Do you need seven inches, or 10 instead? When it comes to scaling up the latest tablets, size really does matter

 
12 December 2012

While some of the family try to work out what size turkey they will need to feed all the guests this Christmas, others are preoccupied with more modern problems of scale.

This year the big (or not quite so big) Yuletide decision is going to be what size tablet to buy — seven inches or a 10-incher.

There have been plenty of seven-inch tablets on the market for some time but it’s really only now that anyone is paying attention. This is mainly because they have become cheaper — the seven-inch market is now positioning itself for the price-conscious. Whereas two years ago an HTC Flyer seven-incher would have set you back more than £500, now a Nexus 7, for example, costs £159 for a 16GB version. It’s definitely a more affordable gift than its big brother, the Nexus 10, at £319.

Although the iPad Mini sticks out a bit in this company, being more expensive than its seven-inch rivals (and also actually measuring 7.9 inches), the £269 price tag is still a significant drop from the £399 starting price of a full-size tablet.

For some, this will be where the size debate ends. If you want a budget tablet, then the question is answered for you. But there are other factors to consider. Once upon a time a man called Steve Jobs swore that he would never make a seven-inch tablet. His successor at Apple, Tim Cook, then stepped in to back this up, saying: “We don’t think they’re good products.” Technically, Apple hasn’t made a seven-incher but this still caused the company a little grief when the 7.9-inch iPad Mini was announced in October. In some ways, Cook is right.

There are lots of pros for a seven-inch — it fits better in your handbag, for example. It’s easier to hold in one hand while reading. And if you just want it for watching films, then it will do just fine (especially the Nexus 7 because of its widescreen shape but not the iPad Mini, which is squarer) because 10-inch tablets lose screen space to letterboxing anyway.

But when you start web-browsing or try to write an email the overwhelming feeling with a seven-inch tablet is “I’ll do this later on my laptop” because the screen size just isn’t quite large enough to make typing easy with both hands, or even “I’ll do this on my phone” because it isn’t quite small enough to make typing easy enough with one hand.

Then, when you go to scan a barcode so that you can easily list something on eBay or take a picture (granted, doing so with a tablet will make you look very silly anyway), you suddenly remember that your seven-inch tablet doesn’t have a rear-facing camera.

Some of them don’t even have a front-facing camera, either — so you can forget that Skype call right now.

While that all leaves the seven-inch options feeling a little like oversized phones without the calling ability, the 10-inchers make such easy work of these functions that you start to wonder why you ever needed your laptop.

For example, the iPad is easy to type on with both hands; the Nexus 10 uses a gesture keyboard so you can draw fairly inaccurate lines from letter to letter and it will still know what you’re trying to say; Microsoft’s Surface comes with a keyboard cover.

Of course, price will still persuade many and the seven-inchers are very good little entertainment centres. But where size matters, bigger is still better.

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