The Phablet Revolution
flurrymobile.tumblr.com
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Then I got a Galaxy Note 2. The day I got it was literally the last time I used the Nexus 7. It did everything the Nexus 7 could do and it was always with me. It had almost the same display resolution in a much smaller overall package thanks to the slimmer bezel.
It was bigger than the Droid Charge, but it actually fit better in my pants pocket. My carrying system for years has been to put the phone (with no case) in my left front pants pocket with the screen facing in to protect it. Keys and change go in the right front pocket so they never scratch the phone. Don't need cargo pants for this, just regular slacks or shorts.
This worked OK for the Droid Charge, but the phone always ended up sideways in my pocket. When I sat down, the Droid would stick out because it was crosswise with the long end against the curve of my leg. The Note 2 was big enough that it wouldn't tip on its side in the pocket like that; it stayed upright with the long end parallel to my leg and the short end going across. So despite being a bigger phone, it ended up being less in the way.
Later upgraded to a Note 3 and Note 4, and wouldn't go back to a smaller phone at all.
I do pay attention to pocket depth when I buy pants, but most of the styles I like have reasonably deep pockets anyway.
I don't talk on the phone much, and when I do the larger size isn't a problem. I mostly use my phone as a portable always-connected tablet.
For anyone who thinks these large phones exist only to give manufacturers bigger numbers they could brag about, well, I'm your counterexample. They are ideal for me.
(I suppose that's also a thing: I want to be able to primarily use my phone one-handed. If you're consistently a two-hand user, I guess this isn't much of a problem.)
I haven't had a problem with dropping the phone, but I do use two hands to operate it except for simple things like scrolling. That's easy with one hand - at least for normal vertically scrolling websites.
It does get annoying reading Kindle books with their ridiculous sideways page turns where you have to tap the right side of the screen or drag the page sideways. I love having all my books and magazines on my phone, but hate the Kindle UI. Why can't I just scroll my books vertically like a normal website? Being right-handed, I hold the phone in my left hand, so it's a pretty awkward reach. [1]
The few close calls I've had were when I tried to get fancy and reach across the phone with my thumb to tap some button on the screen - or flip a Kindle page. Definitely see how it would be easier to drop if you're using it one-handed.
[1] This reminds me of a question I've been curious about: I've read a few times that most people hold their phone in their dominant hand (e.g. my right hand). I never understood this, since I use it more like a small pad of paper and pencil - the pad of course would be in my left hand and the pencil in my right. Naturally when I'm using the Note's stylus I do it that way, but even without the stylus I've always thought of it like a pad and pencil with my finger being the pencil. I've always assumed that people who use their phone with two hands do it this way, but I'd be interested to know whether people who operate their phones with one hand use their dominant hand or the other hand.
After a year I dropped the phone for the 700th hundred time and it broke, now I got the Xperia Z3 Compact.
I do agree with you, I never want a phone I can't fully operate with one hand. I often can only use one hand (the other carries a kid, or a kid bike or something kid related).
I like being able to hold the phone with one hand and do everything I need with my thumb. This seems like one of those trends thats driven by the manufacturers need to position themselves rather than customer demand.
http://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystifie...
> This seems like one of those trends thats driven by the manufacturers
Yep. People don't know what they want until Steve Jobs tells them what they want. Too bad he's gone.
>You won't catch me dead wearing something like a pair of cargo shorts....
>People don't know what they want until Steve Jobs tells them what they want.
Maybe swiping to go back makes this point moot.
What I had in mind was just relocating the toolbar to the bottom.
I really wish they'd get rid of that bottom tab bar and shove them under a hamburger button even though that's supposedly bad.
Can't see how you go back to smaller without a very dense product - given battery.
In my city I see the phablets as something really preferred by women: they don't carry their belongings in the pockets anyway, and the bigger screen means "better" Facebook.
But I've been thinking of ditching Apple anyhow. So I'll be looking into decent Android phones. Or dig the old Nokia brick out of storage and go caveman.
Yes, you need two hands to do most things. My thumb can't reach Android's "back" button on the 6. But what I realized was that with the Nexus 4, I also couldn't reach everything with just my thumb. "Back" was within reach, but the upper right and left weren't fully. So while yes, the 6 isn't strictly as comfortable as the 4 was, the bigger screen is a minor tradeoff I'm ultimately very happy with.
It also barely fits in my pocket, so the jury's still out as to whether that makes it more prone to slipping out while seated. I'm not sure I want jeans with deeper pockets just to accommodate my phone. But it hasn't been an issue yet.
(Now if manufacturers would just improve the process they use to make these hi-DPI screens so that the color temperature isn't splotchy. My Nexus 6 suffers from a pinkish bottom half, and apparently it's not an uncommon issue for hi-DPI smartphones and non-Retina-brand hi-DPI laptops.)
There are three things we know from experience:
1) Tablets seemed like a lovely idea, but after a while we got tired of their limitations compared to laptops combined with their portability compared two phones. They're useful on occassion, but they didn't quite hit the sweet spot. And we still need an e-ink device for comfortable reading.
2) Smartphones are really cool, but they have limited usefulness when trying to do something a bit more complex. An improvement over dumb phones and feature phones, but not quite the sweet spot either.
3) We would really, really like to be able to stop carrying 4 devices around.
So "phablets" (I hate that name) are the next attempt to be all things (or at least more than one thing) to all people. And everyone is trying them out, just like tablets before them.
One hint that they're not here to stay is the pathetically desperate way people try to justify the clumsiness of their expensive purchase. Seriously, I constantly see people messing with these huge things going "no, it's not too big, really, I love it!" while they're desperately trying to operate it without dropping it. It's kind of tragic, and really emphasises it as a fashion driven fad.
Its also conceivable that whatever Apple had come up with would be bought not because the consumers wanted it (i.e. big screens) but simply because they wanted to have the latest Apple "thing."
In other words, bigger screens are simply trendy, and are therefore not here to stay.
Or it's not and your 'seems','maybe','would' and conditionals are just that :).
Phablets may not be for everyone, but neither are the small phones that are rapidly becoming an endangered species.
Do the majority of smartphone users have large hands? I have fairly average-sized hands, and my Z3C is nearing the limit of what I can comfortably use one-handed.
For me, I think the ideal screen size is around 4.3". But good luck finding a high-end phone with that screen size.
What's interesting is that, in Europe, I remember discussion that the mandatory subscription also included voice. So theoretically it was the proto-phablet, though I'm not sure if that plan ever reached fruition.
I kept thinking even back then, hell, I already use BT headsets all the time, why not a 7" screen?
Possibly still could have worked for someone who knew they'd always have a bag with them.
But since the Note 2 I've been on the phablet bandwagon. It just makes sense.