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 “;
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.
Another 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.
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?
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.
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).