
Korea and Its Big-Ass Smartphones - ekianjo
http://pandoralive.info/?p=3491.
======
pzaich
I lived in Seoul 2012-2013. Generally I think this post is accurate. Here are
some general observations from my time there:

\- there's a small but growing startup community growing there who were very
welcoming to foreigners.

\- you only see web developers with macs. A basic 13" MacBook can cost close
to $1800 there.

\- already in 2013 there's was a huge surge of people with these larger phones
in Korea.

\- trends travel very fast in Seoul. riding the subway, you'd see a smartphone
game become popular and die out over a 2 week period.

\- mass transit is very efficient. Last night I heard Gavin newsome claim that
the Bay Area has one of the best mass transit systems in the world. All I
could do was laugh.

~~~
w1ntermute
Forget about looking abroad, NYC's public transit is far better than the Bay
Area's. But Newsom is a politician, so blatantly lying and generally being
incompetent is part and parcel of his job.

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neals
I used to think my iPhone (4) screen was big enough. I could do anything on it
that I needed. But now that have a larger Android phone, everytime I test
someting on the iPhone, it seems so little and toylike.

~~~
dsirijus
Well, as another data point, I used big-ass android and switched to 4S and
found it to be much more appropriate size.

Ordered in 5S not 10 minutes ago, and I'm afraid it's not really gonna be
better form factor.

I do find your "toylike" adjective appropriate. But I don't think that's
neccesarily a critique.

~~~
neals
Interesting indeed! I usually struggle with the general size of the icons and
the width of inputs being so short that only a dozen characters fit on there.
What are some advantages that you experience with the 4s screensize?

~~~
runako
Smaller phones fit more easily into pockets. Also, anecdotally and in my
experience, they have better battery life.

~~~
cpwright
I actually find that a bit surprising. I would expect with a larger form
factor one could fit a bigger battery into the phone (like an iPad has much
better battery life than an iPhone). A longer charge would be more motivation
for me to upgrade my phone to a larger size than a bigger screen.

~~~
runako
Possibly this is due to the larger screens being primarily Android, which
had/has worse power management than iOS. I'm out of the loop on the current
state of the relative power management between the two, so this may have
changed in the last year or so.

But anecdotally, my friends who carry Android phones keep their chargers
nearby in their purses/briefcases.

~~~
Zak
Current Android devices with smaller screens almost universally have less
powerful hardware. A slower CPU, slower GPU and smaller amount of RAM will
consume less energy. They also tend to have lower pixel densities, which
usually mean higher light transmission (with LCDs) and therefore less energy
spent running the backlight. There's also less area to illuminate.

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timdorr
Google cache version:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hfW8CmD...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hfW8CmDSmKIJ:pandoralive.info/%3Fp%3D3491+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&strip=1)

~~~
ekianjo
Thanks, OP here. Not sure why the server went down (I have a caching function
enabled), will see what I can do to put things back online... :P

~~~
btbuildem
Still down

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underlines
I am a Galaxy Note 1 first day owner, now on Galaxy Note 3, waiting for 4.

As I partly lived in Bangkok, it's common all over Asia, to like big phones. I
don't know why only westerners complain "man, it's too big!". That was never a
complain the asian countries I traveled.

For me, I also don't care of the bigger size. It's only a plus, since you see
more, better, more clear, more content, better media consumption. It fits in
your pocket.

Now I'm back in Switzerland, one of the last "iPhone nations". On public
transport I see those small screen iPhone users and they look at my Note with
that "man, you're weird" expression... Haha

~~~
Zak
_I don 't know why only westerners complain "man, it's too big!"._

When carried in the left-front pocket of my pants, my Nexus 5 slightly
encumbers my ability to bend my left leg. Were it any taller, the encumbrance
would not be slight. I also find it difficult to use the keyboard one-handed
and to reach the notification bar when gripping the phone so as to be able to
use the keyboard. If it was any taller or wider, these difficulties would turn
to impossibilities.

I understand the appeal of a larger screen, but convenient, comfortable pocket
carry and one-handed use are more important to me than how much content it can
display. I use a Real Computer when that's a priority.

------
noss
It is true that big phones are popular here in Korea. It is not uncommon to
have more than an hour in public transport to get to work, two hours happens
quite frequently as well. Some people even have a telscope antenna for tv
reception in their phones.

Using the telephone as an entertainment device on long commutes doesnt explain
it all though. I think there is a small part status symbol in screen size, and
the fact that korean phone makers have few other ideas in what to improve in
their next top of the line model.

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sanxiyn
As a Korean, the most surprising part of this article was that there was no
mention of KakaoTalk. (But Naver was mentioned.)

KakaoTalk is literally the reason why people buy smartphones here. Seriously.

~~~
agumonkey
So it's the korean version of whatsapp ? funny how such 'simple' needs are the
market driving force.

~~~
w1ntermute
WhatsApp has a much more minimalist feel than KakaoTalk. Take a look at some
screenshots[0]. On the upside, it supports PC, but idiotically, it's a desktop
app (Windows-only), rather than a web app.

Their revenue streams are very different too. Whereas WhatsApp relies on
subscription fees, KakaoTalk has a built-in gaming platform. It also sells
"stickers," basically emoticons you can send to friends.

0:
[https://www.google.co.kr/search?tbm=isch&q=카카오톡+대화](https://www.google.co.kr/search?tbm=isch&q=카카오톡+대화)

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Theodores
> Japanese manufacturers were notoriously absent from these stores, except for
> the Camera section where Sony and Canon were widely represented.

...meanwhile, in Japan, 'who are Samsung?' 'Didn't know they made phones...'

~~~
revscat
Do you know why this is?

~~~
ekianjo
Because Phone companies here do not advertise the models, and they rename them
with their own brand line names, minus the manufacturer's name. It's probably
because they don't want to make it look like these phones come from outside of
Japan.

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userbinator
In China and Hong Kong I've seen similar trends -- much bigger devices, and
far more of them than in the UK and North America. The decreasing cost of
high-resolution displays and being located closer to the electronics
manufacturing capitals of the world probably also play a role. When buying a
smartphone people there will generally choose the biggest size that
comfortably fits in one hand.

I wonder if the size categories came from how the device is intended to be
used; I've only seen the screen-size distinction but suspect it's more like
this:

Smartphone: can be easily held and operated with one hand

Phablet: can be held between the thumb and fingers of one hand, but big enough
that many operations will require two hands

Tablet: designed to be held and operated with two hands

~~~
Zak
_Smartphone: can be easily held and operated with one hand_

I think this is getting stretched a bit with the current crop of 5"\+ flagship
phones. I have very close to average male size hands according to
[http://theaveragebody.com](http://theaveragebody.com), but I find my Nexus 5
difficult to use one-handed. It was nearly impossible before I made a case for
it that gave me a better grip.

Men with smaller than average hands, and women with anything but unusually
large hands will probably find the Nexus 5 and similar phones hand to use one-
handed. Samsung and LG have already exceeded this size with their flagship
models.

~~~
userbinator
Maybe that's because the term "phablet" is still foreign to many and they want
to emphasise the phone functionality, so that's why they continue calling them
(no pun intended) smartphones. 5" is right on the border between
smartphone/phablet.

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graup
I presume the author lives in Japan? Living in Korea, I find the different
perception interesting. To me, Korea is much more modern than any Japanese
city. In contrary, to me Japan has some kind of "old flair" everywhere. Just
how you'd expect from a nation that boomed some time ago – where the success
has settled, so to say.

That contributes to my general perception of Japan as being very very
different from all I know. Compared to that, Korea is much closer to the US or
Europe. For traveling/exploring Japan is awesome, but talking about living I
know why I chose Korea.

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w1ntermute
Two reasons why the iPhone is so popular in Japan:

1\. It's free on contract (yes, the latest version)

2\. You can type Japanese easily with just 3x4 keys (which made it perfectly
suited for old flip phones), and so many use this method even on smartphones.
Much easier with a small screen than Korean (which typically uses a keyboard
the same size as English on smartphones)

Edit: my bad, looks like there's a 10 key Hangul input method for iPhone[0]. I
haven't seen it used very much though, probably because it looks like a pain
in the ass to use (compared to the 3x4 setup for Japanese), sort of like how
no one would use T9 to type English on a smartphone, even if the screen were
small.

0:
[http://emscloud.tistory.com/m/post/176/slideshow?order=2](http://emscloud.tistory.com/m/post/176/slideshow?order=2)

~~~
ekianjo
> 2\. You can type Japanese easily with just 3x4 keys (which made it perfectly
> suited for old flip phones), and so many use this method even on
> smartphones. Much easier with a small screen than Korean (which typically
> uses a keyboard the same size as English on smartphones)

Nope, I saw koreans using a very similar input method for korean with a 3*4
layout and they all seemed to be using that, making it very fast for them. On
Android devices.

Btw I have an android phone in Japan and you can do the exact same thing on
Android for Japanese. No difference with the iPhone, really, at least on that
aspect.

~~~
w1ntermute
You're probably talking about something like Moakey[0], but this is nowhere
near universal. More importantly, it's not available on iOS[1]. This may be
fine for younger people, but it wouldn't be so easy to use for older folks.

0: [http://lovingkorean.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/moakey-
keybo...](http://lovingkorean.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/moakey-keyboard.png)

1:
[http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg168/owbee/Mylinguistics...](http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg168/owbee/Mylinguistics/iPhone6.jpg)

~~~
ekianjo
Nope, it was not this one. It was a 3*4 layout and the top row were the
"vowels" (I know that's not the right word for it, but well...) you combine
with the other letters to make full korean signs. This is apparently standard
on Korean phones. At least Samsung ones.

~~~
w1ntermute
Well, I don't know what you saw, but this is the default Korean keyboard on a
Galaxy S4:
[http://cfile22.uf.tistory.com/image/2469083B51DDE07613BAE1](http://cfile22.uf.tistory.com/image/2469083B51DDE07613BAE1)

Maybe there's a toggle option.

~~~
hocuspocus
Yes there is, and OP is right, an awful lot of people still use the 4*3
keyboard, even on phablets. For instance, last year Pantech was advertising
the fact you can use the Vega R3's keyboard with one hand:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7ObLdqUOHU#t=30](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7ObLdqUOHU#t=30)

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ekianjo
This cached version has the pictures, apparently:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hfW8Cm...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hfW8CmDSmKIJ:pandoralive.info/%3Fp%3D3491+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

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wryyy
Im currently living in S Korea and most the people I see have Samsung Note
3's. I think they've sold 10 million of them here? I've also not seen more
broken screens anywhere else than here. Teenagers and young peoples phones
screens are broken. They use them so much they drop them a lot more probably
and also might be partly because of the alcohol.

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VeejayRampay
[http://xkcd.com/37/](http://xkcd.com/37/)

Works every time.

