Does size matter? The new dilemma of phone buyers

Anybody currently going into the phone market (especially for the high end budget) will face one dilemma, which screen size to go for. This fight was started in order to distinguish Android phones from the iPhones. The iPhones have retained screen size of 3.5 inch since inception. On the other hand Android phones and others have gone for many diversified choices in their fight with iPhones, popular ones being 3.7”, 4.0” and 4.3”. Recently two new screen sizes have emerged in 4.6” and 5.3” recently with devices like Galaxy Nexus, HTC One X, and supposedly Galaxy S3 for the earlier and Galaxy Note for the latter. Size comparison can be seen here.

While all these devices have brought on new innovation like S-Pen in case of Galaxy Note, I find these phones incredibly hard to recommend. These so called ‘phablets’, asking the question, is it a phone or is it a tablet, don’t serve good enough as either. A phone in my opinion should tick two boxes with respect to dimension; one, be pocket friendly, secondly be usable with a single hand.  And these phones with screen size 4.3” and greater just don’t make the cut in this department without the user agreeing to compromise. A tablet on the other hand needs to provide a good multimedia viewing experience where you can watch stuff like movies and TV shows for long hours.

And that is the reason why my most preferred size in a mobile phone is 3.7”-4.0”. Unfortunately, currently there are no good android handset considering ICS in this screen size earlier dominated by Samsung’s major success Galaxy S, but there is Xperia U, Sola, P coming soon (May end supposedly) in this size segment with specs equivalent to the high end phones.  You also get Windows Phones in this range which are great VFM like Lumia 710 and Omnia W. While not only convenient, they are almost certainly way more affordable. This not only provides you with a decent phone for the next year or two, it also decreases your loss against the breathtaking pace at which mobile industry is growing, with phones becoming outdated in less than an year.

And hey, maybe for the money you save, you can go for a tablet too!

PS: Opinions have been made sighting the Indian Phone market.