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Smartphone Screen Real Estate: How Big Is Big Enough?

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-it-doesn't-fit-on-your-coffee-table-you-might-have-a-problem dept.

MojoKid writes "Aside from the terrible nickname (it sounds like a term for the spoiled offspring of fabulous people), phablets are somewhat controversial because they seem to be the epitome of inflated phone sizes. A lot of people wanted bigger, and this is 'bigger' to the extreme. A larger screen on a smartphone is attractive for obvious reasons, but surely there's a limit. So how big is too big? If you're not into parsing out the particulars of form factors and use cases, here's a really easy way to figure out if your phone or phablet is too big: Can you hold the device in one hand and 1) unlock the phone, 2) type out a text message with your thumb, and 3) adjust the volume with the rocker without using your other hand? If not, you might need a smaller phone."

1 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Kids these days... by Solandri · · Score: 1, Redundant

    The ideal size for a phone is for one end to reach your ear and the other end to reach your mouth. If you look at corded and cordless phones throughout history, you'll find they (or their handset) are all this size. It's only recently, in the last 20 years, that phones began to get smaller in an attempt to make them more portable. In fact flip phones were invented to maintain the ear-to-mouth length while collapsing into a smaller size for carrying. For a while it was a contest to see who could come out with the smallest phone, so they kept shrinking (often compromising voice quality during calls because the microphone was further from the mouth, causing the phone to pick up more ambient noise).

    Then phones merged with PDAs and suddenly you wanted a bigger screen. So phones started to get bigger again. For people who just want a phone, a smaller size will do. For people who want to do more computer stuff on their phone, the screen is more important so they'll prefer the bigger screen. The whole premise that small is good and big is bad on a phone is a recent phenomenon, and outdated because it's based on when all you did with a mobile phone was make calls. Today it's a tradeoff between portability (smaller is better) and comfortable screen size (bigger is better).

    The summary asks when is a phone too big? But an equally valid question is when is a smartphone too small?