Rethinking Display Size (Premium)

It hasn’t taken me very long to identify a few key areas of concern with the iPhone 12, but to be clear these issues are personal, meaning they relate to my ability to use this handset full-time going forward. So they may or may not bother you at all.

One such issue is the size of the display. And while display size sounds like a simple enough topic—it’s whatever size in inches, measured on the diagonal—it’s gotten complex in recent years thanks to the evolving nature of the smartphone.

Today, smartphone displays aren’t just “bigger” than they used to be—again, as measured in inches diagonally—they’re also taller, top to bottom, and they are different widths, side-to-side, leading in sum to different aspect ratios. Taller and wider displays let you see more content, or at least provide a bigger canvas for that content, but they can also lead to heavier handsets that are hard or impossible to hold and use with a single hand.

To combat that reality, some handset makers have used very tall aspect ratio displays which are taller but less wide. This is, I think, a good compromise: Such handsets are often easier to hold and use with one hand, though icons and other content located towards the top of the screen will require two hands to reach.

I’ve been thinking a lot about display size this year. There’s been an interesting revival in small display devices like the Apple iPhone SE and Google Pixel 4a, but we’ve also seen larger devices get even bigger, as with the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

One’s preferences are one’s own, of course. But whereas I’ve always appreciated and wanted the largest displays possible, that’s changed over the past year. In late 2019, I bought an iPhone 11 Pro Max, and while I’m mostly OK with the size of this display—6.5-inches on the diagonal—I’m not at all happy with its brick-like weight and thickness. It’s … just too much. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra I reviewed recently, however, crossed a line. Yes, it’s an amazing handset, but it’s a 6.7-inch display and the resulting heft and size required of its form factor—not to mention its curved edges, which lead to far too many mis-taps—made me wonder if smartphone makers had reached some ceiling.

Like the Note 20 Ultra, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max has a 6.7-inch display, and my experience with the Samsung and the Pro Max’s huge and dense predecessor both played roles in me looking elsewhere for this generation of iPhones.

But the iPhone 12 feels … small to me. Is, perhaps, on the border of being too small. (Again, for me. I realize some prefer smaller displays. God love you, there’s no need to argue the point.) And I was curious why that was: At 6.1-inches on the diagonal, the iPhone 12 display seems like a good half-way point between the humongous phablets and smaller handsets like the Pixel 4a (5.8-inches).

To understand how this display compares to other smartphones I still have in my home office, I did the obvious: I just lined them up by display size. And to make this information easier to digest, I split up the sizing comparisons into two, with the iPhone 12 compared to different handsets in each.

Here’s the first one.

Here, from left to right, is:

Google Pixel 4a. 5.81-inches, 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It’s too small for me, but I really like the design, the small and even bezels, and the camera punch-out hole.

Apple iPhone 12. 6.1-inches, 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It’s on the edge of being too small for me, but notice how the notch makes the display seem to be no bigger than that of the Pixel 4a. It also has rather large bezels compared to Android handsets.

Google Pixel 4 XL. 6.3-inches, 19:9 aspect ratio. I recall this display seeming too small to me when I first opened the box last year; I thought I had mistakenly ordered the non-XL variant. But now, this seems like a good size to me. That said, the design, with the top-heavy “forehead” bezel, is ugly.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max. 6.5-inches, 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Despite its larger overall size, that notch makes the usable part of the display no larger than that of the smaller Pixel 4 XL.

Here’s comparison number two:

Here, from left to right, is:

Apple iPhone 12. 6.1-inches, 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

Huawei P30 Pro. 6.47-inches, 19.5:9 ratio. This, to me, as emerged as the Goldilocks handset, at least from a display size/aspect ratio perspective, though the teardrop notch for the front camera is already old-fashioned looking, and the curved screen edges aren’t ideal.

OnePlus 8. 6.55-inches, 20:9 aspect ratio. This is a good size as well, though the slightly curved edges are a bit of a concern. The OnePlus 8T, not pictured, as the same size display but with flat edges, which is preferable.

OnePlus 8 Pro. 6.78-inches, 19.8:9 aspect ratio. This is my “biggest” smartphone, but it weighs considerably less than the iPhone 11 Pro Max and I like it’s tall and thin aspect ratio.

Just for kicks, I also photographed the smallest smartphone, the Pixel 4a, next to the tallest, the OnePlus 8 Pro:

That’s what almost one inch of extra display (on the diagonal) looks like. It’s a huge difference.

Anyway, display size is only one metric to consider when choosing a smartphone, of course. But this could still lead me down an interesting path. I will be replacing my Pixel 4 XL with something in the coming weeks. And I’ve got some interesting choices.

They are:

OnePlus 8T. 6.55-inches, 20:9 aspect ratio. My review unit is arriving this week (belatedly; hopefully this one won’t be stolen by a FedEx employee too), and I like the display size, and the flatness of its edges, a lot. The price is $750.

Pixel 5. 6-inches, 19.5:9 aspect ratio. This isn’t much bigger than the Pixel 4a, and it’s just a hair smaller than the iPhone 12, though the Apple’s notch means the displays are probably pretty close, from a usage area perspective. It may simply be too small. The price is $700.

Pixel 4a with 5G. 6.2-inches, 19.5:9 aspect ratio. There’s no Pixel 4a XL this year, but this one comes pretty close. And when you compare this to the size of the Pixel 4 XL, which I like, hm… that gets interesting. Plus, it’s $200 less than the Pixel 5. You can’t even order one until sometime in November, so I’ve been kind of waiting on this. The price is $500.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. 6.5-inches, 20:9 ratio. This one is very interesting as well with its tall and thin aspect ratio, flat display edges, and fun color choices. The price is $700 and up.

We’ll see where I end up.

I think I’ll end up keeping the iPhone 12, but I also think I’ll end up using a different phone going forward. Samsung will give me $350 towards an S20 FE if I trade-in my Pixel 4 XL. But Google will give me $365 to trade in the Pixel 4 XL, and since the Pixel 4a with 5G is so much less expensive to start with, I’d end up paying just $135 for that “upgrade.” That may put it over the top.

Or it may not. There’s so much else to consider, including the cameras. It never ends.