Instead They Grew the Screen to Fill the Body
Dennis Green at Business Insider offered an explanation for why he’s decided to stop using the iPhone X and go back to a Plus and it brings up a lot of feeling I’ve had about Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone lately.
But there's really only one flaw that really matters to me: the phone is impossible for me to use with one hand.
Though the phone is only a bit bigger than the iPhone 6, 7, and 8, the bezel-less screen makes for an enormous size increase.
The new gestures required by the notch mean there's no way to look at my notifications with only one hand, or access the control center. Those are pretty essential functions, and it drastically limits the usability of the phone when I'm on the go or when I only have one hand free.— Dennis Green, Business Insider
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. The narrow aspect ratio of the iPhone X is to make one-handed use easier but the user interface makes two hands a necessity. I swing back and forth between upgrading to an 8 Plus or an iPhone X. I’m torn between the Plus’s wider aspect ratio or getting the iPhone X’s awesome FaceID.
I still think that the iPhone X is the best phone you can possibly get but the size was somewhat of a compromise. I constantly come back to the fact that I wish Apple had shrunk the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus so that the the screen sizes had remained unchanged and the bezels around them had shrunk.
If Apple had shrunk the phone body around the 4.7” screen then one-handed use on the whole screen would have remained possible for most people. Further, a lot of SE owners, like my wife, would have finally been able to upgrade to the 4.7” screen. This group would have been ecstatic.
Also, a lot of us users of the 5.5” Plus prefer this wide aspect ratio because the extra width makes everything feel more spacious. Video detail is easier to see and fonts everywhere are bigger. The 5.8” screen on the X is actually larger and can physically display more data. But due to the narrow width it looks cramped in comparison to the 5.5” Plus.
I compared my phone to my co-workers X and found some interesting differences. All the text and pictures on my 7 Plus were larger. You can see much more content on the X but everything is much smaller. Apple seems to be making an attempt to mitigate this by making the fonts render thicker. The letters look much bolder than on my 7 Plus. It does help somewhat but doesn’t change the fact that the letters on the 7 Plus are significantly larger and easier to read. I can read the 7 Plus without zooming in on the text. I can’t do that on the X which renders its size advantage moot.
Though the phone is only a bit bigger than the iPhone 6, 7, and 8, the bezel-less screen makes for an enormous size increase.
The new gestures required by the notch mean there's no way to look at my notifications with only one hand, or access the control center. Those are pretty essential functions, and it drastically limits the usability of the phone when I'm on the go or when I only have one hand free.— Dennis Green, Business Insider
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. The narrow aspect ratio of the iPhone X is to make one-handed use easier but the user interface makes two hands a necessity. I swing back and forth between upgrading to an 8 Plus or an iPhone X. I’m torn between the Plus’s wider aspect ratio or getting the iPhone X’s awesome FaceID.
I still think that the iPhone X is the best phone you can possibly get but the size was somewhat of a compromise. I constantly come back to the fact that I wish Apple had shrunk the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus so that the the screen sizes had remained unchanged and the bezels around them had shrunk.
If Apple had shrunk the phone body around the 4.7” screen then one-handed use on the whole screen would have remained possible for most people. Further, a lot of SE owners, like my wife, would have finally been able to upgrade to the 4.7” screen. This group would have been ecstatic.
Also, a lot of us users of the 5.5” Plus prefer this wide aspect ratio because the extra width makes everything feel more spacious. Video detail is easier to see and fonts everywhere are bigger. The 5.8” screen on the X is actually larger and can physically display more data. But due to the narrow width it looks cramped in comparison to the 5.5” Plus.
I compared my phone to my co-workers X and found some interesting differences. All the text and pictures on my 7 Plus were larger. You can see much more content on the X but everything is much smaller. Apple seems to be making an attempt to mitigate this by making the fonts render thicker. The letters look much bolder than on my 7 Plus. It does help somewhat but doesn’t change the fact that the letters on the 7 Plus are significantly larger and easier to read. I can read the 7 Plus without zooming in on the text. I can’t do that on the X which renders its size advantage moot.
My problem with the Plus has always been the length of the phone, not the width. It is difficult to fit into pockets, will physically hurt your hip in tight pants, and is prone to flipping back due to the higher center of gravity. If Apple had removed the home button and shrunk all the bezels around the 5.5” screen I would have been overjoyed. The 5.5” screen is 4.75” tall. If Apple shrunk the bezels around this size screen the phone would be shorter than the iPhone 8 which is 5.45” tall. Can you imagine the Plus sized iPhone being shorter than the iPhone 8? That would be awesome.
Apple tried to split the difference between the 7 and 7 Plus but for a lot of Plus owners it feels like a step backwards. If Apple had shrunk the bezels on the 4.7” and 5.5” phones everyone would have been happy. A lot of 4.7” owners would have upgraded to the 5.5” phone but this would have been offset by 4.0” SE owners upgrading to the 4.7” phone.
If Apple had simply shrunk the bezels on their screens one-handed use would have been possible on the 4.7” phone and would be easier on a 5.5” screen than the current tall 5.8” screen. I thought the benefit of a narrow phone was that it was easier to use one-handed? If I need to use two hands, I might as well get the benefit of a wider screen.
Apple tried to split the difference between the 7 and 7 Plus but for a lot of Plus owners it feels like a step backwards. If Apple had shrunk the bezels on the 4.7” and 5.5” phones everyone would have been happy. A lot of 4.7” owners would have upgraded to the 5.5” phone but this would have been offset by 4.0” SE owners upgrading to the 4.7” phone.
If Apple had simply shrunk the bezels on their screens one-handed use would have been possible on the 4.7” phone and would be easier on a 5.5” screen than the current tall 5.8” screen. I thought the benefit of a narrow phone was that it was easier to use one-handed? If I need to use two hands, I might as well get the benefit of a wider screen.
Now that Apple has started down the road of tall narrow screens I’m not so sure that the rumored “X Plus” next year is going be the phone that I want. It’ll probably be an improvement over the current 5.8” X but it’s not going to be the small bezel 5.5” screen that I wanted. There’s no way that Apple could make the X Plus screen smaller than the X. That means that any X Plus screen is probably going to be even taller and harder to use. Apple will probably make an X Plus phone that is no shorter in height than the 8 Plus or maybe even slightly taller. Again, not what I wanted. Height is the worst thing about the current Plus.
I still think that the iPhone X is the best phone on the market, bar none. It has the best screen quality and I’m seriously wanting that optical 2X camera lens with optical image stabilization. Also, as a runner who can never get TouchID to work after a sweaty summer run, FaceID looks like a Godsend. I just wish that Apple had shrunk the bodies around the screens and not grown the screens to fill the bodies.
Now available in iBooks —> The Tesla Bubble
I still think that the iPhone X is the best phone on the market, bar none. It has the best screen quality and I’m seriously wanting that optical 2X camera lens with optical image stabilization. Also, as a runner who can never get TouchID to work after a sweaty summer run, FaceID looks like a Godsend. I just wish that Apple had shrunk the bodies around the screens and not grown the screens to fill the bodies.
Now available in iBooks —> The Tesla Bubble
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