It looks like the people have made their decision when it comes to smartphone design: they want bigger batteries and don’t care that that means a trade-off for a thick phone. Although companies like Apple, Blu, Gionee and more have been competing to get out the thinnest smartphones on the market, it looks like that’s not what customers actually want. It turns out, customers don’t mind thick phones if they’re thick because of a massive battery within. According to a new study done by Strategy Analytics, people prefer thick phones and big batteries, among other things.
The Strategy Analytics study reveals that respondents in the study initially chose the thinner phone, so companies are definitely onto something here. But when the people participating in the experiment were briefed about the specs of the prototype smartphone they were presented with and learned that a thicker phone would carry a bigger battery, almost all of them chose the latter variant. That denotes the fact that although design is important for smartphone users, battery life is significantly more important.
The study also revealed preferences in smartphone displays. Based on the respondents to the study, the most preferred display size on a smartphone is 5.3 inches, with 36 % of the focus group placing it in their top three. The 5 inch display came as a close second, with 27 % of participants placing it in their top three. The least popular smartphone display? The 4.5 inch and 6 inch and above ones. It looks like people are coping well with the current standard of screens between 5 and 5.5 inches, but it also seems like the era of the 4.7 inch phone has finally come to an end. Good riddance!
The fact that battery life is more important for smartphone users than design sheds light on a problem that companies are trying to tackle: pack everything into one neat package and make no trade-offs. Alternatively, companies do make trade-offs: bad cameras and bad performance, and these are unacceptable. Based on this study, smartphone manufacturers should start disregarding the race for the thinnest phone and start thinking about how they can put bigger batteries in what they offer.
