Is smaller actually better?
I had enough the other day, so I went to the store and picked up a smaller iPhone. The iPhone 13 Pros are just too big, bulky, and heavy. First, I had the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which was great to read and consume content on, albeit not as good as the iPad mini, so it felt a bit redundant. The 13 Pro Max was just much too heavy, so I downgraded (in size; otherwise it’s a similar device) to the iPhone 13 Pro. This one, too, is heavy, and just like its big brother, it’s just not particularly nice to hold and handle. It gets slippery if it’s cold outside, or from any kind of moisture, and just feels wrong, to me. Premium and cool, sure, but wrong, I’ve had it in a leather case all this time, which is fine. But, again, big, bulky, heavy — that’s not what I want from a phone.
So, I gave up, went to the store and picked up an iPhone 13 mini. Everything with it is worse than the 13 Pro models, from the screen (no ProMotion) to the cameras (one less, and worse in every way), except its size and feel. Slapping the Magsafe wallet on this one makes it wonderful to hold, and I barely notice the phone in my pocket. It might not feel cool and premium in the same fashion as the iPhone 13 Pro models do, but I prefer this.
The only reason I picked a Pro model this time around was because I felt that the cameras on the iPhone 12 mini wasn’t up to snuff. I stopped taking photos with my iPhone. I’ve taken more with the 13 Pros, but not nearly as many as before, so maybe the problem wasn’t the camera, but rather, me. Furthermore, I’ll take my Ricoh GRIII above these iPhone cameras any day.
It feels great to downgrade, actually. It has the added benefit of not getting caught using the iPhone for things that the iPad mini is better suited for, like reading an article or something like that. The iPhone 13 mini is a more focused and dedicated device, to me. That’s the way I like most of my devices, focused.
There’s an added benefit to my other devices, too. For example, my 12.9” iPad Pro feels huge after having used the iPhone 13 mini. It was already big, but going from the small screen, to the big one, is much more dramatic now.
Smaller is indeed better in some cases. For me, the phone is clearly one of those. Hopefully, I’ll remember that the next time Apple shows off a new iPhone available to pre-order.