Have you realized over the past few years mobile phones have much bigger size wise than they were a few years ago. In fact the trend back then for many years was smaller equals better and more fashionable. But now, those people who love small phones are struggling to find them-especially if they are looking for a small smart phone. Why is it that smartphones are all so large, and there are so few small models?
The smartphone is an incredible device. They are powerful enough that they can now provide on-the-go access to a wide range of functionality that previously required a computer. But to many people’s dislike they are also incredibly large and often heavy devices. Lovers of small cell phones in particular are put off by their size, and yet this is often unavoidable.
The battery in and of itself is a large part of the size of the smartphone. In order to support a phone with a processor as powerful as many have, a lot of power is needed, to the point that even with the current large batteries, many smartphones suffer from poor battery life.
The screen is another important, and large component on the smartphone. When it comes to browsing the internet, and being able to comfortably read the information contained on a webpage, a larger screen is always going to be better. It also makes for better viewing of movies, and gives more space for the touch screen keyboard.
There are a few smaller models of smartphone. The Xperia X10 Mini and Mini Pro, and the HP Veer are similarly sized models of smaller phone, whilst some manufacturers only claim to make mini smartphones. Instead, though the phone may be smaller than some, they are still often as large as the average smartphone. The current small smartphones illustrate well some of the problems that making small smartphones causes.
The X10 Mini has an entirely onscreen touch keyboard, whereas the Mini Pro has a slide out physical keyboard as well, and you can choose which one you use. The Veer however relies on a slide out keyboard for all text input. Text input on both touch screen and physical keyboards is always going to be a problem on a phone as small as these and this is another reason that there aren’t a large number of these tiny smartphones.
Additionally, the limited screen space means that normal interfaces often have to be redesigned in order to prevent them from being cluttered and unusable. This leaves manufacturers with more work as they have to start from scratch, and means that users find themselves scrolling a lot to find what they want. Though this works, it is hardly the elegant solution that larger smartphones can have.
As the size of the components that go into building these phones is able to be decreased, the phones will generally be able to be decreased in size. There will always be some limiting factors, such as the size of the screen and the space needed to provide a fully functional keyboard, but smartphones on the whole should become generally slimmer and lighter than ever before. They may not become significantly smaller though, leaving consumers with a permanently limited range of choice when it comes to buying a smaller smartphone.
