There was a time in American culture when bell-bottom jeans were all the rage. Some years later, performers like Eddie Murphy unironically owned the stage in firetruck-red leather jumpsuits. In more recent memory, giant mustaches caught fire then flickered out. Today's version of these over-the-top trends? I'm convinced it's the ginormous silly smartphone.
The 2015 generation of premium smartphones includes only one device under five inches—the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s, sold as the downmarket version of the 5.5-inch 6s Plus. Other companies stray even closer to half a foot across.
Along with the rest of the tech world, I've been on a big phone kick for a long time—switching from a 4.7-inch HTC One M7 to a 5-inch Moto G3 to a 5.7-inch LG V10 in the last couple years. It's something I did without thinking. More and more devices lie in the phablet range, and bigger numbers seem obviously better than smaller. Who wants a 6s in a 6s-Plus world?
But, like the myth of the toad in the tub of slowly boiling water, I failed to sense the creeping discomfort of these ever-more-unwieldy devices. There were wise people in my life who rolled their eyes, small-handed friends still using their 3.5-inch iPhone 4s-es for fear of thumb cramps. But my hands can each grasp and lift a basketball from the top unaided. I imagined myself immune to the ill effects of phone-bloat.
I was wrong.
Last week, Sony sent us the new 4.6-inch Xperia Z5 Compact to play with. I've been using it since, and it's a game changer.
Slightly chubbier than the regular Z5, the Compact packs the same features of its bigger cousin. It's no wünderphone; I've found the interface a bit laggy despite its power and its camera lacking. But the actual experience of using a 4.6-inch phone is unquestionably better. The nearest experiences in my life honestly are the first time I put on glasses as a child and the sensation of waking up healthy after a long cold. All these small irritations I didn't even know were there are suddenly gone.
On my old, bulky phones I had to hold the device in one hand and type with the other in order to keep up with a fast Messenger conversation. With the little Compact my thumb zips across the keyboard without strain. Similarly, I can easily answer calls and flip through Spotify with a single digit.
And all that's not to mention the simple fact that everyone looks ridiculous holding a device up to their face when it won't even fit into an adult's shirt pocket.
I have a pair of slim-fit (not skinny!) jeans that won't fit if I stick an iPhone 6s Plus in the front pocket. Baloney! Malarkey! We're all lemmings traipsing along this gargantu-cellular path to style folly. Our children will mock our big screens like we mocked our parents' mullets.
Sony seems to see the Compact as a device aimed at women. Where the main Z5 page on their site shows mostly male models and men's hands handling their phone, the Compact page appears to showcase a more feminine aesthetic.
This could of course be a coincidence, but it's not surprising given that (anecdotally) the vast majority of big-phone avoiders I know are women with smaller hands. I'd argue, though, that no matter your palm span (or unnecessary-spec-hungry machismo), giant paperback-book phones are absurd.
There aren't too many things to adore about the Z5 Compact, but the absent ache in my hand is definitely one of them.
