Image: The Verge
Itās hard to be too disappointed by the iPhone SE. Itās cute, has great specs for the price, and now has 5G. It, along with the iPhone 13 Mini, fills that small phone niche for people with tiny hands. But as a big phone convert, Iām cheesed that the SE only comes in one size.
A cheaper smartphone with a big screen isnāt a novel idea. There are plenty of them out there ā but not if youāre on iOS. Right now, if iPhone users want a bigger-than-standard display, they have to turn their wallets inside out for the iPhone 13 Pro Max. If you get the cheapest configuration possible, youāre looking at dropping $1,099.
When it came time to upgrade my phone last year, I hemmed and hawed between the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 and the 6.7-inch 12 Pro Max. I was on the iPhone XS Max and got used to its comfortable 6.5-inch screen. I didnāt need all the bells and whistles that come with the Pro models. Iād have loved to save a couple of hundred buckaroos. But I also didnāt want to downgrade to a smaller screen. Iād gone big, and there was absolutely no going back. Am I salty that it cost me extra? Extremely.
I first joined Team Big Phone with the XS Max. My iPhone 7 had died, and like many people, I was afraid of the rise of the phablet. I worried whether itād fit in my pockets and if Iād be able to use it one-handed. That changed the second I booted up my shiny new phone.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The iPhone XR is proof that thereās an appetite for bigger budget phones.
Iāve been cursed with both severe astigmatism and nearsightedness. The last time I got my prescription updated, my eye doctor hung her head and said, āWell, sometimes you have to settle for good enough.ā I frequently use my phoneās camera to zoom in on signs I canāt read. Switching to a big phone made it so much easier to do everything modern life required of me. Enlarging the font size on my phone no longer looked comical. Not only that, but it was also easier for me to shoot off emails, watch YouTube videos, destroy my brain on Twitter, and read books. I went from giving myself headaches and wrinkles from squinting to the bliss of not having to do that. The fact that I got better battery life was just icing on the cake.
I havenāt missed using my phone one-handed. Partly because I have huge hands, but also because two-handed phone use is superior any time youāre not hanging onto a subway strap. During the work-from-home era, thatās pretty much all the time. The 12 Pro Max fits easily into my back jean pocket. Plus, the fashion industryās insidious scheme to make womenās pockets ridiculously tiny has ensured Iām always carrying a purse anyway.
Unlike some of my colleagues here at The Verge, I donāt need the best OLED display or the fanciest cameras on my phone. (I only take pictures of my pets anyway.) All I want is a big honking screen that doesnāt look like complete garbage and good battery life. Iām not thrilled that I have to pay a premium to get that.
A major reason why the iPhone SE is so popular is that itās cheap (even with the $30 hike in price for 5G). If you had a 6.5 or even a 6.7-inch iPhone SE that cost $500-$600, I guarantee you thatād sell like hotcakes. You only have to look as far as the iPhone XRās stellar sales to know thereās an appetite for a larger budget iPhone. True, I couldāve just opted for the iPhone 11, but I donāt want a standard-sized phone. I want the biggest screen I can get.
And there isnāt a good reason why Apple hasnāt done this. With the SE, it repurposed the iPhone 8ās bones. Itās within Appleās power to do the same with, say, the XS Max or the 11 Pro Max. I doubt itās because Appleās wary of fragmenting its lineup further. It had no problem introducing four iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models to choose from. Why not take a chance by making two SEs?
Sure, I could switch to Android. But Iām weak and Iāve seen how my friends treat green bubbles. No, thank you. Small phone lovers have a choice between the Mini and the SE. I would also like to have a cheaper alternative to the Pro Max.