7″inch Mid Size Tablets – are They a Phone or a Tablet?

The first time I saw the Samsung Galaxy Tab, I was not sure if it was simply a larger phone or it was a tablet! At a visible 8.6 mm size (7 inches) it was far smaller than the iPad which stands at 242.8 mm (9.56 inches). Then I saw the 7 inches Asus Eee Pad Memo and then I knew a new segment was being created within the tablet market and the release of the iPad 2 which at 8.8mm is 33% smaller in size than the first iPad does actually confirm this.

Looking at the picture on your right, the larger device is a tablet, the smaller one an iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy Tab is the middle one. This  ’Samsung Galaxy Tab’ segment is best described as the pocketable tablets, they can easily be slipped into a gentleman’s pocket or a lady’s handbag…call it having all the goodies of a tablet in a large phone. So if tablets are gradually taking the size of phones, what then is the difference between a phone and a tablet? Especially when the Samsung Galaxy Tab for example works as a full 3G phone!

There are indeed certain similarities between the tablets and smartphones. The iPad and Android tablets run the same operating systems as their smaller cousins, and some touchscreen principles work the same across devices. But tablets have a different form, ergonomics, and context than phones. So designing for tablet takes a different perspective and, almost always, a whole new design concept.

Simply put a tablet is like a phone as a swimming pool is like a bathtub. Similar on the surface, but intended for entirely different uses. The design has to reflect that. Yet it cannot be argued that although there are clear differences between the two, it certainly becomes blurred when you see someone walking around with a Galaxy Tab to their ear having a phone conversation.