The Big Disadvantage of Small Phones Like the iPhone Mini
If you’re glued to your phone, at least make it a good one
The iPhone 12 Mini, launching this week for $729 and up, is Apple’s smallest phone in years. The company hasn’t released a phone as small as the 5.18-inch iPhone Mini since 2013, when it debuted the iPhone 5 line, which ranged in size from 4.87 to 4.9 inches.
It’s cute, and as Corey Jones, chair of the Industrial Design Department at California College of the Arts, says, “The 12 Mini is probably the purest expression of the iPhone in recent memory.”
But I really don’t recommend it if you, like me, are a heavy phone user. Research indicates that the smaller the screen, the harder it is to read and process the information presented on it. That isn’t to say it’s a bad option for every single person, but for most smartphone users, I’d caution against choosing the Mini over other, bigger options. Screen size is critical to how easily people absorb and understand information, and when we’re getting more of it than ever via our smartphones — and when so much of it is actually misinformation — it is maybe not the best idea to put obstacles in the way of our reading comprehension.
Content on a bigger screen demands less cognitive effort than the same…
