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Comment by wlesieutre | Hacker News Reader

A friend and his wife both have iPhones X (do you pluralize that as iPhone Xs even through that's the new model?) and they both gripe about the size.

He commented that it's a nice iPad Mini, but not great to carry around like a smartphone.

Apparently Apple disagrees.

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> do you pluralize that as iPhone Xs even through that's the new model?

I'd have to go digging, but there was a Twitter thread in which I participated about this that Phil Schiller chimed in on. Apple's official(?) stance is that you never pluralize iPhone; instead, you use the word "devices".

"A friend and his wife both have iPhone X devices" (or, more likely, "A friend and his wife both own the iPhone X").

Found it via MacRumors https://www.macrumors.com/2016/04/29/phil-schiller-dont-plur...

Interesting to know, but nobody's gonna do that. Like how you're "supposed" to say "LEGO bricks" insteado of "LEGOs."

I often see sticklers for the "official" Apple terminology fighting losing battles on forums and comment sections trying to tell everyone to pronounce it "iPhone Ten" rather than "iPhone eX".

Also, I think Apple prefers it to be called "iPhone" rather than "the iPhone". Who knows.

Related thing, I remember some people (probably me included) making fun of Microsoft for skipping Windows 9, and now here we are with iPhones.

I find the X small. It's tall, but certainly not large. And the iPad mini comparison is obviously a joke, but really:

https://www.phonearena.com/phones/Apple-iPad-mini_id7523/siz...

Can you hold securely in one hand and pull down Control Center from the top right corner with your thumb? It's one of my most commonly used features and when I tried one in the store it was impossible for me. (EDIT - try this left handed, it's even worse)

    Walk outside
    Glance at my phone
    Want to turn the brightness up because the sun's out
    Set down whatever I'm carrying in my other hand
    Turn up the screen brightness

is not how I want to use my phone. I guess you get used to not being able to do that, or you get one of those adhesive grip nubs on the back of it, but "Can not be used effectively one handed" is basically my threshold for whether a phone is large or not.

I guess the workaround for this is

    Homescreen
    Launch Settings app
    Display & Brightness
    Increase slider
    Change back to the app you were using

Works, but that sounds like a huge nuisance.

> Can you hold securely in one hand and pull down Control Center from the top right corner with your thumb?

I can, but usually I swipe down inside the launcher bar which pulls the top of the phone down. Then I can perform all the normal actions. Admittedly that shortcut is not very discoverable.

https://mashable.com/2017/10/31/how-to-use-iphone-x-reachabi...

I actually tried that in the store (the employee didn't know what reachability was, I had to google the gesture) and still couldn't reach it.

That might be because I use phones left handed, but I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm left handed and my car keys live on the right side where my car's ignition is.

Controls are swiped from the bottom. Also, the automatic brightness obviates the whole scenario.

I do at times find myself trying to increase the brightess on a sunny day, only to find the iPhone already at maximum.

on the iPhone X, its the top right corner.

On the iPhone X they moved Control Center to the top right corner, swipe down from the battery/wifi icons. They had to move it because the bottom swipe was repurposed to do the home button's job.

In iOS 12 they're pushing this change out to iPads as well, instead of keeping Control Center in with the app switcher. I don't mind this because I'm not trying to 1-hand my iPad while I'm walking around, so there's always a finger that can reach the top corner.

I'm not sure about existing iPhones w/ home buttons in iOS 12, I've only been running the beta on my iPad.

That's a mistake I think, I use that gesture a lot, and can't reach the top right of my phone easily without two hands.

Agreed. The only phone it works on is the SE and they just killed it. Maybe all of Apple’s designers are right handed and have long thumbs.

Hmm, I'm right handed, but hold the phone in the left.

I have huge hands, and have no problem - but a left handed gesture mode sounds like an awesome idea.

Try the large version, it's screen is the same height, but it's just ~2 inches more narrow.

https://www.phonearena.com/phones/Apple-iPad-mini_id7523/siz...

The poster I responded to said the current X.

Sure, I am just saying they keep getting closer to tablet territory. So, IMO it was interesting to check out.

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