The chances are, even if you do, you do not know you do it. Read on to find out what phableting is!
Not so long ago, cell phone manufactures used to compete in micro-sizing their wares. The rule was: the smaller, the better. Nowadays we are witnessing a sort of a reversal. Cell phones are becoming… phablets!
The term itself is a hybrid of words phone and tablet and is used to describe a mobile device that’s half-smartphone and half-tablet.
To put it in precise tech speak, a mobile device qualifies as a phablet if it is a bit bigger than an average smartphone, but not as big as most tablets; and if it can be operated with one average-sized hand.
Practically everyone in the tech world agrees that a phablet has to have a screen that’s (diagonally) between about 5 and about 6.9 inches. Anything smaller and it’s a phone; anything bigger and it’s a tablet.
There is, however, a lot of disagreement about whom to blame for the ungainly term. One source says that a tech journalist used it as far back as 2010. However, the term gained popularity at the beginning of 2012, probably as a result of the success of Samsung’s original Galaxy Note.
Linguistic aesthetics aside, it is to the credit of bidorbuy sellers that a search for the keyword phablet reveals a respectable number of listing of – you’ve guessed it – phablets and accessories. Well done, bidorbuy sellers, you obviously know your geek-speak!
7 best phablets of 2015
The list below is compiled on the basis of reviews by tech writers who use the term phablet. It is given here in reverse alphabetical order (so that the products starting with an A are not always on top):
- Samsung Galaxy Note 4
- OnePlus One
- Nokia Lumia 1520
- LG G3
- Huawei Ascend Mate 7
- Google Nexus 6
- Apple iPhone 6 Plus
As to why phablets are gaining in popularity, the reasons are pretty obvious. They liberate us from the need to lug around both a smartphone and a tablet. Thanks to the bigger screens, we can now see what we are doing when we surf the internet and play games; thanks to the bigger batteries, we can do it for longer. And all that on a device that still fits into a pocket!
