Tuesday, April 18, 2006
SP&PPCMag: (Screen) Size matters!
Posted by Janak Parekh in "THOUGHT" @ 09:00 AM
"In my years of scooping, reviewing, testing and using mobile devices, there is one thing that has baffled me more often than anything else: screen size. It's easily in the top five of my 'What were they thinking!?' hitlist....The sole purpose of a display is letting people see things, right? That can be data, pictures, websites, whatever. And as with anything visual, color is always better, bigger is better, and more resolution is better. At least that's the way it works with TVs...Unfortunately, that rationale doesn't seem to apply with Pocket PCs, digicams and other electronic gizmos. As a result we have laptops that fit only onto the widest of laps and seem to serve no other purpose than to watch widescreen movies. And we have handhelds and such with ever tinier screens that are supposed to display ever more information. Let me elaborate..."
Pen Computing magazine founder and editor Conrad Blickenstorfer pens an interesting article on the subject of decreasing screen sizes. I know a number of you agree with his assertion, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a minute, being Chief Defender of the Treo 700w on Pocket PC Thoughts :lol::
The key consideration here is that people's needs differ. While I liked my two VGA devices -- the Toshiba e805, with its 4" screen and the JasJar with its 3.7" -- I've retired both of them for a 2", 240x240 Palm 700w, and believe it or not, the 700w is more functional than the other two for me. With the smaller screen comes the possibility of a more usable form factor. The 700w is compact enough to not only fit in my pocket, but alongside other items. The JasJar and e805 were simply too huge for most applications (and I carried each of them for months, so we're not talking about an overnight attempt here). The 700w's small screen also allows for the integration of a keyboard right on the front -- as I use my device as a phone and email solution first, this solution is obviously a lot more convenient than the VGA devices I used to use.
What isn't obvious is that the 700w isn't just more functional for me in the phone and email solution, but also for Internet Explorer Mobile and Excel Mobile. 8O I know some of you think I've gone mad, but it turns out that I use both of them primarily to look up information while "on the go". The 700w is small enough that I can do this easily while walking down the street: if I need to look up a cell in Excel Mobile, I can do it by pulling the device out of my pocket, navigating using the d-pad, and finding the tidbit of information I need -- with one hand. Similarly, if I'm in a store and need to look something up in PIE, a quick Google search, scroll to find the information, and I'm done. The VGA devices, on the other hand, frequently required me to use both hands to do anything meaningful -- the e805 because of its WM2003SE interface and the JasJar because I had to flip (or flip-and-twist) the screen. Moreover, the larger real estate means more hand movement while tapping, necessitating stylus use. The 2" screen is small enough that in the few cases where I need to touch the screen, I can trivially do it with the stylus or the thumb. As a result, I find myself using my 700w in more situations, and faster than with my previous Pocket PCs.
Now, I don't pretend to say this is true for everyone; if you're using your Pocket PC as a laptop replacement, the large VGA screen might be important. (I carry a 15" laptop around with me except when I'm out for the evening -- and in the latter case, I'm not exactly interested in working on large spreadsheets). In fact, there are still several vendors that still sell VGA devices, although interestingly no 4" device is actively manufactured anymore. Could it be that the market dictated that 2"-3.8" are the usable screen sizes and that people demand that variety? That's what I think, and I'm curious to hear how many of you are like me and actually find the smaller screen more useful.
(The other interesting trend, of course, will be the shrinking size of the VGA display. I think a 2.2" VGA Pocket PC could be very compelling, and I think it could happen in the next few years. :D However, it will primarily affect sharpness; of course it'll enable smaller font sizes, but there's only so far most human eyes can go.)
(Image courtesy of a Digital Media Thoughts post about a wall full of 30" high-res LCD screens)
Pen Computing magazine founder and editor Conrad Blickenstorfer pens an interesting article on the subject of decreasing screen sizes. I know a number of you agree with his assertion, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a minute, being Chief Defender of the Treo 700w on Pocket PC Thoughts :lol::
The key consideration here is that people's needs differ. While I liked my two VGA devices -- the Toshiba e805, with its 4" screen and the JasJar with its 3.7" -- I've retired both of them for a 2", 240x240 Palm 700w, and believe it or not, the 700w is more functional than the other two for me. With the smaller screen comes the possibility of a more usable form factor. The 700w is compact enough to not only fit in my pocket, but alongside other items. The JasJar and e805 were simply too huge for most applications (and I carried each of them for months, so we're not talking about an overnight attempt here). The 700w's small screen also allows for the integration of a keyboard right on the front -- as I use my device as a phone and email solution first, this solution is obviously a lot more convenient than the VGA devices I used to use.
What isn't obvious is that the 700w isn't just more functional for me in the phone and email solution, but also for Internet Explorer Mobile and Excel Mobile. 8O I know some of you think I've gone mad, but it turns out that I use both of them primarily to look up information while "on the go". The 700w is small enough that I can do this easily while walking down the street: if I need to look up a cell in Excel Mobile, I can do it by pulling the device out of my pocket, navigating using the d-pad, and finding the tidbit of information I need -- with one hand. Similarly, if I'm in a store and need to look something up in PIE, a quick Google search, scroll to find the information, and I'm done. The VGA devices, on the other hand, frequently required me to use both hands to do anything meaningful -- the e805 because of its WM2003SE interface and the JasJar because I had to flip (or flip-and-twist) the screen. Moreover, the larger real estate means more hand movement while tapping, necessitating stylus use. The 2" screen is small enough that in the few cases where I need to touch the screen, I can trivially do it with the stylus or the thumb. As a result, I find myself using my 700w in more situations, and faster than with my previous Pocket PCs.
Now, I don't pretend to say this is true for everyone; if you're using your Pocket PC as a laptop replacement, the large VGA screen might be important. (I carry a 15" laptop around with me except when I'm out for the evening -- and in the latter case, I'm not exactly interested in working on large spreadsheets). In fact, there are still several vendors that still sell VGA devices, although interestingly no 4" device is actively manufactured anymore. Could it be that the market dictated that 2"-3.8" are the usable screen sizes and that people demand that variety? That's what I think, and I'm curious to hear how many of you are like me and actually find the smaller screen more useful.
(The other interesting trend, of course, will be the shrinking size of the VGA display. I think a 2.2" VGA Pocket PC could be very compelling, and I think it could happen in the next few years. :D However, it will primarily affect sharpness; of course it'll enable smaller font sizes, but there's only so far most human eyes can go.)
(Image courtesy of a Digital Media Thoughts post about a wall full of 30" high-res LCD screens)
