multitask with splitscreen to take advantage of the size. Lot of my media consumption is also comics and manga which bigger screen means bigger font than it would be on a tiny screen.

Because most options were large. There are so few small phones these days.

Because I want a big phone. More battery and more screen is better for me. In all these videos they say phones have gotten bigger... But they haven't. They've been around the same size for 7 - 8 years now. People think this because the screen diagonal has crept up a bit but that doesn't tell much about the size when the screen ratios changes. In fact there were quite a few phones that were over 80mm wide 5+ years ago. I wish they still made some like that instead of making them longer.

I bought the smaller Pixels until they started making them worse than the big ones. This is purely due to availability. If they offered a smaller Pixel Pro that matched key specs of the larger model (cameras, processors, ram, storage) I'd get it.

Smaller phones fit better in pockets, are "big enough" for the purpose of a smartphone, weigh less, and hurt less when you accidentally drop them on your face in bed.

As someone with large hands, I usually get the larger phone out of necessity. I have a Pixel 7 Pro, and I can reach my thumb to all 4 corners (with some stretching required for the furthest).

Im gonna get the new pixel 8a and though it's not huge, I would say that I would buy smaller if there was a smaller offering but there is none. Apple pushed the industry to use bigger phones and everybody is following. Hate this trend and would like it if we go back.

Higher resolution, so I'm not staring at a handful of pixels instead of a video. The smaller ones were also less performant, which would mean I would need to buy a new phone earlier, and I hate switching phones (though that process has improved over the years - it still takes a while before you're really set up)

QWERTY keyboard, mainly.

I was a big physical keyboard goon, but they are few and far between now.

I was thrilled with my BlackBerry Passport, even everyone took the piss when that chonky boi came out, usually something like "hey that's a nice 50" TV you've got there" or "hey when are you going to wall mount your phone?" and all that bollocks. Bigger phone makes for a comfier keyboard though, and my Unihertz Titan would have killed someone it was that big and solid (giggity).

Now I've gone the opposite direction with the Samsung Galaxy Flip, the folded form factor is quite nice admittedly.

They stopped supporting 3G and gave me a gift cert to pick a new phone to replace my flip phone with so I used all of it and then a little to get a more or less current Android.

Currently running a Unihertz Jelly Star. I keep a tablet in my backpack if I really need screen real estate

I always went for bigger phones. Like I had the original Samsung Galaxy Note (This was back in 2011, so everyone was making fun of me "why is your phone so big?!")

Now I use a S23 Ultra, which is practically the same as the original note, even comes with a stylus pen again)

I just like having a lot of screen space. As long as it still fits in my pocket, why would I want a super small phone

I've been e-reading since the Palm days. The biggest device that I can fit into a secure pocket has always been my choice.

Because the Zenfone 10 doesn't work well on US carriers. I bought the dang phone because of MKBHD loving the 9 and glowing on the 10.

It was a great experience besides losing cell reception when I entered any buildings or not having the bandwidth to take a work Teams meeting.

Got a pixel just to try it and it's been alright besides battery life

I was in the market for the Zenphone 10. I was literally about to pull the trigger on it when the S24 came out with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. I was curious about the included hardware specifically for AI, and I was thinking about the future a bit and that apps will probably be able to use it later on if anything. Also the case situation is dismal on Asus phones.

The base S24 is "smaller" than most phones I see nowadays so I was swayed. I can still one hand the thing, but its at the VERY EDGE of being handleable.

I don't regret my decision at all, still went from a big phone to something smaller. I won't go bigger again unless its for a folding phone.

The bigger screens are nice for content, to a certain point. Otherwise the smaller phones win for me in nearly every other scenario.

I didn't, I have a zenphone 9.

My hands are huge

Beacuse zenphones were extremly expensive compared to ROG phones somehow. While rog phones were very often on extreme discounts as far as new flagships phone are concerned price of zenphones hold steady.

Also zenphone shines ( has a led backlight ). It might or might not have affected mu decision making.

Honestly I actually attribute at least a bit of it to MKBHD himself -- he's got huge hands, and he makes large phones look manageable. He's one of the most important tech influencers out there and he makes a 7" phone look like a 5" phone.

I have about average sized hands and I had to do weird juggle-shifting to reach the far side of my old Galaxy Notes. I'm on a Sony Xperia something or other now, which has a narrow but taller screen, and it's a bit better -- but still not ergonomic.

They really only think of size in terms of thin. I'll take a thicker phone with all the hardware and a bigger battery, except with a smaller screen. But they don't make those.

And let's face it. Many of us have to make snap decisions on replacement. I'd still be on my previous phone if it hadn't met with disaster.