Oh, and regarding your "no one wants their phone to get thicker..." statement.
I DO!
I will gladly, joyfully take a thicker 6 (although it's too big in its other dimensions), or thicker 5, or thicker 4 just to get more battery life.
If the 6 had just stayed the same thickness as the 5 they doubtless could have packed in more battery, and battery life is the Achille's Heel of smartphones.
Ultimately I think we all will adjust. Someone said it first and summed it up perfectly- we want a small phone in our pockets and a large screen when we're looking at it.
Now that is a problem needing an Apple solution. Tap-to-zoom and other software workarounds are just that. So is increasing the screen size. This needs a hardware+software solution. Can't wait for Apple to get there. "It just works."
Great review. I had to return my iPhone 6 because it was way too large. Very strange that Apple didn't offer a 4-inch iPhone 6. It's not normally in Apple's DNA to copy Samsung's product line, and it's also shocking that Apple would turn its back on all its customers who loved the iPhone specifically because of its size. I want an A8 processor in a 4-inch size. This goes to show that Tim Cook's instincts are wildly out of sync with what Steve Jobs' instincts were. Steve led the tech industry, whereas Tim just blindly follows the competition. Truly sad.
Apple are not in the business of catering to the wishes of the minority. The popularity of the 6 clearly shows that one handed use is not a concern for the majority of people.
The masses for the first time dictated to Apple what to produce and not the other way around- hardly innovative and yes a mistake.
A souped up 5S would indeed be welcomed. Maybe mid year or next.
The masses influence Apple quite often. For instance Apple wasn't going to make an iPod for windows initially. Further people were clamoring for Apple to making a phone for years prior to Apple actually announcing one. Apple also was not going to offer an app store for the iPhone initially but instead only web apps.
Apple is also inspired by other companies occasionally. For example Google's now feature.
None of this means that Apple is not an innovative company which it clearly is.
10 million sales in three days suggests Apple did something right.
For 99% of iPhone users the battery life of the 6 is great.
For those few people with outlyier needs.....go buy a battery case.
Why should 99% suffer with a thick chunky and heavy phone for the 1% who watch Netflix 10 hours a day?
It is infinitely easier to add thickness and battery life by buying a battery case instead of slimming down a fat phone.
yes.
Thin is very very good, I always wanted an iPhone as thin as the iPod touch, and voila.
I hope they bring out a 6s soft small, fully featured iphone 6, just smaller, maybe even sligh,y smaller than 5s
For 99% of iPhone users the battery life of the 6 is great.
For those few people with outlyier needs.....go buy a battery case.
Why should 99% suffer with a thick chunky and heavy phone for the 1% who watch Netflix 10 hours a day?
It is infinitely easier to add thickness and battery life by buying a battery case instead of slimming down a fat phone.
Wow, the phone has been out for, what, 11 days and you KNOW that 99% of users are happy with the 6's battery life? Perhaps you're just so awesome at knowing what 99% of people think about their week-old phones that you can tell us what they'll think about battery life after one, two or three years? Please, enlighten us.
I was happy with my 4s's battery life for a while, then it got problematical enough that, yes, I bought an external battery for it about 18 months ago. My 4s's life, with light to moderate use, is maybe 1.5 hours right now. I don't watch Netflix, or anything else on my phone (sorry, you missed that one, All-Knowing-Seer), but I do like to use Bluetooth/Pandora and a cycling app on bike rides, for example, and I can't leave home without the aux battery. I can't drive anywhere and use Waze without the phone plugged into power. I can't talk on the phone for more than 30 minutes without aux power.
Given the 6's bigger screen, greater pixel density, NFC chip, baro sensor, etc, I suspect that given two years or so of battery aging and the 99% of owners you so astonishingly cite won't be so happy.
Do you really think that 5/5s owners are stuck with a "thick chunky and heavy phone"? (Tell me, is that the 99% again?).
Yes, absolutely, I think that the 6 should have retained the thickness of the 5 in order to have increased battery life.
"It is infinitely easier to add thickness and battery life by buying a battery case instead of slimming down a fat phone."
You REALLY think that it's easier to pack around an external battery brick, and it's cord, and plug and unplug it as you get on and off a bike, or on and off a phone call, or buy a battery case that makes the already too-big (length and width) 6 even bigger, than it is for the phone to be a few MILLIMETERS thicker?
Remember the 3.5 inch extremist in 2012? The dudes that were pissed that the iPhone5 was 4 inches?
Where are they now?
You 4 inch extremist are the same thing. Just a bunch of stubborn people who can't adapt. Probably the same people who tape shows with a VHS and rent movies from Blockbuster.
Funny but I'm adapting well, but I would still downsize, but not down feature. Reason is simply that no matter how much I love my 6, it spends most of the day in a pocket. At work it's ok, burst weekend jeans etc, not so much.
Great review. I had to return my iPhone 6 because it was way too large. Very strange that Apple didn't offer a 4-inch iPhone 6. It's not normally in Apple's DNA to copy Samsung's product line, and it's also shocking that Apple would turn its back on all its customers who loved the iPhone specifically because of its size. I want an A8 processor in a 4-inch size. This goes to show that Tim Cook's instincts are wildly out of sync with what Steve Jobs' instincts were. Steve led the tech industry, whereas Tim just blindly follows the competition. Truly sad.
Indeed.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple were possibly only going to bring out the 4.7", maybe along with the 4". Why? Because there were many rumours saying that the 5.5" iPhone was delayed or not happening. Those rumours also kept changing from week to week. What's more, we only saw leaked photos pretty late on, whereas the 4.7" leaks came out much earlier. I think Apple left the decision to bring out the 5.5" late, which is why the waiting time now is relatively high; they just hadn't made many.
Putting two and two together, one wonders how much of this prevarication on Apple's part was caused by the bending issue.
Recalling the long term move towards personal and as an aside mobile as its surrogate seeing the desktop to laptop to tablet, to smartphone, and now wearable phase 1 watch, the expectation is wearable watch will take the place of the smallest personal devices (2-3 years) and a new order of personal will evolve.
Wearable (watch)
IPhones
iPads,
laptops,
desktops,
TVs
Will appear. Not everyone will have all of these, but expect more than one from personal to family. Standby for a lot of change.
I don't think I’ll bother standing around. I truly believe that the ?Watch will be a very small seller. To put it another way, I don't believe that it will achieve even a quarter of the sales of the iPhone, for at least the next five years.
The solution is a ultra thin phone that can fold in half to fit in your pocket.
You could have a 5+ inch screen that would have a smaller footprint in your pocket than an iPhone 4
Not nearly good enough to fit the "It's works like magic" bill. Airplay is pretty close, actually, you can project on a bigger screen. I'd love for that "bigger screen" to be builtin, somehow. Maybe like how Google glass works. Small screen, high dpi, close to the eye - but projecting at a distance. Like I said; I just can't wait for the future to get here
Similar here. The 6 Plus is out of the question and the 6 is still too large for my hands.
Especially when I am checking emails, messages or calling someone I always use my phone one handed with a similar "death grip". Impossible for me with the 6, as my hands are quite small. It felt so natural just getting a phone out of the pocket, check some stuff and put it back without the need of using two hands.
But I could adjust to general two hand usage if there is no other choice.
But the portruding camera is a absolute show stopper for me. This is unacceptable for me.
I never used cases on my phone. Why cover the nice grip and design in some cheap plastic or whatever? Never had a busted screen or large scratches on my phone and I carry it with keys in my front pocket always.
I understand that they needed to put in a better camera as ppl. use their phones for photography a lot. So they made a compromise here. I rarely use my phone for photos. If I take photos I carry my SLR anyway.
I like more screen estate of course. But even the 5S didn't feel right to me. The form factor is just wrong. It feels like it should have been a bit wider. Well bought it 'cause of the finger print scan I really like to unlock for one handed usage!
So the 6 is the natural evolution here. The 5 tried to provide more screen estate but still wanted to be a device that can be used easily with one hand. But it just felt wrong.
The 4S was the perfect device for me so far. But the rounded edges of the first iPhone still felt superior in my hands. Still the best design an iPhone ever offered. The 3G were a no go for me, to plasticky feeling for my taste.
So gimme a 4" iPhone, with rounded edges and all the stuff of the 6 (wouldn't mind the quality of the 6 Plus screen though). And make it a bit bigger so the camera does not portrude and I am buying one right away. Use the 0.7mm for a thicker battery or make the device heavier again. Today smartphones feel to light anyway for my taste.
Hoping with the 6S they bring some kind of a 6C, that will just be a smaller form factor for the 6, but still be a unibody device.
But as long as there is a portruding camera I will not upgrade. Absolute showstopper.
I can accept the "boxed" antenna band design, even though it's quite ugly. It has grown on me seeing iPhone 6 from friends (grey looks best, white's ok and gold with the bands is just ugly)
But the camera? Nah, wobbling on the table where it lies most of the time at work? Nah, absolute not acceptable. It would drive me crazy every time I touch it that it wobbles.
SJ would never have allowed that...
So my eyes are on the iPhone 7 then with the following hopes
- rounded edges
- camera is flush to the device
- 4" size again.
So fingers crossed for an update next year or more likely an iPhone 7.
But I doubt we will ever see smart phones designed for one hand usage again. The masses decided that the "correct" way to use a phone are two hands. *sigh*
Then at least make the camera flush and hide the antenna bands under glass again. But think "Would Steve like it?" And if the answer is yes, I probably will like it to.
First time since 2002 that I am not happy with an Apple product (iPhone user since day one).
Sorry AI viewers for reposting all this long post, but it is so in tune with my feelings that I wanted to.
Every sentence you write expressed my thoughts to a tee. I wish Jony Ive had your way of thinking.
I fear that he was preoccupied with the ?Watch, which is why there are all these shoddy flaws in the new iPhones, like the protruding lens, the ugly bands, the slippery grip, the too large size etc.
A slightly thicker 5s size with the rounded corners of the 6 would be perfect. The extra thickness would accommodate a slightly bigger battery, and by next year they would be able to tweak the A9 to produce even more efficiency. Result: a flush camera lens, a phone that's ideal for one-handed use and better battery life.
This was a great, honest appraisal of the 6 and the 5s. I find it admirable of AI to publish it.
I look forward to trying out the 6 at the time the new iPad comes out. I, too, wish Apple would bring out the 6 design in a 4" size. I find it hard to imagine that next year their smallest offering could be 4.7".
I suspect that if Apple bring out a 12.9" iPad, I may well go with a 5s. If they only bring out an updated Air, the 6 may win me over.
Indeed. With a bigger iPad, a bigger phone screen seems unnecessary for many. Luckily, even with a fairly thick case on my iPhone 6, I am still able to hold it via a "death grip" in my hand. I can empathize with the author in that holding your phone in this manner gives you a more secure feeling. Because I could not do that with the 6 plus, I chose to go with the 6. If the author is unable to do that with his 6, but can with the (still absolutely amazing) 5s, then I can understand. I would not want to go any bigger than the 6, but we will have to stay tuned to see what Apple offers in the near future. Definitely an honest appraisal in this article, but (and I'm not too overtly trying to influence your decision) the 6 is very comfortable to hold. If you feel secure while holding it, I would definitely recommend it.
Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it, and will take it into consideration, as it's people's experience on a day to day basis that really matters. I want to have the 6, for sure, due to the improvements in speed and battery life, but the 5s is still a real fallback position. When the iPads arrive, I will enjoy going to a shop and trying the new iPhones out, unless I encounter one sooner.
Yes, why not? I'd buy one. It'd be the iPhone Nano, or some such. I know lots of people who want a *small* phone. They're mostly using feature phones or older smartphones at the moment but are looking to upgrade wanting some of the benefits of a modern smartphone but not needing the full experience. Criteria is *small* and user friendly. Not jam packed with features. Would love to see such a phone with the usual high Apple standards (hardware+software+ecosystem). Sadly, this is not Apple's typical segment of the market so it's probably not going to happen.
Just gies to show that without Steve, Apple is completely lost. The correct size screen is actually between this new 4.7" and the previous 4". Steve would have figured that out early enough that they would have made the change directly to that correct size from 3.5" rather than the 4". So now it's impossible for them to release one that actually has the correct size as that would fragment the models too much.
The correct screen size is probably around 4.4" - 4.5" where you can still have a good grip using one hand but a large enough screen size to please the large screen people.
Yes, that's my feeling, too. Around 4.4"-4.5" sounds ideal. Of course, if Apple eliminated the bezels and reduced the height, they could afford to go to 4.7".
I remember when they introduced the 4", people felt it was a rather strange move. Half an inch? They should have gone from 3.5" to 4.5" in one go. I'm sure there were very good reasons technically not to, but it would nonetheless have been more desirable.
Comments
It's a damn shame Apple decided to ignore their customers who wanted the 4" size to remain.
And before anyone says it, yes I am aware that Apple has kept last years phone on the market, big whoop.
The only reason why I am hesitating to get the 6 from my 5S is because of my contract and I think I am not missing it out.
I would love to use Apple Pay but I guess I can wait until I buy the Apple Watch.
Also if I need a big screen, an iPad Mini might be a better option for myself.
That is a family of 6+/- ..... s/ When the 6 minus comes out, I might swap my 6 for one.
I DO!
I will gladly, joyfully take a thicker 6 (although it's too big in its other dimensions), or thicker 5, or thicker 4 just to get more battery life.
If the 6 had just stayed the same thickness as the 5 they doubtless could have packed in more battery, and battery life is the Achille's Heel of smartphones.
Ultimately I think we all will adjust. Someone said it first and summed it up perfectly- we want a small phone in our pockets and a large screen when we're looking at it.
Now that is a problem needing an Apple solution. Tap-to-zoom and other software workarounds are just that. So is increasing the screen size. This needs a hardware+software solution. Can't wait for Apple to get there. "It just works."
Great review. I had to return my iPhone 6 because it was way too large. Very strange that Apple didn't offer a 4-inch iPhone 6. It's not normally in Apple's DNA to copy Samsung's product line, and it's also shocking that Apple would turn its back on all its customers who loved the iPhone specifically because of its size. I want an A8 processor in a 4-inch size. This goes to show that Tim Cook's instincts are wildly out of sync with what Steve Jobs' instincts were. Steve led the tech industry, whereas Tim just blindly follows the competition. Truly sad.
Apple are not in the business of catering to the wishes of the minority. The popularity of the 6 clearly shows that one handed use is not a concern for the majority of people.
And not offering a 128 GB 5S too seemed a bit mean.
Maybe the internal volume of a curved 4 inch wasn't enough to support minimum standards. If so we might get one next year.
Sure hope so.
Also hope Apple decide to expand the range of phones to include an X version:
Rugged
Waterproof
Thicker
Much longer battery
Much bigger camera with optical zoom
Happy to pay for it
The masses influence Apple quite often. For instance Apple wasn't going to make an iPod for windows initially. Further people were clamoring for Apple to making a phone for years prior to Apple actually announcing one. Apple also was not going to offer an app store for the iPhone initially but instead only web apps.
Apple is also inspired by other companies occasionally. For example Google's now feature.
None of this means that Apple is not an innovative company which it clearly is.
10 million sales in three days suggests Apple did something right.
yes.
Thin is very very good, I always wanted an iPhone as thin as the iPod touch, and voila.
I hope they bring out a 6s soft small, fully featured iphone 6, just smaller, maybe even sligh,y smaller than 5s
Most iPhone users love the thin profile.
For 99% of iPhone users the battery life of the 6 is great.
For those few people with outlyier needs.....go buy a battery case.
Why should 99% suffer with a thick chunky and heavy phone for the 1% who watch Netflix 10 hours a day?
It is infinitely easier to add thickness and battery life by buying a battery case instead of slimming down a fat phone.
Wow, the phone has been out for, what, 11 days and you KNOW that 99% of users are happy with the 6's battery life? Perhaps you're just so awesome at knowing what 99% of people think about their week-old phones that you can tell us what they'll think about battery life after one, two or three years? Please, enlighten us.
I was happy with my 4s's battery life for a while, then it got problematical enough that, yes, I bought an external battery for it about 18 months ago. My 4s's life, with light to moderate use, is maybe 1.5 hours right now. I don't watch Netflix, or anything else on my phone (sorry, you missed that one, All-Knowing-Seer), but I do like to use Bluetooth/Pandora and a cycling app on bike rides, for example, and I can't leave home without the aux battery. I can't drive anywhere and use Waze without the phone plugged into power. I can't talk on the phone for more than 30 minutes without aux power.
Given the 6's bigger screen, greater pixel density, NFC chip, baro sensor, etc, I suspect that given two years or so of battery aging and the 99% of owners you so astonishingly cite won't be so happy.
Do you really think that 5/5s owners are stuck with a "thick chunky and heavy phone"? (Tell me, is that the 99% again?).
Yes, absolutely, I think that the 6 should have retained the thickness of the 5 in order to have increased battery life.
"It is infinitely easier to add thickness and battery life by buying a battery case instead of slimming down a fat phone."
You REALLY think that it's easier to pack around an external battery brick, and it's cord, and plug and unplug it as you get on and off a bike, or on and off a phone call, or buy a battery case that makes the already too-big (length and width) 6 even bigger, than it is for the phone to be a few MILLIMETERS thicker?
Go ask your 99% if they agree with that.
Great review. I had to return my iPhone 6 because it was way too large. Very strange that Apple didn't offer a 4-inch iPhone 6. It's not normally in Apple's DNA to copy Samsung's product line, and it's also shocking that Apple would turn its back on all its customers who loved the iPhone specifically because of its size. I want an A8 processor in a 4-inch size. This goes to show that Tim Cook's instincts are wildly out of sync with what Steve Jobs' instincts were. Steve led the tech industry, whereas Tim just blindly follows the competition. Truly sad.
Indeed.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple were possibly only going to bring out the 4.7", maybe along with the 4". Why? Because there were many rumours saying that the 5.5" iPhone was delayed or not happening. Those rumours also kept changing from week to week. What's more, we only saw leaked photos pretty late on, whereas the 4.7" leaks came out much earlier. I think Apple left the decision to bring out the 5.5" late, which is why the waiting time now is relatively high; they just hadn't made many.
Putting two and two together, one wonders how much of this prevarication on Apple's part was caused by the bending issue.
http://stratechery.com/2014/now-apple-watch/
Recalling the long term move towards personal and as an aside mobile as its surrogate seeing the desktop to laptop to tablet, to smartphone, and now wearable phase 1 watch, the expectation is wearable watch will take the place of the smallest personal devices (2-3 years) and a new order of personal will evolve.
Wearable (watch)
IPhones
iPads,
laptops,
desktops,
TVs
Will appear. Not everyone will have all of these, but expect more than one from personal to family. Standby for a lot of change.
I don't think I’ll bother standing around. I truly believe that the ?Watch will be a very small seller. To put it another way, I don't believe that it will achieve even a quarter of the sales of the iPhone, for at least the next five years.
The solution is a ultra thin phone that can fold in half to fit in your pocket.
You could have a 5+ inch screen that would have a smaller footprint in your pocket than an iPhone 4
Not nearly good enough to fit the "It's works like magic" bill. Airplay is pretty close, actually, you can project on a bigger screen. I'd love for that "bigger screen" to be builtin, somehow. Maybe like how Google glass works. Small screen, high dpi, close to the eye - but projecting at a distance. Like I said; I just can't wait for the future to get here
Similar here. The 6 Plus is out of the question and the 6 is still too large for my hands.
Especially when I am checking emails, messages or calling someone I always use my phone one handed with a similar "death grip". Impossible for me with the 6, as my hands are quite small. It felt so natural just getting a phone out of the pocket, check some stuff and put it back without the need of using two hands.
But I could adjust to general two hand usage if there is no other choice.
But the portruding camera is a absolute show stopper for me. This is unacceptable for me.
I never used cases on my phone. Why cover the nice grip and design in some cheap plastic or whatever? Never had a busted screen or large scratches on my phone and I carry it with keys in my front pocket always.
I understand that they needed to put in a better camera as ppl. use their phones for photography a lot. So they made a compromise here. I rarely use my phone for photos. If I take photos I carry my SLR anyway.
I like more screen estate of course. But even the 5S didn't feel right to me. The form factor is just wrong. It feels like it should have been a bit wider. Well bought it 'cause of the finger print scan I really like to unlock for one handed usage!
So the 6 is the natural evolution here. The 5 tried to provide more screen estate but still wanted to be a device that can be used easily with one hand. But it just felt wrong.
The 4S was the perfect device for me so far. But the rounded edges of the first iPhone still felt superior in my hands. Still the best design an iPhone ever offered. The 3G were a no go for me, to plasticky feeling for my taste.
So gimme a 4" iPhone, with rounded edges and all the stuff of the 6 (wouldn't mind the quality of the 6 Plus screen though). And make it a bit bigger so the camera does not portrude and I am buying one right away. Use the 0.7mm for a thicker battery or make the device heavier again. Today smartphones feel to light anyway for my taste.
Hoping with the 6S they bring some kind of a 6C, that will just be a smaller form factor for the 6, but still be a unibody device.
But as long as there is a portruding camera I will not upgrade. Absolute showstopper.
I can accept the "boxed" antenna band design, even though it's quite ugly. It has grown on me seeing iPhone 6 from friends (grey looks best, white's ok and gold with the bands is just ugly)
But the camera? Nah, wobbling on the table where it lies most of the time at work? Nah, absolute not acceptable. It would drive me crazy every time I touch it that it wobbles.
SJ would never have allowed that...
So my eyes are on the iPhone 7 then with the following hopes
- rounded edges
- camera is flush to the device
- 4" size again.
So fingers crossed for an update next year or more likely an iPhone 7.
But I doubt we will ever see smart phones designed for one hand usage again. The masses decided that the "correct" way to use a phone are two hands. *sigh*
Then at least make the camera flush and hide the antenna bands under glass again. But think "Would Steve like it?" And if the answer is yes, I probably will like it to.
First time since 2002 that I am not happy with an Apple product (iPhone user since day one).
Sorry AI viewers for reposting all this long post, but it is so in tune with my feelings that I wanted to.
Every sentence you write expressed my thoughts to a tee. I wish Jony Ive had your way of thinking.
I fear that he was preoccupied with the ?Watch, which is why there are all these shoddy flaws in the new iPhones, like the protruding lens, the ugly bands, the slippery grip, the too large size etc.
A slightly thicker 5s size with the rounded corners of the 6 would be perfect. The extra thickness would accommodate a slightly bigger battery, and by next year they would be able to tweak the A9 to produce even more efficiency. Result: a flush camera lens, a phone that's ideal for one-handed use and better battery life.
This was a great, honest appraisal of the 6 and the 5s. I find it admirable of AI to publish it.
I look forward to trying out the 6 at the time the new iPad comes out. I, too, wish Apple would bring out the 6 design in a 4" size. I find it hard to imagine that next year their smallest offering could be 4.7".
I suspect that if Apple bring out a 12.9" iPad, I may well go with a 5s. If they only bring out an updated Air, the 6 may win me over.
Indeed. With a bigger iPad, a bigger phone screen seems unnecessary for many. Luckily, even with a fairly thick case on my iPhone 6, I am still able to hold it via a "death grip" in my hand. I can empathize with the author in that holding your phone in this manner gives you a more secure feeling. Because I could not do that with the 6 plus, I chose to go with the 6. If the author is unable to do that with his 6, but can with the (still absolutely amazing) 5s, then I can understand. I would not want to go any bigger than the 6, but we will have to stay tuned to see what Apple offers in the near future. Definitely an honest appraisal in this article, but (and I'm not too overtly trying to influence your decision) the 6 is very comfortable to hold. If you feel secure while holding it, I would definitely recommend it.
Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it, and will take it into consideration, as it's people's experience on a day to day basis that really matters. I want to have the 6, for sure, due to the improvements in speed and battery life, but the 5s is still a real fallback position. When the iPads arrive, I will enjoy going to a shop and trying the new iPhones out, unless I encounter one sooner.
Why stop at 4 inches?
Why not make a 2.5 inch iPhone 6?
Yes, why not? I'd buy one. It'd be the iPhone Nano, or some such. I know lots of people who want a *small* phone. They're mostly using feature phones or older smartphones at the moment but are looking to upgrade wanting some of the benefits of a modern smartphone but not needing the full experience. Criteria is *small* and user friendly. Not jam packed with features. Would love to see such a phone with the usual high Apple standards (hardware+software+ecosystem). Sadly, this is not Apple's typical segment of the market so it's probably not going to happen.
Just gies to show that without Steve, Apple is completely lost. The correct size screen is actually between this new 4.7" and the previous 4". Steve would have figured that out early enough that they would have made the change directly to that correct size from 3.5" rather than the 4". So now it's impossible for them to release one that actually has the correct size as that would fragment the models too much.
The correct screen size is probably around 4.4" - 4.5" where you can still have a good grip using one hand but a large enough screen size to please the large screen people.
Yes, that's my feeling, too. Around 4.4"-4.5" sounds ideal. Of course, if Apple eliminated the bezels and reduced the height, they could afford to go to 4.7".
I remember when they introduced the 4", people felt it was a rather strange move. Half an inch? They should have gone from 3.5" to 4.5" in one go. I'm sure there were very good reasons technically not to, but it would nonetheless have been more desirable.
The smaller iPhone 5s looks like a toy. That is why the competition is growing so rapidly.