Fab Phablets

In the world of mobile phones, you learn to get used to some pretty strange words: smartphone, apps, LOL. In fact, ‘mobile phone’ itself wasn’t added to the OED until 2001 (for reference, an over-breakfast-office-poll suggested that 2000 was about the average year for most of us to get our first mobile phones). However, when it comes to brand new words, ‘phablet’ just about takes the biscuit.

Will it catch on?

‘Phablet’ is what’s known as a portmanteau – a blended word made up of two other words. In general, these sorts of blended words become very popular in the English language, as they are able to express a concept that is often greater than the sum of its parts. Think about the following examples:

• Blaxploitation (black/exploitation)
• Brunch (breakfast/lunch)
• Chillax (chill/relax)
• Cosplay (costume/play)
• Craptacular (crap/spectacular)
• Frenemy (friends/enemy)
• Gaydar (gay/radar)
• Metrosexual (metropolitan/heterosexual)
• Mockumentary (mock/documentary)

We don’t need to know much more than the contributing words to grasp the concept.

But what is a phablet?

It’s a cross between a phone and a tablet, of course!

The phablet emerged from a growing market for smartphones that could encompass ever greater aspects of our lives. We want to carry one device that will be our office, our studio, our entertainment system, and our communications hub. 

The first viable and successful phablet is generally thought to be the 2011 Samsung Galaxy Note, which came with a larger-then-usual 5.3 inch screen. The whole Note series has been remarkably successful, increasing in screen size, stylus functionality, and processing power with each release. The Note 4 has a 5.7 inch screen, a 16MP camera, and was accompanied in release by the curve-finished Note 4 Edge. The Edge packs a whopping 2.7GHz quad-core processor.

The best way to see how the most popular phablets compare is by using them, but that is not a viable option for most people. Hopefully the table below can give you some idea of the performance capabilities of the iPhone6Plus, the Galaxy Note 4, and Google’s Nexus 6.

iPhone6+	Note 4	Nexus 6
5.5 inch screen	5.7 inch screen	5.9 inch screen
1920x1080 pixel resolution	2560x1440 pixel resolution	2560x1440 pixel resolution
1.4GHz processor	2.7GHz processor	2.7GHz processor
1GB RAM	3GB RAM	3GB RAM
16GB, 64GB, 128GB non-expandable internal memory	16GB, 64GB, expandable to 128GB internal memory	32GB, 64GB non-expandable internal memory

A table can’t tell you everything, of course. For example, both the Note 4 and Nexus 6 may have a higher screen resolution, using the sharper-looking HD AMOLED screen, but the iPhone’s HD LCD screen uses less power. Also, the iPhone may have less processing power, but they actually require less power, dues to their highly streamlined design, and user experience.

But will the phablet catch on?

There’s little doubt that the popularity of the phablet is only going to grow over the next few years. Galaxy are about to release their much-hyped Galaxy S6, with the accompanying Edge, and here at Fivebars we’ve got our eye on some of the smartphones and phablets coming out of China. Whatever your chosen brand, we can definitely provide you with the best deal for your business phones.