By SteveJack
The real reason why Samsung, HTC and the other Android phone assemblers have “decided” to offer ergonomically inferior large screen devices is simply because they need more room in the device’s shell to fit all of their off-shelf parts and enough battery to run that inferior hardware and the Android OS. Often Android handsets fail to make it through the day, even with all of that extra battery volume packed into oversized devices.
Unlike Apple’s iOS, which is created expressly for Apple’s custom hardware – A6, batteries, Retina display, etc. – Android’s UI rendering happens in the main thread of an app and Android’s UI rendering has normal priority, rather than given higher processing priority as in iOS. This is likely because Android began life at Google as a BlackBerry knockoff and quickly had a touch UI bolted on right after they saw Steve Jobs pull the iPhone out of his jeans’ pocket.
The Android handset assemblers and those who settle for inferior wares routinely tout giant screens as a “feature / advantage” over iPhones, but it is in fact nothing more than a cover to provide greater volume inside the shell due to their inability to custom micro-engineer anything close to what Apple can achieve. Note that even with their oversized screens, Android phones cannot seem to deliver all-day battery life. Note also that while making Android phones not just tall, but also pocket-bustingly wide, the Android handset assemblers strive to keep them as thin as they can manage, obviously because they believe there is some merit in the ability to provide a “thin” device. If bigger is better, why isn’t thicker better, too? Because neither too big nor too thick is best for a smartphone. Big enough to see, use, and carry in a pocket comfortably is what is the right smartphone size. In other words: Apple’s iPhone 5.
Apple’s A6 SoC is custom silicon, not an off-the-shelf part slapped into umpteen “Buy One get X Free” Android handsets. Apple’s iOS 6 is a custom OS X-based operating system, not an off-the-shelf handset OS slapped into umpteen phones and skinned in myriad, inconsistent, developer-vexing ways. Apple’s iPhone 5 is the world’s thinnest smartphone yet still outperforms every Android phone on the market in terms of speed, responsiveness, weight, screen quality, and battery life – not to mention ecosystem, including third-party support, vehicle integration, app quality, app library, and app developers.
The next time you hear an Android handset assembler touting a big screen on TV, the Net, or wherever, remember that they are forced by their business model to have that giant screen and, if they could, they’d rather produce a phone that can fit in your pocket, be operated with one hand, be remarkable thin and light, with a crystal-clear, razor-sharp Retina display, and run all day on a single charge, but they can’t.
Only Apple can.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
Most stupid article I have ever read.
We only feel a lot of jealousy from apple fanboys: a big screen is so comfortable … I could never come back to my old tiny Iphone 4 screen (I was just destroying my eyes using it)
LOL
Size does matter…otherwise there is no point to the ipad….
I own the most expensive product apple sells, the Mac Pro, but u must be smoking something good if u think the iphone 5 comes anywhere close to its competitors.
Apple used to develop great quality IT products, but now they have left the IT market and gone into the fashion market instead. Apple products are nothing more than fashion trends.
These are the typical iphone customers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdIWKytq_q4
Lots of fanboy/fandroid combat in this thread. Why hasn’t someone made a game of this? It could feature flying phones with razor edges, lethal data dumps, and good old fashion club-em-to-death action.
OK, the premise though seems to be that the Big Screens for Big Boys manufacturers are trying to turn a disadvantage into a selling point, a feature, something to be truly desired- be the first on the block to own one! This is a classic approach to selling products and I am surprised people would fall for it.
So exactly who are we claiming are the sheep here?
I’m wondering where people are getting the idea GS3 sized phones won’t fit in pockets .Everybody I’ve seen with one keeps it in their pocket. I keep mine in my pocket no problem, and I’m 5’6″ 126 lbs. and wear mostly normal sized jeans along with more fitted designer jeans. Why is this an argument?
You guys are so stupid. If you can’t put the thing in you pocket
A. Your pockets are freakishly small
B. If you can’t fit in your pockets put it in you underwear.
If you put it in your underwear pretty much no one can steal it cause they have to reach all they down there. DUHHHH!!!!
I’m just kidding, though I do put my phone in my underwear sometimes. Teachers don’t ever want it after they see you put it in there
I have been reading your article here. And there is some things that i don’t agree with.
The thing that i don’t agree with is that bigger phones doesn’t means that they are hiding that they can’t make phones smaller to get good hardware into the phones. It’s more of the fact that most of the brands except for Apple sees that most peoples wants bigger phones over smaller phones. And then doesn’t cares so much about squeezing as much hardware into a smallest possible phone.
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note and i can say for sure that they haven’t made the phone that big just so they can get more hardware into it. They have made it that big because it’s a Note. A Galaxy Note on a 4 inch screen is not going to work, PERIOD. Youneed at least 5 inch or more before a Note can be a Note.
Not only does the Note does what it does, but it actually makes the viewing experience f*ck tons better than you can get on an iPhone 5.
You seems to be totally forgetting that the “true” smartphones today like the Galaxy Notes are way to functional and advanced to be fitted into a tiny 4 inch screen.
The web surfing, movie watching, playing games, GPS experience will get MUCH MUCH better on a 5.3 / 5.5 inch screen over a 4 inch screen no matter how you look at it.
If you want a smartphone with a 4 inch screen, then you have to take the limited functionality you get with that over what other phones with biggers screens can give you.
Not only does the Galaxy Note phones sells good, but Samsung have sold over 30 million units of the Galaxy S III in just about 6 months. Doesn’t that tells you that peoples today rather want a phone with a bigger screen?
I can tell you why they want that, because a 4.8 inch screen on a phone is giving everybody a much better experience on the phone. That’s the reason why alot of peoples wants a phone with a screen that have 4.3 inch or bigger.