Smartphone size discussion

[Kaotik]

4.7" too small?! I'm sad that I have to move to 4.7" from current 4.3" because there's no real options out there except for HTC One, and IMO 4.3" is already on the edge of being "too big"

 

[trinibwoy]

Yeah I don't get this massive smartphone craze. A five inch phone is just stupid. The only saving grace is that people don't talk on the phone as much these days and don't have to lift these monstrosities to their heads.

 

[zed]

perhaps my hands are larger than normal. But 5.5 didnt feel too big to hold.
If you go to singapore (one of the highest rates of phone ownership in the world) ppl are quite small. Yet the device of choice is the Note 2. Theyre everywhere.

Heres what I use a phone for
1. browse internet
2. use apps

looking at my telephon record in my phone in the last 2 months, Ive rung 5 numbers a total of about 10x times. i.e. using it as a phone <0.1% of my time.
sure if I was using it as a phone mostly then I'ld want a 1" screen (like my last phone)

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I guess I must be old. I'm the opposite. I've used my smartphone as a phone 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time being either as a MP3 player or GPS device. I don't touch apps or internet on my smartphone, didn't find them at all interesting or useful on a mobile device of that caliber.

In many ways, I regret buying a smartphone, although it was exciting for the first couple of weeks to just have one. But after a few months of use, I'd be better served with a feature phone with much longer battery life. This smartphone I have is supposed to have one of the longest battery lives on any smartphone and it achieves maybe 1/20th of the battery time that my previous flip phone did. That's just atrocious. I used to be able to go 2-3 weeks of moderate useage without charging and it'd still have about 25% battery remaining. This device I can only go 3-4 days of light useage before the battery is dead and I'll be wondering how long it's been dead and if I've missed any calls.

Regards,
SB

 

[Helmore]

OT
if I disable data connection and disable 3G, then my old-ish smartphone (Huawei Boulder) can last more than a week (not sure how long because I never let it run out, but 3 weeks is probably out of reach) with moderate phone and sms usages. The small screen helps though (around 3"). Basically I used it as a feature phone. I'm sure a modern smartphone can last much longer if you use it as a feature phone as long as you keep the screen on time as little as possible.

Just don't buy a smartphone if you're not going to use it as a smartphone. Get a $22 Nokia 105 or something instead.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

After having a 4.7" smartphone, there's just no way I'm coming back to a smaller screen on my own will. Everything else just feels cramped for anything other than browsing a contact list.

 

[Rurouni]

Just don't buy a smartphone if you're not going to use it as a smartphone. Get a $22 Nokia 105 or something instead.

I need the contact sync feature. My last dumb phone was a cheap Motorola. It was a pita to move contacts. After that I moved to WM and never considered anything less than a smartphone.
The reason I used boulder as a feature phone because it was too uncomfortable for anything else (the screen is too small for browsing and gaming, not enough power for gaming, battery is too small for always on data). I do have a Mytouch 4G which definitely need a larger battery for always on data if you want it to last a whole day. Based on my usage, I would love a 5" phone, preferably with a big battery (3Ah or more).

 

[3dcgi]

4.7" too small?! I'm sad that I have to move to 4.7" from current 4.3" because there's no real options out there except for HTC One, and IMO 4.3" is already on the edge of being "too big"

I have the original Galaxy S which has a 4" screen and I don't want anything bigger. Hopefully this phone lasts a while and someone ships a similarly sized phone. Otherwise I might need to switch to Apple. Maybe Blackberry will have a "small" phone...

 

[Kaotik]

I have the original Galaxy S which has a 4" screen and I don't want anything bigger. Hopefully this phone lasts a while and someone ships a similarly sized phone. Otherwise I might need to switch to Apple. Maybe Blackberry will have a "small" phone...

On smartphone side I've gone from Desire to One S, this was an welcome upgrade, but next I'm going for One (already ordered) which is quite on the edge, I'd prefer to have same feature set on 4.3" rather than 4.7", but obviously fitting the FullHD display to 4.3 is quite a bit more difficult

 

[hkultala]

My N950 (4") is the maximum reasonable size for me.

So the screen could be maybe 4.2" or 4.3" if it had less edges.

 

[Mariner]

I've currently got an Atrix (4" screen) and wouldn't want anything too much bigger than this.

I carry my phone in my trouser pocket and even the Atrix is a bit awkward at times. That said, the back case of the Atrix was so slippery (insane design decision!), that I've had to use a case which has added a couple of millimetres to each dimension. Modern smartphones tend to be a lot slimmer so perhaps a phone with slightly larger dimensions but thinner and less bulky wouldn't be as much of an issue as I might think?

Regardless, I can't see myself getting a phone with a screen of 4.7"+ as it would probably be too bulky for me. The Huawei Ascent D Quad seems to be the most compact of phones available with a 4.5" screen and I think I could certainly copy with a device that size.

On the other hand, my sister always carries her phone in her handbag and is thinking about getting a Note-style device with a 5"+ screen. If you're carrying it in a bag, size isn't so much of an issue.

 

[dagamer]

I've currently got an Atrix (4" screen) and wouldn't want anything too much bigger than this.

I carry my phone in my trouser pocket and even the Atrix is a bit awkward at times. That said, the back case of the Atrix was so slippery (insane design decision!), that I've had to use a case which has added a couple of millimetres to each dimension. Modern smartphones tend to be a lot slimmer so perhaps a phone with slightly larger dimensions but thinner and less bulky wouldn't be as much of an issue as I might think?

Regardless, I can't see myself getting a phone with a screen of 4.7"+ as it would probably be too bulky for me. The Huawei Ascent D Quad seems to be the most compact of phones available with a 4.5" screen and I think I could certainly copy with a device that size.

On the other hand, my sister always carries her phone in her handbag and is thinking about getting a Note-style device with a 5"+ screen. If you're carrying it in a bag, size isn't so much of an issue.

At some point though, getting a phone smaller than 4.5" means you're getting a crappy phone. Unfortunately, besides the HTC 8X and BB Z10, no one wants to ship a modern smartphone with high-end build quality, good specs, and a 4.3" 720p screen. That's not a lot of choice.

 

[orangpelupa]

if you like the features of smartphone but want long battery life and willing to compromize, Nokia Series 40 (used on all Asha series and some Nokia C series) is a great choice.

Its basically like a dump phone. Works for weeks. But able to install new app and support Sync.

Unfortunately, with latest series 40 device, it cant go alive for multiple weeks. Older Series 40 can live for weeks and still support Sync and apps. It also support (very) limited multitaskting.

 

[Mariner]

At some point though, getting a phone smaller than 4.5" means you're getting a crappy phone. Unfortunately, besides the HTC 8X and BB Z10, no one wants to ship a modern smartphone with high-end build quality, good specs, and a 4.3" 720p screen. That's not a lot of choice.

The HTC First actually looks like a decent mid-range phone (albeit one without a microsd slot) and, as a HTC device, it should be well-built. The question is whether or not it can be hacked to get rid of the facebook-centric nonsense and install a good ROM such as Cyanogenmod. I'm making a general assumption here that the facebook stuff will be pretty rubbish!

 

[Rurouni]

The HTC First actually looks like a decent mid-range phone (albeit one without a microsd slot) and, as a HTC device, it should be well-built. The question is whether or not it can be hacked to get rid of the facebook-centric nonsense and install a good ROM such as Cyanogenmod. I'm making a general assumption here that the facebook stuff will be pretty rubbish!

If you don't care about quad core, Sony do offer some 720 phones with less than 4.5 inch (snapdragon S3). If you want quad core, there is Meizu MX2 which use Mali for GPU.

 

[Mariner]

The only thing I'd note about the Sony phones with 4.3" 720p screens is that they aren't particularly compact. Not much smaller than some phones with screens of 4.7". Motorola have the most compact of phones with 4.3" screens but they don't have 720p versions available. Not to mention the fact that I will never buy another Motorola phone after they pathetically dropped support for the Atrix, leaving it on Gingerbread, despite earlier promises of an upgrade to ICS!

The Meizu MX2 looks a very nice phone but the lack of a microSD slot rules it out for me, I'm afraid.

I think my ideal phone would probably be a dual core Snapdragon as I can't really see the need for quad core in a phone at the moment.

Ah well, it's all academic as I'm saving for a wedding next year so don't have the means for a new phone at the moment! Hopefully, the Atrix will last another year or so.

 

[zed]

I think my ideal phone would probably be a dual core Snapdragon as I can't really see the need for quad core in a phone at the moment.

Ive got a quad core, at 1.7ghz IIRC
but >50% of the time it runs on one core at 333mhz, Im actually surprised (and impressed) how often the mhz changes, it bounces all over the place (eg in 10secs it might of changed speed 20x)

 

[wishiknew]

Shouldn't the bezel be included in the discussion too? Galaxy S4 and the Xperia ZL manage bigger screens than the HTC One because of that. Though the ZL gives some back due to the on screen buttons.

 

[slyd]

I carry the phone around with me all day so it should be as small as possible - but still with >=720p resolution. I don't need maximum size screen - I am fine with 4" as long as it is high resolution..

I would like to have a phone with:
- around 4 to max. 4.5" screen size, compact case
- 720p resolution, good brightness for outdoor usage
- good camera (and I don't mean 20MPixels crammed into a 1/4" sensor )
- microSD slot (I can't understand why there are smartphones without, should be mandatory like the SIM card slot)
- state of the art dual core CPU and good GPU with good software support
- rugged construction, it should not break directly when dropped
- no shiny glossy case surface that easily collects fingerprints, dirt particles and scratches...
- good battery life (+user replaceable battery)
- good software support, recent android version


Does something like this exist?

 

[Kaotik]

- microSD slot (I can't understand why there are smartphones without, should be mandatory like the SIM card slot)

One big reason could be the fact that for example Android doesn't natively support MicroSD cards