I would like to hear female users chime in. I don't think one-handed operation has been feasible for a large portion of female population even on iphone 5. Once you get used to using two hands, I don't think it matters if something is 4.7" or 5.5". You just have to use two hands.
I'd speculate that pocket size is actually a bigger concern for women than one handed use. With skinny jeans it has been extremely common to store a phone in the back pocket. I can't see that happening with the iPhone 6. And I can't see young women giving up skinny jeans anytime soon.
So that means one of two things:
1. Young women start putting their phones in purses again.
2. Stick with the iPhone 5s or switch to one of the few small Android phones. (doubt it)
I wonder if either of these has borne out yet or if it's too early in the upgrade cycle?
Women don't use pockets, they use purses. Even most pockets in tight jeans are fake.
That's why the first Note was a big hit with older women. Big screen was easier to read and it didn't make a difference to their purse.
I'm a woman and I hate fake pockets. Loathe them to the extreme. I want my wallet and phone in pockets. Purse is for extras you don't need ON you every second, but are useful to have nearby, like eye drops or advil. My purse goes to meta-locations, like to the office, or in my car, but I don't take it everywhere with me (I don't take it inside stores, for example).
My opinion is not unique, but women are not given many choices about fashion and pockets or lack thereof. You can say to vote with your wallet, but it's hard enough to find clothes that fit properly (I am both overweight and have a very small waist in comparison to my hips, finding jeans that fit over my butt without having like 3 extra inches in the waistband is near impossible), without having to exclude jeans that only have back pockets.
Every woman loves an outfit that manages to be cute and still have pockets. It's like the holy grail of womanhood.
Bullshit. You carry your purse around the office with you, into every meeting? You schlep your purse onto the dance floor? No. Just no.
It's really nice to be able to leave the house without a goddam purse. Tuck a credit card, a $20, a metrocard, a phone, and keys into your pockets and go for a walk in the park with your hands and shoulders completely free and unweighted.
Oh, and a phone in a purse? Harder to hear ring or beep, and you sure as hell won't feel it buzz.
And that's before even mentioning one-handed use, which as someone else pointed out above, is crucial when you have to hold a subway pole or carry groceries.
Women carry purses? Men carry backpacks and messenger bags. They still put their phones in their pockets and get annoyed when they can't. Or would you say it's ok for a phone to bend when you leave it in your pocket because you could just carry it in your backpack instead?
Not a woman. But I keep my phone in my front pocket because I used to keep it in the back and one time sat down and broke the screen. I had been able to sit on it before...just this one time I must have shifted on it a certain way.
The iPhone 5S is the most comfortable phone I've ever had. It's not perfect and the battery could last a bit longer, but it's sufficient and it charges up quickly enough that I don't really have any hassle with it. iOS is nimble and I have no complaints about it.
Ages ago I had a Lumia 800 and I liked it. It was a good one-handed size, and Windows Phone was also quite minimalistic and smooth to use, but when it became clear that the phone was basically deprecated and would never receive Windows Phone 8, I abandoned it and switched to an iPhone 5S.
Last year I received a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 as a gift and ended up returning it after a month because it was simply ridiculous. Couldn't safely keep it in my pocket, couldn't even dream of using it with one hand and in all it was just a horrible experience--though some part of the crappy experience I chalk down to Android. Even if I had rooted it and removed all the junk that comes preinstalled, the lag is simply not something I could tolerate after iOS and Windows Phone.
So I stuck with my iPhone 5S and haven't really looked back. It does everything I need it to do. If I couldn't use it as a portable hotspot or if it lacked apps I might consider a Lumia 635 or something--not that I've tried one out, mind you.
I tried an iPhone 6 when it was released and I could tell quite quickly that it would be frustrating as hell, so I didn't upgrade. There was simply no need to increase the size of the phone other than to pander to Samsung people and appeal to the masses. I personally don't think that was what Apple was ever about, and I think the iPhone's small size was a good design decision much like the avoidance of touchscreens on MacBooks.
Now all the Windows Phones are pretty big as well, and my dislike of Android rules out quite a few smaller smartphones available, it looks like I'll be stuck on the iPhone 5S for the foreseeable future.
The lag isn't due to Android, it's due to Samsung's Android Skin called Touchwiz. My HTC One M8 doesnt lag at all, and it runs Android too. I've also used a Galaxy S4 and it was annoying.
I just asked my wife. She could reach the entire screen with the iPhone 5, but unlike many of us on HN (including myself), she thinks the Reachability feature is good for her. She currently uses both the iPhone 5 and 6, one for work and one for personal, and she uses them both all the time, and she says she has no preference.
Asking my partner, I asked her to go back to the message list without swiping the conversation view, forcing her to touch the "< Messages" menu item. Do you know what she did? She released the grip on the phone so it slid down a bit, caught it and then pressed it, having to then awkwardly move the phone up again.
Not pretty.
Regarding myself, I've found I hold the phone differently, resting the back on the tops of my fingertips, giving me much more flexibility.
Somebody gave my mom a free 5 when they upgraded to a 6. She had previously seen how my Note 3 works, pen, etc. and asked me to come over to compare. She decided she liked the bigger screen better, and in her purse it wasn't a huge difference, but she can type better on the larger screen and old eyes can see better.
After directly comparing my coworkers' 6 and 6+ this week, I remarked that I might opt for the 6+, since one-handed use is effectively out for me even with the 6.
It's a built-in feature called Reachability. I've tried it and it feels like a bandage at best. I imagine getting accustomed to it would probably help, but it slows things down quite a bit.
(And the phone is still quite wide, which may be a less bemoaned issue than the distance of upper corners, but is still an issue for me.)
I have average size hands and I got the 6 Plus - I find it fine to use with one hand. The most common thing I do is just scroll through web pages, twitter, email etc
