Eye-opening simulation reveals why early mobile phones were so bulky

Almost everybody owns a smartphone of some form these days, yet that would prove to be quite the inconvenience if they were still as bulky and chunky as the earliest versions before the years slimmed them down.

While phones are becoming more powerful with every subsequent year, the reverse is happening with the size of these devices as its shocking quite how thin they can become despite the components inside.

Even the newest Pro iPhones are surprisingly portable considering the power it packs, and then you have the ultra-thin iPhone Air that, despite lower than expected sales, is a marvel for what it can do.

Phones weren't always like this though, and you don't have to have been alive at the time to know quite how bulky mobile devices used to be, often being compared to bricks due to their chunky size.

The first phones released in the 1980s were far larger than the devices that populate the market these days (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

There was a reason for this, however, especially when you consider why a company like Apple didn't opt to shrink down its popular Macintosh computers into a smaller gadget, and it's all explained in a new simulation from Zack D. Films.

As the YouTube video explains, it's actually nothing to do with the design of these phones, despite their similar shape to the handsets of landline phones found within homes at the time, as it was purely a necessity due to the complex circuitry and large battery needed to power the device on the go.

As everything had to be packed into one singular package, as opposed to having the handset be separate from the main terminal, manufacturers were forced to go with a larger shell that could fit all of the complex components despite their primitive nature in comparison to today's technology.

Additionally, one of the biggest factors in bulking out these devices was the battery, as it proved to be much larger than what you find in phones these days and offering a far smaller capacity to boot.

Some of the earliest phones from manufacturers like Motorola only offered around 30 minutes of battery life while on a call, requiring roughly 10 hours to charge back to full despite the short time of use.

It certainly makes you appreciate the often day-plus battery that's available in most modern smartphones, and think of what it can do in comparison alongside offering a miniscule size — and that's only likely to improve once companies get to grips with new forms of technology like silicon carbon batteries.