Apple Criticized for iPhones Being ‘Too Big’ for Women’s Hands

In the wake of its Gather Round event, Apple is being criticized for making phones that are “too big” for the average woman’s hand.

Apple on Wednesday unveiled the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. All three devices sport display sizes between 5.8-inches and 6.5-inches. But it’s the footprint that’s drawing flack from women who say that the new devices are just too large.

“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,” Professor Zeynep Tufecki, who teaches sociology at the University of North Carolina, said in a tweet.

Caroline Criado Perez, a British advocate and journalist, told The Telegraph she suffered from a repetitive strain from using the iPhone 6, which caused her to switch to the iPhone SE.

“It genuinely does affect women’s hand health,” Perez said. “Women do buy more iPhones than men, it just baffles me that Apple doesn’t design with our bodies in mind.”

The average woman’s hand is about one inch smaller than the average man’s, according to a 2015 study published in Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference.

It is worth noting that the devices in the 2018 iPhone lineup aren’t necessarily much larger than last year’s handsets. Instead, their displays are larger because of an edge-to-edge design and slim bezels.

For example, the iPhone XS Max — which sports a massive 6.5-inch display — is about the same size as past Plus model iPhones. The 5.8-inch iPhone XS and iPhone X devices are only slightly larger than the iPhone 8.

Of course, with the announcement of the new iPhones, Apple also killed off the 4-inch iPhone SE. That device was the smallest and most pocketable iPhone available, which made it popular with fans of smaller handsets. With its discontinuation, the iPhone 6-style footprint is now Apple’s smallest.

There are other annoyances for women who own iPhones, too. Back in August, The Pudding conducted a study which found that 60 percent of most women’s jeans couldn’t fit an iPhone X.

But it’s not just Apple that keeps making larger smartphones. In fact, bigger devices with bigger displays are becoming the new standard across the entire smartphone industry.