Go back to 2010 and you'd be hard pushed to find a handset
which sported a screen bigger than 4 inches. Back then the big phones of the
year were the 3.5-inch iPhone 4, 3.7-inch HTC Desire and the 4-inch Samsung
Galaxy S.
Today we're seeing handsets rocking screens in excess of
6-inches, while the bustling budget tablet market is churning out top quality
devices in the 7-inch arena.
The line between phones and tablets is more blurred than
it's ever been and the considerable amount of crossover has resulted in the
coining of the rather inelegant phrase "phablet" - love it or hate
it, the phrase and the devices it's attached to are here to stay.
In the beginning
Our first real taste of a phablet was back in 2011 when the
Samsung Galaxy Note was launched to a muted response. People scoffed at its
ridiculously large 5.3-inch display and 90s S-Pen stylus, but little did we
know Samsung was onto something.
Alan Thomas from Carphone Warehouse explains: "The
phablet was a slow burner. When the original Samsung Galaxy Note hit the
shelves it wasn't instantly popular. The industry as a whole didn't know what
to make of it.
"But, as Samsung marketed it and showed what it could
do, why you use it, people found it offered something they wanted."
Samsung's Note series remains the most recognised of the
phablet generation with the Korean firm adding the Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy
Note 3 in the following years, but it has now been joined by the likes of Sony,
Nokia and HTC in the race for the best supersized smartphone.
It's still not clear what defines a phablet, and Thomas told
us "it's getting a bit debatable, but typically a phablet has a screen
size larger than 5.3 inches and smaller than 7 inches. Tablets normally have
screens of 7 inches and over and smartphone screens tend to be 5.2 inches or
under.
"There is a little bit of overlap and it's largely due
to how the manufacturer chooses to market their devices."
Why oh why?
There wasn't much of a calling for our smartphones to
dramatically increase in size before the Galaxy Note popped its head up, so
what advantages do phablets actually provide?
Thomas notes: "people have really begun to use their
smartphones a lot more for the internet, and the larger screens make it more
practical.
"Smartphones are always in your pocket, turned on and
it's very easy to just look something up. With a tablet or a computer, odds are
you need to get it out of a bag, and turn it on."
For those of you who like to be on the cutting edge of
technology Thomas also highlights the phablet range as leading the current
mobile revolution.
"New phablets have the best technology offered by the
manufacturer. The best screen tech, resolution, processor. If customers want
the latest and greatest, it has to be a phablet.
"We find that a lot of different types of people buy
phablets. There are those that commute often and need something to entertain
them on tubes and trains. There are those that work a lot and want an organiser
or PDA like device. The extra features and screen size are well suited to this.
"I've seen a lot of female users who appear to use the
Note as a diary – my friend's mum has a Note and is constantly scribbling
things into the notepad and calendar."
Carphone Warehouse currently offers four of the best
phablets around, and if you're still unsure which one to plump for we've broken
down each one for you to compare.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
The original phablet is now in its third iteration and the
Galaxy Note 3 is definitely Samsung's best yet, boasting an excellent 5.7-inch
full HD display, punchy 2.3GHz quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM .
It's an all-round powerhouse of a phone and will gobble up
anything you throw at it, kitchen sink included.
"All the Note phones have had the S Pen and the Galaxy
Note 3 is the newest. The S Pen is a new, more comfortable shape and allows for
all manner of handwriting features on the Note 3," Thomas says.
"You can handwrite notes – like phone numbers or
reminders – and the Note 3 can save them into the app perfectly. The Note 3 can
also search your handwritten notes, so you don't have to type everything up in
perfect Times New Roman."
Nokia Lumia 1520
If you're looking for a phone with a big screen and a top
notch snapper then you'll want to be checking out the most powerful, and
largest, Nokia and Windows Phone handset to date.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 comes equipped with a great full HD
6-inch display, 2.2GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and of course a Carl
Zeiss optics rear camera clocked at 20MP.
Thomas notes that "at 20MP it's one of the most
powerful cameras on any smartphone. The Lumia 1520 also uses the Nokia Camera
app – the same one as on the best camera phone, the Nokia Lumia 1020 – which
gives you control over advanced features like shutter speed.
"This lets you take shots that just aren't possible on
other phones. It also comes with Microsoft Office built in, making it the most
practical phablet around for getting some work done."
HTC One Max
With an incredibly sharp 5.9-inch full HD display and dual
front-facing BoomSound speakers the HTC One Max is the phablet for any movie
buffs and TV addicts out there.
As well as a quad-core processor, decent chunk of RAM and
fancy Ultrapixel camera the One Max also has a party trick in the form of a
fingerprint scanner on its rear - similar to Touch ID on the iPhone 5S.
"The fingerprint scanner makes all the things saved on
your One Max safe and secure. It's also pretty practical as it can remember up
to three fingerprints, and you can program the One Max to start up different
apps depending on the finger you used on the scanner," Thomas explains.
"The BoomSound speakers are unbelievably loud. We
thought the HTC One was a noisy little box, but this is arguably the loudest
phone going. 'Boom' Sound indeed!"
Sony Xperia Z Ultra
Want to be the talk of the town with the biggest smartphone
around? Then step this way and say hello to the 6.4-inch Sony Xperia Z Ultra.
With such a large full HD display the Xperia Z Ultra can
genuinely function as both your smartphone and your tablet, allowing you to
purchase just one device instead of having to splash the cash on two.
Thomas is a fan of Sony's phablet too: "the Xperia Z
Ultra is probably the most impressive phablet to look at as it's so thin and
Sony still managed to make it waterproof, so if you happen to submerge it for
half an hour in 1.5m of water it'll keep going like nothing's happened.
"We also discovered that the Z Ultra has the sharpest
screen of all the phablets, even though it's the largest. This is because of
the X-Reality feature. It up scales low-res content and sharpens HD quality
visuals. It really works and is easy to notice the difference, making it the
best for movie watching."
The phablet future
While phablets might be ploughing a supersized furrow
through the mobile market at the moment can these larger than life handsets remain
popular or are they just a passing fad?
"Phablets are here because we all want to use our
phones for more visual content. This is unlikely to change. We'll want bigger
and bigger screens, just like we want more screen space on the monitors for our
computers and larger TVs for out front rooms," Thomas predicts.
"Phablets will still be here next year for sure, but
specs might drop in comparison to the flagship devices to bring phablet prices
down a bit."
It might not all be about the static size of the screen on
future phablets, with flexible technology waiting in wings, as Thomas explains:
"we're expecting screen technology to take over and curved screen phones
are already here with the LG G Flex.
"This has a 6-inch screen which curves round and while
the display is extra large for videos etc, the curve keeps the phone size down
and makes it better for making calls as it curves round your head.
"Once we move onto bendable and even foldable screens
in two to three years we'll have phones with screens that can be expanded to
the size of a tablet, but shrunk down when you don't need a screen that big.
"It might even completely spell the end of the tablet
as these super phablets become ever more practical with screens that can change
from 5 inches to 10 inches or more."
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