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KAB2010

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Its one of the main reasons I stick with the iPhone. What is wrong with manufacturers these days? The majority cannot hold a 4.6 inch and above (display size) comfortably. One handed use can be a real joy sometimes, and no I'm not talking about while driving.

Everytime I see an amazing new phone of any OS, they always seem to be made for giants. In my opinion, the majority would be most comfortable between the 3.5-4.3 range, and 4.5 is pushing it. 4.3 is the sweet spot for me. I wish companies would quit the "mine is bigger than yours" race. I'll be holding onto my iPhone until that day comes, among other great features it has.
 

App King

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May 1, 2012
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Well some people believe bigger is better. It's all about numbers and speed these days.
 

boss.king

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But a lot of people like big screens. Also, most companies make a range of phones, so the size you want is usually covered. There's nothing wrong with variety.
 

KAB2010

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Variety is great. But as of late, all flagship phones releasing or already out are monster sized.. I'd consider an HTC or Motorola flagship if it were 4-4.3.
 

blackhand1001

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Variety is great. But as of late, all flagship phones releasing or already out are monster sized.. I'd consider an HTC or Motorola flagship if it were 4-4.3.

The one S, and the upcoming incredible 4g meet that criteria. Also the nexus is really more like a 4.3 inch screen (rather than 4.6) as the soft keys are part of the screen itself which saves space on the phone where the capacitive buttons normally are. Its essentially the same size as the other 4.3 inch phones I have used dimension-wise.
 
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ixodes

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Jan 11, 2012
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What is wrong with manufacturers these days?
Nothing whatsoever.

It's all a matter of personal preference. I was in a very large, busy AT&T store yesterday. Both iPhone 4's and various top of the line Androids were selling very rapidly.

Many of the young women were there to pre-order the HTC One X. Not everyone decides based on looks. Many like myself base buying decisions on features and functionality. Nor is everyone obsessed with one handed operation.

Personally I find my iPhone 4S rather tiny and limiting when viewing the web. Yet I still enjoy the other aspects of the phones operation.

It's all relative. If I didn't have other Smartphones like my SGS II with a modern sized display, I wouldn't know what I was missing.

Choices are wonderful.
 

3bs

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May 20, 2011
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The one S, and the upcoming incredible 4g meet that criteria. Also the nexus is really more like a 4.3 inch screen (rather than 4.6) as the soft keys are part of the screen itself which saves space on the phone where he capacitive buttons.

I've used the GNex. It was a great phone but it was too big (for me).
 

KAB2010

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I'd love to have a bigger screen for the sake of web browsing because I do that a ton on my phone. The Galaxy Nexus is still roughly the same size as the huge Titan, One X, etc. I'm with AT&T so they haven't given me any options lately with the preferable phone size I want. If a phone isn't the right size for your hand, the ease of use and functionality drop greatly.
 

apolloa

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Oct 21, 2008
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Time, because it rules EVERYTHING!
Whilst I totally agree, and believe for me the sweet spot is the iPhones 3.5" screen, the Galaxy Note is a very popular device with it's 5.3" screen size. It's a huge device but the owners of it seem to love the screen real estate, and the pen.
But the Note is a 'Phablet' and as a work tool is great if you want that sort of thing. As for the S3, well again people I guess want it? But, it is aimed at normal people, not techies or business people. And from the comments I've read, only a few seem to want such a large device?

But in this thread, everyone has a preference, mine is 3.5, yours is 4.3, someone else 4.... sums it up, we are not all the same.
 

boss.king

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I'd love to have a bigger screen for the sake of web browsing because I do that a ton on my phone. The Galaxy Nexus is still roughly the same size as the huge Titan, One X, etc. I'm with AT&T so they haven't given me any options lately with the preferable phone size I want. If a phone isn't the right size for your hand, the ease of use and functionality drop greatly.

Have you tried the Titan? Because with WP7 you rarely have to reach above the halfway point of the screen. All the buttons are at the bottom so operating one handed is still possible. That's also the one reason I doubt the iPhone will get made much bigger; they've made to OS with buttons everywhere, so you need to be able to reach across the whole device.
 

KAB2010

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Yes I go into AT&T when new phones come out to play around and get a good feel for them. Maybe I could get used to it as most that have the phones have, but first I have to find one that has such an amazing battery life, good enough camera, great apps, usability, and bug-free like my iPhone 4.

Edit: I'd also probably get the Galaxy Nexus with its great off contract price if the battery and camera weren't subpar.
 

boss.king

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Yes I go into AT&T when new phones come out to play around and get a good feel for them. Maybe I could get used to it as most that have the phones have, but first I have to find one that has such an amazing battery life, good enough camera, great apps, usability, and bug-free like my iPhone 4.

Good luck with that. The AT&T Titan has some shocking quality control issues from what I hear. The international version however ticks all those boxes.
 

KAB2010

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boss.king said:
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Yes I go into AT&T when new phones come out to play around and get a good feel for them. Maybe I could get used to it as most that have the phones have, but first I have to find one that has such an amazing battery life, good enough camera, great apps, usability, and bug-free like my iPhone 4.

Good luck with that. The AT&T Titan has some shocking quality control issues from what I hear. The international version however ticks all those boxes.

Most AT&T phones do for some reason. They take FOREVER to update them too. Half the time they're left in the dust though. Other carriers don't seem to have this as such a glaring issue.
 

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Mar 29, 2011
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It's likely (might even say obvious, actually) that the OP has never owned and thus used extensively a larger screen device. His opinions regarding whether devices should be larger or not should therefore be invalid.

Try before you judge. The argument that you can't use any screen larger than the vicinity of 3.5" comfortably with one hand are absolutely absurd.

Check out these two threads to see why:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1234384/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1364853/

In short, even with small hands, devices with screens in the 4-4.6" range only make the top of the screen "unreachable" with your thumb by a few millimeters. This doesn't render the device impossible or uncomfortable to use with one hand. Far from it.

And the trade offs of those few millimeters are well worth it. Again, anyone who has truly used a larger device will usually speak of how much better reading, typing, browsing, watching pics/vids, playing games, etc. are on a device with more screen real-estate.

EDIT: I want to be clear that this isn't about Android vs. iOS. iOS would be glorious to use on a larger screen iPhone.
 
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KAB2010

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onthecouchagain said:
It's likely (might even say obvious, actually) that the OP has never owned and thus used extensively a larger screen device. His opinions regarding whether devices should be larger or not should therefore be invalid.

Try before you judge. The argument that you can't use any screen larger than the vicinity of 3.5" comfortably with one hand are absolutely absurd.

Check out these two threads to see why:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1234384/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1364853/

In short, even with small hands, devices with screens in the 4-4.6" range only make the top of the screen "unreachable" with your thumb by a few millimeters. This doesn't render the device impossible or uncomfortable to use with one hand. Far from it.

And the trade offs of those few millimeters are well worth it. Again, anyone who has truly used a larger device will usually speak of how much better reading, typing, browsing, watching pics/vids, playing games, etc. are on a device with more screen real-estate.

Oh yeah? Could've swore I owned a Motorola Atrix 2, then moved up to a bigger device, the HTC Vivid which was almost too big for me. Now newer phones are taller than the Vivid. Could've also swore that I go to the AT&T store frequently to get a feel for the devices. Hmm, maybe you should ask what I've done and used before assuming?
 

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Mar 29, 2011
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for me the sweet spot is the iPhones 3.5" screen

everyone has a preference, mine is 3.5


The day Apple releases a larger than 3.5" iPhone, I fully expect to hear you complain that Apple has made an egregious mistake making the screen too large.

Ditto for others who claim 3.5" is the "perfect" screen size or those who continuously claim that only a ~3.5" screen size is "comfortable" to use with one hand...

I fully expect complaints about the new iPhone being too big and the device too uncomfortable to use.


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Oh yeah? Could've swore I owned a Motorola Atrix 2, then moved up to a bigger device, the HTC Vivid which was almost too big for me. Now newer phones are taller than the Vivid. Could've also swore that I go to the AT&T store frequently to get a feel for the devices. Hmm, maybe you should ask what I've done and used before assuming?

My mistake.

My other points still stand.
 

KAB2010

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onthecouchagain said:
for me the sweet spot is the iPhones 3.5" screen

everyone has a preference, mine is 3.5


The day Apple releases a larger than 3.5" iPhone, I fully expect to hear you complain that Apple has made an egregious mistake making the screen too large.

Ditto for others who claim 3.5" is the "perfect" screen size or those who continuously claim that only a ~3.5" screen size is "comfortable" to use with one hand...

I fully expect complaints about the new iPhone being too big and the device too uncomfortable to use.

Can't wait.

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Wirelessly posted



Oh yeah? Could've swore I owned a Motorola Atrix 2, then moved up to a bigger device, the HTC Vivid which was almost too big for me. Now newer phones are taller than the Vivid. Could've also swore that I go to the AT&T store frequently to get a feel for the devices. Hmm, maybe you should ask what I've done and used before assuming?

My mistake.

My other points still stand.

No problem! Also, I'd shorten the quotes up so it didn't take up half the page, but it won't let me on my phone I believe.
 

blackhand1001

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Jan 6, 2009
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Yes I go into AT&T when new phones come out to play around and get a good feel for them. Maybe I could get used to it as most that have the phones have, but first I have to find one that has such an amazing battery life, good enough camera, great apps, usability, and bug-free like my iPhone 4.

Edit: I'd also probably get the Galaxy Nexus with its great off contract price if the battery and camera weren't subpar.

MY battery life has been great on my nexus. The 4.04 update improved things alot. I am at 10 hours 8 minutes of usage right now and its at 84% battery on the standard battery.
 

KAB2010

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Wow. Really? The thing is that after every update it seems like something gets better, but new bugs are formed. I've never had an issue on my iPhone..
Also, I'm positively not interested in rooting or turning off features such as wifi, cellular connection, or lowering brightness less than half for the sake of battery life. If you don't have to do any of these things and can make it through a day of moderate to heavy use, then that's impressive for an android device.
 

stevemiller

macrumors 68000
Oct 27, 2008
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I'm in the camp of I'm happy with the iPhones current size, wouldn't mind something larger, but not particularly keen on screens approaching 5" for mobiles. Total personal preference, though.

That said, I've always thought the one handed operation "problem" is far more a software UI challenge than a hardware restriction. If the top of the screen is becoming a difficult touch target, simply stop making it one! The touchscreen UI is still young, and I think there is a lot of exciting territory yet to be explored. :)
 

blackhand1001

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Wow. Really? The thing is that after every update it seems like something gets better, but new bugs are formed. I've never had an issue on my iPhone..
Also, I'm positively not interested in rooting or turning off features such as wifi, cellular connection, or lowering brightness less than half for the sake of battery life. If you don't have to do any of these things and can make it through a day of moderate to heavy use, then that's impressive for an android device.


Wifi has been on all day. There's no new bugs in this update that I know of. I have brightness on auto. I haven't run out of battery in the 4 months I have owned it yet. Today was kind of a light day compared to normal but usually I never drop below 60-40%.

Screenshot_2012-05-04-20-52-19.png
 
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KAB2010

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Nice. If it weren't for the bad camera quality (from the countless reviews I've read) then I'd get one!
 

blackhand1001

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Nice. If it weren't for the bad camera quality (from the countless reviews I've read) then I'd get one!

Its honestly not that bad. It take great hd video and the pictures are still pretty good. They improved in the update a bit and I am not embarrassed to upload them online. I am not gonna say it the best phone camera but its a decent one and more than good enough for me. As far as hd capture goes its actually one of the best in that aspect as it can maintain its framerate perfectly.
 

KAB2010

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blackhand1001 said:
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Nice. If it weren't for the bad camera quality (from the countless reviews I've read) then I'd get one!

Its honestly not that bad. It take great hd video and the pictures are still pretty good. They improved in the update a bit and I am not embarrassed to upload them online. I am not gonna say it the best phone camera but its a decent one and more than good enough for me. As far as hd capture goes its actually one of the best in that aspect as it can maintain its framerate perfectly.

Does it have an HDR option? Also, my iPhone 4 just seems to do so well in low light. Every other camera I've used produces very dark pictures compared to my 4 or the 4s. The HTC Vivid was probably the next best in that capability.
 
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