The smartphone market has adopted big screens as its go-to option. We've reached the point where a "small" phone is still offers a display that measures in at over 5 inches. And there's nothing wrong with that, because in 2020 a 5-inch phone doesfeel small. So it begs the question, what's the best screen size these days?

Honestly though, if you haven't held an iPhone 12 mini in your hands yet, I suggest doing so -- safely!

This time around, with so many iPhones to choose from right out of the gate (more or less), I couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted to go with. Well, except for when it comes to the color, because then it didn't matter. Blue or Pacific Blue, that's the only way to go. But, in a short period of time I tried out the iPhone 12 Pro, the iPhone 12, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. So I tried out a pair of 6.1-inch phones and a 6.7-inch device, but I didn't actually use an iPhone 12 mini for any extended period of time.

I absolutely loved the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 when I used them, but I was convinced that my time with larger smartphones in the past would make it easy to switch to the iPhone 12 Pro Max. I wanted that slightly better camera system in the larger iPhone, so I was willing to use the bigger phone.

But, folks, that thing is big! It's not like I've never used big phones before -- I've even used handsets that are technically bigger than Apple's biggest iPhone. And yet this felt like a beast right out of the box. It got to the point where just using it for daily stuff, like responding to a text message, felt more burdensome than it should.

And yes, I know that using the 6.1-inch phones clouded things a little bit. But after just a couple of days I knew that I would not be happy using the iPhone 12 Pro Max for a year. Even if that meant I'd be missing out on that camera system, I came to terms with the fact that the iPhone 12 Pro (and iPhone 12) have, to me, a perfect feel in the hand.

Which is an interesting turn of events, because I used to be adamant that the day of the "perfectly-sized phone" were long gone. You see, up until just this week I was still of the mind that a 4.7-inch phone was perfect. Whether it was an iPhone or an Android phone, it didn't matter. I loved that screen size back in the day -- bezels and all because we didn't know any better back then.

But now the iPhone 12 mini has a 5.4-inch screen and it feels absolutely tiny. I understand the appeal of the handset, for sure, because it can definitely be used with one hand. However, after playing with it for a few minutes at an Apple Store, I'm even more convinced that the 6.1-inch screen size in the iPhone 12 Pro is the perfect size for a phone I use every day.

Of course, it's the design of the phone that matters, too. Not just the size of the screen. We can't ignore that the iPhone 12 feels drastically different from the iPhone 11, and that's thanks to the design changes. Still, the screen size does make a difference when it comes to handsets with similar designs. So the question still stands.

So, I'm curious: what do you think the perfect screen size is for a phone these days? Has your opinion changed over the years? Let me know!