The move towards gigantic-sized phones - will that change?

[rkevwill]

I think there will be plenty of 'smaller' screen Android options. I doubt they will ever have the top-tier spec; but they will be amply powerful. After all, you probably don't need the most memory and fasted processor in a 3.5 inch screen phone either. I guess someone might dot that however if they feel the need to compete with Apple in that size segment. Personally, I always thought a screen smaller than 4 inches in a touchscreen device wasn't optimal anyway. I didn't want to go below the 4-incher in my LifeDrive; and it's taken a while (too long in my book) to get larger screens.

Oh wow, LifeDrive. I haven't remembered I had one of those for a LONG time!

[Drillbit]

Hey folks...

I've been looking to upgrade my Nexus One for awhile now, and still haven't found something that quite fits the bill.

One thing I've noticed is how the current crop of high-spec phones coming out are now HUGE. Thin, yes, but quite tall/wide. Smaller than, say, a Galaxy Note, but quite a bit bigger than my ol' Nexus One.

I guess the companies making the phones have felt that making them thinner but with bigger screens is preferable to any thickness. Personally, I want a SMALLER screen, so it fits nicely in my hand or pocket or phone holster on my backpack strap. I don't want a big huge thing to carry around, even if it IS thin.

Does anyone out there think that trend will peter out, and they'll once again have phones about the size of the Nexus One, without such an emphasis being put on screen size and thinness, but rather on portability?

- Tim

They never abandoned all these smaller, Nexus One sized phones. You just have to keep looking lower in the lineup. For example, there is the HTC One V.

Cheaper to boot.

[Drillbit]

I agree, it appears high end devices will only be the biggest, this means 4.65" plus from now on which is too big for me, a 16:10 4.3" is my ideal compromise although I could reasonably happily use 4", I find the 3.5 iPhone screen a little small although it has one of the better keyboards I've tried.

Personally I don't like the trend towards bigger and bigger, nor the higher and higher resolution obsession which just negates all the chip improvements.

Once I got used to my Galaxy Nexus screen, I can't get used to seeing the screen of my Galaxy S2 anymore.

Holdability is nice, yes, and some people think its important. But readability is even more so and especially in the long run. A larger screen is just simply easier to live, read, browse, view, surf and type. A single larger phone can also omit the more awkward combination of laptop/tablet and smaller smartphone on the move.

[weegie]

Once I got used to my Galaxy Nexus screen, I can't get used to seeing the screen of my Galaxy S2 anymore.

Holdability is nice, yes, and some people think its important. But readability is even more so and especially in the long run. A larger screen is just simply easier to live, read, browse, view, surf and type. A single larger phone can also omit the more awkward combination of laptop/tablet and smaller smartphone on the move.

Take a picture with the top of the screens lined up for us, the comparator I'm looking at makes the screens look the same size when the nexus is displaying it's "massive improvement" onscreen nav buttons....yet there's a fair difference in device size 10mm+ longer.

[tbessie]

Well, despite my HUGE reservations, I decided to buy a Galaxy Nexus from Google. I hate the phone's hugeness, I hate its lack of an SD slot, I hate it's "just okay" screen/camera (tho' that doesn't bother me as much), I hate it's 16gb of memory which I've no doubt will fill up quickly as Google keeps making its apps larger (I keep a map of the whole world on my phone so I don't have to depend on Google Maps and an available network for when I travel, and that takes up a huge amount of space, so that doesn't help).

The only thing I like about it is that it is the plain Android experience, without bloatware, and without having to root it to get that.

I wouldn't have done it, but my Nexus One is just getting unusable. I'd have to remove a bunch of the useful apps I have to make space - it's that stupid thing of using main memory to store "app data" and no way to put it on the SD card unless you do the special partition formatting trick, which I am too lazy to do. :-/

- Tim

[Hook]

Well, despite my HUGE reservations, I decided to buy a Galaxy Nexus from Google. I hate the phone's hugeness, I hate its lack of an SD slot, I hate it's "just okay" screen/camera (tho' that doesn't bother me as much), I hate it's 16gb of memory which I've no doubt will fill up quickly as Google keeps making its apps larger (I keep a map of the whole world on my phone so I don't have to depend on Google Maps and an available network for when I travel, and that takes up a huge amount of space, so that doesn't help).

The only thing I like about it is that it is the plain Android experience, without bloatware, and without having to root it to get that.

I wouldn't have done it, but my Nexus One is just getting unusable. I'd have to remove a bunch of the useful apps I have to make space - it's that stupid thing of using main memory to store "app data" and no way to put it on the SD card unless you do the special partition formatting trick, which I am too lazy to do. :-/

- Tim

So, now, root your Nexus One and experiment.

[tbessie]

So, now, root your Nexus One and experiment.

I may, if I can be bothered to do it. :-)

By the way, in migrating from one phone to another, does Google Play (i.e. app store) work in such a way that I can download all of the programs I've previously downloaded, once I've attached the related google account to it? Do all/most app writers account for this in their licensing?

- Tim

[Ed Hardy]

By the way, in migrating from one phone to another, does Google Play (i.e. app store) work in such a way that I can download all of the programs I've previously downloaded, once I've attached the related google account to it? Do all/most app writers account for this in their licensing?

I started a new thread with the answers to this question, as it's not related to the previous one on screen size. You can find it at:

Google Play and a New Phone