[kbrackbill]

Do you have any insight as to why?

I'm part of that minority and small phones seem better in so many ways. My hands are relatively big I think, but even with "small" phones now I can barely use them with one hand. The smaller screen uses less battery. Larger phones don't fit in pockets very well and result in a spot that wears through on my jeans where the corner of the phone pokes out from my pocket.

I'm really struggling to think of advantages to larger phones. I guess if you always carry around a purse/bag then the size doesn't matter as much, and if you had smaller hands then maybe one-handed use is just impossible regardless of the size. But what's the use case? It's not like a real computer where a larger screen means you can multitask better, since you can barely multitask anyway.

[somebodythere]

Larger phone also means you can fit a larger battery inside. In fact, in many cases the battery size/power consumption ratio can be improved.

Also people are spending a larger amount of their time on their phones watching video. A larger screen is an improved experience for watching video.

[jdietrich]

There has been a drastic increase in how much people use their phones. according to a 2017 study by comScore, the average American adult spends 2 hours and 51 minutes per day using their phone. Other research has returned even higher numbers; a large proportion of people spend more than a quarter of their waking hours looking at their phone.

Given such heavy use, it makes sense to use the biggest practical screen. There's a reason why books aren't the size of an index card. Screen sizes in the west have historically lagged behind middle-income markets, where smartphones leapfrogged laptops as the primary computing device for most users. Indian and Chinese customers were demanding 6" 'phablets' at a time when most manufacturers were ambivalent about breaking the 5" barrier. A 6" device is roughly the upper limit for average female hands and average trouser pockets, making it a natural point of convergence.

An iPhone SE has a screen area of 44.1cm². A phone with a 6" 16:9 display has a screen area of 99.2cm². That's still tiny compared to a paperback book (~195.8cm²), but it's pretty much the sweet spot.

https://hackernoon.com/how-much-time-do-people-spend-on-thei...

[raydev]

> The smaller screen uses less battery

I just upgraded to the XS Max and it lasts far longer than my 5S, 6S, and 7 before it. It's even in Apple's support docs, the bigger phones have better battery life.

> I'm really struggling to think of advantages to larger phones

For me, it's all about reading. Most weekends I'm taking my kid to events that don't require my full attention. As I started using my phone for reading more, I found I was getting frustrated with the cramped space, constantly scrolling.

So this year I went all out and got the XS Max, and I gotta say: I couldn't be happier. Less scrolling, I make far fewer typing mistakes with the bigger phone, I'm not scrambling to charge my phone at 5pm.

Sure, I had to give up typing one-handed as my thumb cannot reach the opposite side of the keyboard. That's fine.

[linuxftw]

Clothing should have a certain amount of utility, IMO. Perhaps it's the jeans that need to be updated.

I'm pretty happy with the size of my phone currently, not sure it qualifies as small or large. Largest phone I had was for work, Iphone 6+, that thing was unwieldy, essentially a tablet. I wouldn't own one that big personally.

[Kaibeezy]

Cargo pants, right? The modern variant is called “tactical”, and can be found with flat sides rather than bulky pouches. In a dark color the pockets are almost invisible.

Vertx Legacy are my favorite. The thigh pocket has an inner magazine pocket that holds a phone perfectly. Or a backup battery. If you carry two phones, it keeps them from clunking into each other.

https://vertx.com/mens-legacy-pants

[linuxftw]

flat side cargo pants, that's pretty neat, I hadn't seen those.

[stedaniels]

You can't just keep making bigger pockets... Your legs and hips bend in ways that a phone can't.

[kalleboo]

Time to go back to the days when I had my Palm IIIx in a pouch on my belt http://www.militaryuniformsupply.com/files/products/p/pda-po...