{"id":3961,"date":"2017-03-22T10:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/?p=3961"},"modified":"2017-03-22T10:40:36","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T15:40:36","slug":"which-carry-on-electronics-are-bigger-than-a-cell-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/which-carry-on-electronics-are-bigger-than-a-cell-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"Which carry-on electronics are bigger than a cell phone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From the “they clearly didn’t think this one through” department,1<\/a><\/sup> comes news of the federal government’s new ban <\/a>on “electronic devices larger than a cellphone” from eight Muslim-majority countries, ostensibly to defend against in-air terror attacks that could somehow come via a device that’s been x-rayed and powered on to ensure it works. But what’s a cell phone and how big is too big?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is the first cell phone ever produced:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That, ladies and gentlemen, is Martin Cooper of Motorola on April 3, 1973, calling a competitor to let them know that he was calling from a “mobile” phone.2<\/a><\/sup> That cellphone? It’s 1.1 kg, and measures\u00a0228.6 x 127 x 44.4mm.<\/p>\n

Not convinced? Here’s another, this one from 2017:3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This\u00a06.7-inch screen behemoth is Xiomi’s gorgeous Mi Mix, weighing in at 209 grams and 158.8 x 81.9 x 7.9 mm. And that’s not even properly encroaching on the tablet-as-a-phone territory.<\/p>\n

How do some of today’s popular handheld devices compare and what can you get away with since (until we’ve seen the actual text of this bill, and even then, only presuming the president<\/del>\u00a0executive branch was smart enough to include hard numbers) the only requirement is that electronics have to be “smaller than a cell phone?” Is your favorite in-flight handheld entertainment too big to bring with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nWeight<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nLargest Side<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nArea<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nVolume<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kindle Oasis<\/td>\n0.107 kg<\/td>\n14.2 cm<\/td>\n173 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n139 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kindle (8th gen)<\/td>\n0.161 kg<\/td>\n16.0 cm<\/td>\n182 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n146 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pixel XL<\/td>\n0.168 kg<\/td>\n15.5 cm<\/td>\n117 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n100 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LG V20<\/td>\n0.174 kg<\/td>\n16.0 cm<\/strong><\/td>\n125 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n95 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
iPhone 7 Plus<\/td>\n0.188 kg<\/td>\n15.8 cm<\/td>\n123 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n90 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A stick of dynamite<\/td>\n0.190 kg<\/td>\n20.0 cm<\/td>\n217 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n161 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Xiaomi Mi Mix<\/td>\n0.209 kg<\/strong><\/td>\n15.9 cm<\/td>\n130 cm\u00b2<\/strong><\/td>\n103<\/strong> cm\u00b3<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nintendo 3DS<\/td>\n0.235 kg<\/td>\n13.4 cm<\/td>\n99 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n208 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
iPad Mini 4<\/td>\n0.299 kg<\/td>\n20.3 cm<\/td>\n274 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n167 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nintendo 3DS XL<\/td>\n0.336 kg<\/td>\n15.6 cm<\/td>\n145 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n319 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Asus Transformer<\/td>\n0.544 kg<\/td>\n26.4 cm<\/td>\n448 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n448 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12″ MacBook<\/td>\n0.92 kg<\/td>\n28.1 cm<\/td>\n551 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n722 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11″ MacBook Air<\/td>\n1.08 kg<\/td>\n30 cm<\/td>\n576 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n920 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
First-ever cellphone<\/td>\n1.1 kg<\/td>\n22.9 cm<\/td>\n290 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n1,289 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chromebook 3<\/td>\n1.1 kg<\/td>\n29.0 cm<\/td>\n596 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n1,060 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MacBook Air<\/td>\n1.35 kg<\/td>\n32.5 cm<\/td>\n738 cm\u00b2<\/td>\n1,254 cm\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

If we charitably disregard the original Motorola “mobile” phone from the category of allowed devices, that still leaves a lot of room for interpretation. What metric is being used to determine “size?” Is it the weight? The longest dimension? The surface area of the biggest side? The volume? Who knows?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, going by almost any of these metrics, most popular consumer electronics that travelers might carry with them aboard airlines would be disqualified. The only possible exception would be the Amazon Kindle, which could be permitted depending on which metric is being used. What\u00a0wouldn’t<\/em> be blocked by these regulations, you ask? A stick of dynamite.<\/p>\n

  1. The poor fellas in this department have been so overworked these past 60 days. They’ve really never put in this much overtime since, well, ever. ↩<\/a><\/p><\/li>

  2. Image and phone details retrieved from\u00a0http:\/\/www.knowyourmobile.com\/nokia\/nokia-3310\/19848\/history-mobile-phones-1973-2008-handsets-made-it-all-happen ↩<\/a><\/p><\/li>

  3. Image courtesy of engadget ↩<\/a><\/p><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    From the “they clearly didn’t think this one through” department,1 comes news of the federal government’s new ban on “electronic devices larger than a cellphone” from eight Muslim-majority countries, ostensibly to defend against in-air terror attacks that could somehow come … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[925],"tags":[949,948,12,947],"class_list":["post-3961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random","tag-electronics","tag-regulations","tag-security","tag-tsa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xDa-11T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3961"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3976,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions\/3976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}