Opinion: The new iPhone is too big and too expensive

Two reasons I will not purchase the new iPhone XS Max: the massive size and the four-digit price tag
attached to it.

In promotion of their newest series of iPhones, Apple’s website declares, “Welcome to the big screens.”

But have we not already achieved the big screens?

When the iPhone 6 Plus premiered in 2014, featuring a 5.5-inch screen, people joked that by following the trend, the next iPhone would be absurdly, comically large — prompting memes featuring people holding iPads up to their ears like a phone or fake holster-type products supposedly created for carrying an iPhone too large for standard-size pockets.

On Sept. 24, the iPhone XS Max was released, featuring a stunning Super Retina HD display — a September 2018 review on The Verge called it “the brightest, sharpest, most color-accurate display Apple has ever produced” — on a
6.5-inch screen.

This newest iPhone, the XS Max, has a screen less than 1.5 inches smaller than the screen on the most recent iPad mini — the iPad mini 4, which hasn’t been updated in more than three years.

In a review published Oct. 10, one Macworld reviewer noted that the size of the new iPhone actually has him reaching for his iPad less. While there are some features that still distinguish the iPhone from the iPad, “the iPhone XS Max robs the iPad of some of
its enchantment.”

Admittedly, the last iPhone I owned was the iPhone 5s, a hand-me-down from a coworker who took pity on me after witnessing my primitive Motorola smartphone with its shattered screen. Despite acquiring the phone a couple years past its prime, the 2013 iPhone’s humble 4-inch screen served me well.

The fact is, I’m not a huge movie-watcher — at least not on my phone — or gamer, so the idea of carrying around a bigger phone seems more inconvenient. While larger screens do have benefits — reading and viewing media is more enjoyable, and writing emails and other productivity-related tasks can usually be completed more efficiently on a bigger screen — there are also practical downsides. 

Taking notes, editing photos or propping the phone on a wireless charger to watch YouTube videos on a screen big enough to capture the details are appealing aspects of the supersized device. But consumers lose the ability to slip their phone in pocket, comfortably hold it in one hand to text and scroll, or strap it on their arm with a sports band to go for a jog. 

As Turkish novelist and playwright Mehmet Murat Ildan said, “Small is big for
the smaller!”

To switch that saying around, perhaps big is small for those bigger than me, as it applies to handheld devices. So ultimately, the size is a “me” thing, and others can justifiably disagree.

But there’s no way that the cost of the iPhone XS Max is just a me thing. The model with the smallest storage capacity — 64 GB — costs $1,099. CNET’s review of the iPhone XS Max review was fittingly subtitled, “Gigantic-screen phone for a gigantic price.”

The price of the new XS Max is even higher than Wall Street expected, according to CNBC.

$1,099 is more than some of my friends paid for their first car. It’s almost as much as I paid for my MacBook Pro laptop. It’s more than twice as much as I paid for the Samsung Galaxy S9, the phone with which I am currently well-pleased.

It’s too high a price for me, and for many others, I
would assume. 

For all the perks that the newest iPhone has to offer, the physical and financial aspects are enough to make me pause. And while there are plenty of Apple die-hards who will grab at this newest gadget, I’m sure I’m not the only one who will be saving my pennies.