Display and device size effects on the usability of mini-notebooks (netbooks)/ultraportables as small form-factor Mobile PCs

摘要

A balance between portability and usability made the 10.1" diagonal screens popular in the Mobile PC market (e.g., 10.1" mini-notebooksetbooks, convertible/hybrid ultraportables); yet no academic research rationalizes this phenomenon. This study investigated the size effects of display and input devices of 4 mini-notebooks (netbooks) ranged in size on their performances in 2 simple and 3 complex applied tasks. It seemed that the closer the display and/or input devices (touchpad/touchscreen/keyboard) sizes to those sizes of a generic notebook, the shorter the operation times (there was no certain phenomenon for the error rates). With non-significant differences, the 10.1" and 8.9" mini-notebooks (netbooks) were as fast as the 11.6" one in almost all the tasks, except for the 8.9" one in the typing tasks. The 11.6" min i-notebook (netbook) was most preferred; while the difference in the satisfactions was not significant between the 10.1" and 11.6" ones but between the 7" and 11.6" ones.