How Screen Size Preferences Have Changed Through The Years

Megalith

Megalith

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Remember when Steve Jobs said that nobody would buy a large phone? This infographic suggests that more and more people want bigger screens. Have you upgraded to a larger display recently?

It's interesting how our perception changes with time. For a moment, it may seem like smartphones are getting simply too big to be handled comfortably, but fast-forward a couple of years, and we find ourselves willingly dealing with even bigger handsets.
 
I went from 4.5 to 4.7 and can't understand who would want a bigger screen.
 
The smart phone is becoming a tablet... I don't know if I'd call that irony or not, but it's making me smile.

Considering I just went to a 49" TV for my PC, I can understand the trend.
 
Yea I have the iPhone 6 now and can't imagine carrying the plus around. I went from HTC Evo to Galaxy S3 to Nexus 5 and now the iphone 6 and i think those are the perfect sizes( for me personally.)

I can see why some people would want the bigger screen though. The market decides what they manufacture though so if no one wants the same size phone that I want then I will be SOL.
 
I can see devices with rollable OLED displays kind of re-merging tablets and phones. There will be no reason not to have a big display when you can stash it and also use a device with a smaller footprint when compact operation is needed.
 
Bigger screen sizes are nice in a lot of situations. People generally seem to wanna display more and in a larger format, but the creep in size increase for mobile devices is annoying and actually might be partly responsible for the success of smart watches lately. When phones are too big to discretely carry or have out because they're GIGANTICO OBNOXIOUS BOAT PADDLE-sized tablets, then people get a tiny little screen to wear on their wrists in conjunction with it when a more discrete and easy to carry phone may have served both roles.

I don't own a phone right now and one of the reasons, besides totally loving having the extra money every month to save for a retirement thing, is because its hard to find a nice one that isn't also too huge to carry in anything but one of those wanna-be cowboy holster things that no one in their right mind would wear in conjunction with any decent looking outfit.

As for TV screens, IDK, I don't own one or watch most video stuff aside from the occasional streamed movie on a laptop and for those, I much prefer like 14 inch or smaller screens with netbooks being pretty much perfect at 10.1 inches for most of my computing needs. People who have bigger screens really are just giving up on getting the most out of their [H]ardware and going totally tech softie. :p
 
I've got a Galaxy Note 4, and on my next device, I'm getting one with a smaller screen.
It's still easily fits in my pants, but once you get to this big, one-handed operation becomes difficult.
 
Went from an iPhone 4 to a Galaxy S5, which is definitely a bit of a jump.
On my PC/home theater I recently went from a 54" TV to a 65" one. Anything bigger than this would probably be overkill.
 
I couldn't find exact numbers but a couple sites mentioned that approximately 1 in 5 iPhone 6 sold were the 5.5" 6+. That's not exactly proving Jobs wrong. I don't think the Note was a rousing success either. Sure the iPhone and the galaxy have crept up in size but I think it's going to (or has) reached a practical limit where the screen is big enough to be comfortable and small enough to handle and put into a pocket. Anything bigger is always going to be a niche market. If they had an iPhone nano I'd buy one.

Also people who use large TVs as the main display for their PC's all have a brain tumor that prevents them from seeing just how wrong they are. :p :p
 
I'm 6'3" with some big hands so the 5.5" display of the oneplus suits me fine without looking ridiculous held up to my head. If you are a petite woman who needs to use 2 hands to do anything with a phone that big I can understand the ridicule. Personally I don't think phones are going to be getting any bigger before becoming completely impractical.
 
as we do more things on our phones like read books and watch movies it makes sense. As long as my phone fits in my pants comfortably it isn't too big. Small phones bother me because I have big fingers. For ladies it depends if they want the phone in their pocket or purse.
 
I have an HTC M7 and find the 4.7" screen barely tolerable for daily use. I'm considering one of the "mini" 4.5" variants by HTC or Samsung next time.

I've got a tablet for when I actually want a big screen.
 
Any new flagship devices that are under 5"? Maybe that's why everyone's got 5"+ phones selling like hotcakes....

I'm still holding onto my HTC M7, and hoping that the Xperia Z5 Compact actually impresses...
 
Phone: 3.8->4.3->4.7->6.3->5.5

I'd go back to 4.7 if I could find one priced right, performanced right.
 
I'm 6'6" so my Nexus 6 doesn't look so ridiculous in my hands.
I remember around the time of iPhone 4 launch when Jobs said 'no one's going to buy' a big phone. I replaced my iPhone 3G with a Droid X.
 
I went from an iphone 3g (3.5"), on which the screen was woefully inadequate.
To a Moto Atrix (4") a full (favorite phone ever, way ahead of it's time)
To a Note II (5.5") which was a bit too large to use effectively one-handed.
To a LG G3 (5.5") where I like the handset size, but find the screen to be blah compared to the super-saturated AMOLED display in the Note II.

Looking to ditch the G3, but not sure for what. As you can probably guess from the list above I do like microsd and a removable battery.

I have relatively large hands, so if the Note II's 5.5" display and a poor screen:body ratio is too big for me I'm sure most ladies are looking in the 4.5"-5" range. I've had recommendation requests in the ~4.7" range, and it's tough to find something with high end hardware...and when you do the battery life sucks. Probably part of why they kept getting bigger, it's tough to fit a 3000+mAh battery in a 4.7" chassis.
 
I used to say big phones were too much. But, they've gotten so much faster and have gained so many more features since 2011 that it ended up working out in their favor. I went from the 5S to the 6+ and love it. Yeah, it's huge, but I've ended up loving having the larger screen.
 
Screen size preference has more to do with what people can actually afford.

Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro 6"

It's the perfect size. It's large enough for any task, but still small enough to fit in my pockets. And the 4000mAh battery keeps it running for over a week. Other smartphones I had to be charged daily.
 
My nexus 5 is pushing large for me. I'd actually like the screen a bit smaller with the internal hardware upgraded.
 
6'6" also. My O+O feels a tad small. I got a chance to play with a 6" Zenfone, felt pretty much right.
 
Ever since the first Samsung Galaxy Note came out I knew I would want a large form factor smartphone. So almost 2 years ago I finally bought my first smartphone and it was the Note 3.

In my opinion these larger screened phones solved a couple issues I have with smaller devices. 1) My big fat sausage fingers can actually accurately tap things on screen. My work phone is an iPhone 5 and it is so hard for me to use (not just because its a terrible phone) because the UI is so small. 2) The larger screen solves the entertainment issue. watching a video on a 4" screen is very difficult and not to mention just depressing. But on a larger screen it suddenly becomes a much much better experience. So now instead oh having to carry around a phone and a tablet I have one device that does both.
 
Megalith said:
Remember when Steve Jobs said that nobody would buy a large phone? This infographic suggests that more and more people want bigger screens. Have you upgraded to a larger display recently?

It's interesting how our perception changes with time. For a moment, it may seem like smartphones are getting simply too big to be handled comfortably, but fast-forward a couple of years, and we find ourselves willingly dealing with even bigger handsets.
Click to expand...

If it's beyond shirt pocket size, its too big.

Unless you carry a man-purse...:D
 
Twisted Kidney said:
The smart phone is becoming a tablet... I don't know if I'd call that irony or not, but it's making me smile.

Considering I just went to a 49" TV for my PC, I can understand the trend.
Click to expand...

65" inch TV here, but I usually don't carry that around on airplanes and such...:rolleyes:
 
I've got a Oneplus One with 5.5" screen and love it. Don't see myself going back to a smaller screen. No problems at all with the size and fits in all my pockets just fine as well.
 
The phone that fit the best in my hand, and I could easily use single handed was my Galaxy S3, at 4.8"

My last two phones (LG G2 and Droid Turbo) have been OK at 5.2", but I would have preferred them just a bit smaller to make it easier to reach the opposite top corner with my thumb, single handed.
 
Well he is kinda right. nobody want a bigger screen on their "phone" but we are not using "phones" anymore we are using pocket multi entertainments and communications device.if it was not for movie playback web browsing and all the other besides-actually-phone-call stuff i would want a bigger screen;.
But with all these nice features screaming for a bigger screen well.
 
Some of us actually need our phones to function as phones for more than 24 hours at a time, so smaller screens and longer battery life are nice. Z3 Compact is currently my favorite both in size and battery life.
 
5.5"+ is optimal for an all-in-one device. Didn't think going from 5.5" to 5.1" would make much of a difference in usability but it does and will be glad to go back. Samsung got it perfect in 2012 with 5.5" Note II. Even the copycat iPhone 6 Plus isn't half as good.
 
I am rocking a nexus 6 and I don't plan on going back to a dinky ass screen at any point in the future.
 
Chaos Machine said:
I'm 6'3" with some big hands so the 5.5" display of the oneplus suits me fine without looking ridiculous held up to my head.
Click to expand...

This.

I'm 6 foot and have large hands, but wouldn't want anything large than the S5.

I can one hand my S3 with it's 4.8" screen, and it easily fits in my pockets. The S5 with it's 5.1" screen isn't physically much bigger, and would still fit in my pocket ok. Anything larger would require bigger pockets and 2 hands.
 
If it can't fit in my front or back pocket, it's too big. That's what tablets are for.
 
pbassjunk said:
6'6" also. My O+O feels a tad small. I got a chance to play with a 6" Zenfone, felt pretty much right.
Click to expand...

Slightly taller at 6'7", but most of my height is in my legs. The iPhone 6+ is a tad too big for my taste. Granted, I don't care for tiny phones (or Nintendo controls) as they feel like they're built for little kids.
 
I'm 6'4 with big hands, and I think the 5.5 inch screen on my LG G3 is just about perfect. Anything more would become annoying to use. The case pushes it a bit, but it's still fairly comfortable with the Spigen case attached and that case is a life saver, so I deal with it.
 
For most tasks, 4" is fine, but when I surfing the web or watching videos it's nicer to have a larger display.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041754340 said:
Heck, I had a 12" VGA screen back in the day.

Most of the 90s were a 16" SVGA experience for me though.
Click to expand...

I was super happy when I got a 20" Sony CRT monitor, but man was that thing heavy.
I remember going with some photographer friends who wanted to upgrade their monitor so we headed to Comp USA to buy a 21" Viewsonic.
We had to take it out of the box to fit it into his Lincoln Town Car.
 
M76 said:
Screen size preference has more to do with what people can actually afford. .
Click to expand...
Not so much. Several people at work get new giant phones, and they have trouble making their rent. They just feel that they're entitled to have the next best thing because the guy next door has one. One guy can't afford to fix his car, but has the newest, biggest phone with max data plan. Dumb to the extreme.

Me, my phones usually last me years. Motorola time port lasted me from 2001 to 2010. Iphone 3gs from 10 to 14. Moto X 4.7 will probably last until I can't read the print, which was the main reason for switching up from the 3GS.
4.7 seems a sweet spot for me. Plus, it just works as easy as the 3GS, no hassles, no playing with it, it just works.
And I can afford pretty much any phone I want.
 
Zepher said:
I was super happy when I got a 20" Sony CRT monitor, but man was that thing heavy.
I remember going with some photographer friends who wanted to upgrade their monitor so we headed to Comp USA to buy a 21" Viewsonic.
We had to take it out of the box to fit it into his Lincoln Town Car.
Click to expand...

Lol, my 22" Iiyama Vision Master Pro 510 CRT actually made my desk curve. As I recall it weighed something like 78lb...
 
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