GreenZoner egypt: phablet

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Ever expanding smartphone screens" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/ever-expandingsmartphonescreen-crop-2.gif" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> It used to be that any smartphone screen beyond three inches was  considered big -- and it was, for an audience still weaning itself off  of flip phones and PDAs. Flash-forward several years, however, and we're  to the point where many won't even consider less than a 4-inch screen,  and the once-unfathomable 5-inch display is quickly becoming the de  facto standard for high-end models. It's clear that many of us like our  phones supersized, Zack Morris style. But when the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate is a reality, and Mobile World Congress<span> or future events may push the boundaries even further, there's still a  worry that the focus on successively bigger displays might have gone too  far. Have we pushed too hard for more glass? Or are we witnessing a  wholesale shift away from the smartphone as we once knew it? There's  truth to both sides. Follow along as we look at how smartphones have  swelled over time, and how we're learning to love (or cope with) their  dimensions.</span></div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title0" style="text-align: left;"> Before 2007: Small is a virtue</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="The evergrowing smartphone screen how big is too big" data-src-height="450" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/blackberry-6210.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7080182682816192337">We  almost need a reminder that much of the smartphone's development before  2007 reflected a drive to shrink the phone, not make it bigger. A  desire to slim down the body sometimes took the screen along for the  ride, with relatively few objections from buyers who were often just  happy to have a smartphone in the first place. The BlackBerry's display  shrank from a 3-inch screen on the 5810 to 2.6 inches on the 6200 series, but sales didn't exactly slow down. There were exceptions like the 3.7-inch HTC Universal, too. When even the (now ironically named) TyTN had a 2.8-inch display, however, it's safe to say screen size didn't play nearly as much of a role as it does now.</a> <br /> To some extent, this was dictated by the technology. Bigger displays  were more expensive to make than they are today, and they demanded  battery power that phones couldn't always supply. Moreover, the  resistive touchscreens of the day weren't making a convincing case for  touch input as a whole -- anyone who's had to stab multiple times at an  unresponsive panel will know why. Combine that with interfaces that  often weren't optimized for finger touch, and it's not surprising that  phone makers sometimes decided it was easier to combine a smaller screen  with a directional pad, a keyboard or both. This was the heyday of the  BlackBerry, Nokia's N series and the Palm Treo, when many of us were just getting used to email on our phones.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title1" style="text-align: left;"> 2007-2009: The iPhone and early Android</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="The evergrowing smartphone screen how big is too big" data-src-height="412" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/droid-and-iphone.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Whatever your platform allegiances, it's hard to dispute the significance of the iPhone's  January 2007 announcement in changing our expectations for smartphone  screens. Never mind that Steve Jobs describing the device's 3.5-inch LCD  as "giant" seems quaint several years later -- the iPhone's support for  capacitive multi-touch, and the more intuitive interface that came with  it, helped justify replacing hardware buttons with a larger display.  Apple also highlighted full web browsing and advanced media playback,  both tasks that benefited from a larger screen.<br /> <br /> There weren't any immediate responses in 2007, if only because most competitors already had products in mid-development. The HTC Touch was locked in at 2.8 inches, and Palm was going even smaller with the Centro's  2.2-inch screen. In 2008 and 2009, however, the battle of bigger  displays was starting in earnest as companies raced to introduce modern  touchscreen phones of their own. Both the BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile G1 carried 3.2-inch screens. Nokia followed the conventional, 2.8-inch N96 with the touch-focused, 3.5-inch N97.  Others even staked the survival of their brands on bigger displays, as  complete overhauls of their OS platforms revolved around truly  touch-native interfaces. Motorola dropped its BlackBerry-like, Windows  Mobile-based Q9 series for the 3.7-inch Droid and the Palm Pre jumped to 3.1 inches after years of 2.5-inch Treos. HTC pushed the limits toward the end of this period with the 4.3-inch HD2  -- a device that seemed like an oversized outlier in late 2009, but it  would set the tone for 2010. It was safe to say that any major  smartphone builder worth its salt had at least a 3-inch model going into  the new decade.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title2" style="text-align: left;"> 2010: The Android screen size explosion</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="The evergrowing smartphone screen how big is too big" data-src-height="412" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/dell-streak-review-620.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Android was taking off in the wake of the Motorola Droid, and the  software's support for both finger touch and multiple resolutions  effectively opened the floodgates for companies wanting to one-up each  other with bigger screens across more of their lineups. HTC matched  Motorola with the 3.7-inch Desire, Nexus One and Droid Incredible earlier in 2010, and expanded its 4.3-inch line to include the Desire HD in October. Motorola continued a hit streak with the 4.3-inch Droid X. Samsung wasn't quite as aggressive as its peers, but there's no denying that the 4-inch Galaxy S  served as a benchmark for the entire industry, if just through sheer  ubiquity. When it was available on seemingly every carrier and  well-regarded for both its vibrant display and its high performance,  there was a good chance that many smartphone buyers at least considered a  Galaxy S if they weren't dead-set on another device. Samsung managed to  sell 10 million units of the flagship smartphone by the start of 2011, proving that 4-inch or larger phones could be popular.</div><blockquote class="quote right" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> We even got a peek at how smartphones would look two years down the road, although we didn't realize it at first.</blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> We even got a peek at how smartphones would look two years down the  road, although we didn't realize it at first. LG's 4.8-inch,  Intel-packing GW990  prototype was labeled as a Mobile Internet Device because it was so  much larger than its contemporaries; we had a hard time even believing  that it could be a smartphone, even though the necessary cellular  ingredients were in place. Nevertheless, the quickly scuttled  design served as an unofficial template for future phones by showing  how the web and video could benefit from a large canvas. And who can  forget the 5-inch Dell Streak?  While a chunky frame, cellular data in only some models and a misplaced  emphasis on tablet-like software kept the Streak from setting the world  on fire, it would prove to be prophetic. It suggested that phones would  eventually turn into big-screened data devices that just happened to  take phone calls. As often as we teased those who insisted Dell's crossover was pocketable, they had foresight that would have been immensely valuable to phone makers.<br /> <br /> Not every designer hopped on the bandwagon. Apple, Nokia, Palm and RIM  mostly stayed the course on screen size in 2010. However, this  conservatism wasn't necessarily a setback at the time. Apple had no  trouble selling the iPhone 4  with an extra-sharp 3.5-inch display, and it was even defensive about  its choice: Jobs is well-known for insisting at the time that phones  needed to be usable with one hand,  and app compatibility was better served by maintaining the status quos  for resolution and size. Palm and other companies bleeding market share  had far more on their plates to worry about than mere phone dimensions,  even if short-lived devices like the Pre 3  signaled intentions to catch up. Nonetheless, developments during the  year would set the stage for the size debate ahead. There were now  multiple phones that really needed two hands to work, with no signs of  the trend slowing down.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title3" style="text-align: left;"> 2011: Dawn of the supersized phone</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="The evergrowing smartphone screen how big is too big" data-src-height="412" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/samsung-galaxy-note-review-angle.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> And then the gloves came off. Almost as soon as 2011 began, 4.3-inch  smartphones were in the pipeline from most major manufacturers,  including Samsung's platform-defining Galaxy S II. Only it didn't stop there: we saw Samsung's 4.5-inch Infuse 4G eclipsed by the 4.65-inch Galaxy Nexus, and HTC rolled out 4.7-inch phones like the Sensation XL and Titan.  The rush toward ever-larger phones was sometimes dictated as much by  the extreme battery demands of early LTE as it was corporate  one-upmanship -- just ask any long-suffering Thunderbolt owner -- but it ultimately led to a market where phones that seemed enormous a year earlier were suddenly modest.</div><blockquote class="quote left" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> The Galaxy Note's 5.3-inch screen and pen pushed it so far past  smartphone conventions that it popularized a new term -- like it or not,  the "phablet" badge gained wider acceptance.</blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> All this doesn't even include Samsung's original Galaxy Note.  Its 5.3-inch screen and pen pushed it so far past smartphone  conventions that it popularized a new term -- like it or not, the  "phablet" badge gained wider acceptance after the Note's arrival in  October 2011. It was arguably too big to comfortably use one-handed,  like the Streak, but faster hardware, a better display and smartly  optimized software kept it from becoming a specialist device. The Note  would go on to become one of Samsung's best-selling smartphones during the period, and it would ultimately spawn a horde of me-too devices.<br /> <br /> That breakneck pace in screen growth made the exceptions (voluntary or  otherwise) all the more visible. While Apple had no shortage of  customers for the iPhone 4S,  the gap between the iPhone's 3.5-inch LCD and that of its rapidly  growing competition was becoming glaringly obvious to those who wanted  as much screen area as possible. The difference was even more apparent  in the BlackBerry line, where 3.2 inches was still the maximum.  Meanwhile, Nokia was mostly saved by its full-steam-ahead transition to  Windows Phone, where a brief regression from four inches in Symbian  phones to 3.7 inches in the Lumia 800  was accompanied by a more sophisticated platform that may well have  rescued the company. Whatever the arguments about the value of screen  size, the goalposts for common sizes were shifting.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title4" style="text-align: left;"> 2012: Huge is the new normal</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="HTC Droid DNA review" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/11/dsc02849-1353052941.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> By 2012, even those who hadn't rushed to embrace larger displays had  them on deck. Nokia proved it could grow with the 4.3-inch Lumia 900 and, later, the 4.5-inch Lumia 920. Apple also answered a longstanding call for a bigger screen with the 4-inch iPhone 5  -- a comparatively modest leap, but an acknowledgment that the market  had changed since the iPhone first arrived. The conservative increase  was once again justified by Apple's view that a phone had to be usable  with one hand.</div><blockquote class="quote right" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Companies using large  screens were increasingly self-conscious of the design limits. A big  screen had to work well, not just serve as a bragging right.</blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Elsewhere, screen dimensions didn't grow up so much as grow out. Sizes  once thought extreme were now making their way into thoroughly ordinary  devices. Remember how the GW990's 4.8-inch screen seemed impossibly  large in 2010? By 2012, Samsung's Galaxy S III made that size commonplace. Many other predominantly Android-based phones, such as the HTC One X, LG Optimus G and Sony Xperia T,  often came close at 4.6 or 4.7 inches. The 4.3-inch displays we'd been  awed by in 2010 were more often reserved for mid-range handsets like the  One S and Motorola's Droid RAZR M.  Thankfully, many of the companies using large screens were increasingly  self-conscious of the design limits. A big screen had to work well, not  just serve as a bragging right. Motorola and Samsung respectively  introduced the Droid RAZR HD  and Galaxy S III by emphasizing how efficiently they used screen space,  occupying little, if any, more total area than their ancestors.<br /> <br /> The extra-large category saw a similar trend. LG only had limited  success in countering the Galaxy Note with the overly squat, 5-inch Optimus Vu, but Samsung's own 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II  was considerably smarter. While it was more expansive than its  ancestor, the Note II was easier to hold, better justified its pen and  included settings to make one-handed use feasible for some tasks.  Sometimes that improved ergonomic design was the very selling point, as  with Pantech's Vega R3 -- its one-handed grip was a relative novelty where such a notion was once a certainty.<br /> <br /> Toward the end of the year, we'd see a trend that would spill into 2013: the 5-inch, 1080p smartphone. HTC's Droid DNA  justified its larger size not through pens or other special tricks, but  through sheer resolution. It was hard to deny the at least superficial  appeal of a phone with as many pixels as the 55-inch TV in the den, even  if that device was scarcely smaller than the Galaxy Note from a year  earlier.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title5" style="text-align: left;"> 2013: Where do we go from here?</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Huawei Ascend Mate" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/01/huaweimate.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> While we're just weeks into 2013 as of this writing, a pattern is  quickly forming. The once-rare 5-inch smartphone is already abundant  with the presence of the Huawei Ascend D2, Sony Xperia Z / ZL and ZTE Grand S. LG's Optimus G Pro is coming in both 5-inch and Samsung-rivaling 5.5-inch flavors. And then there are the 5.7-inch ZTE Grand Memo and 6.1-inch Huawei Ascend Mate -- devices so expansive that they're scarcely an inch away from full-fledged tablets like the Nexus 7. If there's a point where manufacturers back off, we haven't yet reached it.<br /> <br /> As such, it's doubtful that we'll hear a different tune from many of  those who have yet to show key parts of their smartphone lineups this  year. Apple and BlackBerry are the two companies that haven't pushed  their phones to 4.3 inches or beyond, but they've purposefully drawn  lines in the sand that they won't cross, at least not in the near  future. They have the advantages of OS differences and brand cachet to  explain their more moderate screen sizes. Others won't necessarily have  that luxury if they're competing mostly on hardware features, however.  "Go big or go home" is more than just a truism in this field.</div><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/12/samsung-ativ-s-review-9-1355871164.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> We wouldn't say the seeming arms race is a problem, however. Most of  the phones we've tried so far include design traits that offset their  massive surfaces, such as narrow edges and curved backs. We wouldn't  have believed that the Xperia ZL would be comfortable if you'd told us  the year before, for example. Samsung's software optimization for  single-hand use may be an admission that its hardware design is  stretching the limits of human hands, but it's also a way to get the  advantages of a big device without requiring both hands at all times.<br /> <br /> Moreover, the primary purposes of smartphones have clearly changed.  Early on, they were phones first, and data devices second. The various  advents of modern apps, browsing and media shifted the focus enough that  voice is almost incidental today. Our smartphones are now pocket  computers, and they're often our cameras and GPS units, too. Until and unless wearable computing  replaces the smartphone, a bigger screen helps us process the glut of  information we face in a day, and frequently provides a source of  entertainment when it's time to relax. There's undeniably a threshold at  which smartphone builders will have to relent: no one's about to stuff a  Galaxy Tab  into their pocket. Likewise, there's a good chance we'll still see  smaller devices for those who can't (or won't) switch to a phone that's  too big for their hands or pockets. Still, the past few years have  taught us not to make too many assumptions -- through technology and  shifting tastes, what's an extraordinary screen one year often becomes  run-of-the-mill fare the next.</div></div>

The ever-expanding smartphone screen: how supersized became everyday

It used to be that any smartphone screen beyond three inches was considered big -- and it was, for an audience still weaning itself off ...

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GreenZoner egypt

Samsung Galaxy Mega is official and comes in 6.3- and 5.8-inch sizes

The ever-expanding smartphone screen: how supersized became everyday

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