Whatever happened to pocket-sized phones?

[Shut Up Legs]

I remember a decade or so ago, pocket-sized phones were fairly common, but now it seems that they're all getting larger. The latest phones will all the usual 'smart' features wouldn't fit in a shirt pocket, and have no chance of fitting in a pants pocket. I predict that the next generation of males will be using handbags, because their phones won't fit anywhere else.

 

[Drago]

I got a dumb phone, slips in my pocket nicely and doesn't take over my life.

 

[swee'pea99]

Friend of mine who was nuts about technology, back in the days of Nokia, once predicted that phones would eventually be pretty much the size and shape of a pen, doing everything thru' voice operation. Of course back then no-one envisaged that a 'phone' would become a portable computer, only one of whose functions would be to enable voice calls.

 

[classic33]

I've a Nokia 5210i, small handset

 

[R_nger]

I have a Note 3, one of the largest on the market...fits in my pocket fine. Maybe I have especially deep pockets

 

[jefmcg]

I've been thinking about this for years, since I got a Newton. The battle is between smaller size to carry and large screen. As smart phones are basically computers, where messaging and phone are just apps, the bigger the screen the better. So until we have a way of having a screen larger than the phone, they going to grow.

A few years ago, I imagined a folding LCD, that you would unroll, unfold or unfurl when you were using the device. Then I thought Google Glass may have been the way: the screen projected on the glass was large, so your phone could be small. But that seems to have failed, or at least not this time. So now I imagine some sort of projector, which creates an interactive screen in the air. If something like that could be built, phones will shrink to the size of watches in time.

In the meantime, I love my pocket computer, and even sometimes make calls on it.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I have a coal powered Nokia.

In the Pub last night, I was the only one still doing the old texting method of tapping your thumb on the keys at high speed!

 

[Piemaster]

Maybe I have especially deep pockets

and short arms?
Or if you're like my wife just shove it in the handbag then miss every call while rummaging around in it for the phone.

 

[classic33]

I have a coal powered Nokia.

3310 or 3330e?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

3310 or 3330e?

No idea, I honestly couldn't give a toss about mobiles!

 

[classic33]

Ericsson R310s, water & dust resistant

 

[classic33]

No idea, I honestly couldn't give a toss about mobiles!

You've a phone and don't know what it is.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

You've a phone and don't know what it is.

Yes I do.... Let me say this slowly for you

It... Is.... A... PHONE!!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

What model it is is not of the upmost and most pressing importance in my life.

I know this might be impossible for some to comprehend, but I hope you learn with time (there might even be an app to help you!).

 

[jonny jeez]

Mobiles are not big, they are tiny.

But you have to stop thinking of your mobile as a phone...its not. Its a hugely powerful personal computer, hi res digital camera, personal organiser, alarm clock, watch, digital sound recorder, sat nav, translator, web browser, modem, gps system, email handler, text device, digital video camera, 20 gb storage device, digital radio, games console, touch screen, torch, finger print reader and calculator.

When you think of them as all these things, you realise just how tiny they are.

Oh and its also a telephone