The push toward the mobile internet and video consumption originally drove the growth of phone screens. With phones now serving as people's primary window to the internet and preferred canvas for myriad video streaming services, bigger screens are now more compelling than smaller ones. When the physical size of hands stopped manufacturers from making phones wider, they still went taller, pushing the screen height-to-width ratio from the common 16:9 to 19:9 or 20:9. Sony has gone as far as 21:9, making very tall, narrow phones that beautifully display 21:9 video originally intended for wide-screen TVs. If you care about "small" only in the sense of reaching across your phone, one of those phones might be a good option. People like bigger batteries, too, and the easiest way to pack in a bigger battery is to make the phone bigger. Unlike other technologies, battery capacity has been extremely resistant to technological improvement—try to get too smart at squeezing more battery capacity into a smaller space, and you end up with a problem. Finally, phone makers want to charge more. There's a deep theme in the American consumer culture that bigger is better and is worth more: bigger cars, bigger houses, bigger TVs, and bigger phones. It's been difficult for phone makers to convince consumers that something small still holds value. If you're looking for a small phone because you find big screens distracting or exhausting, small voice phones are worth considering. These little flip phones fit just as well in your hand now as their ancestors did in 2006.