We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Standing in a phone store, trying to figure out if that massive flagship will actually fit in your pocket or if your hands can comfortably reach across the entire screen without doing some sort of finger gymnastics. Different people have different size preferences for phones, either because of their own hand sizes or simply for comfort, and that’s perfectly normal. Unfortunately, the era of genuinely small phones is pretty much over, and those once-ridiculed phablets have somehow become the new standard that everyone just accepts.
Foldable clamshells like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr do offer something of a compromise, giving you that compact form factor when folded. But here’s the thing that always bugs me about them: you still have to unfold them into a large phone to actually use them properly for anything meaningful, which kind of defeats the purpose if you’re someone who genuinely prefers smaller screens for daily tasks.
Designer: Mechanical Pixel
There’s probably no such thing as one phone size that magically fits everyone’s needs and preferences, but this clever concept design probably comes closer than anything we’ve seen by offering a genuinely modular system. The idea is beautifully simple: you can slip a compact base phone into different shells to increase the display size according to whatever your current situation demands, whether that’s reading, gaming, or just scrolling through social media.
This isn’t the designer’s first rodeo with modular concepts either. A previous design from the same creative mind turned a regular phone into a mini tablet using essentially the same method, proving that this approach has some serious potential. This time around, however, the base unit is a tiny 3.3-inch phone that’s actually smaller than even the cover display of the new Galaxy Z Flip 7, which is saying something. The crucial difference here is that this would deliver a complete phone experience that doesn’t artificially limit what you can do on that small screen, at least in terms of core functionality.
The tri-size phone concept includes two additional modules that transform your pocket-sized device into something much more substantial. One module features a 5.6-inch screen, while the larger option boasts a 7.1-inch display that ventures into small tablet territory. These expansion modules are essentially like external monitors that have no independent function without the base phone, but they effortlessly offer significantly more screen real estate whenever you need it for specific tasks.
Each piece of this modular trio comes equipped with its own battery system, including those larger screen modules, which is both clever and necessary for the concept to work properly. The obvious disadvantage, though, is that the small base phone would likely pack a modest 1,800mAh battery that would struggle to last through normal daily phone usage, especially if you’re someone who actually uses their device heavily throughout the day. Still, there’s something genuinely appealing about having the flexibility to choose your screen size based on what you’re planning to do, rather than being stuck with whatever compromise the manufacturers decided was best for everyone.
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