Smaller is back in the game!

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small_is_good

Average-Smartphone-Screen-Size, phonearena

Source: phonearena.com

For a long time we observe the trend of increasing of the size of the phone. Personally I find it strange – from 4-5 years I have the same phone – iPhone 4S – with a 3.5 inch screen which (as Steve Jobs) I consider as the perfect size. Apparently the rest of the world thinks otherwise. On the one hand I understand it – the larger screen has a lot of advantages:

  • a much better browsing of websites;
  • watching movies or photos is much more convenient;
  • games on larger screens seem to be more realistic and controlling them by the touch screen does not cover it in most by our fingers;
  • they are easier to use for people with low vision after setting a larger font – even my mother recently bought a Lumia 640 XL with almost 6-inch(!) screen “because now she sees better “;
asians

It looks funny, isn’t it?

On the other hand I think that phones so large are crazy. In recent years several times I have been in China where the trend seems to be even bigger. Perhaps due to the small size of the Chinese people but when they were talking on their phablets they looked as if each one of them held a tablet! I hate to think how uncomfortable it is and the fact that it just looks silly (everyone – not only Asians). Of course some of them can cope by using headphones but it is not always a possibility.

I-phone-bend-mainAnother important issue is the discomfort of carrying them – phones with a 5-6 inch screens barely fit in the pockets of jackets not to mention the pants. And even if someone succeeded this is not always the safest way to keep a smartphone (remember how bendgate started?).

This screen size also affects negatively on the performance of smartphone components. Today batteries in most mobilephones do not stand up all day (and for a long time it did not change) and they have even more difficult task to do in phones with such large screens. The same applies to the processor’s performance – the bigger screen and resolution the harder it has to work and this may slow its efficiency (eg. in smaller number of displayed frames-per-second in movies or games). Manufacturers are trying to solve this problem by packing inside their devices newer and more modern processors but not everyone is able to afford change their smartphone every 3-6 months.bateriea7_cpu

Unfortunately in recent times this trend completely pushed out of the market mobile phones with screens smaller than 4.5 inches which has the top specification. Fortunately there is hope. Recently Sony introduced several variants of the upcoming Xperia Z6. The standard models are about to have a screen size of 5.2 inches (Z6) and 4.6-inch (Z6 Compact). Of course there will still be larger variants – Z6 Plus with 5.8 and Z6 Ultra with 6.4-inch screens. But guess which model attracted the most attention? Yes – you got it – 4-inch variant Z6 Mini! Of course it will not be smaller version of the Z6 (like Z6 Compact) because the announcement shows that it will have a slightly inferior processor but as I mentioned – a smaller screen does not need quite as strong components. Most importantly – such a model would has literally only one competitor. Any idea which one?

iphone-6c-metal

New iPhone 6C?

It’s … Apple. From leaks we know that the company from Cupertino unexpectedly wants to introduce a new 6C model in February and its screen would has exactly 4 inches. I do not know about you but if its specification, design and colors would be attractive with great pain in my heart I’ll start to think about replacing the good old 4S.

Ankieta

Source: komorkomania.pl

In modern times the size of mobile phones clearly prevailed over common sense when by the definition they were meant to be mobile and convenient to use devices. As for me my old 4S is the example of quality, design, size and ease of use perfection. Nevertheless after so much time its components and speed of working are weaker and while I thought about buying the latest iPhone 6S I would give Apple much more if they gave me its components packed in old clothes of 4S. Well growing screen sizes in smartphones seems to be inevitable but survey made in the article on komorkomania.pl gives me hope (on the side).

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5 thoughts on “Smaller is back in the game!

  1. I see here a similar development as it was apparent with laptops. There was a time when we were buying bigger laptops, with up 20″ screens, since we were just transitioning from desktop pcs to laptops. The case with mobile phones seems to be similar, more and more the phone replaces the traditional laptop in a multitude of tasks. The phone has to be reinvented with its new role as mobile device, solving all our on the go tasks, making apps more efficient and mobile native, rather than just copying the applications of its bigger “brother” the laptop or tab

  2. arkovtun says:

    As for me it’s “yes’ and “no”. I believe that screen race got ridicules burst and if You can’t put your “portable’ device anywhere but in a back pack – it’s dull. However bigger screen enabled us to do so many thing we couldn’t before. And the totally opposite situation with laptops – I believe people turn back to small laptops because they simply do not use the potential and power of bigger screen laptops.

  3. maximilien.tranvan says:

    I definitely understand it. My personal opinion about it is that when the screen is too big, the phone is not anymore handy as it should be. The same with my wallet I don’t like something too big in my pocket because it’s not convenient. There is a sort of limit between too big and too small, think about someone that call via a notepad, yes, it is ridiculous. So I definitely agree that companies shouldn’t increase the size of screens, Iphone 6 is at the edge in my opinion.

  4. pidek9 says:

    For me the best solution would be very small, portable and durable device with the option of holographic screen so if we need to do something more precisely we can display it. As far as I know this technology is developed and I hope that one day we will be able to use it as something common.

  5. m_zakrzewski says:

    I would like to stress that I really like the idea of “oversized” and “uncomfortable” mobile phones. However, I have to admit that when I obtained my iPhone 6 Plus it was not an easy task to get used to travel with it. Furthermore, due to the fact that I decided to leave it in my jacket’s pocket while entering to high-floor trams for several times, the device is a little bit bent. However, I would also like to stress that I have seen bigger, sometimes extraordinary bends of these devices, and they were (are) still working. Moreover, right after their implementation, some of the applications were not cooperating with such big screens. I wanted to have a device that would be binding both the mobile phone and tablet features, in order to carry only one device with me – for a certain period of time it was not possible. What is more, I prefer watching movies as well as reading articles using my mobile phone over performing it working with my laptop.

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