Quote:
Originally Posted by dmaul1114
So there will never be a true ideal screen size for everyone.
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Correct.
I said that there were sweet spots; I'm not talking about a one-size fits all solution, but a series of optimized designs.
That's why I was ranting about the six inch "standard" that's being deployed in all the misfit cases.
I also pointed out that 5 and 10 inches appear to be sweet spots that have broad appeal. Six inches, on the other hand doesn't seem to be as broadly useful despite being the most common size; you see a lot of comments about how the device comes out a "tweener"; bigger than a (pocketable) paperback but smaller and not as much text space as a hardcover.
I don't pretend that there is a *single* sweet spot in that (pretty broad) range, but I would like to see it explored so we can see which sizes and aspect ratios (plural) actually work for significant numbers of people.
The good news is that with the flood of cheap tablets headed to market we *are* going to see a lot of variety and we may get some answers as to what works and why. (Look at the evolution of netbooks from 7" 4x3 to 10" and 11", as the product matured.) The tablets announced so far run from 5" 16x9 to 10 and even 12". Every vendor has their own idea of the proper size. And odds are some are going to be better for ebooks and others better for web/media pad use. Eventually there will be enough data to see which work best for the biggest number of people for a given function.
By the next-gen, say 2012, we might even see some good ergonomics, too, and not just plain slabs.