4.5" Phone Sizing Chart showing the [Only registered users can view links. ] Keyboard
What is the Right Size Phone?
Only you can answer that question. Go hold the different phones. Take time to play with them and try out the features. After a half-hour or longer, what feels right to you?
Android Central's recent Readers Choice survey found that Only 9% Want a Screen Under 4". That makes sense because that is about how many wear Women's Small or Men's XS gloves or smaller. Note that men tend to have thicker fingers and hands than women. An average women might fit into a Men's XS glove but the fingers probably are not long enough. So for finger length comparison, an average women's fingers are often as long as a Men's Small.
The chart shows reaching with your right thumb only while holding a typical 4.5" phone. Hopefully this is not while driving or in class because that would be wrong, right?
Notice how the keyboard is positioned right over the easiest area to reach with one hand? But let's break this down a bit. When you are typing on a laptop or PC, what size keyboard do you prefer? 15"? 17"? 20"?
You probably didn't say 3.5". Even a 10" tablet is pretty small to use both hands but you can easily use a two-thumb keyboard like the [Only registered users can view links. ].
For those times when you are typing and holding the phone with one hand, take a look at the sizing chart above. Look at how the SwiftKey keyboard is optimized for one-handed typing:
Green is an average Men's Medium glove (size 9)
Yellow is a Men's Small glove (size 8½)
Red is a Men's XS Extra Small glove (size 8)
Again, no sizing chart can tell you what will feel best to you. That's why phones have screen sizes from 2.5" to 5.3". Plus the current phones are so thin and light that they all feel smaller.
In the end, phones are like shoes. Try them and see what feels right for you. Don't let anyone tell you the one size phone you are to buy.
Last edited by milominderbinder; 01-09-2012 at 11:39 AM.
these are really helpful! how about some that show womens hand sizes...?
Good point. I added this to the opening post:
Note that men tend to have thicker fingers and hands than women. An average women might fit into a Men's XS glove but the fingers probably are not long enough. So for finger length comparison, an average women's fingers are often as long as a Men's Small.
hand flat on a table, with pinkie and thumb at full stretch, I can span 9 inches/23cm. I think I should be ok with a 4.5 screen. However USING it is not my issue. My concern with these larger devices is pocketability! (I'm used to a blackberry Pearl)
Hand stretch may be less important than readability to the older set. You young kids (anyone under 50) have no problem refocusing on small close things. We older people have lost that ability (which is why reading glasses manufacturers are in business), so a larger screen is better. Now if only someone could put a 10" screen on a 4" phone ...
We also sometimes have to deal with arthritic hands, Rukbat. Since I'm one of those older folks who learned to touch type, this whole thing of using thumbs for typing really has me going in circles! A 10" screen on a 4" phone would be nice, but how about adding a full sized, physical QWERTY keyboard??? LOL!
We also sometimes have to deal with arthritic hands, Rukbat. Since I'm one of those older folks who learned to touch type, this whole thing of using thumbs for typing really has me going in circles!
I can't even try. I use one finger on the phone.
Quote:
A 10" screen on a 4" phone would be nice, but how about adding a full sized, physical QWERTY keyboard??? LOL!
I carry one in my laptop bag - I can't stand laptop keyboards either.
5.3" Screen from the Galaxy Note, keyboard from the Blackberry Bold 9900, the durability of an old Motorola Star-tac, all on a device about the size of an iPhone and running ICS.
3Likes
Thread Author
#
