New display sizes under development
According to two new reports from supply chain insiders (translated source), there are currently two phone companies that are working on even bigger display sizes. To be precise, these two manufacturers aim to make phones with displays measuring at or above seven inches across.This display size, as joked about in one of the reports (translated source), has approached tablets. Older tablets were often around seven inches across, back when phones used to be much smaller. A display this size is usually only found on foldable smartphones nowadays, and very few phones have been made this big before.
Will Samsung and Apple follow suit?
Apple and Samsung have been making bigger iPhone and Galaxy flagships for years too, but both companies are yet to break the seven-inch barrier. They’ve come very close, though: the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 17 Pro Max are 6.86 inches and the Galaxy S26 Ultra is reportedly going to be 6.89 inches.
Seeing how common it is for a new development in the smartphone industry to quickly become standard practice, Samsung and Apple phones might follow soon after. One advantage, apart from a better viewing experience, might be the inclusion of bigger batteries if both companies decide to circumvent U.S. restrictions which have forced them to use 5,000 mAh batteries.
The iPhone and Galaxy phones are already pretty much seven inches across, but they might cross into what was considered phablet territory in the near future.
Bigger smartphones, bigger opportunities
Personally, I’m pretty excited for smartphones to get bigger displays. A lot of my down time is spent on my phone, and a larger display is always a better experience, especially for watching something.
And, as mentioned previously, this also raises the possibility of larger batteries in phones too. If Samsung and Apple also adopt silicon-carbon batteries like Chinese manufacturers, then larger phones will mean unprecedented battery capacities in the very near future.Let’s just hope that this doesn’t result in an uptick in smartphone pricing. The industrywide memory crisis because of new AI data centers has already begun to take its toll.
