It’s time to make peace with the term phablet.
现在是时候坦然接受“平板手机”(phablet)这个词了。
Sure, the tech industry could have come up with a prettier, less jarring way to refer to smartphones that are big enough to be used as tablet computers. But phablets deserve their own unforgettably descriptive name. They aren’t simply large-screen phones. They are a distinctly new type of computing device, a machine that is often more useful, and more versatile, than either smartphones or laptops.
当然，科技业本可以想出一个更加漂亮、更加悦耳的词，来称呼这种大到足以被当作平板电脑用的智能手机。但平板手机有资格拥有一个令人难忘的描述性名称。它们不只是屏幕很大的手机，而是一种明显属于新类型的计算设备，常常比各种智能手机或笔记本电脑更加有用、更加灵活。

Phablets could even become the dominant computing device of the future — the most popular kind of phone on the market, and perhaps the only computer many of us need.
平板手机甚至可能成为未来的主导性计算设备——市场上最流行的一种手机，很多人也许只需要这种电脑就够了。
Now, I’ve long been on the record as hating big phones. But this week I decided to try using the latest one, Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus, with its 5.5-inch display, as my primary, all-purpose computer — a machine for work, fun and everything in between. I had to make occasional stops at my laptop to write my articles, but I ended up spending about 80 to 90 percent of my computing time with Apple’s big phone.
一直以来，我都公开表示不喜欢大尺寸手机。但本周，我决定试用一下苹果最新的、5.5英寸屏的iPhone 6 Plus，把它当作我的多功能主电脑，开展从工作到娱乐的一切活动。虽然我不得不偶尔打开笔记本电脑来写文章，但我所有计算机时间的大约80%至90%都用在了苹果公司的大尺寸手机上。
I didn’t exactly prefer this lifestyle; if you’ve got the resources and patience to buy a laptop, smartphone and tablet, go for it. But if an alien race swooped down on the planet and forced earthlings to use only a single computer, I’d choose the iPhone 6 Plus. If you’re looking for one machine for everything, a phablet like this isn’t a bad way to go.
我并不是非常喜欢这种生活方式；如果你有资源和耐心，还是可以笔记本电脑、智能手机和平板电脑各买一部。但是，假设某个外星种族入侵地球，迫使地球人只能使用一台计算机，那我就会选择iPhone 6 Plus。如果你正在寻找一台万用机器，选择这样的平板手机也不错。
Apple doesn’t use the P-word, but the 6 Plus, which goes on sale on Friday, is larger than the original Samsung Galaxy Note, the device that came out in 2011 and is generally credited as being the first phablet. (The latest Note has a 5.7-inch screen.) It’s obvious why Apple had to make a phablet, a device that its executives and fans had long made fun of. Despite the awkwardness of holding a device as large as a cafeteria tray up to your ear, phablets made by Samsung and other companies have become a huge global hit. Phablets are already more popular than laptops and desktops, and they’ll almost certainly begin outselling tablet computers soon, too.
苹果没有使用平板手机这样的字眼，但周五上市发售的6 Plus，比三星2011年推出的首款Galaxy Note更大，后者通常被视为全球第一款平板手机。（最新款Note的屏幕为5.7英寸。）虽然苹果的高管和粉丝长期都在说平板手机的笑话，但该公司还是不得不推出一款平板手机，其原因显而易见。尽管用这种设备接听电话有点尴尬，好像把自助餐托盘贴在耳朵上一样，三星等公司推出的平板手机已在全球掀起了热卖狂潮。平板手机的人气已经变得比笔记本电脑和台式机更旺，其销量几乎肯定很快就会开始超越平板电脑。
Their popularity might reflect the unimportance of the phone part of the phablet: Who makes phone calls anymore? Instead, some market-watchers argue, a significant number of the world’s population either can’t afford or can’t manage a tech future in which we all own three devices — a PC, a tablet and a phone. Lots of people want a single machine that can fulfill most of their computing needs.
这样的人气可能反映了平板手机的手机部分并不重要：如今谁还打电话呢？而一些市场观察家则认为，对于“每人都有个人电脑、平板电脑和手机这三大件”的科技前景，全球有大量用户要么买不起，要么无力应付。很多人希望只需一台机器，就可以满足他们的大部分计算需求。
On the other hand, a phablet presents many trade-offs. Depending on the job you have, there’s a good chance it isn’t nearly as comfortable for sustained work as your PC. As I wrote in my review of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 earlier this year, many of the tasks we call “work” usually require a great physical keyboard, and obviously the iPhone 6 Plus doesn’t have that built in.
另一方面，平板手机也意味着你要进行很多权衡取舍。这取决于你的工作性质，如果是长时间工作，很有可能用平板手机远远无法像用电脑一样舒适。正如今年早些时候，我评测微软Surface Pro 3时所写的，我们称之为“工作”的很多任务，通常都需要用到一个出色的物理键盘，而iPhone 6 Plus显然没有自带键盘。
What’s more, though it’s quite thin, the 6 Plus is about 27 percent taller and 32 percent wider than Apple’s old flagship, the iPhone 5S. That makes it something of a monster in your pocket. There were times this week when I reached for my old iPhone 5S and fell in love again with that device’s seductively compact design. (Apple also introduced a new small phone, the iPhone 6, with a 4.7-inch screen; my colleague Molly Wood reviewed both iPhones earlier this week.)
更重要的是，尽管6 Plus相当薄，但却比苹果上一代旗舰手机iPhone 5S长约27%，宽约32%，因此把它放在口袋里会显得很突兀。本周，我用了几次我的老iPhone 5S，又重新爱上了它那诱人的紧凑设计。（苹果公司还推出了一款新的小型手机iPhone 6，屏幕为4.7英寸，我的同事莫莉·伍德[Molly Wood]本周早些时候评测了这两款新iPhone。）
Yet what it lacks in pocketability, the iPhone 6 Plus makes up for in usability and accessibility. Your phablet, like your phone, is a machine you always have with you, but like a tablet, it has a screen big enough to let you accomplish many more productive tasks. And unlike a laptop, it’s instantly available. Pull it out of your pocket and begin working anywhere.
虽然不适合装在口袋里，但iPhone 6 Plus的可用性和触手可及的特质弥补了这个不足。平板手机像是手机，总是可以随身携带；也像是平板电脑，有一个足够大的显示屏，让你完成更多的效率型工作。但不同于笔记本电脑，平板手机马上就可以使用。把它从口袋里拿出来，你就可以随时随时地工作。
Over the last week I used the 6 Plus to do just about everything I normally do with my phone and my laptop. Every morning I’d wake up, then slump into my phablet-friendly office, also known as my bed, couch or some other recline-friendly bit of furniture I could find. There I’d stare and tap at my screen all day long. This was sort of bizarre; my house is full of computers, and at least early in my experiment, I often had to restrain myself from grabbing a laptop to get stuff done.
上周期间我用6 Plus做了几乎所有通常在手机和笔记本电脑上干的事情。每天早上醒来，我都会窝到适宜用平板手机的办公场所，也就是我家的床、沙发，或者是其他什么适合随便一靠的家具上。接下来，我就会整天盯着屏幕，在上面按来按去。真是有点诡异啊；我们家到处是电脑，而且至少是在进行这项实验的开始阶段，我往往要努力控制去拿笔记本搞定事情的冲动。
But I persevered, and soon I found myself falling into the habits of a phablet-only life. I caught up with email, researched my articles, read lots and lots of stuff on the web, worked with a few spreadsheets and, with the help of an add-on physical keyboard, even tried to write some of my articles on the 6 Plus.
不过我挺住了，不久就发现自己染上了只靠平板手机过活的习惯。我拿它查电子邮件、为文章做研究、在网上浏览很多很多的东西、在几张表格上工作了一下，甚至还借助外接物理键盘，在6 Plus上写了几篇文章。
I found that the 6 Plus has two advantages over smaller smartphones, and one primary advantage over rival phablets. Typing is much easier on the 6 Plus compared to small phones. When you hold the 6 Plus with two hands in portrait mode — that is, vertically — and type with your thumbs, there’s a perfect fit.
我发现，6 Plus相对较小的智能手机有两大优势，相对竞争对手的平板手机有一大长处。与小手机相比，在6 Plus上打字要容易多了。双手握住竖着的手机，用两个拇指打字的时候，简直完美契合。
Using the iPhone’s built-in on-screen keyboard or an on-screen keyboard made by Swype, I found myself jotting emails much more quickly than I have on traditional smartphones. Unfortunately, in landscape mode — holding the phone horizontally — the effect was ruined; as Molly also found, the 6 Plus is much too wide to type on comfortably.
用iPhone自带的或Swype屏幕键盘，我发现自己敲电子邮件的速度要比传统智能手机快了不少。不幸的是，握住横着的手机时，这种完美效果全毁了。我和莫莉的感觉一样，6 Plus太宽了，横着打字很不舒服。
The other obvious advantage over smaller phones is screen size. The 6 Plus’s display is big enough to transform activities that are a bit unpleasant on small smartphones into tasks that are nearly comfortable to perform on a phone. These tasks range from watching movies to reading documents to scrolling through spreadsheets to sorting through email — anything where the display counts, and where you’re eager to save your eyes.
它与小手机相比的另一项明显优势是显示屏尺寸。6 Plus的屏幕大小，足以将那些在小智能手机上有点令人不爽的体验变得几乎挺舒服的，比如看电影、阅读文件、翻看表格以及查看电子邮件，诸如此类与显示屏有关、你又想节省眼力的事情。
The 6 Plus’s advantage over other phablets is also pretty obvious: It runs Apple’s iOS, an operating system that is still far more intuitive and user-friendly than the interfaces that rivals like Samsung have built into their phones.
6 Plus相对其他平板手机的长处也很明显：它运行苹果的iOS。三星等竞争对手的手机中内置系统的界面，在直观性和用户友好度方面，仍难望iOS之项背。
It’s true, as Molly notes, that unlike Apple, Android phonemakers have added many extra software features to take advantage of phablets’ larger displays, including the ability to run two apps on a screen at once. But I’ve found many such features gimmicky; it’s not often that I need to watch a video and sort through email at the same time.
正如莫莉指出的，诚然，与苹果不一样的是，Android手机生产商已经推出了许多可以对平板手机的大屏幕加以利用的额外的软件功能，比如在一个屏幕上同时运行两个应用。不过我觉得，很多这类功能就是个噱头；需要同时观看视频又翻查电子邮件的时候，还真没那么多。
What’s more important is iOS’s fundamental usability advantage over rivals. Apple’s operating system is easier to understand and easier to get around than Android, and app developers still devote most of their resources to creating the best apps for iOS first.
更重要的是，iOS在易用性上对竞争者的根本优势。比起Android，苹果的操作系统更易于理解，也更易于上手。此外，应用开发人员还是会把大部分资源用于优先写出最佳iOS应用。
One oft-mentioned risk of the 6 Plus, for Apple, is that the big phone will displace sales of Apple’s tablets. But the Plus could actually be a blessing. Apple sells the 6 Plus to carriers for prices starting at $750; the high-definition iPad Mini starts at $399.
在6 Plus的风险方面，常常被提到的是，对苹果公司而言，大手机会替代iPad的销售市场。其实，6 Plus可能反倒是件好事。苹果卖给运营商的6 Plus的起步价为750美元（约合4600元人民币），而高清iPad Mini的起步价为399美元。
But to customers who sign up for a cellular contract, the 6 Plus appears cheaper than the iPad — it’s just $299. In other words, if you choose a big iPhone over an iPad, Apple will be selling you a more expensive device at price that looks cheaper to you. So that’s the other big thing about phablets: They can make money for tech companies.
不过，带合约的6 Plus只要299美元，在客户看来会比iPad便宜。换句话说，如果选了大屏iPhone而不是iPad，你就会用显得更便宜的价格从苹果那里买到一部价值更昂贵的设备。这样一来，平板手机又有了一大优点：可以为科技公司赚钱哪！