Not that long ago, I asked you if you thought we'd start to see a shift in screen sizes. As we've watched the last couple of years be dominated by bigger and bigger displays, I was curious if you thought our favorite (and least favorite) manufacturers would start to move in the other direction soon, and start creating devices with smaller displays instead. After all, the hope of many people out there who don't love huge screens is that we'll stop being forced to buy them, as flagships adopt the mentality that bigger is better.
We can't ignore the movement anymore. Even Apple jumped on board, even if they managed to miss the screen size that the masses seem to be clamoring for. If the rumors are true, though, Apple's going to continue the trend this year with the next iPhone, and go up another screen size or two. My fellow editor Anna doesn't think a phone's successor needs to have a bigger display to be better, and I agree with that statement.
That's what keeps happening, though. Over and over again.
Samsung's one of the leaders in the Android Army, and a strong presence in the mobile industry as a whole. This is a company that has a plan to dominate every single segment of the consumer market, especially when it comes to the mobile industry. That's why we see so many different devices, bridging the gap between one product category to the next, all with plenty of different variants of those many different models to boot. They're a driving force, and what they do --and what people buy because of it-- carries weight to the other manufacturers who feel they need to keep pace.
That's why when Samsung releases a new phone and it has a bigger display than the one before it, it shouldn't come as a surprise that everyone else is doing the same thing, too. People buy it because they like Samsung, and companies translate that into all sorts of different things. Like, just maybe, they want bigger screens. That's why we have devices with names like "max" and "mega" in them. But, more than anything, it's why it's a safe bet that the next version of a flagship will boast a bigger display.
That's what the Rumor Mill is churning out in regards to the Galaxy S 5, unsurprisingly. As we've heard in the past, Samsung is apparently aiming to equip their newest Galaxy S model with a 5.2-inch display. If you'll recall, the Galaxy S 4 had a 5-inch screen.
My beef isn't so much with the Galaxy S 5, but with what comes after that. The Galaxy Note 4, or whatever they'll call it, is on the path to becoming a huge phone. Specifically, it's on a trek to becoming a tablet as far as I'm concerned, and that would defeat the whole purpose of that specific model in the Galaxy Note lineup.
If the Galaxy S 5 does indeed have a 5.2-inch display, then the likely outcome for the next Galaxy Note is a 5.9-inch display. Looking at past models, that would be the size difference between the flagship Galaxy S and flagship Galaxy Note models that I'd expect. However, I get this sinking feeling that Samsung could very well just give it a slight increase and call it good at six inches.
And I don't want that at all.
Like I've said in the past, there needs to be a definitive line drawn between a phone and a tablet, or even a phablet, and the Galaxy Note 4 could very well destroy that, or any possibility of it happening. More than that, though, I think the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3 was almost too big, but a perfect size for the device itself. Anything beyond that just seems pointless to me.
Is it too much to hope that Samsung doesn't increase the size of the next Galaxy Note smartphone/tablet hybrid? Do you want the device to get a bigger display, or would you prefer it to stay right where it is? Let me know what you think.
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