Smartphones used to win praise for their compactness. Remember when Apple released its first iPhone and the world marveled at how much the company managed to pack into a moderately-sized mobile phone? But lately mobile phone makers are on a steroid kick. Virtually every mobile phone maker has either rolled out a bigger phone this year or is contemplating it.
I’m talking about big phones. Really, really big phones. In just the past few weeks, Nokia, HTC and LG have released phones with 5.5- to 6-inch displays, and more are on the way, as Microsoft and Android have the software features to support the longer and wider displays.
Because these phones look as big as tablets, some have started to call them phablets – a portmanteau of the words phone and tablet. But what’s the purpose of these mammoth handsets, and should you start buying pants with bigger pocket.
