Smartphones: Thin is In, But Bigger is Better

A newly released smartphone study finds what we’ve been seeing all along as far as trends with Android smartphones. According to the study, which polled an undisclosed number of participants in the U.S. and UK, smartphone buyers are trending towards phones with larger displays. Strategy Analytics say that 9 of 10 people want a phone with a larger screen when looking at a new smartphone purchase.

In the U.S., we’re seeing high-end smartphones now released with screens between 4.0- to 4.3-inch as being the norm. It’s hard to find a high-end, fully featured smartphone with a display size that measures less than 4 inches. For example, Motorola’s lineup, which features high-end devices like the Droid RAZR and the Droid Bionic, has a 4-inch minimum entry point for dual-core processing, a high-resolution display, and 4G connectivity, and that is all found on the Droid 4, which has the smaller screen size at 4 inches when compared to its peers.

Recently, we’re seeing devices push the 4.5-inch size from LG, such as the new LG Spectrum on Verizon and the LG Nitro 4G on AT&T. Samsung’s been pushing the boundaries with its Galaxy Nexus, clocking in with a 4.65-inch display and the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note, which straddles smartphone and tablet classifications.

The study finds that most participants preferred prototype devices with screens between 4 inches and 4.5 inches.

The drive to larger displays forced Nokia, which created the Lumia 800 with a sub-4-inch display to come out with the Lumia 900, which the company says was designed specifically with the U.S. market in mind with a 4.3-inch display. That model eschewed the curved glass display in favor of a flat glass display to keep things slim to accommodate for the larger size screen.

According to the study, no matter what platform the respondents were on, users polled wanted a larger screen size across the board. While users want larger displays, they do favor thinner phones as well, a trend that we’ve also been seeing across many smartphone-makers, such as Motorola, Huawei, Samsung, Apple, and others.

On iOS, Apple may not ever break the 4-inch display category. The company’s iPhone has consistently clocked in at 3.5-inch since the first model was released. Apple’s theory is that users can have access to the entire display, corner to corner, with one-handed use and the thumb can reach anywhere on the screen.

The trend is definitely buckling old trends in the Windows Mobile era, where small was in and manufacturers like HTC was pushing the 2.8-inch form factor.

Via: Android Guys