Comment on The new iPhone is an emblem of our miserable minimalist era
DaGeek247@fedia.io 2 weeks agoY'all appear to have forgotten what phones felt like before things got to this extreme.
It was for ergonomics; it's easier and more comfortable to hold a phone when it fits better in your hand. The phablet phase broke this for most people by making the screens super big, so they tried to correct by making the phones thinner.
A reasonable size phone that is thin enough would be perfect, but marketing doesn't like it when they can't advertise a bigger screen number, or a smaller thickness, so here we are.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 2 weeks ago
Easily the most comfortable phone to hold that I’ve owned was the Nokia I got in 1998 (my first cell, in college). It was heavy, the battery life was shit and it still had an antenna, but the grip was nice.
I don’t see anyone in public who doesn’t keep their phone in a case now, so the actual thickness of a naked phone is irrelevant to the final experience day to day.
DaGeek247@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
No, exactly. That's the problem. You can't really advertise ergonomics without it looking really different; so everyone just says "wider and thinner than ever before" and calls it a day. So we're here; with everything the wrong size and shape.
The most comfortable phone I ever used was similar to the middle phone in this picture; except the buttons were raised even higher, and the middle key wasn't a scroll wheel, just another simple button. It was also thinner, and had less rounded edges.