Recently Apple unveiled the iPhone4S with a 3.5 inch screen size, contrary to the popular speculation. It was widely believed that the latest device would come with a 4 inch display.
Incidentally, all the versions of iPhone and iPod Touch devices have the same 3.5 inch screen. All the applications in the Apple App Store are also optimised for the iPhone and iPod Touch devices for the same reason.
There must be something which makes the 3.5 inch screen of iPhone popular, that too at a time when there are several other devices out in the market which are selling with bigger screens, especially the Samsung Galaxy S2 screen which has almost one inch larger (4.27 inches) screen.
A designer named Dustin Curtis has posted an interesting information on his blog. He says, “I’ve been wondering why Apple chose to make the iPhone 4S’ screen 3.5 inches when other comparable phones with Android and Windows Phone 7 have larger, more inviting screens. When you first see a phone with a 4 inch or larger screen, it seems like a much better experience. I thought it was a technical decision, and it could be, but since switching to an Android phone — a Samsung Galaxy S II, the ‘best Android phone you can buy, anywhere’ — 15 days ago, I have realised another huge downside of larger screens: when holding the phone with one hand, I can’t reach the other side of the screen with my thumb.”
At the same time, it is not really impossible to use the Samsung Galaxy S2 screen size with one hand, but the task is difficult for the users because fingers need to be stretched completely to reach the other opposite corner, which is not a convenient option.
On the other hand, just by using their thumb, users can reach the whole of iPhone’s screen easily. In the landscape mode, both the phones are good to cover entire screen with the two hands, so the problem only occurs in the Portrait mode when users would like to use only one hand.
Therefore, those users who choose their devices just because they have a bigger screen, may do well to consider buying a tablet after all. Apple could have easily trumped the competition by choosing to go with a larger screen, may be a 4.3 inch one but it didn’t because the company sees some genuine merit in maintaining the screen size of 3.5 inch.