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Or, it's just that battery life is not something you realize when you're in the shop. You see the device, the screen, how responsive it is, but until you've lived a few days with the device you don't really know what the battery life is.

So it's harder to market.

Or most people have their phones charging all day in their office and all night at home so it really doesn't matter that much.

Yes, because most people work in offices.

I don't understand your pointless comment.

I moved from a Galaxy Nexus to LG G3, which is smaller than the Nexus 6 and I find it incredibly hard to use. Can barely use it with one hand and it doesnt fit in my shirt pocket, sticks out, cant put it in my pant pockets, because it will break. Its very inconvenient size wise. awesome phone though and excellent battery life.

Galaxy Nexus was so small I could put it anywhere on me and it would be just fine. Awesome to hold in one hand.

Google just excluded itself from a large market and is competing only in phablet space.

I guess with Moto X staying in the more average size space, they want to get in to phablet space, which is fine.

> Can barely use it with one hand and it doesnt fit in my shirt pocket, sticks out, cant put it in my pant pockets, because it will break. Its very inconvenient size wise. awesome phone though and excellent battery life.

I mean this in all seriousness, how small are your pants? When I got my Note, the first thing I checked was to see if it would fit in my pants pockets. No problem with a single pair. I keep seeing this complaint and the only conclusion I can come to is that people who complain about this really buy tight pants with tiny pockets.

If I can't fit my entire hand comfortably into the pocket of whatever pants I'm buying, I'm simply not buying them.

But I'm getting to be an old fart, and maybe the fashion you kids wear these days demands useless pockets you can't carry anything around in. But I've never understood this issue.

Even women, who have next to useless pockets in their pants buy this size phone in huge numbers.

"Even women, who have next to useless pockets in their pants buy this size phone in huge numbers."

because they usually keep them in their handbag/purse?

> I keep seeing this complaint and the only conclusion I can come to is that people who complain about this really buy tight pants with tiny pockets.

Well, yes, lots of guys wear tight pants. It's not really the size of the pockets that's the issue, it's just that the pants follow the curve of your outer thigh, so you can't put a big flat device in there.

I used to have a Note 3, and I found it annoying to carry around. The problem with my pants was not necessarily just how tight they were, but the depth of the pocket. Without really deep pockets the likes of which I don't seem to have on any of my pants, the Note jabbed me in the hip when I tried to sit down or climb stairs.

I swear when I read issues like this I think I must be an absolutely gargantuan man with vast pockets of holding (I'm not and I don't).

I mean really, if I can't fit my own not-very-large hand up to the wrist in pants I'm trying on I consider them defective and don't buy them. Turns out my Note is about the same size as my extended hand w/r to length and width and about 1/3rd as thick, so if I can fit my hand in my pants I can fit my phone. It also means I can fit my hands in my pockets when it's cold and to get stuff in and out of them.

Most of my jeans have pretty small pockets (biggest thing I've noticed with higher end denim is the pockets are much smaller than levis, etc). An iPhone 5 sized device is about the max that will fit in there, a 6 (4.7 inches) borders on too large. But those pockets are plenty large for a phone, keys, wallet in my back pocket, and a few other small items. There's a difference between "useless pockets you can't carry anything around in" and useful pockets you can't carry a tablet-sized device in.

So yeah, it's definitely an issue for both sexes. You may not buy pants that don't have large enough pockets, but I won't base my wardrobe around my phone and won't buy a phone that I can't easily fit in average sized pockets.

I always associated massive phones as being marketed towards women seeing as, at least in western culture, they're generally the demographic that is able to conveniently carry them. Most men don't have the pocket space to carry a 6 inch phone, and I've heard a lot of complaints around the new iPhone screen size (the smaller, not the 6-plus) from both genders as being too large to conveniently carry.

iPhone 6 Plus generally fits in to US size 38 or larger jeans. However the word "fits" here begs a fine print. Once you put that in pocket, you can't put anything else. Also it really "sticks" out and whenever you sit or stand up, you will fill its presence. Even if you solved pocket issue somehow, the fact is that human hands are not made for this kind of size. You really can't type with one hand. On a long phone calls, it's pain to hold on.

The big screen craze is mainly because of people who want to have one device and avoid buying tablets. They are willing to take on pain in exchange of savings for extra money on tablet. However people who can afford having both, iPhone 6 is really the max size where "world in your pocket" ends and "requires a purse or carry bag" starts.

38 or larger? That sounds huge. I don't have any numbers to quote but my guess is that the average for adult men here in scandinavia would be 34. I guess I have to gain some weight so that I can buy new pants for my phone, if it just barely fits in 38 maybe 42 is a good size to aim for.

I wear a 30 waist and fairly tight pants and I have no problem fitting the 6 plus in my front pocket.

According to Google the average men waist size in the us is 38.

I'm also an old fart who wears relaxed fit jeans pretty much all the time, but some of them have much smaller pockets than others. And I'm 6'3", with a 38" waist, so it's not a matter of my tiny pants.

However, it's not just a matter of "will this rectangle fit into this opening". Even my smallest pockets fit the phone. But even with my Nexus 5, if I have headphones plugged into the phone, walking up stairs feels precarious -- like I'm one wrong move away from snapping the headphone jack.

I don't want to just fit my phone in my pocket. I want to be able to, for all intents and purposes, forget it's there if I want to. I don't think I could do that with a Nexus 6.

I moved from a Galaxy Nexus to an iPhone 5s, and was sorely disappointed with the smaller size. I plan on pre-ordering the Nexus 5 and selling my iPhone as soon as it arrives.

As a previous owner of a Galaxy Nexus and owner of a Nexus 5 (for a year). It's like comparing a rotten apple with a big nice Orange. The Galaxy Nexus was nice until it got the 4.2.x release imho, after that was pure trash. The Nexus 5 is an amazing device, the camera is not bad as people say, it's very fast and the screen is nice (GN was better for my eyes). And KitKat was the first release at the same level or better than iOS in terms of usability and quality. You won't be disapointed with the N5. Just make sure you buy a case, the back is very slippery and the device it's big :)

As for iOS devices i had a iPad 3, which was the worse device Apple made due it's slow processor. And also I got it 1 month before the iPad 4 release. So really bad timing.

I tried to post a point but got deleted by the Apple mafia on HN. The fact is I have seen large number of small handed users (asian females) comfortably carry and use large format phones like Galaxy Notes.

The problem for the male dominated tech media and HN users is that they mostly do not carry a shoulder bag and cannot conceive of a device which does not fit in a pocket being useful.

Add a bejewelled hello kitty pocket book case and carry it in your shoulder bag and a large phone is just fine. It is also great for people who use their phone mainly from their desk and carry a briefcase or backpack. A tradie will not be climbing on roofs with a Nexus 6 in their pocket. But it is a big market and there is room for differentiation.

Funny enough, when I'm in Korea, normal people there have phones that dwarf the Notes of the world (like 7") and being fashion conscious wear fitted trousers yet somehow have managed to figure out how to get along in their day, a seemingly impossible conundrum for the audience here.

How do they carry these bricks? There is a research paper [1] that says 60% of men prefers to carry phone in their pocket and 13% with belt clip. This was old however and may be it's changed now?

[1] http://research.nokia.com/sites/default/files/45590483.pdf

Easy to explain: Users don't really know what they want. Nobody likes the idea of changing their ways before finding a good reason to do so.

Every male that I know that has a Note-sized smartphone said, before having one in their hands, that those things where too big for them. Now, none of them would go back to small screens.

To give a counterpoint, I have been unhappy with each successive size increase of my phone for the reasons listed. I'm sure there are people who are happier with a larger device, but I don't think the issue is so cut and dried.

>That might seem mystifying to you and me, but that really seems to be the case.

It's not mystifying. A larger screen looks cooler in the store, and most people won't realize what a pain in the ass it is until they've already bought it and been using it for a few days. And, few people will ever make the connection that that enormous screen is why their phone is dead before they leave work to go home in the evening.

It just means that increasing sales does not necessarily correlate with increased user satisfaction. Too much of a disparity there, for too long, and the market will eventually just collapse - no one will want to buy new phones anymore.

(FWIW, I might be already there - I love my Nexus 4, was waiting for the Nexus 6, but now it looks like I won't be getting it after all.)

Considering Apple's main phone is under 5 inches, I think that statement is at least somewhat true. Sure some people will want phablets, but I'm sure Apple at least did their research for making more iPhone 6s than 6 Pluses.

We shouldn't use screen size as our only measure though. The iPhone 6 is a 4.7", but is quite a bit bigger than the 4.7" Moto X 2013, and about equal in size to the 5" Nexus 5 [1].

Apple uses a bit more bezel on their phones, so in physical dimensions they are closer to some of their Android competition than you might think based on screen size.

[1]: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Motorola-Moto-X,Apple-...

I've held both and the iPhone 6 is noticeably smaller than the Nexus 5.

I can echo what he says. The iPhone has absolutely enormous bezels, so much so that the iPhone 6 Plus is definitely larger than my Galaxy Note 3 despite its having a 5.7" screen. That was the first thing I noticed when I held them side by side at a store a few weeks ago.

iPhone 6: 138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.27 in)

Nexus 5: 137.9 x 69.2 x 8.6 mm (5.43 x 2.72 x 0.34 in)

So 63 cm^3 vs 82 cm^3 in volume, and 92.5 cm^2 vs 95.4 cm^2 in front area.

It's the width that's what you feel when you hold it.

... and width is the only dimension where the iPhone 6 is actually bigger than the Nexus 5.

People tend to hold their phones in "portrait" mode, rather than "landscape". So, width would typically refer to the second largest dimension when talking about (most) phones. Additionally, given that phones are 3d objects, interacted with in physical space, the "feeling" of width would also include the phone's thickness, to some extent.

In this context, the iPhone 6 is actually smaller than the Nexus 5, by about 20%.

Not according to morsch two comments up.

I think you're imagining things because they're almost identical and the nexus 5 is actually slightly narrower.

I've held both and they feel identical. Same vertical and horizontal dimensions and same weight. The thickness isn't even noticeable in your hand.

Indeed. Here's a physical comparison: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/size#/phones/size/Apple-iPh...

Using screen-size as a measure of physical size let Apple pull off a pretty epic PR coup. The iPhone 6 is essentially the same size as modern 5" Android phones, but has a significantly smaller screen.

You're talking about a company that bitterly clung to the 3.5 inch screen for years before capitulating to the demand for larger screens.

I'm sure Apple does market research, but they've proven to be very susceptible to their own dogma.

Bitterly clung - quite amusing.

I have a 4S still around as my "iPod touch" and it does fine compared to my 5 in terms of usability for apps and music. Remembering back, I didn't somehow feel when I got the iPhone5 and later my Nexus5 that my 4S was "inadequate". I did feel that it weighed a lot compared the iPhone5 however, and was very glad for that.

When thinking about a smartphone, I care more about it's usability as a phone, then as a music/podcast player, and only finally as a media device. Am I out in left field here?

> Am I out in left field here?

A bit, yes. My phone (n5) is used more as a web browsing device and video consuming device than it is as a music player. It is definitely the screen size. My previous phone (HTC Desire, about the same screen size as an iPhone <6) was pretty much a phone plus ipod.

I think the demand for screen size is also due to the fact that we probably have some ways to go before getting good at designing things for small screened devices.

I am still in 2 minds about my iPhone 6. It is much nicer in most ways than the 5. The extra screen real-estate really helps but at the cost of single-handed operation and comfort when bending at the hips.

As the issue with bending phones demonstrates, plastic is hardly a failure of imagination in design and Samsung pretty clearly have that issue well understood.

Good points, I guess I did make a sweeping generalisation on the "average user" part and I guess this is how the market will always work but it just slows down innovation dramatically for the sake of making that extra penny. Sigh.

Well, again, I get the feeling that you're perhaps unknowingly defining "innovation" to mean "improving the things I like".

For one, I do think that these larger phones bring about new use cases that leave room for innovation. There is much more you can do with a large phone, such as having more immersive games & apps, make a phone viable for note taking and media consumption, use multiple apps at the same time (if you are so inclined), and all sorts of other new things that would be finnicky at best on smaller phones. Not that those are all self-evidently good things, but at least they seem to be innovative.

Whereas a longer battery life doesn't get you anything new. It means you can do the same things, but now you can do the same things for two days instead of one. That's a good thing, sure, but it's not innovative.

As a side note, bigger screened phones really do tend to have much longer battery life. These two things aren't opposed, they seem to go hand in hand.

I disagree with you.

Just because a kid wants more chocolate does not mean you should give it to him. It may make him happy at first but is not good for him in long run.

What are people/me saying here is that, we should/can achieve the same functionality with smaller phones. We should.

In hundred years, people will laugh at these phones!

Too big considering what it does and provides to people.

Most android handsets are sold as candy and not fruit and vegetables. More GHz, more pixels, more mAh, more inches. Why should this be any different?

I want more gee bees!

> In hundred years, people will laugh at these phones!

In one hundred years, people will laugh at all phones.

I don't understand your comment. Are you saying people who prefer thinner/lighter phones over longer-lived phones are misguided? Maybe they have different priorities than you.

I don't see how this relates to regulating a child's junk food intake. Do you think companies should decide what we can buy?

I think the point isn't that companies should decide what you can buy, that makes no sense...

I think the point is more that just because people seem to prefer a product at first glance/first use doesn't mean that that's the product they will prefer in the long run.

Something like the pepsi challenge ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Challenge ), if people are given a sample of pepsi and a sample of coke and not told which is which, they generally prefer pepsi if they just take one sip because of the extra sweetness, but if they drink a whole can of each then coke (the less sweet beverage) is usually preferred.

It won't be a hundred years though, it'll be one or two years and then that new increased battery life will sell another phone. So if screens increase sales now, it might make sense to focus on them with the knowledge that battery life or something else will be the next feature that drives sales.

Your comment is pretentious and assumptive.

Consumers want bigger phones and manufacturers are providing them, it's as simple as that.

I'd say deriving moral superiority from phone form factor is sillier than a 6 inch screen.

I still can not see, much can be achieved with bigger screens. Google glass approach at least sounds better than this, by separating power to smaller devices will let people interact with real world better than trying to hold this phone with 2 hands.

Bigger screen allows me to sketch more easily on my iPhone 6 plus, and use iA Writer in a more satisfying way. Just two examples of what a bigger screen achieves (for me). A smartwatch coupled with this will perhaps fill the one-handed (and voice activated) use case rather well.

Plus, I can remote more comfortably to my office machine, and probably don't need my laptop to see and "feel" big family photos :).

Your comment is aggressive and uninformed.

I have an iPhone 6. So does everyone in my office. All but one of us pine for our 5/5s - they were, in our opinions, far superior in usability for a one-handed device.

The thing is, we could just go back to them, but then the 6s will come out, or the 7, and eventually, you have to either move to a new platform (Android maybe, but the options in high-end devices in smaller screen dimensions are limited if available at all, and we prefer iOS the operating system, so it's impractical) or suck it up and endure the ever-forward march towards bigger screens.

Consumers don't necessarily want bigger screens as an absolute. Having multiple sizes available is great, but the baseline being so big is not necessarily "what consumers want."

When talking about "what consumers want", the opinions of the people in your office really shouldn't indicate that much. Especially not if they just started using their big phones two weeks ago, and still need to get used to different usage patterns after using small iPhones for (I presume) a long time. Nobody disputes that larger phones are used differently than smaller phones (large phones have advantages and disadvantages), but "different" does not necessarily mean "worse". Although that's what people often think.

You can just easily argue the other way - recently I've switched from N5 (5") to Z3C (4.6" hovewer with small bezels) and I couldn't be happier. In fact, I would happily go under 4" if there was a flagship so small.

Again, I didn't say larger phones are better. If you tried a larger phone for a while and didn't like it, good for you. What I'm pointing out is that you cannot honestly say "I don't like large phones" without actually using them for a while. I'm also pointing out that personal anecdotes don't have any value in discussions about what the market really wants.

You voted with your wallet for a large screen phone, as people in the past voted with their wallet for large screen phones. You could have purchased the Z3 compact or some other device targeting the small device niche market, but you voted against it. Good job!

If he wanted an iOS phone, he had little choice, which was the point of his post. The only thing he could've done is forgo buying a new phone altogether; this is what I've chosen to do, I will stick with my iPhone 4S until it dies, then purchase a 5S and do the same.

This reminds me of what a very wise person (a business owner I used to work for) once told me. In an answer to the question "Isn't the customer always right?", he told me "No, not always. And when they are wrong, it is our job to convince them otherwise. If successful you will have a customer for life."

In a hundred years, I had better have my damned brain implant. Forget the phones.