Other Opinion: Your iPhone is not too small. Apple stopped designing for smaller screens.

[ruslan120]

Title ^

I remember the iPhone being perfectly adequate, and never having issues with readability of notifications or system elements.

I think it started with the iPhone 6 series when Apple introduced the Plus sizes. Every year onwards, especially the year the iPhone X was introduced, iOS has been modified to take more and more space unnecessarily. (I’m thinking of the huge top spaces introduced into the system applications)

It seems more and more people feel the need to buy bigger phones for convenience of use. I wanted to try using an iPhone 5S again a while ago with one of the newer iOS versions but it was dang hard.

- end rant -

 

[Ahmed7]

Exactly. It started with iOS10 and the bubble design.
I remember comparing my Note 3 with my friend’s iPhone 5 and the tiny iPhone 5 fit a lot more stuff on screen than the Note 3 (I specifically remember comparing WhatsApp).

 

[JPack]

Research from nearly a decade ago between 4, 5, and 6-inches showed that larger displays were faster to navigate and resulted in fewer keystroke errors. Manufacturers didn't make 6-inch devices in 2013 just to show off.

Most people don't need 40 icons displayed on the Home screen. And an extra bit of vertical scrolling is a lot less frustrating than hitting the wrong UI elements at the top.

 

[velocityg4]

My iPhone SE (one) is still pretty usable with iOS 14. I think the main issues are.
- You're used to a bigger screen. So, you realize how limiting those small screens were. Since you have something to compare it to. Which you've been using a long time.
- Our usage of smartphones has increased greatly. There's simply a lot more information we receive on phones today than seven years ago. They've gone from a handy addition to a more central role in our digital lives.

 

[EM2013]

They never optimize iOS for different screen sizes. iOS looks the same on every iPhone from the mini to the max.

Wasted space everywhere.