Here’s a fun fact: the average width of a human male hand is around 7.4 inches, and the average female hand is just under that at 7 inches. Turn your hand sideways and envision the space between your thumb and your pinky. Can you imagine a phone nearly that big? Well, whether you want it or not, odds are that it’ll be coming your way within the next year.
CES 2013 was an epicenter for the big smartphone. A majority of these mobile products were still at the big-but-not-crazy-big size of around 5 inches, such as Sony’s new Xperia Z — about one and a half inches bigger than the classic iPhone (and an inch bigger than the iPhone 5). Others, like Lenovo’s IdeaPhone K900 ventured into the new and still-bigger 5.5” territory, just an inch and a half smaller than popular tablets like the Nexus 7. But none made a splash quite like Huawei’s Ascend Mate, showing off its flashy 6-inch screen and taking the crown for the biggest smartphone on the market. People gushed over the phone’s huge screen, nearly the size of an iPad mini, and hailed 2013 as the era of the big smartphone.
It’s important to keep in mind that there’s a difference between a mega smartphone and the so-called “phablet” concepts seen in the Galaxy Note II, which incorporates a stylus and extra media apps to give a more tablet experience. The Huawei Ascend Mate doesn’t incorporate any of a phablet’s bells and whistles, such as photo editing software or word processing tools. Also, the Ascend Mate is actually bigger than the Galaxy Note II in absolutely every dimension, effectively blowing the phablet’s size out of the water while remaining every respect exactly the same as much smaller and sleeker phone models.
The phablet/big phone contrast really highlights the core problem of such a large smartphone: when you buy (and use) one, you aren’t getting any extra features except a larger phone. There are no special OS adjustments or noticeable resolution differences when interacting with a bigger phone, so the only benefit lies in the major screen. It’s even more of a challenge when considering the hardware limitations of such a large phone: a bigger screen means a bigger battery, and a bigger battery means more weight to add to that hefty size. It’s not only two to three times larger than the average smartphone (which ranges between 3.5 and 4.5 inches), but has the potential to be that much heavier to boot.
And, though it’s debatable that bigger is necessarily better in the smartphone world, the rise of bigger and bigger phones is inevitable. Why? Because big phones are making a profit. Chalk this up to the mounting success of the Note II — which, despite its “phablet” monniker managed to sell 5 million units in just two months and maintains steady sales both in the U.S. and phone hotbeds like Korea. It’s no wonder that phone hardware companies are trying to jump on that bandwagon, but we’re fast approaching the 6.5-inch barrier, where Amazon’s best-selling classic Kindle resides.
Are we destined for a continuum of similar-looking and similar-functioning technologies that don’t provide more beyond their relative size? Only time will tell, but it’s prudent to warm up your hands the meantime for the bigger future.
by Lauren Hockenson
4 REAL INTERACTIVE 