Top 3 problems with Smartphones

Smartphones have been around for about half a dozen years, you would expect them to have become nearly perfect over this period of time. In many ways they have. But today let us focus on the ways smartphones can improve. Here is a list of the Top 3 problems of smartphones.

Strength and Rigidity: Now a days, we have phones like the Xperia Z with glass on both the sides of the phone. And remember the iPhone 4 and 4S? What is common between them? These are the phones that crack whenever they hit the ground. Now, if you go back a decade, when Nokia's Feature phones existed, they were heavy duty, almost military grade. Drop them from a second floor window and the phone would still work. But if you drop your smartphone today, from even the height of 6 feet, lets not talk about the consequences. Ok, they are waterproof, but I don't always take my phone swimming. The rigidity of smartphones, believe it or not has actually deteriorated.

Speakers: If you look at smartphones today, you will realise that features like the screen display quality and the camera quality have improved a lot. But then when you look at the speaker, you wonder why it has been left behind. Today's speakers on smartphones  ( except for a few of course ) are really bad, unable to play music at a high volume, even at "tinny" quality and when you play rock music on them, they really drive me mad.

Screen Sizes: You would expect after 5 years or so, a standardised screen size to have been established. But today, if you just walk into a phone store, you would see phones ranging from 3.5" all the way to 6.3" Now, thats nearly twice the size. Why???? Why can't we have one standardised, or at least a few established screen sizes. Maybe like 5" or 5.3" for phablets and if we really need smaller screen sizes for budget phones, why not 4.5" ( like the Moto X)

In conclusion, I think we have realised that smartphones can really be much smarter. Let us see what the year 2014 will bring for us. Until then, we will have to stick with what we have.

Half a year using a Phablet

It all started with Samsung releasing its Galaxy Note. A phone that broke predicted sales twice over. Then there was the greater success of the Galaxy Note 2, and today Samsung is advertising its new Galaxy Note 3. Over this time, several other companies like Sony and HTC have entered the so called "Phablet" market and are producing phones with screen sizes in excess of 6 inches.

So what is a Phablet? Well it basically is a phone having a large screen, a much larger screen that is! The Galaxy Note 2 has a battery which is as big as the screen size of the iPhone 5! But what does this mean for the common consumer? Well let me tell you my experiences with "Phablets."

The day I first switched on my Phablet i.e. the Galaxy Note 2, I was convinced the screen size was perfect for me. I always like playing video games and a larger screen would definitely compliment that. For the first month or two, I really liked the large screen, but as time progressed, I found that it was impractical in various ways. Firstly, it was much heavier than other phones like the iPhone. Secondly, the larger screen did not help in one handed usage, and lastly, it almost felt like it was a "cheap" and not a "premium" device. (Though that may be because of the plastic used on the Galaxy phones)

I personally feel that phones should not exceed a screen size of 5 inches and bezels should be kept as thin as possible, so that it becomes easier to hold. So if you are trying to buy a new phone today, you might want to skip the Phablets, unless of course you watch movies a lot and love gaming. Some recommendable, more realistically sized phones are the iPhone line-up, the Galaxy S3/S4 and of course the HTC One.