Down to size

I was slower than some people, but I have gone from thought to something like action.

No, it is not an SE. It has neither the greatest camera, nor the most memory or fastest processor.

But it was left over in a friend's drawer and I could stuff IOS 10 onto it just fine.

Like other ancient devices, it does the 2001 monolith thing as well as ever.

Iphone 5S, doing the monolith thing Iphone 5S, doing the monolith thing

Yes. An old-fashioned solid step backward, from an Iphone 6 to a 5S.

Peering in

The screen is a markedly smaller space in which to fit the world of mobile computing. Space feels limited in a whole different way than on the 6-size, not least up in the menu bar where the back button really has to compete for space with the network logo, reception icons and everything else whenever it needs to appear. But it is a pleasant surprise so far. I was half expecting to discover apps abandoning or really downplaying the whole size and leave truncated elements in more places. Not so. Nice work, app makers.

You know what else is pretty nice? All those slightly bunched up buttons and elements? I can reach every single one of them with this one thumb right here! Look! One-handed computing, how cool is that?! And it feels so secure in my hand; small, light and with reassuring straight edges.

Iphone 6, doing the big thing Iphone 6, doing the big thing

Iphone 5S, doing the small thing Iphone 5S, doing the small thing

Make no mistake, the 6 is still a rather beautiful device to my eyes. Thin and smooth and great to look at, it feels slightly more out of this world, a little too big and too designed to quite fit in. And when I pick it up, it is ever so slightly less convenient to use for … well, pretty much everything.

I wonder if I have passed peak phone and will remain happy with a mobile device doing pretty much what I need at present in a convenient form factor. Or will I be lured back to larger devices as soon as they appear and perhaps manage to feel a bit more fallproof than the Iphone 6?

I will admit I felt a slight temptation as I looked over the specs of the Oneplus 3 … Because what I really need is more gadgets … ?