Heavy, too big, and still not suitable for serious work
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I had been mostly loving my iPhone 13 Pro Max. Fabulous pictures and even better videos. Nice, large screen with larger text that's easier on my aging eyes. But several things bother me about it.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is a heavy and big phone. I put it in my pocket with nothing else and it's a noticeable (even annoying) weight and size. There are too many times when I just want a phone that does a great job and then gets as far out of the way as possible.
I thought having a big phone could make me more productive with personal work projects. But when I wanted to get serious work done, I always preferred my MacBook Air M1 or even one of my iPads. There are several reasons for that. The first is a keyboard. Yes, you could use a keyboard with a phone and I did (and still do sometimes), but the experience is quite lacking compared to a laptop keyboard or Apple's iPad keyboards.
The 2nd reason for preferring a laptop or iPad over the large iPhone 13 Pro Max was the screen. While the screen on the iPhone 13 Pro Max is large for an phone, it simply can't compare to a laptop-size screen, especially when I use extra software (EasyRes) that gives me the maximum resolution (2560x1600) on my MacBook Air M1.
Why the iPhone SE 2022 works as well as the iPhone 13 Pro Max
- The iPhone SE 2022 has the same processor as the iPhone 13 Pro Max so I still get the awesome speed of that processor but in a small footprint.
- When I need to do a little more serious work on *any* phone, I move to my iPad or Macbook Air M1, so the screen size benefit of the Pro Max is not actually much of a benefit at all.
- Fingerprint recognition works *almost* as well for me as face recognition. In fact, there are some situations, where I prefer it. But I'll admit the face recognition is awesome on the Pro Max. I still use face recognition on my iPads.
- Having a small phone is a big benefit when you're putting it in your front pocket all the time. Even with a case on, the iPhone SE 2022 is so much smaller than the bare iPhone 13 Pro Max. And the weight difference is also a welcome difference in my pocket.
- Such a light phone is a pleasure to use one-handed or even two-handed for longer periods of time compared to the weight of the Pro Max.
- Your thumb can easily reach across the screen as opposed to being forced to use two hands in most situations on the Pro Max.
- Overall, this is close to my ideal phone at this point. I've wanted a very speedy phone in a small form factor. If I could change it, I would shrink the bezels (which means a larger screen area) and add the same gesture support and facial recognition in other iPhones. I'd keep the overall body shape (I prefer the rounded edges) and size.