When Apple released its iPhone XS line, with screens that range from 5.8 inches to 6.5 inches, they became the company’s largest phones yet. But the big screens have triggered a backlash from women who say the device is too large for the average female hand.
“Women like me with small hands who need the most secure phone for safety reasons are stuck with something they can’t hold and constantly risk dropping,” tweeted sociology professor Zeynep Tufekci, who teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Some people like the bigger phones. Fine. Keep an alternative for the rest of us.”
“I can’t grow my hands any bigger,” another annoyed iFan tweeted. “Please make a smaller [iPhone].”
British journalist Caroline Criado Perez told The Telegraph she suffered from a repetitive strain injury after using an iPhone 6, which has a 4.7-inch-wide screen, because it was too large for her grip. But her symptoms went away when she switched to the budget-friendly iPhone SE, which has a 4-inch screen.
Apple announced it will be discontinuing the iPhone SE, further angering customers.
“I have to make a choice between making an upgrade to the only phone that fits my hand before they discontinue it — soon there will be no iPhone that fits the average woman’s hand size — even though the technology is two years out of date,” Criado Perez said.
According to a 2015 study published in Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference, the average man’s hand is one inch larger than a woman’s.
Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, told The Telegraph, “In so much design and technology development the default standard is always that which suits a man. Companies have got to get better at recognizing that their idea of normal should account for all their customers.”
Another annoyance for iPhone-loving ladies? Apple’s phones are too large for women’s pockets. An August 2018 survey by culture website The Pudding took a look at the 20 most popular denim brands in the United States and found that 60 percent of women’s jeans can’t fit an iPhone X, which is 5.8 inches.
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