Well after a longer period, I came to understand that last year’s iPhone lineup was the hardest for me to choose from. Even though I originally thought it will be the simplest ever.
I have been using XS for a two years and my main problems were:
- weight
- round design
- size for using one hand
So when 12 mini came out I was happy to buy it almost immediately. After using it for last 3 months I’m more undecided than I ever was about sizes. These days when we are at home I don’t use phone as that much as I do use iPad or Mac. I also love the white color on 12 and 12 mini because the silver isn’t much nice to me on last generations. Here are the pros and cons of using mini and maybe this forum help me decide after all. I don’t compare obvious things like same specs or camera or even the smaller battery capacity because that was never a problem for me to this day. I’m not a heavy user and also not a light user - daily between 3,5-5hours based on the daily program. Also the 5G isn’t the real thing in our country.
Pros
1) Weight. It’s incredible how Apple made this phone so light. You barely notice it in your pocket or even in your hand. (XS was 177g and mini is 135g.)
2) Flat design. I always loved this design language and when I lay in bed on the side, I’m happy to use phone with one hand and one side of the phone laying on the bed. With mini I don’t even need to lay the side of the phone on the bed because it’s less slippery (I’m not a fan of cases.) That’s great.
3) Using with one hand. With XS I wasn’t able to type a message on my work iPhone SE 1. gen. With 12 mini I’m able to do that again because my hands adjusted. I’m able to type with one hand again as it holds in my hand perfectly. It’s amazing to use Apple Pay in shops while typing the code in one hand (I don’t have the Apple Watch) these days which is something I had to do both hands with previous one. When I cut my left thumb two weeks ago I was kinda adoring my smaller form factor phone - I can’t use both hands for typing or for anything else because of bandage. And it was great to be able to capture my niece or doing a selfies with her while I was holding her. This is probably a no-go with larger ones. (And I wrote this whole piece on mini while sitting in waiting room in a hospital to get my finger checked.)
Cons
1) Readability. I realized that I’m more often trying to bring phone closer to my eyes. I have always used to set the smallest font size on iOS devices as I still perfectly see everything without glasses. But with mini I sometimes feel that the text is really small for me to read comfortably. (And my favorite app for watching soccer stats -FotMob- feels different on smaller screen.)
2) Using with two hands. Despite it’s great to use and type with one hand, using two is quite strange. It could be done but at the same time it’s not too much faster than with one hand. Also writing with hand is still sometimes too weird for me because for a letter “a” or “caps lock” I have to stretch my thumb quite the same I did with XS. That brings me to the idea that with XS I learnt more how to handle phone with both hands more often that I didn’t use it with one hand almost at all. Also the mini has a two-way-grip to hold (at least for me). One is for typing with thumb on the keyboard and the littlefinger supports the bottom of the phone. The second one is for holding-while-reading with three fingers on the left side of the phone and thumb laying on the power button. I have to switch these two types of holding based on what I do on the phone. With larger screen you don’t have to switch because you almost always have to use the phone with two hands.
Titbits
I do miss telephoto more than ultrawide and quite suprisingly 3D Touch. I have convinced my friend to borrow me his 12 for a few days (his spare phone lol). But even after those days if I would be undecided that would be very funny for me. So I ask you my dear forum, are there any thoughts from you to help me think about it more? I know it's not a big deal and it's just a #firstworldproblem while so many precious people are passing away. It's just I have never been so torn about choosing a phone for me and I think that here are so many great people with nice opinions. Thank you for reading.
I have been using XS for a two years and my main problems were:
- weight
- round design
- size for using one hand
So when 12 mini came out I was happy to buy it almost immediately. After using it for last 3 months I’m more undecided than I ever was about sizes. These days when we are at home I don’t use phone as that much as I do use iPad or Mac. I also love the white color on 12 and 12 mini because the silver isn’t much nice to me on last generations. Here are the pros and cons of using mini and maybe this forum help me decide after all. I don’t compare obvious things like same specs or camera or even the smaller battery capacity because that was never a problem for me to this day. I’m not a heavy user and also not a light user - daily between 3,5-5hours based on the daily program. Also the 5G isn’t the real thing in our country.
Pros
1) Weight. It’s incredible how Apple made this phone so light. You barely notice it in your pocket or even in your hand. (XS was 177g and mini is 135g.)
2) Flat design. I always loved this design language and when I lay in bed on the side, I’m happy to use phone with one hand and one side of the phone laying on the bed. With mini I don’t even need to lay the side of the phone on the bed because it’s less slippery (I’m not a fan of cases.) That’s great.
3) Using with one hand. With XS I wasn’t able to type a message on my work iPhone SE 1. gen. With 12 mini I’m able to do that again because my hands adjusted. I’m able to type with one hand again as it holds in my hand perfectly. It’s amazing to use Apple Pay in shops while typing the code in one hand (I don’t have the Apple Watch) these days which is something I had to do both hands with previous one. When I cut my left thumb two weeks ago I was kinda adoring my smaller form factor phone - I can’t use both hands for typing or for anything else because of bandage. And it was great to be able to capture my niece or doing a selfies with her while I was holding her. This is probably a no-go with larger ones. (And I wrote this whole piece on mini while sitting in waiting room in a hospital to get my finger checked.)
Cons
1) Readability. I realized that I’m more often trying to bring phone closer to my eyes. I have always used to set the smallest font size on iOS devices as I still perfectly see everything without glasses. But with mini I sometimes feel that the text is really small for me to read comfortably. (And my favorite app for watching soccer stats -FotMob- feels different on smaller screen.)
2) Using with two hands. Despite it’s great to use and type with one hand, using two is quite strange. It could be done but at the same time it’s not too much faster than with one hand. Also writing with hand is still sometimes too weird for me because for a letter “a” or “caps lock” I have to stretch my thumb quite the same I did with XS. That brings me to the idea that with XS I learnt more how to handle phone with both hands more often that I didn’t use it with one hand almost at all. Also the mini has a two-way-grip to hold (at least for me). One is for typing with thumb on the keyboard and the littlefinger supports the bottom of the phone. The second one is for holding-while-reading with three fingers on the left side of the phone and thumb laying on the power button. I have to switch these two types of holding based on what I do on the phone. With larger screen you don’t have to switch because you almost always have to use the phone with two hands.
Titbits
I do miss telephoto more than ultrawide and quite suprisingly 3D Touch. I have convinced my friend to borrow me his 12 for a few days (his spare phone lol). But even after those days if I would be undecided that would be very funny for me. So I ask you my dear forum, are there any thoughts from you to help me think about it more? I know it's not a big deal and it's just a #firstworldproblem while so many precious people are passing away. It's just I have never been so torn about choosing a phone for me and I think that here are so many great people with nice opinions. Thank you for reading.