[gorilla]

Chatting away to a mate of mine in the pub last night and he was showing off his SE W810i. I have to admit that I liked it style and size. He was laughing at my 'brick' (6680) and saying he couldn't have a phone that size. Now at this point I got all defensive and smacked him, ok so I didn't :D but anyway...

I actually like the dimensions of the 6680, it just fits nicely in my hand and has a decent screen size.
Ideally I would go for a lighter, thinner handset.
What do the rest of you think?

[Ben]

I think the Nokia 8310 was a superbly sized handset. If they could replicate that today with far more features then it'd be fantastic.

However, 'larger' phones have taken on a class of their own. The functionality offered by the 6680, and more converged devices like the W900i, provides so much functionality that it offsets the need to carry multiple devices. While not physically small, they are smaller and lighter than the unconverged equivalents.

[Hands0n]

Didn't your girlfriend/wife/mistress tell you that size doesn't matter :D Nah! Mine didn't either :confused:

I'm not particularly bothered by handset size these days - they are nothing like wot they used to be not so long ago. I even quite liked the size of the NEC e606 (stop laughing at the back there!). For me, these ever-decreasing in size handsets do not work well - in particular screen size as my age-induced myopia worsens. Also, I do not get on with these tiddly little buttons they fashion for the keypads. Thus I am quite taken and pleased with those of the SE W900i that I have. Even the new Nokia 6280 has a decent sized keypad in comparison with, say, the N70. The 6680 has a delightful keypad with has good feel and tactile feedback - I'm quite sad to retire it as I move to another operator (it's SP locked to 3 and too much hassle to get around the fact that I bought it on eBay).

Lighter, thinner handset? Well, that is normally synonymous with lower batter life! If that were the case I'd not be too interested. I would, however, like lighter/thinner if it meant no compromise in what I find useful these days - functionally useful keypad and decent sized screen.

[Alio]

I think phones are getting larger, mainly to do with screen size plus the fact that the phone is becoming more than just a phone......it has many other multi-media uses........so I don't think it's such an issue these days when you consider what you can do......and what you get with a phone nowadays!

[timothythetim]

I thought the size of the 6230 was fantastic and found moving to the 6680 a bit of shock, but I am quite happy to have a bigger handset with more functionality.
If the N80 was about half the thickness then I would say it was perfect. Still pretty good though, it doesn't feel as much of a "brick" as the 6680 did.
It is slightly wierd that phones aren't shrinking in size the way that the rest of technology is, but I suppose that is down to the specs getting higher as well.
I have 2 gigs of storage on something that is about 1cm square yet it is inside what is a relatively big N80 mobile.

So really what I want is a slider phone that is the dimensions of a 6230 with a screen that takes up the full width of the phone and the spec of the N80.
Am I asking a bit much?

[Hands0n]

I think that the definer of handset size will be how much video we are going to be expected to use it for. The big push at the moment seems to be to get us all to [buy and] watch TV on our handsets. Something that would be impractical on the screen sizes that we are familiar with on the 2G handsets. The Samsung Z500 might be a good illustration of how impractical a [wonderfully] small screen size can be for TV - it is viewable mostly, but has its limitations (i.e. text tickers such as Sky news are difficult to read).

That then brings on the issues of battery life - and unless something truly innovative happens we are going to be living with large batteries to power this stuff for some time to come.

I do think that recent developments in screen technology have and will continue to drive down the physical depth of screens, but not the viewable area size (due to the above). Perhaps also the power requirements, although the current backlighting technology inevitably is the big consumer.

The balance is being struck and I reckon we'll be stuck with large-ish 3G multifunction handsets, and that will create/drive the market for more compact non-TV and low-functionality handsets, the likes of which are beginning to appear for so-called "business" users.

[Biggy_d]

Talking from experiance i used to have a Samsung A800 and that was absolutly tiny! i have also had the *cough*Motarola A835*cough* and that is as big as a breeze block! i now have the N70 and i tell ya the sun shinse out of its non-existant ass!! it is the right size for me and weight and it has all of the applications i want and the pic quality is outstanding! size doesnt matter tho

[Alio]

"In my humble opinion"

I'm not sure there will be 2 types of phone handset markets being driven by say, one group of users demanding - more compact non-TV and low-functionality handsets and another group of users demanding - more TV/ high-functionality handsets.

I think that handset technology has advanced so quickly over the past 2 years that manufactures are looking to merge as much technology as they can into phones in general as the phone handset market has the largest consumer base.

Phones are evolving into mini multi media functional handsets offering many features other than for just making or receiving calls - i,e. MP Camera, DVD quality video recording, Radio, MP3 Player, Internet, TV etc.

In time size will play a very small part in what determines consumer choice.......it will inevitably boil down to what the phone can offer or do, with regards to technology features and extras........I don't know about everyone else but for me, getting a new phone is like getting a new car.......you want the absolute best that you can afford with as many whistles and bells as you can get aswell.