I've handled a lot of oversize smartphones in my years as a reviewer. That's a bit of a trick statement, I'll admit, since both handset screen sizes and our perception of them as large or small have grown throughout the years.
Today, phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Mega (6.3 inches,) Huawei Ascend Mate (6.1,) and Sony Xperia Z Ultra (6.44,) aren't merely outliers giving niche users the come hither. They form a fully fledged category of XXL smartphone -- that's only getting bigger.
Samsung, HTC, and Nokia are all releasing, or rumored to release, new gentle giants in the coming year. These will join the six biggest cellular screens you can buy right now.
To appreciate just how much perception had shifted, we've got to think back. The original iPhone wowed with its 3.5-inch screen. Before Apple's all-touch achievement entered the scene, the industry had never seen a cell phone screen so large, with such a roomy virtual keyboard.
Fast-forward three years to 2010, when Dell made headlines (but not many sales) with its unprecedented, 5-inch Dell Streak. It was, for all intents and purposes, the industry's first real phablet, though its screen size was ahead of its time and it suffered from feature and design flaws.
These days, a premium smartphone with a display measuring smaller than 4.5 inches is a point of suspicion and 5 inches is the new norm, even as users and reviewers lashed back against ever-larger "jumbo phones" just a handful of years ago.
Clearly, there's a market for smartphones so large they spill into tablet territory.
The case for jumbo phones
There are several good reasons why jumbo phones are taking off, and it isn't only because of supply.
- Visual over audio: As people rely on smartphones more for computing than for calls, the viewing experience takes priority.
- Pixel power: Higher resolution displays can deliver fine detail and rich color. Of course, larger panels have long existed for TVs and even tablets, but the difference here is that you need more pixel density when viewing the smartphone about six inches away from your face.
- Hardware support: A larger screen is a power hungry screen that requires a higher-octane processor and a large enough battery to fire up a wider field of pixels fast enough and bright enough. The design must also be svelte enough to carry around without bulking up pockets.
A stylus can add extra functionality to a large-screen device.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET) - Building bridges: Buying one large smartphone is cheaper than buying a tablet and a smartphone. The price point is also significant if you're purchasing both devices without a carrier subsidy, for the full retail price.
- The stylus adds a third dimension: Samsung's Note series invented a different kind of two-in-one device by imbuing the Note with a pressure-sensitive stylus that can draw, click, and capture screen shots. Some aftermarket S Pen models, as they're known, can also digitally erase.
- Underlying tech makes it easier to use: Biggo phones can be hard on the paws, and frustrating when you try to use them one-handed. Bluetooth headsets help balance out the phone-to-ear ratio, as well as outlier attempts like the HTC Mini+ companion device. Software considerations to shrink the keyboard and push it to one side also help, as do better voice recognition and gesture controls to bypass the typing and tapping.
Who's buying
Interestingly, Samsung found that the people who wind up buying and using the company's phablets come from a wider swatch of society than the company initially suspected. Marketing campaigns targeted business users for productivity, creative types who wanted a bigger canvas on which to draw, and an older audience who craved larger lettering on a bigger screen.
"The reality," Ryan Bidan, Director of Product Marketing for Samsung's mobile US branch, told CNET, is that the supersized screen is "a lot more accepted and a lot more prevalent than even we thought it would be...We saw a huge amount of adoption by [just] about everyone we sell phones to."
Bidan also noted that different motivations drive different markets. In some Asian countries, the stylus makes it easier to quickly jot notes in written characters, and a collapsable antenna in some models (like Asia's versions of the LG Optimus Vu series) makes it possible to watch TV shows.
In other regions, a phone like the Note 2 is popular because of screen size alone. In others, still, Samsung found that the high-end specs and large footprint make the phone a status symbol for the well-to-do.
An Android-only trend? Not for long
Perhaps due to Google's openness and Android's reputation as a playground for developing new features, phablets have so far mostly run Android. Apple sticks with two tablet sizes (7-inch and 10-inch) and a grudgingly-growing iPhone screen.
So far, this summer's unlocked Nokia Lumia 625 and the HTC Titan II -- both with 4.7-inch displays -- have been the largest-screen Windows phones to date (we called the Titan II "arrestingly large" back in April 2012.)
The trend, however, could soon evolve in Windows phones, if rumors of the uberlarge Nokia Lumia 1520 bear 6-inch fruit.
The popping point
Smartphone sizes are increasing, but even red-hot trends require checks and balances.
Every time a phablet lands on my desk to review, I look at it and think, "No freaking way. That monster is simply too big." Inevitably, my hands stretch awkwardly trying to grip, navigate, and type.
What's more, large phones are hard to jam into my back pocket, and if I try to make even a quick call without a Bluetooth headset (which I invariably do,) I suddenly feel like a munchkin in an ordinary world.
The 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega makes Web sites easy to read.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)Yet, a few days -- and maybe even a few hours -- are all I really need to start appreciating the gifts of a more expansive screen. Web sites become easier to read, and movie trailers more inviting to watch. I may be more likely to grab a phablet with stylus to jot notes in a meeting than my old-school pen and paper notebook (yes, you heard me.)
As much as I relearn to love the phablets' screen size, they will never be completely comfortable for me to use one-handed, something I find I do quite a lot. I do think there's a place for these large-screen crossovers, both financially and features-wise, but there is also an upper limit to how big these phones should grow.
The good news is, we probably won't see too many 12-inch tablets masquerading as cellies, at least not so long as portability is still an essential part of the smartphone's appeal. Ask an expert analyst, like Jon Erensen, Gartner's research director for mobile and semiconductors, and he'll tell you that the 6 and 7-inch range is the magic number.
7-inch tablets are proving small enough to tuck into purses and even into some roomier pockets, and cheap enough for consumers to consider instead of a smartphone -- or vice versa.
"You wouldn't have both a large phone and a small tablet," Erensen told CNET. "Screen size growth will slow down."
That's good news for lovers out there of the sumo screen, who should expect to see much more innovation and development in this space. The bad news? The awkward term "phablet" isn't going away anytime soon.
Smartphones Unlocked is a monthly column that dives deep into the inner workings of your trusty smartphone.
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