The present invention provides systems and methods for tilt-based scrolling of a magnified contents view on a mobile device with a relatively small screen display. The user controls the scrolling by changing the device's tilt relative to a baseline tilt. The scrolling control can follow a Proportional Scroll mode, where the relative tilt directly controls the screen position over the contents view, or a Dynamic Scroll mode where the relative tilt controls the scrolling speed. The present invention obtains a criterion for automatically selecting the best scrolling mode when the dimensions of the contents view change. The baseline tilt is updated when the screen display reaches an edge of the contents view to eliminate the creation of a non responsive range of tilt changes when the user changes tilt direction during Proportional Scroll mode, and to return the current tilt of the screen display to an optimal viewing condition during Dynamic Scroll mode.