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Notoriously Big
Remember when cellphones kept getting smaller and smaller? And then smartphones came out, and suddenly they needed to be bigger again? And now no one knows what the best size for a smartphone screen should be.Well, it’s not just smartphones that are having an identity crisis. While we’re supposed to believe bigger is always better, usability concerns dictate that a happy medium must be struck. It’s a lot easier to find parking on the street with a Smart car than with a massive SUV, and some people prefer a 7-inch tablet they can hold in their hands to a 10-inch iPad. And for apartment dwellers, a massive big-screen TV just isn’t feasible.
But that doesn’t mean huge things aren’t awesome. Plenty of companies cater to consumers who just want to have the biggest freaking thing they can find, so we tracked down the biggest consumer products we were able to find that are on the market.
Photo Credit: Marshall Astor
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The Biggest Smartphone: The Galaxy Note
While the iPhone remains married to its 3.5-inch screen, other smartphone makers are betting that consumers want a bigger screen on which to consume media and browse the Web. While the aptly named HTC Titan made a play to be the biggest game in town with its 4.7-inch screen, the winner in this category is Samsung’s Galaxy Note. With an incredible 5.3-inch screen, the phone dwarfs Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S II.The question is, does a phone this big even get to call itself a phone? It’s only slightly smaller than the 7-inch tablets offered by Barnes & Noble and Amazon, and even comes with a stylus for note-taking. In fact, the company has marketed it as a hybrid device of sorts, giving it the tagline “Phone? Tablet? It’s Galaxy Note!” Still, it makes phone calls and you won’t feel completely ridiculous holding it up to your head, so we’d say this takes the cake as the biggest smartphone on the market.
Photo Credit: Retinafunk
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The Biggest Laptop: Alienware AM18X-8636BK
Boy, that name just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? This 18.4-inch giant from gaming PC maker Alienware isn’t really intended for portability, but rather for avid PC gamers who don’t want to be chained to a big PC tower in their bedroom. It weighs 10 pounds, retails for a little more than $2,200 and sports all the specs you’d expect from a high-end gaming rig. Good luck finding a laptop case for it, though.Believe it or not, that doesn’t even come close to the biggest “laptop” ever made. Dell experimented with the XPS M2010, which had a 20.1-inch screen and came with a handle that let you carry it around like a briefcase. And HP had the Pavilion HDX, which had the same size screen and weighed in at a whopping 15.5 pounds. At that weight, you might want to think twice about actually putting it on your lap.
Photo Credit: Amazon.com
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The Biggest Refrigerator: The Kenmore Elite 72063
Consumer Reports says that the Kenmore Elite is the biggest refrigerator they’ve ever tested, and we’re unable to find another fridge that can beat its incredible 31 cubic feet of space. We’re partial to the 72063 model, which sets itself apart by virtue of a “Grab N Go” compartment that allows you to get to frequently used items without opening up the cavernous main compartment. This model retails for $3,779 at Sears.In addition to being massive, it’s also massively adjustable, with commercials for the fridge showing the ability to adjust shelves to accommodate bouquets of flowers and huge sheet cakes. We can’t imagine ever needing that much space in our fridge, but we suppose a large family that goes through a lot of food could find plenty of use for it. If nothing else, we imagine the box for this thing would make for an awesome fort.
Photo Credit: Kenmore.com
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The Biggest Dryer: The Kenmore Elite Steam Electric Dryer
Apparently “elite” is just Kenmore-speak for “really freaking big.” The biggest mass-market dryer we could find was this 8-cubic-foot model from Kenmore, which is advertised as being designed to dry comforters. But the $1,450 dryer isn’t just a big, pretty face. It features moisture sensor bars to help you determine whether your wash is done, as well as a “Wrinkle Guard” that will keep tossing your clothes around for up to an hour after they finish drying so they don’t get wrinkled while you’re out running errands. And if your clothes do get wrinkled, it can hook up to your water system and use steam to remove wrinkles. (Note: If you can’t afford a dryer with a steam system, wetting a sock and tossing it in with your clothes for 20 minutes works well too.)Photo Credit: Sears.com
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The Biggest E-Reader: The Kindle DX
We wanted so badly to be able to list the Skiff Reader here. The revolutionary e-reader was introduced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, and was intended to deliver a newspaper-reading experience without the ink-stained fingers. It was going to sport a super-thin, 11.5-inch screen, and instead of being made out of glass, it was going to be made with a flexible sheet of stainless-steel foil.Unfortunately, it turned out to be yet another lesson in the danger of getting too excited about vaporware (that is, software or hardware that doesn’t exist yet): The company was bought by NewsCorp, which apparently killed the device before it could see the light of day. That means that the biggest dedicated e-reader available for purchase remains the Kindle DX, which sports a 9.7-inch e-Ink screen (a bit smaller than the iPad). It’s intended for textbooks and newspapers and retails for $379.
Photo Credit: Amazon.com
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The Biggest TV: The Panasonic 152-Inch 3D TV
Before you drop $500,000 on this beast of a television, you’ll want to consider a few logistical issues. For instance: Can you get it through the front door of your home? Do you have a home theater big enough to accommodate it? Is the 3-D fad really going to be around long enough to justify spending $500,000 on a TV?If you answered yes to these questions and are insanely wealthy, maybe this garishly oversized plasma TV is right for you. Panasonic showed it off at CES earlier this month, and it’s apparently not just a proof-of-concept: You can buy it online here. Just keep in mind that even when you factor in the high cost of popcorn, it’s still cheaper to go to the movies, and they have an even bigger screen.
Photo Credit: Jimmy Baikovicius
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The Biggest Puzzle: Keith Haring’s Double Retrospect
Certified by Guinness as the biggest commercially available jigsaw puzzle, this beast from German game company Ravensburger is made up of illustrations by pop artist Keith Haring. It comes with 32,000 pieces, weighs 42 pounds and when fully assembled comes to 214 inches by 75.5 inches. So make sure you start putting it together in a big room.It costs $299 and ships for free. It’s recommended for ages 12 and up.
Photo Credit: Ravensburger.com
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