In essence, this is a continuing story of my "Tabletology" article that I dropped researching for back in November 2011. Back then, there were just first sad signs of TI OMAP5 SoCs never to be materialized, and it really happened.
However, TI or no TI, progress in phablets is chugging along, and a new phone to be launched in Q3, Q4 2013 will look quite silly with a screen less than 5". Back in 2011, I started to talk about 7" phablets, and lo and behold, Brad Linder of Liliputing tries holding his new Google Nexus 7 as a "Hulk" phone and likes it that way!
Jokes aside, even smaller side bezels than on 2013 Nexus 7 could make this phablet quite practical. Call it phoblet, or phablet, or even "thablet" if you wish, but 6.44" Sony Xperia Z Ultra is positioned as a phone. The premise here is once you are able to "wrap" your hand around the device like you used to handle a "regular" phone, it's a phone, be it with 6, or 7, or even 8 inch screen. Once the on-screen keyboard can be shifted to under your thumb reach, you're fine.
Yet Phonearena in their hands-on review calls Sony Xperia Z Ultra quite clumsy and too large to handle by one hand. Again, I'd suggest a "no-hands" solution of a type of a wearable computer:
While I'm obviously biased toward waterproofed and controlled by ordinary pen or pencil Sony Xperia Z Ultra (I just hate finger oil smears on my devices), there will be plenty of contenders with 1920x1080 screens of 5.5",,,,6.5" calibers very soon. Have a look at Z Ultra first:
If it didn't convince you, read on.
1. Consider Samsung Galaxy Note III, of course. At present, not many specs are leaked, but for those who have the experience using Note II it might be interesting to check whether an extra $100 or so is worth such an upgrade (my hint would be: try to imagine gains of upgrading S III to S IV)
2. Keep checking on HTC One Max. Pricing, quality of screen, battery life is of matter here
3. Google Nexus 5 is out of my range 5.5"....6.5", having "just" 5.2" screen, so it's more like mini-phablet, but the interest is here, so go ahead and keep looking for the model, as it also rumored to be presented at (initial) Nexus 4 price. Moto X, ASUS Padfone Infinity are also, IMHO, out of competition here. Oh, and Apple is, as usual, stuck in 2010 with its phones.
4. For the brave, there might be some Chinese phablet offerings from Lenovo (K900), Oppo, ZTE, Huawei, but beyond these four so called Chinese brands their phablets are just pure junk. Lenovo K900 deserves a second look though:
AnTuTu above 27,000 is very good. K900 can be had at about $500, whereas its closest competition LG Optimus G Pro sells for about $440. As for the king of the hill, Sony Xperia Z Ultra, prepare to cough up in excess of $600.
All in all, I truly believe that significant phones of 2014 will appear as 6"...6.5" 1920x1080p virtually bezel-less phablets powered by SoCs no weaker than Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 or 1000. Or Intel's Bay Trail-T SoC with its whooping AnTuTu of around 50,000. That is, if we talk about Windows Phablets. With this Bay Trail chip, they can get a second chance, just keep in mind an intrinsic Android touch lag which is 3...5 times larger than Windows devices have, no matter what hardware.
Put it another way, anything in 2014 with lower specs, no external SD, no IP certification and mere 1 GB of RAM is just a budget junk, and not a wearable computer we can see in devices like Sony Xperia Z Ultra. Of course, some will stay put with Apple, Nokia, or even Blackberry products no matter what, but I was talking about Phablets of Tomorrow here, nicht wahr?
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