Thoughts on thin phones/tablets?

[MrTomnus]

This is something that's been bothering me and perhaps many other people too. Why do phone manufacturers feel the need to make phones slimmer and slimmer while making them more and more powerful? The two just don't scale at all, and it's not going to go well for battery life.

 

Some people like thin phones. This I do agree with - thin devices are more aesthetically pleasing (obviously subject to opinion) and more portable.

 

But thin devices, I think, are a bad thing. At the moment companies like Apple are the culprits for this. Take their event a few days ago - they released the iPad air. It has the same 9.7" form factor as the original iPad, the same A7 processor and 2048x1536 retina display, all in a device 25% thinner. On their website it states the battery is 25% thinner than the last gen iPad. What is this going to do for battery life? Nothing good, that's for sure! I have an iPhone 5 currently and the battery life has been appalling since I bought it a year ago. I'm not a super heavy user but I can't go through a day without charging it.

 

Then you look at companies like Samsung and HTC and they're all doing the same thing. It almost seems like they are making phones thinner just for the sake of it. They are thin enough now that they easily fit into pockets, so why go further? Battery technology hasn't advanced very much in the last few years, so making phones slimmer won't help much for the day or two long battery life most people squeeze out. 

 

People also say "well just plug it in overnight and it's full the next day". Call me pedantic, I never liked doing that, despite what people say about phones being safe to be plugged in for long periods of time. The plug is still on so the energy is going somewhere, and what would happen if the thing caught fire right next to my bed?

 

I don't think it's such a crazy idea to make phones three, four or more millimetres or so larger for the sake of better battery life. People like me don't want to buy big and bulky cases to extend the life of their device - they are paying enough money for these devices already. And with the capabilities of smartphones and tablets expanding further with time, it won't be long before people have to charge their phones halfway through the day.

 

What I'm saying is we shouldn't have to be conforming to technological constraints like batteries in this day and age. So why not just make batteries larger while we wait until the technology arrives? My pocket won't mind it. And thicker devices are sometimes more ergonomically shaped.

 

Sorry this was a little bit of a rant... If you've got any thoughts feel free to let me know, I'd love to hear what other people think

[Torg73]

There's been a lot of talk about how power do you need your smartphone these day's, for most the top end smartphone have plenty of power just require better battery life, the problem is the technology that has advanced in mobile tech has out grown the battery life.  What we what and need is what many people have said, better battery tech but for now we just have to charge our super duper smartphones every night to it will have the power to do what they are required in a day basis's.