Who do I blame for this injustice? OEMs? Carriers? Consumers?
The people who buy them. If everyone is buying huge phones and a manufacturer's stock of 4.7" phones sit unsold then you can bet they will probably stop making the smaller size. Same thing happened with hardware keyboards; although that was IMO for the better.
I do not like the trend either. I won't buy anything larger than 4.7" most likely. I don't like 5" phones.
Manufacturers have been making 4-4.7 inch phones that are high end for years, all of sudden last year, 5+ inch phones were made. If all the high end phones being made are big, what choice do consumers have besides to buy big phones? I don't agree consumers just decided to buy bigger phones all of sudden.
I understand but that's how the market works. Every company see's Samsung selling the Galaxy and Note series phones at 5"+ dominating the Android market. Android manufacturers are very reactionary so they will follow success any where they think they might find it. HTC bumped up size of their flagship this year. The LG G3 also got massive and a crazy battery sucking screen resolution. I won't be surprised if the new Moto X is also sporting a 5" screen this year.
Just look what happened to the hardware keyboard. Threads pop up on here every once in awhile with people looking for a new phone with a hard keyboard to replace an old Droid etc. There is a small market for them still clearly but no manufacturer can make money selling phones at such low scale so they are pretty much gone at this point.
Ok OP, what do YOU think the reason is or who do YOU think is responsible for this injustice?
When I see people talking on forums that why they choose android the main reason Is the bigger screen size, samsung has set a trend of bigger screen phones and market just follows trend.
Also their are plenty of android phones with small screen size like One Mini 2, S4 mini and so on.
The next iteration of the Moto X might not even be that much bigger. If they keep the same form factor as the first one, they can achieve the screen jump to 5.2 (rumored screen size) by increasing both width and height by only a small amount.
The problem is that the people buy into bigger is always better. I know I did for a long time, but I found out that I could have exactly what I needed by splitting what I was trying to do with 1 device into 2.
People are basically lazy and strive for choosing convenience over practical and are willing to sacrifice one desire over another because of this. Hence why carry 2 devices when you can get by with carrying 1 ergo the phones naturally becoming larger and larger. The manufacturers are just trying to give folks what they want and will continue to cram as much into them because of this. What once was considered a niche product because of its size for a limited market has now become the standard.
With the advent of cheaper and cheaper tables of all sizes, I believe that the smaller sized screens will be showing up more again. People will grow tired of carrying around a gigantic sized phones and relearn the joys of one handed operating and having a phone that is easily carried.
For now the m8 works well for me and it's size is about the best of both worlds. They can enlarge the screen without enlarging the phone and still keep the same form factor. I hope that they do and not jump on the bigger is better bandwagon but I doubt they will.
If they follow Apples lead they might offer both, without the sacrifice of the internals which would make me real happy but since their pockets aren't as deep they may not.
I don't think you're going to find any smaller unless you give up the front facing speakers. Apples iPhone 6 might get you close, but then your off Android and I don't think that is what you really want.I love the M8s form factor, it way too tall for me though. If they made it shorter and slightly thinner, I would be on board. But that height won't work well for me.
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I love the M8s form factor, it way too tall for me though
There are ways around the height. I use 3 Nova actions (1 for the notification shade, 1 for the app drawer, and 1 for the Quick Toggles) and have them in the Dock.
Hardware that's why we have bigger phones. HD screens quad core processor need energy so bigger battery that's why bigger phones