Going by the presence of Chinese smartphones manufacturers in recently concluded CES in Lag Vegas, year 2013 could be dominated by Chinese phablets. In CES, Huawei , ZTE, and Lenovo showcased their flagship models featuring 5-inch or above displays and quad-core CPUs.
Huawei had displayed two flagship models _ the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate and 5-inch Ascend D2, at the CES. While the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate has the biggest display in the world, the 5-inch Ascend D2 has a display resolution of 1,080 by 1,920 and a pixel density of 443ppi, and is waterproof and dustproof.
ZTE’s flagship model, the Grand S comes with a 5-inch Full HD display, and is powered by a Qualcomm 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, and also features a 13-megapixel camera and LTE support. The Grand S is expected to be available in China at the end of the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2013, and in the US and other markets in the second half of the year.
Lenovo has shown lot of aggression in the CES and showcased slew of its smartphones and their campaign was spearheaded by their latest flagship model, the K900, which is powered by an Intel 2GHz dual-core Atom Z2580 processor. The model has a 5.5-inch 1080p Full HD display, a 13-megapixel camera, and a thickness of just 6.9mm.
Not only Chinese companies, but Sony has also unveiled its 5-inch flagship models, the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL at the CES.
It appears that big displays are becoming the norms today and this trend has been made popular by huge success of Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note II and this phrase – phablet – has emerged since then. Probably, this is the smart way to narrow the gap between smartphone and a tablet. If you have large display in your hands then you can do majority of work which a tablet is capable of doing.
But the question is whether big screen smartphones are for everybody to use and carry. Here the verdict could be different. Big screen smartphones are not easy to carry and it looks odd to use it just for receiving and making calls unless one has to use it for other applications and if one is comfortable in carrying it separately as this will not fit in your pocket or small handpurse.
But keeping in view of aggression displayed in CES for big screen smartphones, it appears that the users will opt for these devices in the coming months. It will emerge in the upcoming MWC event in February, which is devoted exclusively to mobility, how this trend of big smartphone is taken forward by the manufacturers and how this technology will evolve in the coming months.
