Long compared to a 5 year old girl or a normal human? I'm 74.5" and can rest the bottom of the 5s on my #5 digit (little finger for the un-informed) and still stretch my thumb to all 4 corners. I can do the same with an s4 and the first note..... with some slight manipulation with it in my hand.I kind of wish they kept a size similar to the 4S.
4" is still a bit too big for me, I like to be able to completely interact with the phone with one hand. It's a bit difficult to touch the full length of the screen with 1 hand, and I have pretty long fingers.
Not sure how a larger phone is going to keep you from using it with one hand (or really why it's that important that you only use it with one hand.... unless of course you only have one hand).