And yet, it seems devices of this form factor have vanished from the market. Aside from maybe Amazon Kindle devices, which all come with their share of showstopping issues, there are no options for those who want a decent economy-premium mini-tablet with community hype, love and support. If you want an 11" tablet, you're in luck; every company is pumping out multiple each year, that all compete with each other without really offering anything to differentiate themselves. But 7" tablets are seemingly nonexistent.
Did the rise of big phones kill the market for the paperback-book form factor of tablet? Does nobody want a modern Nexus 7 anymore, like they used to?
I think HN readers aren't aware of the success AMZN has had with Fire tablet, but if you go visit someone who lives in a trailer you might find they have a Fire tablet, have never heard of "Android" and are unaware the tablet has anything to do with AMZN, but it is the only device they use to access the internet.
AMZN's willingness to sell Fire tablets at cost is one of the reasons why people think Android tablets are dead -- it means value-oriented tablets are completely DOA. When you consider what you get for the price these are an astonishing value.
The 2013 Nexus 7 had a 16:10 ratio 7.02" screen in a 7.83" x 4.72" x 0.41" form factor.
Its bezels were large (62.3% screen-to-body ratio) even for its time. So the next size up isn't 10-11", it's usually 8-9" in a form factor closer to the 2013 Nexus 7's, just with more screen-to-body ratio.
- Samsung's A7 Lite has a 5:3 ratio 8.7" screen in a 8.37" x 4.91" x 0.31" (+0.54" x +0.19" x -0.1") form factor.[2]
- Lenovo's Tab M8 has a 16:10 ratio 8.0" screen in a 7.80" x 4.83" x 0.32" (-0.03" x +0.09" x -0.09") form factor.[3]
- Amazon's 2020 Fire HD 8 has a 16:10 ratio 8.0" screen in an 8.43" x 5.04" x 0.3" (+0.60" x +0.32" x -0.11") form factor.[4]
> Did the rise of big phones kill the market for the paperback-book form factor of tablet? Does nobody want a modern Nexus 7 anymore, like they used to?
There are arguably more flagship and mid-range phones with 6.5" or larger screens than there are smaller phones in that spec range. The Galaxy Note 10+ has a 16:9 ratio 6.8" screen in a 6.39" x 3.04" x 0.31" (-1.5" x -1.7" x -0.1") form factor.[5]
1: Tab M7; 7.0", 1024x600, Android Go 11 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/tablets/android-tablets/lenov...
2: https://www.gsmarena.com/lenovo_tab_m8_(fhd)-9826.php
3: https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/tablets/buy/?modelCode=SM-...
So I guess you could just buy a “phone”. is 6.7 vs 7 much ?
[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/search.php3?nYearMin=2021&nPriceMax...
I suspect that soured the market on them-- the immediate assumption is that they're trash or toys at best.
So it really wasn't worth the effort to do anything besides lock portrait mode for most developers. 7 inches is a particularly annoying size to adjust layouts for.
This made the tablet experience kinda crappy in most apps. Which helped create lower tablet sales. Which further disincentivized the creation of tablet UIs. Everyone buying a tablet then started getting iPads. Repeat for many years.
Jetpack Compose makes adaptable layouts much easier to create, there's a big push with documentation showing how to create layouts for tablets, foldables, and other unusual form factors, and Google is starting to warn that locking to portrait mode will stop working eventually.
There's no guarantee Android tablets will sell again, but you're currently too late or too early.
For browsing, watching movie, typing etc, obviously I prefer 11".
Which means for travelling, I need to carry at least 4 devices: a phone, a 7" tablet, a 11" tablet, and laptop. Ouch :/
Posted on a Fire 8.