It's a portable computer. The "phone" in smartphone is an anachronism of a bygone era, and actually seeing people using one as a phone is rare now.
People browse. View media. Post pictures. Read Facebook posts. They do things where the attributes that make a small smartphone good for one handed use conspire against usability with two hands (browsing Reddit on a 4" screen iPhone, for instance, is an exercise in precision. Many downvotes were accidentally dished out on HN courtesy of small screens). If 95% of your use is as a landscape portable computer, that 5% use of "one handed through a parking lot" should rightly suffer.
Of course some people really do prefer smaller devices, and those options need to stay around (the Nexus 5, for instance, is still a premiere Nexus device). But a lot of people really do like "phablets".
> The "phone" in smartphone is an anachronism of a bygone era, and actually seeing people using one as a phone is rare now.
That's absolutely not true. I can assure you people actually buy phones to phone.Or they would be buying ipod touch en masse without phone/data plans.
> browsing Reddit on a 4" screen iPhone, for instance, is an exercise in precision. Many downvotes were accidentally dished out on HN courtesy of small screens
Well,it's HN business to make its interface usable on my 320*480 (yes,I have a 3.5" screen phone).If HN doesnt,then HN doesnt care about smartphone users...
> If 95% of your use is as a landscape portable computer, that 5% use of "one handed through a parking lot" should rightly suffer.
... No it just means they didnt go mobile-first which is a mistake today. HN layout isnt even responsive. Responsive == Future proof. It's a simple as that.
People browse. View media. Post pictures. Read Facebook posts. They do things where the attributes that make a small smartphone good for one handed use conspire against usability with two hands (browsing Reddit on a 4" screen iPhone, for instance, is an exercise in precision. Many downvotes were accidentally dished out on HN courtesy of small screens). If 95% of your use is as a landscape portable computer, that 5% use of "one handed through a parking lot" should rightly suffer.
Of course some people really do prefer smaller devices, and those options need to stay around (the Nexus 5, for instance, is still a premiere Nexus device). But a lot of people really do like "phablets".