samsung-galaxy-a9-Samsung isn’t slow to unleash buyer’s remorse on the planet this festive season.

Just announced, the Samsung Galaxy A9, promises a 6-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a 1080×1920 pixel resolution at 367 ppi pixel density. That in itself, never mind the rest of the premium specs, should be enough to make it some users’ dream e-reader phablet. (Let’s just hope that the price, unannounced, will be reasonable.)

The Galaxy A9 definitely isn’t the only supersized phablet out there, however. The Nexus 6, for example, has been around for quite some time with a similar size screen, and all the added brand value of the Nexus tag. Admittedly, the Galaxy A9 will ship with Android 5.1 Marshmallow already installed, and a promised upgrade to Android 6, but the Nexus 6 comes with a higher screen resolution, at 1440×2560 pixels. Samsung’s own Galaxy Note 5, also, around since August, offers a higher resolution at 1440×2560 pixels, on an almost-same-size screen.

What none of these devices will do, though, is arrest the shift towards phablets and away from tablets. As I’ve argued elsewhere, Amazon’s $50 Fire tablet and its larger brethren have probably pushed the fast-commoditizing tablet market into near extinction for any other name-brand player. Phablets may be more of a high-spec ask for manufacturers and buyers alike, but they probably represent the only remaining arena for competitive differentiation, and higher profit margins, in mobile devices. So will you be supersizing your phone-based reading in 2016?

3 COMMENTS

  1. Nope. I “upgraded” to a LG G3 last year, a 5.5″ Android phone, and it’s just too danged big. Besides, I would never use a smartphone for ereading when I already have an iPad Air and a Kindle Paperwhite 3 for that. Now I’m patiently waiting for Apple to unveil the rumored iPhone 6C early next year, a 4″ miniaturized version of the iPhone 6. I’d rather not make the switch to iPhone, but Android phones have all just gotten too danged large for me.

  2. Speaking of the Nexus 6, I’m getting one myself in a few days. My brother was kind enough to give it to me for Christmas, given the problems I’m having with my 2013 Moto X lately. I’m looking forward to trying it out.

    Some of my friends feel that 6″ is just too big for a phone, and I’m not entirely surprised. How am I going to put that in a pocket?

    But on the other hand, I’m looking forward to seeing what e-reading is like on it with that high-definition screen. That’s certainly going to be a lot less “cramped” than smaller smartphones!

    This may well be the device that leads me to retire my Nexus 7 tablet. 🙂 We’ll just have to see.

  3. I got my Nexus 6 last year and have not used my Nexus 7 again since. I use my Nexus 6 for all my e-reading now. It is so much lighter, it is always with me, and the screen size is almost the same as the screen size of my much larger Nexus 7 anyways (because of the much smaller bezel).

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