The category of 'phablets' has ceased to exist. A large screen is no longer a rarity. The phablets have replaced conventional telephones. What's next?
Most recently, 2010 saw the launch of the Galaxy S, the first in a new and hugely popular series of Samsung flagship smartphones. At that time, its 4 ″ display was considered large. Be that as it may, a year later, the giant Galaxy Note with a 5.3 ″ display came out. The smartphone absolutely did not fit into the generally accepted and understandable standards of the 2011 phone lineup, its dimensions suggested that the potential owner should have the size of a hand like a basketball player's. The novelty also contributed to the popularization of a new term – 'phablet', denoting the gradual disappearance of the 'border' between the phone ('phone') and the tablet ('tablet').
In subsequent years, the diagonals of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series devices continued to grow, which quickly raised a quite reasonable question: if there is a limit to the acceptable size of a smartphone in terms of practicality, how will Samsung solve the problem with differentiation between the two families of devices as their sizes approach this limit? The company already had a plan to solve this problem. While consumers and most of the media focused on size, Samsung began to see the S Pen, the digital stylus in the Note series, as an iconic hallmark. In 2013, in the wake of the success of this series, the company went even further with the launch of the Galaxy Mega series with a diagonal of up to 6.3 ″.
As the size difference between Galaxy S and Galaxy Note narrows, many manufacturers have released flagship smartphones with display diagonals from 5.2 ″ to 5.5 ″, such as the top-end device LG G4. HTC The One M9, which has not changed much compared to the previous model, in turn has a five-inch display. Motorola, following Samsung's growing size trend, the Moto X has increased the display size of devices from 4.7 to 5.2 in three generations, and then to 5.5 inches with the release of the Moto X Play. Compared to the iPhone 6 Plus with a 5.7 ″ display, the smartphone from Motorola is shorter and narrower. The clearest proof that the mainstream consumer is ready for a large display is the market launch of a 'phablet' from Apple.
The design of the new Galaxy S Edge + was clearly aimed at outperforming the iPhone 6 Plus without adding a stylus to the design. But Samsung claims that the key aspect for the transition to a large display is the slim body. Turning to the relatively recent past: amid steadily growing sales of smartphones in the Galaxy Note line, the company announced the Note 4 Edge, a device with a right-curved display. Now it is already obvious that the phone has become a 'test of the pen', the prototype of the upcoming devices using this technology. Also, it can be noted that the device was slightly thicker than the current flagship Note 5 (8.3 mm and 7.6 mm).
With the release of the S6 Edge + and Note 5 with 5.7 ″ displays, we can assume with some certainty that consumer interest in the Note line will subside and move to Edge. Judge for yourself, if a potential buyer does not have a specific use case for a new, functionally improved and rethought S-Pen from the point of view of aesthetic perception, then it is rather difficult to come up with a reason for buying a Note 5 similar in size. To top it all off, the follower of his older brother (a little more than the five-inch S6 Edge) Edge + is thinner than the Note, and its software offers separate scenarios for using a curved display. This is now the main difference between the line and the host of other smartphones with large screens. 'Phablet' became a telephone in its usual sense, which it always has been.
The user community across the board has come to the conclusion that it's not just size that matters. In this regard, through simple logical conclusions, an interesting conclusion is obtained: if the general trend of smartphones is an increase in size, then niche devices may decrease. So why doesn't Samsung release a mini Note 5? As already noted, the size of the flagship lines has reached the upper limit. If the increase in size in the S line was justified, then by the same logic the size of Note devices can be reduced, even if it breaks some stereotypes that have developed over the past five years.
Justification
This postulate is quite comical, but the truth is that the idea is logical. Think for a second, initially devices with a stylus were much smaller than the current proposals. 20 years ago, long before the advent of smartphones, we used PDAs. These Personal Digital Assistants were digital organizers with limited media functionality provided depending on the manufacturer. Also, such devices were one of the most popular products with stylus support, users of that time needed a small tool to work with extremely small screens by today's standards.
Samsung has tried to justify the return of a reimagined stylus in the form of the Wacom-enabled S Pen by shipping it with larger devices. However, it's hard to name a reason why you shouldn't try adding a stylus to a device with a more compact form factor. Potential buyers who are interested in the Note concept may well never buy a smartphone from the available models. The reason may be precisely the size, not everyone is easy to manage with the phablet. The result is a potentially untapped market niche.
None of the mainstream smartphone manufacturers, with the exception of the LG Vu line, have tried to create a relatively small Note-style device. In LG they put themselves in a difficult position, because the aspect ratio in Vu (4: 3), although it allowed writing on the display, did not match the user's usual idea of a wide screen. And so Samsung is well within its power to 'be the first' again with a new offshoot of the Note series and actually force consumers to rethink the line itself. Such a step will at least provoke active discussion.
Software
You can imagine the reader's thoughts at this stage: “What a stupid assumption .. The idea does not make sense.” One of the pillars of the hypothetical new smartphone will be software. From the outset, Samsung has endowed the Note series with a workhorse character. What kind of work can we talk about if the display is so small? Without even going back to the aforementioned class of PDA devices, there is still a point in creating software for not so large devices. The Note series is characterized by good multitask ing capabilities: this is facilitated by the split-screen option and pop-up notifications that do not distract from work.
By the way, has anyone thought about what Samsung devices are now capable of? Yes, budget devices may not have enough power to run applications on split screens, but the flagships of the last two years are quite capable of working in this mode. Note the prevailing opinion among the majority of reviewers: 'Yes, there is support for multitasking, but it is not clear why to use it on such a small screen.' Perhaps the user does not yet understand this, but Samsung may consider that there is a need for such a device if the Galaxy S6 supports multitasking and has enough power and amount of RAM to run the Galaxy Note SDK (considering that Note 4 has 3 gigabytes of RAM) then why not take advantage of it. Will Galaxy Note users be upset about this? Not at all, but, again, the proposed product, according to the concept, will not be directed at this group of users at all.
A chance to come forward
Despite all of the above, it is worth considering another aspect characteristic of mini-versions of smartphones: usually such devices are technically inferior to flagships. Within the S Mini line, it turned out to preserve the appearance of top-end devices, but the filling is more important. With the help of the Galaxy Note Mini, Samsung could not only shatter the conventional wisdom about mini smartphones, but also offer a truly functional 'pumped-up' product that can work on par with a larger flagship device.
The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is a good example of such a product. The smartphone was received very warmly, Sony was able to do 'differently'. Instead of releasing a simple average with a good camera, the company has created a small device with impressive technical characteristics. This is the exception, not the rule, and Samsung can again win by offering users small but technically powerful devices. In terms of size, the Note Mini is likely to have a 5 ″ display, which would be considered a relatively small figure and compete with Galaxy S.
Mini to the masses
While the Galaxy Note Mini may not be able to win the hearts and wallets of people prone to phabletism, such a product could open up a new market for Samsung. With a five-inch screen, it's not that hard to imagine. To potentially obtain such a 'trump card', Samsung needs to set an adequate cost, perhaps add an additional accessory to the package / provide configuration options.
Original materials: 1, 2
Elir: Two articles, in my opinion, show quite well that, despite the seemingly reached 'ceiling' of device sizes, and not only Samsung, there is room for development and promotion. Yes, some mainstream manufacturers have already started adding stylus to variations of their flagships, as they did LG with the G4 Stylus. However, no one has yet decided to release a device like the Note Mini. Someone will consider this an involution, and they will be partly right. In turn, I think the idea is very promising, because not all users can adapt to the paradigm of large screens, so an analogue of a productive flagship in a reduced form factor may become a godsend in a world in which 'phablets' have become ordinary phones. The niche is potentially open, but will anyone dare to occupy it?