Since I posted earlier about wanting a bigger iPhone, I figured I should provide a follow-up since I recently decided to upgrade my 4S to a 5. First off, I wasn't really looking to upgrade, as I was in the camp of wanting a bigger screen and wanted it wider, too, but my daughter's iPhone 4 was giving her problems (broken power button), so we decided I'd give her my 4S and I'd upgrade. I took a short trip to the AT&T store so that I could play with the Galaxy Note II and the new Windows phones. Those were all very nice, but I found that it wasn't quite the night-and-day improvement I was expecting in terms of being able to read the tiny fonts when viewing a desktop-optimized website. I did like the neat-factor of the Windows UI, but wasn't sure if it was necessarily more useful/usable, or just neat looking. I also played with Galaxy Note II's stylus and drawing app, wondering if I'd fall in love with that, but it didn't do that much for me, either (I do love the idea of a pressure-sensitive stylus for an iPad-sized device for artistic purposes, but on a smaller screen, I don't see myself doing a lot of art work).
I knew going in that the iPhone 5 would likely be my new device because of the fact that I was "locked in" (mostly happily) to the Apple ecosystem. Between my MacBook Air, multiple Apple TV's, and the fact that my wife and daughter both had iPhones and we could purchase one app and install it on all of our devices, or instantly pick up each other's phones and navigate around as needed, it would take a lot to get me to switch to a different OS.
After buying the iPhone 5 and using it for a bit, I found that I did like the thinness of it, and the taller screen is more impressive when playing back 16:9 videos, as I expected it to be, but I don't see myself doing that very often. The taller screen does make it more uncomfortable to use one-handed, requiring me to shift my hand around a bit. Where I have the most difficulty is when I'm lying in bed and holding the phone up to check something. I rest the bottom of the phone on my right pinky and because of the angle of it, it wants to fall forward. I'd have to remind myself how/why the 4S was different/better in this regard, but I don't think I had a problem with that. Still, I don't think I'd want to go back to the 4S's screen, if given the choice. And I think I'm still in the camp that I'd prefer to go bigger, even if it means a further loss in some one-handed usability. But I can also appreciate that not everyone feels that way, and there are legitimate advantages to the smaller screen size.
Part of my point in posting this is to say that I think the idea of Apple giving people a choice of a couple different screen sizes would be a *good* thing, and not a crazy idea, as it has been portrayed by some. Also, the rebuttal by some that, "well, if you don't like the screen size Apple offers, you have plenty of choices among Android and Windows phones," is weak, because changing OSes is not an easy decision, and there are some people who, even if they're not as "locked in" as I am, may actually *prefer* the Apple iOS and want to have both the iOS *and* a larger screen (imagine that?). Offering a 2nd model with a larger screen would be *easy* for Apple, if they don't change the resolution. They may not be able to call that larger 1136x640 screen "retina" anymore, but I still think that resolution would be more than sufficient for a large number of people. I'd be interested to know how many people longing for a larger-screened iPhone feel like an increase in resolution is a must. I suspect many/most of them simply want a larger physical screen, for readability, better video viewing, etc., even if it didn't offer any bump in resolution.
I knew going in that the iPhone 5 would likely be my new device because of the fact that I was "locked in" (mostly happily) to the Apple ecosystem. Between my MacBook Air, multiple Apple TV's, and the fact that my wife and daughter both had iPhones and we could purchase one app and install it on all of our devices, or instantly pick up each other's phones and navigate around as needed, it would take a lot to get me to switch to a different OS.
After buying the iPhone 5 and using it for a bit, I found that I did like the thinness of it, and the taller screen is more impressive when playing back 16:9 videos, as I expected it to be, but I don't see myself doing that very often. The taller screen does make it more uncomfortable to use one-handed, requiring me to shift my hand around a bit. Where I have the most difficulty is when I'm lying in bed and holding the phone up to check something. I rest the bottom of the phone on my right pinky and because of the angle of it, it wants to fall forward. I'd have to remind myself how/why the 4S was different/better in this regard, but I don't think I had a problem with that. Still, I don't think I'd want to go back to the 4S's screen, if given the choice. And I think I'm still in the camp that I'd prefer to go bigger, even if it means a further loss in some one-handed usability. But I can also appreciate that not everyone feels that way, and there are legitimate advantages to the smaller screen size.
Part of my point in posting this is to say that I think the idea of Apple giving people a choice of a couple different screen sizes would be a *good* thing, and not a crazy idea, as it has been portrayed by some. Also, the rebuttal by some that, "well, if you don't like the screen size Apple offers, you have plenty of choices among Android and Windows phones," is weak, because changing OSes is not an easy decision, and there are some people who, even if they're not as "locked in" as I am, may actually *prefer* the Apple iOS and want to have both the iOS *and* a larger screen (imagine that?). Offering a 2nd model with a larger screen would be *easy* for Apple, if they don't change the resolution. They may not be able to call that larger 1136x640 screen "retina" anymore, but I still think that resolution would be more than sufficient for a large number of people. I'd be interested to know how many people longing for a larger-screened iPhone feel like an increase in resolution is a must. I suspect many/most of them simply want a larger physical screen, for readability, better video viewing, etc., even if it didn't offer any bump in resolution.
