Until a couple of years ago, we were perfectly content with our trusty old mobile phones, which then later evolved into smartphones. And then came along Apple with its iPad, bringing tablets to us, which according to Steve Jobs was in the in-between option between phones and laptops.
And even more recently, we had Samsung bring out yet another gadget – the phablet, something in between a smartphone and a tablet. It started with the Galaxy Note 3 with its 5.5-inch screen and is now moving towards the 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega. But in the era of 5-inch screen smartphones, do we really even need a phablet or will the large screened smartphone do just fine?
The large screen does offer its benefits – you can view images and videos better, read your e-books and SMSs more conveniently, etc. But phablets are quite bulky and not too easy to pocket. And of course, larger screen sizes could mean lower battery life. So if you use your phone a lot when traveling and may not be able to reach for the charger too often, you’re better off with a smartphone.
We’ve got a similar identity crisis in the tablet range, which was initially split into the 7-inch and the 10-inch categories. This division got wrecked thanks to Apple’s 8-inch iPad Mini offering, with Samsung following suit with its Galaxy Note 8.0. But we’ll get into that discussion in a different post.
