Around the turn of the new millennium, the prevailing belief was that mobiles were going to get smaller and smaller. That had been the path taken for decades, with old suitcase-size machines eventually becoming tiny enough to fit in your pocket, so from this precedent, the idea made sense. With the arrival of the smartphone around 2007, shrinking was no longer the primary concern.
Instead, the ideal phone offered the largest screen while still fitting in the average pocket. Of course, not everyone has the same sized pockets or the same visual concerns and wants. Looking at the experience of online casinos as an example, we want to explore how the three major form factors of mobile phones affect the casino experience, and what this could mean for you.
Offerings of an Online Casino
For a demonstration of how a modern digital casino operates, we’re going to lean on a contemporary example that can adapt to all modern form factors. Turning to an example everyone is familiar with, we’re using online roulette games. The titles on these sites like Classic, American, and European Roulette all operate on the latest HTML standards, meaning they play equally well on desktop and mobile systems. On mobiles, the new code technology allows them to scale across all types of screens, but is this experience always going to be equally accessible? Let’s take a deeper look.
The Modern Standard
For most modern mobile users, the phone they use is going to operate in the standard slate or phablet form factors. This is likely the one you have in front of you right now, so you know what to expect. In most regular web uses, the changes from desktop sites to mobile ones means essentially thinning the page, and moving buttons from the side of the screen to the top and bottom. This is also true for players of online casinos. Here, titles are usually organized with the game on the top of the screen and the controls down on the bottom of the screen.
“Dragonfly SmartPhone Preview” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by j_baer
Since modern mobiles have high resolutions and large viewing spaces, this setup works just fine. What might otherwise be a cramped area is aided by a modern generation of UI design, so all the buttons and controls are unmistakable and easy to use.
Flip Screen Phones
A former major contender in the mobile space, flip smartphones now only account for a small portion of the total market. The reason is simple; having a small screen up the top of an opened device doesn’t gel well with many modern websites and apps. This applies to online casino games too, though not as much as we might think. Unlike older flip phones, modern flip smartphones are long enough that their screen is still large, just not as large as a slate form device. Thanks to this, it works much like a slate does with casino games, only slightly more cramped.
Folding Phones
Separate but similar to flip phones, folding phones are those that open like a book while offering a screen that covers the entire face. Using flexible screen technology, these systems offer the largest viewing area by far, and are the most accessible for playing online casino games. This means a bigger game screen, buttons that are near impossible to miss, and even support for multiple games at once via multitasking.
“Samsung_Galaxy_Z_Fold3_5G_002” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Juhele_CZ
Though these different form factors have no problem with online casino games, not all will be equally useful to every individual. It’s a matter of your personal space, dexterity, and visual needs, alongside your sense of style. If you intend to purchase a new machine and play online casino games, or any other forms of interactive entertainment, consider your choice carefully, and you’ll avoid making a decision you could later regret.
