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Phablet Reviews: Before and After the iPhone 6
Velcroman1 writes Bigger is better. No, wait, bigger is worse. Well, which is it? Apple's newly supersized 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the jumbo, 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus are a marked departure for the company, which has clung to the same, small screen size for years. It has gone so far as to publicly deride larger phones from competitors, notably Samsung, even as their sales grew to record highs. Tech reviewers over the years have tended to side with Apple, in general saddling reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Note – a 5.3-inch device that kicked off the phablet push in 2012 – with asides about how big the darn thing was. Are tech reviewers being fair when they review the iPhone 6 Plus? Here's what some of them said today, compared with how they reviewed earlier phablets and big phones from the competition.
I hate, hate, hate, hate large phones. If I needed a bigger screen, I'll pull out my tablet or my laptop. I'm a skinny guy, I wear tight-ish jeans (fiance hates it, but I gotta be me), and pulling a big-ass phone out of my front pocket is a pain in my ass, and that's with an IPhone 5S.
I'm going to pass on the 6 and hope they come out with a traditional-sized one for the 6S or 7.
...is worse for others. Guess it really depends on how big your pockets are.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
The press is biased towards Apple? You don't say...
It's Phat Tablet!
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
This seems to be a typical sort of response from a media that tends to bias Apple products. I make no criticism of Apple with that remark, only those responsible for reviewing their products fairly. I get the feeling that a huge number of these reviewers, rather that being classical "tech lovers" if you will, are more prone to have a brand or ecosystem identity that drives their judgement about a given product or product family.
This kind of trend is fairly common across all major phone manufacturers, across both iOS and Android, and also across Apple and Google themselves. It is why I rarely take a phone review seriously, be it for a phone that I actually am interested in or one that I'm not. Having information about specs and hardware is a good place to start when deciding between two pieces of technology, but past that, a huge amount of one's enjoyment of a device can come from external factors, such as previous brand investment, ecosystem size and saturation, and even things as "trivial" as what one's friends are using.
I try not to be terribly upset when I see Apple product reviewers exhibiting these signs of bias, since a large number of Android (and perhaps even some windows phone?) reviewers do the same things. I read and watch these reviews as I would watch news about politics: with a boulder sized grain of salt. While some truth may be found somewhere in the reviewer's statements, they still can and do fall prey to human shortcomings that affects us all.
I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of people in the article that basically said the same thing in both reviews. I couple of people magically changed their tunes with the Apple 6, but not as many as I thought.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If by "suddenly" you mean "two years and dozens of four-to-six-inch-phones later", yes.
That's less time than it took for the original iPhone to go from ridiculously oversized* to perfectly normal.
*Ars Technica's review compares it unfavourably to the Razr.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Before switching to x86: x86 sucks ass! PowerPC all the way!
After switching to x86: x86 is awesome! Glad we don't have PowerPC anymore!
They haven't released numbers yet, but the press reports seem to indicate that the 6 Plus demand is outstripping supply yet the chorus of people who think that even the 6 is too big let alone the 6 plus is as loud as ever. I think this is an interesting dichotomy.
I think the 6 Plus is fine -- I find more screen better than less screen, even if the increased size limits one-handed usage. I don't think there's an "ideal" size for any phone unless you toss in some usage requirements, like one-handed use or pocket storage complaints. I know some people who would use a full-size iPad as a phone if they could because none of the one-handed use or pocket issues apply to them. I think it's just a matter of personal preference.
I do think it's interesting that Tim Cook's Apple is responding to market demand instead of imposing a Jobsian design fascism. I also think that for a decent chunk of people, the 6 Plus is meant to take over some of the things they'd use a tablet for. I'm mostly happy with my iPad 3 (even with iOS8), but I think with a 6 Plus I'll reach for it less and put off upgrading it until it runs out of iOS updates.
And I think a lot of people who want both but can't swing it financially will find a 6 Plus a reasonable universal device. This is what surprised me about the 6 Plus release as I'm pretty sure it will eat into iPad Mini sales and even some full-size iPad sales.
What would be nice and I don't know if we'll ever get there for lots of reasons (technological and sales/marketing) would be a watch-sized device becoming the root device with the phone or tablet being the kind of screen/user interface, tethered to the phone for network access. That way you could pick your "phone" based on size preference, or none at all if all you wanted was bluetooth audio and phone calling.
It’s still too big for a smartphone After testing it over the past week and a half, the awkwardness that came with carrying such a large, “notice me” phone outweighed the benefits of it, for me.
And then about the iPhone 6 plus:
Maybe I’m getting old, and my eyes are getting worse. Or maybe I’m stuck in Apple’s reality-distortion field (help). But something strange happened this week. I started to like a phablet.
And they feel comfortable making damning statements about a non Apple device, while saying the same thing as politely as possible for the iPhone. E.g. compare a TechCrunch quote on the Note:
I found that it was really difficult to get comfortable with the device, never feeling like I had complete control over it as I would with a smaller phone.
With that on the iPhone:
the additional size makes for a less ‘perfect’ ergonomic quality, something the iPhone 6 definitely achieves
The worst they can say about the iPhone 6 plus is "less perfect", while adding that the iPhone 6 IS perfect. Until one month ago, of course, the iPhone 5/5S was the ergonomically perfect one, while Samsung Galaxy S3/4/5 where awkwardly large. I guess perfection just follows Apple wherever they go. "Journalists" just follow right behind.
The original Galaxy Note got some pretty bad reviews, some even calling it a fad, due to its size. But then it sold like hot cakes, flying off the shelves.
Then review sites learned ther lesson and gave the Note 2 a decent spin and gave it the top reviews it deserved. Now the LG G3 is getting all the 4.5-star reviews.
It was always meant to be the other way around (i.e you read reviews to help you make an informed purchase), but sites need ad money and realized it's un-cool to hate on phablets.
I replaced my old broken Note 2 with a tiny Nexus 5 and I'm suffering with the cramped 4.95" screen. Next time, I'm going medieval on screen size.
Have you actually tried them? I mean I understand not wanting a Note 4 or iPhone+,
but have you actually tried phones in the Galaxy S5 class (~5")? The rounded back (which the iPhone 5 hasn't got) helps a lot.
I was actually surprised how little you feel the phone considering it's size.
The optimal time to launch a larger model would've been then, not a full year later. They missed the boat.
Yeah, to the tune of 10 million sales over the weekend. ;-)
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I went from a Galaxy Note 2 to a HTC One Max. And then I went and put an Otterbox around the thing.
I carry it in my front pants pocket. It snags not more than any other rectangular deice (because it's always the corner that gets snagged by a fold) and I can actually use it to browse the web without unusable mobile versions of websites and without pinchzooming like a deranged person.
I don't have to carry a second device, either, that needs a daily recharge... I could have been talked into carrying a phone and actual tablet if, and only if, there was a Nokia 6210, with nothing more than phone, sms, contact list, 3G/4G and Wifi Hotspot/Tethering capabilities. But such a thing does not exist, at least not at a price that would make you better off buying a smartphone all the same.
I love the size... finally it doesn't feel like I have to pinch a teensy, tiny device between my not even that enormous fingers and be afraid of it slipping away. That's why I dig the Otterbox too, by the way. The HTC is so thin, I was constantly afraid of inadvertently flicking it through the room.
YMMV, but I love these things to death. If I could have had the HTC with full metal body and twice as thick (and therefore with a battery in the 6Ah range), I would have bought that instead.
I've got a Note 3, and I frequently hold it up to my head to talk on it. I also gave up caring about what people think of based on what technology I use a couple of decades ago.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Exactly.
Different people want different things.
This is not news.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Anyone using Wave Charging *did* buy a brick with the Apple logo on it.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Wait, I thought hipsters were the guys who liked the new things?
They liked the new things that coincided with their generation hitting their prime. The new things as the next generation hits its prime, the new things that are different than "their" things, not so much.
Skinny jeans are becoming passe, soon to be laughed at when seen in photos, "OMG, look at those pants, can you believe we/they wore those". At least for guys. Tight jeans for women will always be fashionable.
Yes there will be die hards. Every generation has those too.
Like if you had an iPad and an iPhone you were a hipster, but if you had an old Android and a Lenovo laptop you were a legitimate human being.
Poor analogy. The iPhone vs Android thing is strongly correlated with zip code, in other words income. Its simply a matter of getting what you want vs getting what your finances force you to settle for. Sure there are a few who shriek about the "walled garden", a loud minority, sort of like Linux desktop users.
Perhaps I'm being a little hard on the Linux users. Many of those at Linux conferences are carrying MacBooks.
Now that Apple has joined the phablet bandwagon, we have another problem: manufacturers are only offering their premium devices in phablet, or near-phablet, sizes. Want the "smaller" iphone? Sure, but you have to give up camera features. Most of the Android phones are in a similar boat - you can get a 4-4.5" screen phone, but you'll give up memory, or speed, or camera functionality, LTE, or any of a number of other features. Smaller screens mean lower price points and cutting corners.
Wouldn't it be nice it you really could choose a 3.5-4" screen phone that did everything else the larger models did?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I would love one the size of a 4s. Is there a petition out there to support this sentiment?