Why Are Android Smartphones Bigger Than the iPhone? →
https://marco.org/2012/01/17/gruber-why-are-android-smartphones-big
John Gruber’s theory is pretty good.
My theories:
- Screen size is a clear differentiation from the iPhone that stands out in stores, attracts people’s attention when comparison-shopping, and trains reviewers to assume that bigger is better, and Apple has shown no interest in competing by matching the larger sizes.
- A bigger footprint yields a much larger internal volume, allowing manufacturers to get around Android’s historically poor battery life by just adding much bigger batteries.
- Some of the increased internal volume can be eschewed to achieve an overall thinner phone than otherwise possible, especially when the handful of thick components like the camera can be moved to a thick lump on one end that reviewers will ignore when discussing the phone’s thinness.