I've wanted to write this for some time, merely hadn't because there was no solid information to back-up my assertions. I do now. This is about why I believe the future of tablets (and by extension, computing) is 15-inches in display size, perhaps even 17-inches.

Permit'due south start with the origins of the modern tablet. The original iPad played such a stiff part in shaping our perception of what a tablet should be, including a 9.vii-inch display that we recollect of standard today. Apple tree arrived at that size considering 9.7-inches was ideal given technology's constraints at the time similar weight, battery life and cost. Information technology was the right size for 2010.

The iPad was never designed to exist used primarily with one hand, unlike "mini" tablets of today. As Jobs demonstrated in his keynote, the iPad was meant to be used on the lap; or held with two hands; and only occasionally holding with one hand so the other tin perform an action.

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Jeffrey Yuwono is CEO and co-founder of Feecha, a hyperlocal news app for neighbourhoods. A Stanford MBA and Duke undergrad, Jeff writes insightful observations about technology once a solar day on his blog The Cornerplay and every Thursday on this weekly column on TechSpot.

By reducing the weight of the iPad Air to just ane pound, Apple virtually fabricated the tablet calorie-free enough for 1 hand employ. But even at that reduced weight, the iPad Air is nevertheless too heavy to replace mini tablets for one paw employ. Apple might get at that place eventually, and when they practice information technology will completely cannibalize the iPad mini.

Let's become back to the assumption that tablets don't accept to exist light plenty to be held with ane hand. If we can continue weight below a certain threshold -- calorie-free enough to occasionally utilize with i hand, but not so heavy that it no longer feels like an iPad-like tablet fifty-fifty with two -- what is the all-time display size for a tablet?

We can notice the answer in the laptop market. Dan Seiffert wrote an excellent piece on The Verge well-nigh why Chromebooks should have a 15-inch display, and that's because fifteen-inch displays are far and away the most popular in America.

As you tin see, 15-inch laptops comprise a whopping 69% of the US market. 17-inches is the side by side most popular size at 12%. The Surface Pro, along with all the hot Ultrabooks the tech media loves to write about, are in the minority.

There is corroborating evidence from this Engadget article:

According to Kevin Frost, Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Notebooks Business organisation Unit [at HP], fifteen-inch is currently the most popular laptop screen size in the Us, while the folks in Cathay prefer xiv-inch offerings. Oddly enough, Kevin wasn't not bad on explaining this phenomenon, just he added that 17-inch laptops likewise practice well in Europe and the US, but not in Communist china.

The next question is why those sizes are pop. Why non thirteen-inches, which nosotros geeks tend to adopt, like in the MacBook Air? One hypothesis is that nosotros value mobility in a laptop considering for bigger productivity tasks, nosotros have a desktop PC with large screen monitor. Or at the very least, we can connect the laptop to i. So for us, the actress weight of fifteen-inch laptops does not justify the extra existent estate.

Whereas for the majority, the 15-inch laptop represents their one computing device, so the screen needs to be large plenty. That's fine, and however supports our key thesis: a larger display is preferable, all things equal. If at that place's no weight punishment, bigger is just better.

We are rapidly budgeted that point with tablets. Tablets take become then calorie-free, there is less of a weight penalty with increasingly larger displays. What'due south preferable? A 9.7-inch tablet that's 1 pound in weight, a thirteen-inch tablet that's 1.6 pounds in weight, or a xv-inch tablet that's ii pounds in weight?

These delineations are not capricious:

  • A 9.vii-inch iPad Air weighs ane.03 pounds whereas the 7.9-inch iPad mini weights 0.73 pounds. This represents a 0.xxx pound weight gain for a 1.8-inch increase in brandish size, or a 0.xix weight-to-screen delta.
  • A 10.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S is 1.02 pounds whereas the 8.four-inch version is 0.65 pounds, or a 0.18 weight-to-screen delta.
  • The 2022 Nexus x is i.33 pounds whereas the 2022 Nexus seven is 0.75 pounds, or a 0.nineteen weight-to-screen delta.

In other words, a ane-inch increase in display size with today'south technology roughly corresponds to an increment of 0.2 pounds in weight.

Think of the weight-to-screen delta as the slope of a line chart above.

Unfortunately, this ratio increases with screen size. Going from a Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 to 10.i for case is 0.19, but going from 10.1 to the 12.2 "Pro" size is 0.28. We come across something like with the Galaxy Note serial as well. This would explain why manufacturers haven't nevertheless attempted a larger tablet -- information technology would simply be too heavy.

Fortunately, with fourth dimension and with better technology, the weight-to-screen delta can only improve as manufacturers squeeze bezels, choose lighter materials, increase battery efficiency, then on. The iPad Air is a great instance of that; the slope of the previous generation iPad is double what it is today at 0.four.

Source: T3

I wait Apple to be more aggressive than Samsung in reducing weight at larger screen sizes. Given the electric current curve, I predict the rumored 12.nine iPad "Pro" to clock in at 1.five pounds.

I already think a 13-inch iPad at 1.five pounds and a 15-inch version at 2 pounds are interesting -- just in another generation or two, the value suggestion would exist even more than compelling. What if we can flatten out that weight-to-screen ratio farther?

Something magical happens in going from 10-inches to 15-inches. At that screen size, the device is large enough to become the average household'southward just estimator (plus a keyboard accessory).

A 15-inch tablet weighing one.5 pounds with a 0.5 pound keyboard cover accessory bundled in has the chance to be truly mainstream, especially if priced below $600. This is where true convergence between a tablet and laptop volition occur, and might even brand the laptop as we know information technology obsolete.

Apple tree can contrary its declining iPad sales, Google will have the take chances to usurp Windows from its Android stronghold, and Microsoft volition finally be able to achieve its Surface vision.