Big-Ass Phones Need To Die In A Fire

evilsofa said:
fl0ZD1x.jpg
Click to expand...
Better watch out with that. It's thin enough that you could accidentally slit your wrists with it.



I've got a Note 4, and I definitely wish that it were smaller. It's pretty unwieldy to use one-handed.
Likewise, I'm constantly wishing that it had better battery life, which is primarly influenced by its thickness... an attribute that actually makes it easier to hold!
Dunno why "giant and thin" is so popular these days.


Though I'm definitely looking forward to when my contract is over and I can replace the thing.
The Note 4's microphone is on *the back* of the phone, so people have a hard time hearing me on it. Meanwhile, the speaker next to my ear is loud enough to be uncomfortable for me, even at the lowest volume setting.

...It's kinda comical when I have to turn on speaker phone so that I can turn the damn thing around so that I can speak directly into the microphone so that the person on the other end can hear me.
 
Last edited:
Let me fix the title of this thread...

"Little ass phones need to die in a fire."

There is nothing I hate more than a phone with a shitty little screen Anything under 5 inches is a complete waste of my time and I won't have anything to do with them. And really, I prefer phones with at least a 5.5 inch and above display.
 
STrooperTK421 said:
Let me fix the title of this thread...

"Little ass phones need to die in a fire."

There is nothing I hate more than a phone with a shitty little screen Anything under 5 inches is a complete waste of my time and I won't have anything to do with them. And really, I prefer phones with at least a 5.5 inch and above display.
Click to expand...

You missed the morality of the story. Which is that no single persons preferences are universally applicable to everyone. You're just as wrong as the guy who wrote the click bait article. No phones need to die in a fire, as long as there are people interested in buying them. Why can't there be both small and large phones on the market, without people going apeshit over it?
 
M76 said:
You missed the morality of the story. Which is that no single persons preferences are universally applicable to everyone. You're just as wrong as the guy who wrote the click bait article. No phones need to die in a fire, as long as there are people interested in buying them. Why can't there be both small and large phones on the market, without people going apeshit over it?
Click to expand...

Well, for me... responding to this thread was an act of pure boredom. I'm at work, and miserable, so I figured "hey, why not spread some of that around by being a sarcastic ass!"

Seriously though, there are all kinds of models to satisfy all different needs and wants, and this is how it should be, but bigger is still better. HAHA :)
 
I still use a Blackberry Pearl because I hate large phones. If anyone would make a decent smartphone the same size as the Pearl I'd upgrade, but I haven't found one. I don't really need smartphone capability anyway, so keeping mine to a non-internet plan works for me til phones get smaller again.
 
I was phone shopping for a smaller phone (5" max) and they just don't exist anymore. So now I have an S7. Sigh
 
bman212121 said:
Do you have a long commute on a bus or train? Just curious where you'd be wanting to watch 50GB+ of video. I'd prefer to just watch videos and podcasts on a real screen, either a tv, desktop monitor, or if those aren't available, on a laptop screen.
Click to expand...
Useful for music so you don't have to burn data. I use Spotify and it allows you to download a lot of songs for local storage, and then also caches recently played music.
 
silent-circuit said:
On the chopping block, where it belongs.

What are you doing on a screen that small that requires that much power? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You aren't gaming, you're barely typing, you're not doing network site surveys or data analysis. You're reading emails and ignoring people. If you can text (barely) and make/receive phone calls, you're done. Don't you dare tell me you need a supercomputer with a screen you can barely see because it's so small that 80% of its surface area is required to support touch with both thumbs at once.
Click to expand...

I would agree that much smaller than 4.5" this is true.

IMHO - however - the sweet spot for usability is ~ the size of the Samsung Galaxy S3, which is officially 4.8"

Much above this and it starts getting difficult to reach the entire screen with your thumb single handed, even if you have large hands like me. Much smaller than this, and the screen starts feeling cramped. I could never go back to the old iPhone4 / iPhone4s size, but I would also never buy a hpone above ~5.2"

If there were still 4.8" phones, I'd jump on them. Unfortunately, the "standard size" phone has grown to ~5.2" While it seems like a small difference, that 0.4" has had a huge negative impact on single handed usability, IMHO.

I honestly don't get big phones. The large screens have very little added benefit. Honestly, if I had to choose between using my Nexus 7 tablet and my Nexus 5x, even when I don't have to worry about single handed use, I'd pick the 5x every time. The only thing I use the Nexus 7 for these days is for Waze Navigation in my car.


Here would be my ideal phone today, unfortunately no one makes it:
  • Screen size: 4.8" (with super slim bezels to make it easier to reach entire screen single handed)
  • Screen resolution: 1080p is enough. I've had 1440p phones (Droid Turbo) and I didn't think it made enough of a difference to be worth it. (in fact the 1080p LCD Screen on my cheap Asus Zenfone 2 actually looked better than the 1440p AMOLED screen on my expensive Droid Turbo, IMHO)
  • RAM: 4GB
  • CPU: Whatever happens to be fastest out there right now
  • GPU: Don't really care much, I don't play games on the phone. Never have. Enough for a smooth UI/Browsing experience.
  • Storage: 32GB is more than overkill for me. A MicroSD slot for expansion would be nice just in case I need it.
  • Battery: HUGE and replaceable. I don't care that much about thickness or weight, if it means I get longer battery life.
  • No gimmicks: I don't want Qi charging, retina scanners, fingerprint scanners, pop-up stands, pop-out hardware keyboards or anything else superflous in there.
  • OS: Vanilla Android with frequent updates. Preferably Nexus. No modifactions to base vanilla android OS at all, and no pre-installed apps, especially not ones I can't remove.

Essentially I want a screamer phone (CPU and RAM wise) with smallish storage, basic GPU, in the 4.8" size with tiny bezels a 1080p screen a huge replaceable battery and a microSD slot, with no gimmicks and basic Android OS.

And I'm willing to pay good money for this phone if someone makes it.


For reference, my smartphone history looks sortof like this:
  • Original iPhone
  • iPhone 3G
  • iPhone 4
  • Samsung Galaxy S3
  • LG G2
  • Motorola Droid Turbo
  • Asus Zenfone 2 (temporary phone while in Brazil)
  • Back to Motorola Droid Turbo
  • Google/LG Nexus 5x


I consider 5.2" to be my absolute max. I refuse to buy anything bigger. If the next gen ~5" nexus is any bigger, I'll just stick with what I have.
 
Last edited:
STrooperTK421 said:
Well, for me... responding to this thread was an act of pure boredom. I'm at work, and miserable, so I figured "hey, why not spread some of that around by being a sarcastic ass!"

Seriously though, there are all kinds of models to satisfy all different needs and wants, and this is how it should be, but bigger is still better. HAHA :)
Click to expand...

Bigger is not better. If you cannot operate it with one hand, it is too damn big. If it looks like a tablet stuck to the side of your head, it is too damn big. If you need a tablet..buy a tablet. Phablets are stupid looking and useless. They aren't powerful enough to replace a tablet or laptop and they are too clumsy to be operated like an actual phone.
 
Exavior said:
Personally I find remote desktop much eaiser to use to log into servers remotely using my 6in phone that I did back on my iPhone 4.
Click to expand...

Remote desktop is much easier to use on my Note 4 (the small pen tip works much better than my big fingers) than it was on my old S3. Couldn't imaging trying to use remote desktop on a 4" or smaller screen.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Bigger is not better. If you cannot operate it with one hand, it is too damn big. If it looks like a tablet stuck to the side of your head, it is too damn big. If you need a tablet..buy a tablet. Phablets are stupid looking and useless. They aren't powerful enough to replace a tablet or laptop and they are too clumsy to be operated like an actual phone.
Click to expand...

QFT
 
nutzo said:
Remote desktop is much easier to use on my Note 4 (the small pen tip works much better than my big fingers) than it was on my old S3. Couldn't imaging trying to use remote desktop on a 4" or smaller screen.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I never thought of using RDP on a phone.

All of my servers I manage remotely are *Nix based though, so I log on via SSH, no need for a GUI. Some of them have web interfaces too, which load nicely in the browser.
 
Domingo said:
If you want to use those giant phones, that's fine by me. I just don't want to be forced to get one in order to get newer features. I have a Moto X Pure, which is on the larger side of normal-sized phones. I have no desire to get anything larger and to be pretty honest, I wish it was a little smaller. I guess if technology goes in a direction where we can fold or shrink devices when we aren't using them I'll happily go larger. Until then, no thanks.
Click to expand...

Yeah, at 5.7" that is way too large for me.

I like the fact that Motorola is embracing the "unadulterated Android with frequent updates" though. I wish more manufacturers would do this.
 
-Strelok- said:
Then you were't looking very hard.
Click to expand...

The only small phones on the market are the iphone (lol), underpowered/junk "budget" smartphones, some of the Moto's (but the newest small one isn't released yet and previous one is kinda old with no more updates), the older Nexus, another Nexus that isn't formally announced yet, and the chinese junk phones that almost universally don't have support for Verizon's LTE bands.

So yeah, I looked. There ain't shit out there.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Yeah, at 5.7" that is way too large for me.

I like the fact that Motorola is embracing the "unadulterated Android with frequent updates" though. I wish more manufacturers would do this.
Click to expand...

Sadly, I think "frequent updates" is a bit of a sham. The Moto X Pure got Marshmallow back in December and hasn't gotten a single update since. It's nearly the only knock on the phone for me.
 
DKS said:
Thanks, my 4S 16 GB is just fine for the moment. And it's paid for. And it has a cheap plan that is grandfathered.
Click to expand...

My 6S Plus has a zero interest loan. Why pay full price immediately when I can pay a little bit every month for no additional fee?
 
I thought 5.7-inches was ridiculous before I got my Nexus 6P, now I can't go back to anything smaller (except 5.5-inch, which I still consider a good sweet spot). Watching videos and reading articles on a large phablet screen is simply too comfortable for me to want to go back to, say, a 4.7-inch phone.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I honestly don't get big phones. The large screens have very little added benefit. Honestly, if I had to choose between using my Nexus 7 tablet and my Nexus 5x, even when I don't have to worry about single handed use, I'd pick the 5x every time.

Here would be my ideal phone today, unfortunately no one makes it:
  • Screen size: 4.8" (with super slim bezels to make it easier to reach entire screen single handed)
  • Screen resolution: 1080p is enough. I've had 1440p phones (Droid Turbo) and I didn't think it made enough of a difference to be worth it. (in fact the 1080p LCD Screen on my cheap Asus Zenfone 2 actually looked better than the 1440p AMOLED screen on my expensive Droid Turbo, IMHO)
  • RAM: 4GB
  • CPU: Whatever happens to be fastest out there right now
  • GPU: Don't really care much, I don't play games on the phone. Never have. Enough for a smooth UI/Browsing experience.
  • Storage: 32GB is more than overkill for me. A MicroSD slot for expansion would be nice just in case I need it.
  • Battery: HUGE and replaceable. I don't care that much about thickness or weight, if it means I get longer battery life.
  • No gimmicks: I don't want Qi charging, retina scanners, fingerprint scanners, pop-up stands, pop-out hardware keyboards or anything else superflous in there.
  • OS: Vanilla Android with frequent updates. Preferably Nexus. No modifactions to base vanilla android OS at all, and no pre-installed apps, especially not ones I can't remove.
Click to expand...

For me, I would love a 4.3" thin bezel 128GB iPhone SE that is barely bigger than the 5S and packs a 2500MAH battery(I don't care that much about the thin factor, make it slightly thicker if that gets me a bigger battery).
My phone usage, strangely enough, is mostly as a phone(facetime audio/skype for international contacts, 3-6hours per day, every day). That and podcasts, and email notifications. I use the browser about once a week. I send an email about twice a week. I send SMS/iMessages about 10x per week.

My iPhone 5 lives in my pocket with a thin TPU case. I would consider an iPhone 6, but the battery isnt much of an upgrade for the significant size increase. The iPhone 6 Plus does have the kind of battery life I would love, but I don't want to carry around a 6 Plus. My wife loves her 6 Plus, but she has a purse.
 
Domingo said:
Sadly, I think "frequent updates" is a bit of a sham. The Moto X Pure got Marshmallow back in December and hasn't gotten a single update since. It's nearly the only knock on the phone for me.
Click to expand...

That is unfortunate.

I guess I will be sticking to the Nexus line for now then, unless they do something silly like make the next Nexus 5 larger than it currently is, or disband it all together in favor of the 6/6p line.

Either that, or my next phone will be one with official Cyanogenmod support. I don't like doing this though, as there is always a risk you get a hpone with a newer firmware where it is not possible to unlock the boot loader (yet) or (like with my LG G2) the developer for the Cyanogenmod for the G2 quit, and it never progressed past the beta stage. :(
 
Dew said:
For me, I would love a 4.3" thin bezel 128GB iPhone SE that is barely bigger than the 5S and packs a 2500MAH battery(I don't care that much about the thin factor, make it slightly thicker if that gets me a bigger battery).
My phone usage, strangely enough, is mostly as a phone(facetime audio/skype for international contacts, 3-6hours per day, every day). That and podcasts, and email notifications. I use the browser about once a week. I send an email about twice a week. I send SMS/iMessages about 10x per week.

My iPhone 5 lives in my pocket with a thin TPU case. I would consider an iPhone 6, but the battery isnt much of an upgrade for the significant size increase. The iPhone 6 Plus does have the kind of battery life I would love, but I don't want to carry around a 6 Plus. My wife loves her 6 Plus, but she has a purse.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we all use our phones for different things.

Me? ~90% of my phone use is for the web browser, ~5% is for email and ~5% is everything else.

I sometimes listen to music on it, but not very often, usually it's when I'm at home and plug it in to the stereo in the kitchen while I'm doing the dishes or something. I don't even know where my headphones are. I'm still using the set that came with my galaxy S3, since headphones don't come with phones anymore, and I haven't used them in months.

I have the Netflix app on my phone, but I never use it. I never watch any video at all on my phone, other than the occasional YouTube clip. If I am going to watch Movies or TV I'd rather do it on my TV or my Desktop, not on my phone. having a larger phone wouldn't change that.

I also don't have any games on my phone. I don't care for the simple types of little games that run on mobile devices. The only place I will ever play a game, any game, is on my desktop. No phones/tablets or consoles for me.

I only use the actual phone function very rarely, and I don't use traditional SMS messages much at all anymore, maybe only a handful of messages a week. I do - however - use Whatsapp rather heavily. I tried it when I was in Brazil (everyone uses it there due to their SMS system being complicated and expensive) and kind of liked it. It's a great way to send messages at the cell dead zone that is my office, since it can go via Wifi. The downside is that the person you are messaging with has to be on Whatsapp as well, but this isn't a huge issue to me, as 99.9% of my text messages are to my Fiance anyway, and she uses it.
 
Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't mind if they made phones a bit more fat in exchange for increasing various aspects, like battery life and such. Or rather, especially battery life...
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't mind if they made phones a bit more fat in exchange for increasing various aspects, like battery life and such. Or rather, especially battery life...
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Droid Turbo was great in that regard. It's fatter than your average phone, but in exchange you get much better battery life.

It was a pretty damned good phone. Too bad it was Verizon only, and didn't have an unlockable boot loader, or I might still be using it.

There are many things that change over time, and you never know how they will affect your future phone buying, but I've learned my lesson now. I will never buy a phone that isn't either a Nexus, or at the very least is non-carrier locked, and has a verified unlockable boot loader and an active aftermarket ROM community.

Those are really the only non-negotiables for me, well that an screen size:

- Must be 4.7"-5.2" in size (preferably towards lower end)
- Must be carrier unlocked (and seriously, fuck CDMA, when are we going to get rid of that god awful standard. Sprint & Verizon, I'm looking at you)
- Must be either Nexus or Bootloader unlockable with an active ROM community.

I'm done putting up with carrier branding and bloat, uninstallable apps shoved down my throat, unpatched vulnerabilities due to infrequent security updates, etc. etc. Verizon did have better signal than pretty much anything else, but I just couldn't put up with their locked down bs with bloat and late updates anymore.
 
For me, a phone is too big if it doesn't fit in my front pocket. That's the only thing constraining phone size for me. based on phones If I had to say I'd say 5.0" is ideal, but my current phone is a 5.5" and that fits, but it feels a bit big in there.

It's not like they stopped making smaller phones.
 
I thought screwdrivers were ridiculous until I started using screws; now I can't go back to using a hammer and nails.
 
The funniest thing about threads like this is people on both sides claiming they are right and anyone opposing their opinion is wrong. There are a lot of reasons a person would choose to use a smaller or larger phone and none of them are wrong. My reasons for using a "big" phone may be different than someone elses reason for using the same phone, that doesnt make them any less valid. I cant see well enough to use a smaller phone any more. My first smart phone was an iphone 3 at the time it was perfect, my vision hadnt started going to complete shit yet. Now when I look at something like an iphone 5 I cant use it, its too small. Sure on my note 5 I cant operate it one handed 100% of the time, but at least I can see it well enough to use it.
 
Well the people prefering smaller screen phones have a right to be angry in case they won't offer other than budget phones in lower screen sizes and as it seems it heavily points to that, 5" is like the bare minimum size choice today if wanting to also have a higher spec phone but it seems already shifting towards 5.2" or so.

As long as they can still offer more highend specced phones in 4.5 - 5.0" or so size, I wouldn't have any reason to complain.
 
Ducman69 said:
Smartphones are like dicks. Everyone knows that, within reason, bigger is better, and the only people that say otherwise are those that enjoy receiving buggery or are trying to justify having a small one themselves. All I know is that I'm happy with my seven incher, even if I do sometimes have to adjust it in my pants when sitting down, and stick with looser fit clothing.
Click to expand...

4.7" Phone and 3 kids, lord knows what would happen if I had a monster like you do :dead:
 
What is common today is small tablets/cameras/mp3 players that have the ability to make phone calls... a phone they are not.

I am really thinking about ditching my el cheapo smartphone, and get use one of my flip phones.
I don't text.. and don't do social media... don't care to do e-mail on the go. A camera can be handy at times, but I can do without most of the time.

I have an unused Motorola v190 that I'm seriously contemplating using.
 
You know, there is something
Dekoth-E- said:
Bigger is not better. If you cannot operate it with one hand, it is too damn big. If it looks like a tablet stuck to the side of your head, it is too damn big. If you need a tablet..buy a tablet. Phablets are stupid looking and useless. They aren't powerful enough to replace a tablet or laptop and they are too clumsy to be operated like an actual phone.
Click to expand...

I had no trouble operating my Note 4 with one hand. For what I did with it, the phone was more than powerful enough. Another consideration is that with small screens the text is fucking TINY, even on bigger phones the text can get a bit small but is easier to deal with (I have a vision problem).
 
STrooperTK421 said:
You know, there is something


I had no trouble operating my Note 4 with one hand. For what I did with it, the phone was more than powerful enough. Another consideration is that with small screens the text is fucking TINY, even on bigger phones the text can get a bit small but is easier to deal with (I have a vision problem).
Click to expand...

-8.15 is my lens power which is damn near blind. It's a phone, you aren't reading novels on it. Note 4 isn't overly dumb if you have really huge hands, but i've rarely seen that to be the case.

Here is the thing..My basic complaint with people making the huge phones popular is that Android manufacturers all jumped on the big phone hype train and now All the Good flagship handsets are fucking comically big. I want a phone that I can operate in one hand (A hand that I can palm a basketball, so I don't have tiny hands), and can still fit in my pocket. Everything over 6" is just too damned big for that, especially after you throw an otterbox in the mix. 4.7" was absolutely perfect and I wish OEMs would get off this stupid phablet phase and produce a good sub 5" phone again. My job requires me to have an iPad air with me, I don't need another tablet wannabe in my pocket.
 
my Note 5 is awesome. I have to read documents and look at pictures / document with pictures, so it works VERY well for me. I also wear dickies with the " multi-use pocket" on the right side thigh - it JUST fits with the Otterbox.
 
6" and below, it's fine as a phone.

9" and above, it's fine as a tablet.

It's the 6"~9" that needs to DIAF. Touted as best of both worlds my rear, more like worst of both worlds.
 
chenw said:
6" and below, it's fine as a phone.

9" and above, it's fine as a tablet.

It's the 6"~9" that needs to DIAF. Touted as best of both worlds my rear, more like worst of both worlds.
Click to expand...

The best Android Tablet I have ever used is the 7" 2013 Nexus 7, so I kind of disagree.
 
Personal taste.

I find 6"-9" to be too big for a phone, too small for a tablet, so fails to serve the function of either, regardless of the actual hardware or software.

I don't usually carry a bag with me when I go out, so having a phone that doesn't fit my pocket is a massive no-no.

When I go on a long trip where I would carry a bag, I would not miss the extra space or weight caused by a bigger tablet, a bigger tablet means I can use the tablet on the tray table, rather than having to holding it.

So I find that size range to be the worst, as it serves neither function adequately for my usage.
 
chenw said:
Personal taste.

I find 6"-9" to be too big for a phone, too small for a tablet, so fails to serve the function of either, regardless of the actual hardware or software.

I don't usually carry a bag with me when I go out, so having a phone that doesn't fit my pocket is a massive no-no.

When I go on a long trip where I would carry a bag, I would not miss the extra space or weight caused by a bigger tablet, a bigger tablet means I can use the tablet on the tray table, rather than having to holding it.

So I find that size range to be the worst, as it serves neither function adequately for my usage.
Click to expand...

I kind of agree with that sentiment, but I guess that if I had enough space in a bag, I'd just bring a laptop, and dispense with the tablet all together.

I find it to be the touch-centric interface and "app"only software that is more of a limitation on tablets than size. Honestly, even if I have a tablet within reach, I rarely bother reaching for it, and instead just use my phone, as I find it plenty large enough to do anything I need to do on a mobile device.

When my standard sized (4.8"-5.2") phone isn't sufficient, I'm never reaching for a tablet. I'm reaching for a computer.
 
cjcox said:
Has to be the silliest post ever.

...
For some strange reason, just like with laptops, we prefer huge screens. I used to joke about building a special dolly for next generation laptops so they could be hauled around like luggage.
...
Click to expand...

Young'un eh?

IBM Portable PC

It had wheels and a handle like carry-on luggage when I was dragging it around back in the day! ;)

Considering how many people want to replace their laptop with their phone (for basic tasks at least), I'm surprised nobody has built a panel that merely extends the display of a modern smartphone. Motorola had a docking station; had they waited until phone specs improved it might've faired better. Blackberry does it with software via Blend; lets you have a larger screen when one is required.
 
Todd Walter said:
Young'un eh?

IBM Portable PC

It had wheels and a handle like carry-on luggage when I was dragging it around back in the day! ;)

Considering how many people want to replace their laptop with their phone (for basic tasks at least), I'm surprised nobody has built a panel that merely extends the display of a modern smartphone. Motorola had a docking station; had they waited until phone specs improved it might've faired better. Blackberry does it with software via Blend; lets you have a larger screen when one is required.
Click to expand...

I had one of those in the late 80's early 90's. Guy I worked for was throwing out a crap ton of older computer stuff and I took it just for the novelty factor. It was interesting to play around with. If I still had it I'd probably build a newer PC into it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top