Imagine holding a tablet-sized phone to your ear. Wouldn’t that be a strange sight to look at? The leading mobile device manufacturer, Samsung, has set new standards for phones in every new device that they release. The Samsung Galaxy Note made other mobile device manufactures rethink the size of their devices, by making them bigger to compete with the Galaxy Note. Mobile devices are getting larger and larger by the year which leads us to the question...
Why are they making mobile phones so large these days?!

With the new release of the Galaxy Mega, Samsung has set yet a newer standard for the size of mobile phones. The size of the Galaxy Mega is 6.3”, which is quite large compared to the new Samsung Galaxy S4, which is only 5”. Need a mobile phone really be that large?

A mobile phone that is approximately 7” in size is not very portable even if it is very light and thin. A phone that size is not going to fit in most pockets and the chances of dropping it and losing it while you are holding it in your hand, increase to much greater.

Back then, at the creation of the phone, the purpose was to be able to communicate with people on the go. Nowadays, phones are almost essential of modern existence used for everything from making shopping lists to booking airplane tickets. Sure, they’re still used for making phone calls but no aspect of the cellular phone is as it was before. Phones used to be known as ‘mobile phones’ or ‘cellular devices’ that included some fun features such as games followed by the (ground-breaking) inclusion of a camera. Now deemed smartphones they include a plethora features like downloadable games, videos, music, web surfing, etc. Phones are more versatile, stylish and portable now, but personally, I think that phones should have a limit on how versatile and portable they are and can get.

I think as they get larger; their utility is only decreasing, shouldn’t they maintain the size that can fit into jean pockets. If they can do this, then those phones will be more portable compared to a phone that is almost the size of the smallest iPad which is approximately 8”, anything near or over 8” in size is a tablet in a phone’s guise.

In addition, the Sony Xperia Z Ultra followed Samsung’s steps and created a new smartphone that is 6.4”, the market demands; the producers provide. It’s a vicious cycle.

Instead of spending time and resources to make computers tinier and mobile phones bizarrely larger; improvements to a product’s hardware and utility should be made; so that any flaws like overheating and the use of radiation can be fixed. These alterations could have a real (and positive!) impact on us, the consumers! Sure, phones like the new Samsung Galaxy Mega and the Sony Xperia Z Ultra look stylish and are quite technologically-advanced. But are they really worth their claim to fame? Their size? Have we as consumers started to follow trends so blindly, that we have forgotten to prioritize our needs and wants; and have given power to the producers and manufacturers, in a way reversing how the economy should work? Maybe this is not just about the outrageous size of the “smartphones”, but it sure is a good place to start questioning whether we are being outsmarted.

By Julie Huynh