Current Events > Just got the Galaxy S21 in the mail. Phones are too big now.

(+) Yeah! (+)

You're thumb barely reaches halfway to either side. This is just a very small tablet at this point.

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Agreed

Sounds like someone has dainty fingers

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KILBOTz posted...

Sounds like someone has dainty fingers

SO WHAT

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I love my S21. Upgraded from an S7 so the bigger screen and performance boost were both welcome.

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I got a phone bigger than that. I love it. I have large hands. A 7" phone is what I want in the future. Tablet me up!

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ZMythos posted...

I love my S21. Upgraded from an S7 so the bigger screen and performance boost were both welcome.

My upgrade is from S9, the faster refresh rate is lovely and the phone is just running a lot faster as a whole. But damn the length is testing the limits of my hands.

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Same as my Iphone XR, at 6.1 inches. I love the size of my phone.
Edit: and my hands aren't that big.

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i seen a sample and i dunno how I would put that in my pocket. I'd hate to carry it in my hand all the times in public.

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Doe posted...

My upgrade is from S9, the faster refresh rate is lovely and the phone is just running a lot faster as a whole. But damn the length is testing the limits of my hands.

I had an adjustment period.

I normally support the phone underneath with my pinky and rest it in my hand. I can stretch my thumb about 3/4s up this way, but I need to adjust or use my other hand to drop down the ribbon


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I hate that the volume buttons are on the right side now. Impossible for me to control volume without both hands now because I hold the phone in my left hand.

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Does it have an SD slot?

I have an S9+ and was thinking of upgrading

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Sooo how do I turn off the side key. I can't even reach it so it's just a discolored blotch on the screen

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still clinging to a 1st gen iphone SE for this reason. hate the size of cell phones now. I don't need a tablet i need something i can easily operate with one hand.

I want a phone that's small enough to operate with one hand but big enough for me to type on with my fat thumbs. Sadly these traits are mutually exclusive.

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I'm using opera instead of Firefox now. The home page News is way more alarmist

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Yup. It's partly bc they need to make them giant to get any sort of decent battery life, but it's still annoying
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How did they make all the way to 21?

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Lokison posted...

How did they make all the way to 21?

By skipping ahead from 10 to 20. So now the number matches the year, is what I believe their thinking was.

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Doe posted...

I'm using opera instead of Firefox now. The home page News is way more alarmist

not alarming enough

Go big or go home.

My Note 20 Ultra is 6.9" and although I'm 6'4" with appropriately sized hands, I don't even come close to reaching the top of the screen one handed (maybe 3/4ths the full distance if I stretch out that thumb). Serious hand gymnastics are needed.

But Samsung has a built on one-handed mode (Settings > Advanced features > One-handed mode) for easier use if needed.

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I have an S10+. I'm undecided on if I want to get the S22 when it drops, or wait for the S23. Guess it depends on if the S22 is a game changer or not. Probably won't be.

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iPhone or gtfo

Agreed

I hate giant phones. All these dumbass phone makers adding menus "just pull it down from the top of the screen"

Bitch nobody can reach the top of such a big screen with one hand without readjusting their grip or at least stretching their hand uncomfortably far. I miss my old phone where I could easily reach the whole screen with my thumb.

Phones have such big screens nowadays in large part because advertisers like having more space to fit ads on them. And because people like streaming videos. And people just assume bigger is better. From a UX design perspective such a large screen comes with a lot of problems.

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lilORANG posted...

Yup. It's partly bc they need to make them giant to get any sort of decent battery life, but it's still annoying

Heat is also a big issue in regards to this. It was actually the initial reason for the marketing push for huge phones/laptops like 15ish years ago. Before then it was smaller=better.

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I also hate large phones. I think a phone should be entirely accessible with one thumb holding from the bottom, meaning the top opposite corner shouldn't require any fiddling.

A Pop Socket helps a lot but yeah, they're too big.

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Master Kazuya posted...

I also hate large phones. I think a phone should be entirely accessible with one thumb holding from the bottom, meaning the top opposite corner shouldn't require any fiddling.

A Pop Socket helps a lot but yeah, they're too big.

There has been some action on the part of software makers to move critical actions from the top of the screen closer to the bottom, but it hasn't been pushed hard enough. For both androids and iphones, you must swipe down from the top of the phone to access your notifications and "quick" menu options. On iphones, you have to specifically swipe the left, middle or right side of the top, meaning you have to reach all the way to the opposite corner.

It's such garbage

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For both androids and iphones, you must swipe down from the top of the phone to access your notifications and "quick" menu options

False, at least for Samsung devices.

Settings > Home screen > Swipe down for notification panel

When you enable this, you can swipe down from anywhere on the home screen to pull down the notification shade and access your quick settings.

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Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

False, at least for Samsung devices.

Settings > Home screen > Swipe down for notification panel

When you enable this, you can swipe down from anywhere on the home screen to pull down the notification shade and access your quick settings.

That really doesn't refute my point. You can only do that from your home screen. It's not a solution. and I say this as somebody who has an s10e where I've turned on that feature.

I hate it so much in fact that I created an area of space on the left and right sides of my phone where I can perform certain gestures conveniently, including pulling down the status bar, without having to reach the top of the phone. I'll show you how it works

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Here's my solution. I'm really happy with it. The panels on the side allow me to do lots of things, but in the video you can see me using them to pull notifications down, view my recent apps, and return home.

https://streamable.com/n1kke8

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That really doesn't refute my point. You can only do that from your home screen

Going to your home screen is as simple as swiping up or pushing a button no matter where you are. Is that such a big deal to you?

Or, you can enable floating notifications (Bubbles or pop up view) where you can assign apps to remain anywhere you want over top your screen so that no swiping is even needed to reach your notifications. Or you can enable your notifications to appear as a banner under "detailed" so you can even respond to them without even entering the app.

Really, you have multiple options here.

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Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

Going to your home screen is as simple as swiping up or pushing a button no matter where you are.

Is that such a big deal to you?

yes. it absolutely is. The goal is to view my quick settings + notification panel, not to go to my home screen. It's something I (+ many other users) perform dozens or even hundreds of times a day. Every single additional required action matters a lot when it's for something you do so frequently. Luckily I've found a fix for it on my phone that works well for me which makes it easy to pull down the quick settings panel (shown in the video I posted). But this is a design problem that needs concerted effort from the software designers making the OS.

the problem is that accessing the quick settings menu is difficult. "enable bubble notifications" is not a fix, neither is "constantly show an app on a certain part of your screen real estate for quick access"

The real answer is for them to design the interactions in a way that allows people to easily, quickly, and gracefully perform the actions they need most often, not trying to use workarounds to get around bad design.

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Also, if the proposed solution is "go home first, then pull down the notification bar" then it's introducing multiple extra steps --

first, to use the gesture/button to go to the home screen. [then you use it...]
Second, opening your recent apps when you're done with the quick settings panel,
and third, touching the most recent one to re-open it.

if the app you were using is already shown on your home screen then you won't need to open your "recent apps" list and can just touch it instead. but that's not always the case

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I remember when I had a Galaxy Note 2

I'd often get comments about how big it was. But it was great for gaming and had a stylus.

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You are thumb barely reaches halfway to either side.

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