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Why will the Prime have a 4.65" Screen?
- Thread starter Zimbz
- Start date
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- Tags
- galaxy nexus
This has me worried. Will this phone be able to surf the web at 4.5" or will it basically be a 4.3" screen? I really want a 4.5" LTE phone.
darkestred
Android Enthusiast
I really hope its like what someone else said. When you flip the phone into landscape the buttons disappear. Hopefully there is some gesture you can do to remove them. It would seriously be the stupidest thing. I, as much as I say I will, never, rarely ever watch movies on my phone. It would be a shame and a true deal breaker.
I hope this is true as well. I've been waiting for this phone for months so I can dump my Captivate and at&t. When it comes to 4.5" and LTE this phone is my only hope. I'm even looking at a $200 early termination fee but I don't care because I hate at&t and their crappy network.
Sandroidfan
Android Expert
Like I mentioned in the main speculation thread, I don't see what's big deal with this soft button on ICS. Even if it stays on the bottom of screen, you are still looking at 4.3" of usable screen space with incredible 320 dpi. That is according to the leaked screen resolution spec last week. That's way better than current 4.3" phones with WVGA or qHD resolution. But I'm pretty sure Google didn't overlook auto hiding/rotation for soft buttons in ICS.
The big deal is that I want 4.5" and LTE if I'm going to pay $200 early termination fee and $300 for a new phone. If the screen is only 4.3" I'll just upgrade one of my in-laws line to the GSII, give them my Captivate, since they don't care, and wait. The way things are going I shouldn't have to wait too long.
Sandroidfan
Android Expert
But what you don't seem to realize is big difference in screen resolution. SGS2 has WVGA (800 x 480) while NP will have way higher HD (1280 X 720) resolution. Even taking out bottom 0.3" of soft buttons, it still has about 1200 X 720. So you are looking at much sharper dpi and larger resolution screen from software perspective.
Yes I'm aware of that. Guess I'm just starting to get a little nervous. I've been seeing and wanting a 4.65" screen for so long that a 4.3" usable screen would be a major disappointment.
rushmore
Extreme Android User
We can spin all we want. Touting a 4.65" display when only 4.3" is usable for content is deceptive. Tablets are bigger, so people overlook it. Even 7" tablets get crowded with the nav button. Content looks better on the Flyer (GB) compared to the A100 (HC), due to this and more display resolution is used for content.
This is worse than CRT days when OEM called the display a 20" display and it was really a 19.5" viewable, since the bezel area took up .5".
A fixed nav bar on a small display is as anti-customer experience focused as you can get. So far, I have seen nothing where the nav bar can be hidden in ICS.
I would prefer GB rather than ICS if no hidden bar function. Just like on my Flyer (which rocks, BTW). I will NOT update to a new OS if a fixed nav bar.
This is worse than CRT days when OEM called the display a 20" display and it was really a 19.5" viewable, since the bezel area took up .5".
A fixed nav bar on a small display is as anti-customer experience focused as you can get. So far, I have seen nothing where the nav bar can be hidden in ICS.
I would prefer GB rather than ICS if no hidden bar function. Just like on my Flyer (which rocks, BTW). I will NOT update to a new OS if a fixed nav bar.
darkestred
Android Enthusiast
Rushmore types it so eloquently. QFT. Even though i hate acronyms. Hmm you make a very solid point at the end. What if GB were put on it. Would this resolve the "smaller" screen issue. Hmm hmm. Piqued my interest more so than an hour ago.
viperman2008
Member
I wonder how battery life will be on this thing. A bigger screen uses more battery so to have less use of it will be a shame if battery suffers.
Though I did review a Galaxy S II phone for my blog and that screen is gorgeous so I can't wait to see the Super AMOLED HD!
Though I did review a Galaxy S II phone for my blog and that screen is gorgeous so I can't wait to see the Super AMOLED HD!
Sandroidfan
Android Expert
Well, to each his own. For me 4.65" screen is not the main reason I want Nexus Prime. I for one prefer high resolution, dpi way more than 0.3" bigger physical length of screen. Remember that software recognizes the resolution as size of screen, not physical size. And this is all assuming ICS won't have auto button hide, and I think chance of it having that feature is high.
If the largest physical screen size is what you are really after, then this phone is probably not for you. Then I wonder what else can you choose? Vigor and Razr will also have 4.3" HD screen. Maybe you should wish Revolution 2 with 4.5" IPS/HD screen comes to verizon soon. Or what about Galaxy Note with gigantic 5.3" HD screen, 1.4Ghz Exynos, 2500mAh battery? Unfortunately we don't know if Note will hit Verizon or not.
If the largest physical screen size is what you are really after, then this phone is probably not for you. Then I wonder what else can you choose? Vigor and Razr will also have 4.3" HD screen. Maybe you should wish Revolution 2 with 4.5" IPS/HD screen comes to verizon soon. Or what about Galaxy Note with gigantic 5.3" HD screen, 1.4Ghz Exynos, 2500mAh battery? Unfortunately we don't know if Note will hit Verizon or not.
deslock
Member
Does it hide the nav bar when displaying full screen video?
Sandroidfan
Android Expert
You better go in the other thread discussing battery life. We don't know yet but a tester said it lasts about 6 hours under non-stop heavy usage. If true, not so bad for 4G LTE device. But again, we don't even know battery size and should wait for review.
rushmore
Extreme Android User
That is the grand question. If it hides during app and media use, all is good. If it is fixed like on Honeycomb, the space is lost for everything.
BTW, good point by Viper, since silly to waste display power to nav buttons, but par for the course with Honeycomb.
darkestred
Android Enthusiast
Totally understandable. It would be a shame listing a 4.65 screen but you can only use the full potential of the screen for movies. It's also a bit odd to create a bigger screen that mimics a phone that is 4.3" in overall size but then lop off a third of an inch to move capacitive buttons onto a screen and in essence bringing you back to square one had you had capacitive buttons.
Higher Resolution is great as it does increase real estate but a device closer to 5" is so much easier on the eyes. I might not watch much video (other than recorded videos for laughs and so forth) but I do a lot of browsing, picture viewing and other things that SHOULD utilize the full screen and not be blocked by buttons of software.
I would highly think about picking up the note if it came out on Verizon and under 6." One can only hope that next year makers will shoot for a reasonable sized 4.7-5" phone. I'm sure salivating over the possibility. Even if its mostly in my dreams.
Very well said. I really hope Google and Samsung don't screw this up. Those buttons need to disappear in landscape mode.
deslock
Member
Are you saying that it does hide the nav buttons when watching full screen video?
phantomash
Member
for those who have used Honeycomb, you should know there are already hacks that allow users to hide the navigation bar manually, its just a matter of doing it yourself if ICS does not have this implemented.
darkestred
Android Enthusiast
I only know as much as i've followed in the main speculation thread. It is believed (amongst other theories) that during video playback the buttons will disappear.
I"m really hoping they have some sort of gesture or tap to hold for x amount of time and/or orientation for software buttons to appear/disappear.
phantomash
Member
in Honeycomb, the buttons will "hide" but the bar just stays there when playing video. Then again like I said, there are already hacks on HC that enable users to hide the bar manually.
Plus we don't know how ICS implements the soft buttons yet, so there are chances that it will hide automatically depending on circumstances.
deslock
Member
It's absurd that the buttons hide, but the space for the buttons isn't used by the video.
Having written that, I like the idea of forgoing dedicated buttons so you can fit a 4.65" screen in a marginally-taller footprint than a device with a 4.3" screen. I doubt battery life will be affected significantly since AMOLED only powers the pixels for the icons. Hopefully they'll utilize the nav bar during full screen video with ICS.
Yeah I see there are several approaches at Stack Overflow as well as HoneyBar. So even if ICS doesn't work more sensibly, and even if HoneyBar doesn't work on ICS phones, it seems like there will be a solution.
darkestred
Android Enthusiast
Gotta play devils advocate. But, if those software buttons are fixed and you can't get rid of them. You're stuck with a bigger phone with the same size screen as a 4.3" device. I"m pulling that google isn't this dumb. One shouldn't be surprised how easily these tech giants can ruin a great thing.
Sandroidfan
Android Expert
It looks like Galaxy Nexus has about the same physical size as most other 4.3" phones because bezel below screen is smaller. Soft button is taking place where physical buttons are in other phones. So it's not like you have 4.3" screen phone with bigger outer dimension than others. Again I'm pretty sure Google implemented auto button hide/rotation feature in ICS.