How Much Do Phones Weigh

Weight

Hither is a pretty consistent graph for a change. The average weight of the mobile phones has inappreciably budged an inch over the past decade simply if you retrieve that there is no story to exist told here you are mistaken.

GSMArena.com chart

Today's mobile market place is all about squeezing the all-time operation out of components that are ever decreasing in size. A phone with the same feature set equally high-end models from v years ago could easily be twice as meaty and merely equally lite present.

But that's not what the general public really wants. Except for a brief spell in the beginning half of the decade when a few super minis were all the rage, the all-time phones have ever been the ones with the nigh features. Siemens did pretty practiced with their SL55 tiny slider, Ericsson fabricated a serious impact with their T66, but information technology was Panasonic who took the idea furthest by releasing a bunch of phones not much bigger than a matchbox. GD55, G50 and G51 are the first names that spring to listen.

Siemens SL55 • Ericsson T66 • Panasonic GD55 • Panasonic G50

Indeed, people used to be fascinated with all-in-i handsets - today they simply need them. Using the available infinite to contain more radios, more powerful hardware and larger screens is what people want and the manufacturers would be foolish not to listen.

The end matters too and the apply of sectional materials on the phones takes its price. Metal weighs more than plastic and everyone loves a flake of steel or tempered drinking glass on their high-end smartphone, don't they?

So why not just put all available features together in a behemothic phone, some might enquire. Well that'due south not working all that well either. The Nokia Communicators have always enjoyed a certain degree of success but it's merely when the mid-sized E71 stepped in that they were able to truly sell millions of them.

Nokia E71

So, if there is ane area where yous shouldn't expect major changes in the hereafter information technology would be the weight. At a fleck over 110 grams, devices take institute the gilded mean between solid experience, pocket-friendliness and functionality and all futurity performance boosts will perhaps be driven by the further miniaturization of the components. MicroSIM anyone?

Slim is ever sexy

The thickness chart is completely different from the weight - it shows a clear tendency. The original Motorola RAZR was the first model to put the emphasis on slimness. In the years to follow, nosotros find a steady decrease in handsets' thickness. The similar average and weighted average values show that this trend matters regardless of class and price. It holds in both popular and non so popular phones, both high-end and low-end.

Motorola RAZR V3

We are also noticing an ever-expanding gap between high-terminate devices and the average phones. You might be thinking that this is simply wrong, considering what we said in the previous chapter but in that location is actually more to this story.

GSMArena.com chart

The matter is high-end phones are the ones with larger displays (more on that in a second) and in turn larger surface. And so there seems to be plenty room to place all those chips without making the device inch thick.

Still we doubtable that the trend to make phones slimmer past the day will stop shortly. The average values will probably driblet past another millimeter or two just we only can't run across them going farther.

A phone thin enough to fit a credit card slot in your wallet just cannot be durable plenty. Surely those RAZRs and the Samsung Ultra lineup were impressive, but merely because they were so much slimmer than their chubby contemporaries.

Today, the omnipresent iPhone 4 is less than 10mm thick and and then is the Samsung Galaxy S. Nine users out of x will tell you that they don't really need any slimmer. So mayhap high-terminate smartphone thickness will find its golden mean just like weight.

Apple iPhone 4 Samsung I9000 Galaxy S
Apple iPhone iv • Samsung Galaxy S

Brandish size

Bigger is always better when it gets to touchscreen and loftier-stop models. Let's exist honest here - did you actually expect anything different? We certainly didn't.

GSMArena.com chart

There was a signal in the development of mobile phones when the low screen resolution made size increase pointless. That was soon overcome and at present we are enjoying 4-inch units with enough pixel density to make them look every bit abrupt as possible.

Of course, Steve Jobs will tell you lot that the iPhone 4 retina display is a whole lot better with its highest-ever pixel count squeezed on a iii.5" unit and, for a change, he will exist right. But the difference is not visible in most regular use scenarios, so the iPhone iv's display would've been just every bit impressive (possibly even better) was it a bit bigger. But that would've raised other ergonomic issues so there is no telling whether it would have benefited the device.

Telephone screens keep growing and with touchscreen still having some unconquered corners of the mobile earth it would go on to exercise so for a while longer.

We are not sure however if there is a point in going any further than the current level. The HTC HD2 is already stretching it and even though 5" tablet-phone crossovers are already available we wouldn't be as bold as to predict that this will become the norm.

Dell Streak 5-inch tablet/telephone