If you were to chart the history of screen sizes during the touchscreen phone era, you would see a clearly defined trend toward larger displays. Forgetting outliers like 2018’s 3.3-inch Palm Phone and the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy J Max (which had a resolution of 800 x 1280-yikes!), we are now moving toward 7-inch touchscreens for mainstream smartphone models.

While Steve Jobs stubbornly held on to his belief that no one wanted a big phone, once again it was a Windows Mobile powered device from HTC that led the industry to the next level. In late 2009, the HTC HD2 featured what was seen as a massive 4.3-inch screen. One analyst said at the time that phones could not get any bigger. Soon a wave of Android phones were launched with a 4.3-inch display including the HTC EVO 4G, and the Motorola DROID X. And of course, the very first Samsung GALAXY Note took us over the 5-inch ceiling with its 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display. The phone also helped us in the media coin the term phablet. This portmanteau was created by combining the “ph” from phone and “ablet” from tablet and referred to any phone that had a huge screen at the time. Thankfully, the term eventually lost favor among us writers and was buried somewhere where no one will ever find it.

Will this be the year that we see a mainstream phone hit the streets with a 7-inch display? According to Pigtou, the dimensions of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 (the smaller of the two expected models) will be 161.8 x 75.3 x 8.5 mm. Now compare that with the 151×71.8×7.9mm of last year’s Galaxy Note 10. Pigtou has the Galaxy Note20 equipped with a 6.7-inch display, .4-inches or 6.3% larger than the 6.3-inch glass found on the Note 10. If we apply that same .4-inch increase or that same percentage increase to the 6.8-inch screen on the Galaxy Note 10+, we get to the 7-inch mark.

All of this is based on Pigtou’s exclusive, so we need to be very careful here. Especially since most are calling for the smaller Galaxy Note20 to wield a 6.42-inch display and the Galaxy Note20+ to feature a 6.87-inch screen. The resolutions would be 1084 x 2345 and 1444 x 3096 respectively and a 120Hz refresh rate at 1440p for the premium model is likely.

As we were putting this article together, new renders of the Galaxy Note 20+ leaked. Again, the screen is said to measure 6.9-inches. So to reiterate, talk of a 7-inch display for the Galaxy Note20+ is based on a 6.7-inch screen size for the Galaxy Note 20 and the dimensions published by Pigtou. If the latter’s figures are correct, we would have to question everything. After all, why pay a premium price for a 6.9-inch Galaxy Note20+ if the Galaxy Note20 carries a screen that is just .2-inches smaller?