Why 5 Inches Is Slowly Becoming The New Norm In Mobile Phones

Around three years ago, the idea of having a mobile phone with a 5-inch display is considered an overkill and unnecessary. In fact, the first batch of phablets back in 2010, such as the Dell Streak didn’t perform that well in terms of sales and consumer reception. But as time went by, people started to realize the benefits of having a device with a larger screen especially when Samsung released the first Galaxy Note, which was…

 

By Zy Gonzales

Around three years ago, the idea of having a mobile phone with a 5-inch display is considered an overkill and unnecessary. In fact, the first batch of phablets back in 2010, such as the Dell Streak didn’t perform that well in terms of sales and consumer reception.

But as time went by, people started to realize the benefits of having a device with a larger screen especially when Samsung released the first Galaxy Note, which was also the time when a number of display technologies started to lift off. Now, almost every major manufacturer has a 5-inch (or bigger) smartphone being offered to consumers.

But what exactly made the consumers change their minds with the use of phablets? Here are a few things that I think made the difference in making the phablet a success.

BIGGER SCREEN = BIGGER REAL ESTATE

The most obvious benefit of having a bigger screen would be of course having a bigger place to put and view all your stuff. If you like using your phone to take a lot of photos, viewing those high-resolution images and videos in a big screen is definitely a nice experience.

And if you’re using an Android or Windows Phone, having a bigger screen also means that you get to put more icons, widgets and tiles on the screen compared to smaller handsets. This also means that you don’t need to zoom in and zoom out of webpages when surfing the web, since the bigger screen allows more content to be shown.

BIGGER SCREEN = EXTRA SPACE

Aside from the increase in viewable area, a larger screen would also equate to a larger surface area. This means that manufacturers now have more space to put in additional components. The extra space leaves room for a bigger battery, a larger camera sensor or even a few additional components such as a NFC receiver and IR blaster.

However, one downside is, the bigger footprint also make it difficult to put phablet s in one’s pocket or hold in one hand. But the trade off with improved performance more than make up for this minor inconvenience.

BIGGER SCREEN = HD COMPATIBILITY

As stated earlier, the boom of phablets came alongside the increase in availability of video technologies. The increase in the resolution of a lot of these displays warranted a usually bigger screen for the technology to work and for the screen to maximise its capability.

Having said the following reasons, the question now is how far consumers can go with the size of the screen of their phone. Currently, the biggest phablet in the market is the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3-inches; for other manufacturers including LG with its Optimus Line, Sony’s Xperia handsets and a couple of HTC devices.

So, did we miss anything? Please do share with us your thoughts by leaving a comment below.