Over the past few months, I’ve been the lucky recipient of some weird phones. I don’t mean “weird” as in oddly shaped, or anything like that, but the phones I’ve used have been outliers in the industry. They have been mostly five and one half to seven-inch phablets. One common problem that all these phones have shared is, “how do you use the thing one handed?” There have been some software attempts, and even a hardware attempt to answer this question, but it’s elusive.One of the better examples that I’ve seen is the Blu Studio 7.0. Blu, you may remember is a distributor of Chinese-made smartphones. Blu had a pretty respectable showing at CES this year, and before that we covered the Studio 7.0’s release. I’ve recently gotten my hands on one, thanks to my podcast-partner Clifton M. Thomas, and the first thing I noticed was this solution.
What’s this do?
When you are using the phone, you notice a dot right on the edge of the screen. This dot is a little smaller than a dime, maybe about 15mm or so. Well, you know what you have to do when you see a button that you don’t know what it does. You have to push it. So, push it I did.Keep in mind, I didn’t know a heck of a lot about this device – Pocketnow’s never gotten a review unit, so I was really surprised when a fan opened up in the bottom right corner of the screen. Inside this fan were a number of apps and settings that I could tap on,easily with my right thumb. The fan (as I’m calling it) has three zones (as I’m calling them) that can hold up to five apps each, color coded and within easy reach.
ORLY?
This is…not a bad idea, I must say. I love the idea of it. Reachability to me felt a little slap dash I think. The Note Edge, well you’ll have to wait for my review rebuttal next week to find out about that. But the Blu Studio 7.0 really might be on to something here.Back in the early days – for me that is – I remember a smartphone UI concept based roughly on the fan and an expanding set of controls all accessible with just the thumb. That was more semi-circular, whereas Blu’s is more of a Pie wedge but it was the same concept. Anatomy 101: as you move your thumb around the screen its reach is a circular pattern. The problem thus far has been putting a round peg into a square hole.Fifteen apps isn’t a whole lot, all things considered, but it’s probably enough to cover your more frequently used apps, especially those frequently used while one handed. This is a really great idea, right up until the part where a user actually taps an app from this fan. Unfortunately, that’s where the innovation stops.
Hold it right there, buster!
Picture this, if you will. You put your favorite twitter client into the fan (Holla at Plume!). Then, you see something you just have to tweet, but darn it you’re also carrying your briefcase. No problem, just tap the floating white ball, and tap Plume. Now you can tweet! Except, you’re still holding a seven inch phone with a 9 cm bottom edge and your thumb can only reach 6 cm of that. So, do you try to phrase your tweet so you don’t have to use z, x, c, a, s, d, f, q, w, e, or r? Good luck with that.The problem with this method of one-handability (which will one day be a word, I swear) is that the method stops at the door, and can’t come in to have coffee, a beer, or even a little heavy petting on the couch. What Blu would need to do, is take this measure one step further and develop its own custom keyboard based on the same fan philosophy. It might not be the easiest thing in the word to do, but until that happens, it’s a non-starter.
Closest so far?
That being said, no one has really satisfactorily answered this question, but I think Blu has come the closest thus far. The fan method combines common sense, with usability, and does not sacrifice the screen, which is why you need a one-handed solution to begin with.What do you think about this implementation? If you had a larger-than-life phone, is this something you could get behind? Maybe Blue should think about releasing it as an app? Not sure, but sound off below. Love it? Hate it? Wish it was a puppy so you could kick it? Sound off below! 
What’s this do?
When you are using the phone, you notice a dot right on the edge of the screen. This dot is a little smaller than a dime, maybe about 15mm or so. Well, you know what you have to do when you see a button that you don’t know what it does. You have to push it. So, push it I did.Keep in mind, I didn’t know a heck of a lot about this device – Pocketnow’s never gotten a review unit, so I was really surprised when a fan opened up in the bottom right corner of the screen. Inside this fan were a number of apps and settings that I could tap on,easily with my right thumb. The fan (as I’m calling it) has three zones (as I’m calling them) that can hold up to five apps each, color coded and within easy reach.
ORLY?
This is…not a bad idea, I must say. I love the idea of it. Reachability to me felt a little slap dash I think. The Note Edge, well you’ll have to wait for my review rebuttal next week to find out about that. But the Blu Studio 7.0 really might be on to something here.Back in the early days – for me that is – I remember a smartphone UI concept based roughly on the fan and an expanding set of controls all accessible with just the thumb. That was more semi-circular, whereas Blu’s is more of a Pie wedge but it was the same concept. Anatomy 101: as you move your thumb around the screen its reach is a circular pattern. The problem thus far has been putting a round peg into a square hole.Fifteen apps isn’t a whole lot, all things considered, but it’s probably enough to cover your more frequently used apps, especially those frequently used while one handed. This is a really great idea, right up until the part where a user actually taps an app from this fan. Unfortunately, that’s where the innovation stops.
Hold it right there, buster!
Picture this, if you will. You put your favorite twitter client into the fan (Holla at Plume!). Then, you see something you just have to tweet, but darn it you’re also carrying your briefcase. No problem, just tap the floating white ball, and tap Plume. Now you can tweet! Except, you’re still holding a seven inch phone with a 9 cm bottom edge and your thumb can only reach 6 cm of that. So, do you try to phrase your tweet so you don’t have to use z, x, c, a, s, d, f, q, w, e, or r? Good luck with that.The problem with this method of one-handability (which will one day be a word, I swear) is that the method stops at the door, and can’t come in to have coffee, a beer, or even a little heavy petting on the couch. What Blu would need to do, is take this measure one step further and develop its own custom keyboard based on the same fan philosophy. It might not be the easiest thing in the word to do, but until that happens, it’s a non-starter.
Closest so far?
That being said, no one has really satisfactorily answered this question, but I think Blu has come the closest thus far. The fan method combines common sense, with usability, and does not sacrifice the screen, which is why you need a one-handed solution to begin with.What do you think about this implementation? If you had a larger-than-life phone, is this something you could get behind? Maybe Blue should think about releasing it as an app? Not sure, but sound off below. Love it? Hate it? Wish it was a puppy so you could kick it? Sound off below!
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