Size does matter

Size does matter.

I know, i know this is an honest to God stereotype. Yet there are many people who will support the exact opposite.  It is a big debate.  I know. (Note to self: This blog is about tech.)

But i am going to pose one simple question and i kindly ask the reader to sincerely answer: Assuming you pant size is M, would you wear an XXL pair everyday?

Having been someone really eager to become a badass hip-hopper in the (now long past) days of my youth, i can assure you that going from M to XXL(uhmm, pant size, that is) is a rather bold and  (if i may add) severely dysfunctional decision that even hardcore Eminem wannabes may eventually have to renounce.

So let me assume that most people would stick to their properly sized pants and get on with their lives without having to drag their feet or worrying that if they have to jog their pants will fall.

(Reality check: This is trying to become a tech blog.)

So, why should my M sized hands have to use an XXL cellphone from now until the getting bigger trend hopefully implodes into nothing, people? Why? Why should someone (an average Joe - not Shaquille Rashaun O' Neal, mind you) who is driving his (hopefully not both cheap and italian) car (assuming it is legal to talk & drive) should risk an accident while trying to answer his 5.5 inch cellphone for God's sake? Why should my cellphone block the sun of the whole city block when raised above my (rather big, yet proportionally tiny) head up in the air? Okay, i am now exaggerating but, have you ever used a 5 inch (or bigger) smartphone while also carrying the groceries and car keys and some leaflets that you were forced to accept, as well as dragging a crying toddler? What, no? Well, me neither, but you do get the meaning.

I must admit that i have used more than my fair share of gigantic smartphones (Dell Streak, Samsung Galaxy Note, ...) and even dumbphones (who remembers the behemoth of a phone - Ericsson R250s pro?).

So why am i whining again today? Well this question is rather complicated to answer right now, but i can think of at least one x-girlfirend who would boldly testify that i whine all the time. Anyway.  Let's move on.

I am complaining because if i want to buy a high end smartphone, chances are that it's going to have a 4.8 inch screen or larger, which simply is unacceptable.  As Sir Jonathan Ive was eager to point out when describing the iPhone 5 design, most people's fingers simply are not long enough to properly utilise so much screen real estate.  Then again there is a colleague of mine, who just bought a Galaxy Note 2 and it looks rather normal in his huge paws! But this guy is so tall and big that he may remain erect even if he faints sometime. You get the meaning, this person has huge hands and feet. Just like Mr. Lebron James in this Galaxy Note 2 commercial video.

Please allow me to now define the problem in good, old, plain English: Smartphones (especially high end ones) tend to be getting bigger and bigger, while having already crossed the rather distinct line between being practical and being marginally (un)usable for the average person and his medium sized hands. 

I can recall that more than a decade ago all cellphone manufacturers were trying to produce the smallest phone which was again leading to rather miserable products that actually tortured people.  Welcome to 2013: There are smartphones with 5.5 inch screens and for Christ's sake 5.8 and 6.3 (see Samsung Galaxy Mega - this sure is a proper name for such a Goliath of a "phone") inches are coming to some poor soul near you. Manufacturers now want to create the biggest phone. Yes they do.

Even Apple, in a half hearted attempt to catch up in this "mine is bigger than yours" competition thing was forced to move from the rather tired yet iconic and almost classic iPhone 4 chassis on to the twisted elongated ugliness of iPhone 5 (sorry Sir). In one swift move they went from a "you can't but love" to a "i desperately want to love but just can't" design. Yes. Even Apple who used to dictate our needs (note to self: dedicate another post to this one) and had almost got us convinced that 3.5 inches is ideal had to bite the bullet and increase the screen dimensions (or dimension, if we have to be specific).

Just to be fair though, the Galaxy Note series really define a new product category, the so called phablets and they just might justify their gargantuan existence mainly because of the stylus, which provides a new set of functionality characteristics that plain smartphones do not (and do not need to) feature. Still, dear reader, please do not make the mistake of thinking about them as phones. Because they are not, although they make phone calls.

All seems to be lost for us people with average size hands. Is all hope really gone? (This is completely irrelevant, but i cannot but recommend Guillermo del Toro's The strain trilogy - it creates such a doomed feeling that it (unexpectedly yet fittingly) came to my mind now that i am anticipating a dark future with 24 inch cellphones that we will be obliged to carry with us all the time...)

Are manufacturers forced to go to the XXL screen size because they simply cannot fit the quad core processors as well as the huge batteries required to feed them into a form size that actually CAN be operated one handedly?

I really cannot answer this, but i have a feeling that things will eventually get back to normal. Which by the way reminds me to point out the ideal smartphone size for "normal" people.  Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the HTC HD 2. Possibly best phone ever made. (Will certainly have to post smth exclusive about this überphone in the future). 

Screen size 4.3 inches. Phone chassis marginally bigger than the screen. That is the way to go people, and it has already been done in the end of 2009. Now that i get to think about it, what should the poor guy who scribbled "big" on the HD2's box be thinking about the current gen of high end smartphones?

When did her/his "big" become "small"? Dear Apple and Samsung please consider a new iPhone smth or Galaxy smth with the exact same dimensions of the HD2 and top notch hardware. Please be sensible and do as i ask.

Because size does matter.

We, averagely sized persons, would really love a high end smartphone in a practical form factor. One that we can proudly lift towards our face and talk without hiding behind it, one that we can text on with just one hand. There are billions of us out there. Is it too much to ask?