If it does mean something then the Sony Z3 Compact and Samsung Alpha should be the best selling high-end Android phones of this release cycle. We'll see in 6-9 month if that turns out to be the case.

Except that Samsung has historically had a problem of releasing terrible non-flagship devices. Every Samsung generation has 9000 SKUs, and a decent proportion of those are low-end garbage that sabotages their brand. Consumers have figured out that the flagship devices are good, but once you start throwing suffixes around they get suspicious.

I'd wager that shoppers who would like a smaller phone would still by the latest giant Samsung flagship phone over the Alpha because of this effect.

Samsung are positioning the Alpha very much as a flagship device and pricing it in the same region as the S and Note devices.

The plan seems to have the S series for people who want the very cutting edge in specs, The Alpha series for people who want a compact high end phone with sleek design and the Note series for people who want a phablet styled device. Three different devices for three different audiences, but all are flagship devices in their respective segments.

There's more to it than that. My friends with Samsung phones have nothing but issues with the software; frequent reboots and horrible performance. Maybe it's simply because of their popularity that I hear about issues on Samsung phones, but regardless, I'll never buy a Samsung. I don't know much about the Sony. Does Sony do stock Android? Having as close to stock Android as possible is a major, major selling point for me. I would downgrade to a mid-range phone with stock Android over a higher-end phone with a custom skin or whatever.

Sony has a thin cosmetic skin over android, one that actually looks quite sleek. Not much actual functionality is changed.

It means that 7 people here have an issue with the size.

Put me down as the 8th.

My take is that 100% of advanced users have a problem.

I've increased phone size with every upgrade the last 3-4 times. My latest phone is a 5.5", and I might very well go for a 6" next time. The thing is I rarely use my phone for calls, and the 5"-6" range with a full hd display compares sufficiently well to a "public transport friendly" tablet - which would be 7" to at most 8" for me, because it needs to be nice to hold with one hand, and possible to slip into a pocket.

If I do need to make calls when I'm out, I use a headset most of the time, because I'm usually listening to music anyway. If I'm not out I can usually comfortably sit down and the size doesn't matter.

As for being an "advanced user", last office christmas party I logged in to our servers via ssh from my phone to apply a fix to our monitoring system - I like to consider myself an advanced user...

I must have expressed myself poorly.

My point was that people reading NH are advanced users and everybody on the thread (at that point) was unhappy with lack of options. Ie that phones just keep getting bigger without adequate options remaining below the current standard size.

I'd self classify as an advanced user and I prefer a larger phone. I have average sized hands too.

Wow. I know complaining about downvotes is stupid, but still.

How could I possibly deserve a downvote for that? Does that mean that you disagree with my self classification? That you don't think I have average sized hands? That you don't like that someone has a different opinion to you?

That you accidentally pressed the downvote? I'm assuming it is that.

That's a pretty broad generalization.

I do wonder if there's a correlation with age.

Since I hit middle age and got presbyopia, I don't even really like looking at a small screen phone any more. And these crazy 500dpi new screens that are coming out are basically full of wasted pixels for someone like me.

Oh, I don't know - I like browsing the web on my phone and I started feeling that my Nexus is too small. I'm seriously thinking of getting a phoneblet next.

I wonder whether the adoption of larger handsets in Asia is related to lifestyle--people are using these devices as their primary computers, unlike in the U.S. where people use them as supplements for existing laptops, desktops, or larger dedicated tablets.

According to Pew, 1/3 of American's go online using a phone as their primary device. http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fac...

One would think, if this evolution nonsense was true, that people would have evolved bigger hands by now.

And this is why I'm very happy more and more schools here in good ol' Texas are teaching Intelligent Design.

I thought you were a troll, but your several earlier posts look relatively normal. If you really believe what you just typed, your school (in good old Texas, perhaps?) failed to give you even the most basic understanding of evolution.

I haven't watched very much of these, but I suspect they're pretty good throughout: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/evolution-and-na...

I assume the post was a joke, even then it´s completely out of place here.

It probably means they're iPhone owners, and that they swear they won't get the bigger of the two iPhone 6 models. That is, until they discover that they can, in fact, adapt to a slightly larger phone, as everyone in Asia has already realized.

I thought allegory's comment that 4.5-4.7" is the limit was particularly funny. Was that limit chosen specifically so that the smaller of the iPhone 6 models won't break that limit, but pretty much all high-end android phones do? I don't know, but it's awfully convenient.

Instead of bending everything to fit your wished narrative so you can be dismissive why don't you actually read the comments or ask them?

Many of them, like myself, use "last years" flagships that were in the 4.7" range (e.g. I have an HTC M7) and don't want the screen size bump.

But I guess "lol iSheep" is easier and makes you feel superior.

Screens around 4.5-4.7" seem just small enough for me to be comfortably usable with one hand, also it doesn't look like I'm carrying a notebook in my front pocket.

Speaking about Apple, their phones are good quality and reasonably sized and monitors/panels are 16:10, that's 2 big pluses right there as far as I'm concerned. I don't own any Apple product though.

I'm looking to upgrade my Nexus 4 (4.7") sometime soon. I used a 6" Windows Phone for 2 days (debugging) and it was horrible. I can certainly go a bit higher than the Nexus 4, but I don't think I want to go over 5".