What size Tablet is right for you? Well, in my view, I wouldn’t let anyone else make that judgement for you. It all depends on what you need and want to do on a Tablet that will determine the best fit. Most of what you want to do on a Tablet these days is not limited by the screen size. If there are limitations they belong to the operating systems that power the Apps, but even those limitations are few and far between. What’s key is how you want to view AND want to touch the world inside that window that your Tablet provides. We’ve seen various screen sizes from various Tablet makers for quite some time now. But, in my view it is only lately that these choices have become a viable mainstream choice for consumers.
Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD have proven what many have said all along that the 7-inch form factor is attractive to many consumers. The iPad mini that is supposed to begin arriving for some users tomorrow will certainly continue that trend. Google and Samsung are unleashing its next 10-incher here shortly under the Nexus brand called the Nexus 10. The low price point will make it serious competition for Apple’s industry leading iPad . Keep in mind though that the iPad 2 is still on the market for $399. And Microsoft is finally in the game with its widescreen 10-inch format Surface RT, as are a few OEMs that use Microsoft’s Windows platform. There are certainly other Tablets out there for the Android Platform as well. With the exception of Amazon’s still to come 8-inch Fire HD, we’re looking at a world of choices that settle on the 7-inch form factor and the 10-inch form factor. For the sake of this post I’m going to break things into those two categories: 7-inch and 10-inch although those broad dimensions don’t cover all the permutations.
There’s one principle reason that the 10-inch Form Factor is my preferred size for a Tablet. That’s Digital Inking. I need the screen real estate to spill my digital ink on when I’m scrawling notes. I was used to larger Tablets back in the prehistoric Tablet PC days, but since using the iPad, I realize that a 10-inch screen covers most of my note taking needs. I’m anxious to see what Windows 8 Pro brings to the table and the Tablet regarding Digital Inking. As I said in my Surface RT review, that device sadly isn’t built for this kind of work. The iPad is certainly not a perfect tool for digital Inking either, but thanks to work that some of the developers of Apps like Penultimate, Noteshelf, and Stan Misanikov and his company Phatware (PhatPad, Writepad) there are some choices that make this a doable but not perfect solution on the iPad.
I actually prefer the 7-inch form factor for doing email chores. It forces me to be brief and concise if I choose to reply and allows me to put off emails that require a longer answer until I can gather my thoughts.
Now, none of the tasks I’ve listed above need to be or are exclusive to one sized form factor or the other in my usage. Those are my preferences as I’ve watched them develop in these recent months.
The Windows Surface RT has thrown some interesting new twists into my thinking and usage, as I continue to work with it and I’m anxious to see what changes down the road as more Metro Windows 8 Apps Metro Apps appear. While I have some real issues with the Surface RT in this first implementation,I find there are some very appealing things about the size and form factor. That is as long as I am comfortable in landscape mode.
While you may not be able to put your hands on each of these devices in any one retail location, I would offer that it is a good idea to at least check out the different size differences that are offered in locations like Best Buy. You need to imagine how you’ll be using a Tablet to make that worthwhile, because in most cases, holding the devices can be very seductive.
Of course things are limited to what I’ve talked about here. Quite a few folks are using the larger sized smartphones in the same ways I use a Tablet. Certainly if that works for you it could be a compromise without being compromising. But, then that’s the exciting about where we are now with the choices that we have before us.
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