What’s The Difference Between Screen Size And Phone Size

A common questions that is always asked is what’s the difference between screen size and phone size of a smartphone? With so many new smartphones coming out it’s hard to remember the different screen sizes and phones sizes of all these smartphones. Different companies use different types of measurements when explaining the dimensions of their smartphone. There is a cool shortcut that can help you figure out how big a phone is compared to other smartphones. Instead of talking about actual dimensions, we use the size of the display. It’s important to remember that screen size and phone size are not the same thing and can be wildly different depending on the manufacture of the smartphone.

It’s important to mention again that the screen size of a smartphone does not equal phone size. The reason for this is because besides the screen, there are many other things in-between the screen and the rest of the body of the smartphone. It can be confusing and misleading for some, especially when a phone with a big screen and a big body around it becomes the go-to reference point.

Taking a look at the iPhone 6 Plus and the LG G3 phone sizes the difference is phone sizes is not much, but it’s still noticeable that one is larger phone than the other even with the same screen size.  If you’re thinking that’s not a huge deal, you’re probably right, but the differences really show when you move up to the 5-inch-and-above range. Here’s the iPhone 6 Plus next to the 5.5-inch screen LG G3.

Now looking at smartphones that have a larger screen size, but with a smaller foot print it because harder to tell the differnece. Looking at the Galaxy Note 4, it has a 5.7-inch screen compared to the iPhone 6 Plus which has a 5.5-inch screen. You would expect that the Galaxy Note 4 would be a much larger smartphone because of the screen size, but when you compare the two they both look similar in size.

Now the ultra large smartphone like the Nexus 6 which is a 6-inch phone. While a 6-inch smartphone sounds large, it actually is not that much larger than other Phablet smartphones around the same size range as the Nexus 6. When comparing it to the iPhone 6 Plus, the Nexus 6 is wider, but they’re roughly the same height. And it’s still much smaller than if you were to just scale the iPhone 6 Plus up to a 6-inch screen.

If the time is right for you to make the upgrade to these larger smartphones from the traditional smaller screen smartphones, remember just because one phone has a larger screen size doesn’t mean it’s actually larger phone compared to other similar smartphones.Knowing a phone’s screen size gives you a rough idea of the smallest size a phone could be.