Toshiba just released a $120 Windows 8.1 tablet

[Tam3n]

Not a product to get us too excited on these forums, but it will sell to the masses.

[Techhog]

The iPhone barely has bezels in the first place, and I just double-checked. With them included it's about 4.07" along the diagonal from the edge of the phone to the other edge going straight through the corners of the visible screen. The visible screen falls short at 3.91"

Yes, because they round up.

[patrickjp93]

Yes, because they round up.

Which is cheating. Going by the dimensions of the person's hand and the ratio of finger lengths and widths to each other, that is a small hand holding a 5.x" visible screen with large bezels.

[dalekphalm]

The iPhone barely has bezels in the first place, and I just double-checked. With them included it's about 4.07" along the diagonal from the edge of the phone to the other edge going straight through the corners of the visible screen. The visible screen falls short at 3.91"

Man, I hate to break it to you, but in most* cases, the screen is measured diagonally, edge to edge, screen only. That's the industry standard. NOW just because it's Industry standard, doesn't mean that every single device follows it 100%.

 

By your own measurement, the iPhone 5s doesn't follow the standard, nor does it follow your factually incorrect idea either. You measured w/ bezel and it's too large. You measured without and it's too small.

 

I just measured my HTC HD7, which has a rated 4.3" screen. Measuring this, it matches basically exactly. If I measure the bezel included, my HD7 is about 5" diagonally.

 

With TV's and monitors (especially TV's), there's a bit more give, because they don't use precise measurements. If a TV is 50", then it might actually be 49.7" or 50.25". They'll just round it to the nearest class. Same with Monitors, although they tend to be slightly more precise, with sizes measured up to a half inch (21.5" was quite common for a while).

 

I have a ViewSonic VP2130b 21" Monitor sitting on my desk in front of me right now.

Official specs:

http://www1.viewsonic.com/products/archive/vp2130b.htm

 

Officially rated at 21.3". Measuring JUST THE SCREEN is pretty much exactly just larger then 21", so 21.3" is pretty much spot on. Measuring with the Bezel included, the Monitor measures out to ~23.25" (Give or take 0.1 of an inch or so).

 

So if you have devices that are rated and measured using the bezel, then those devices are non-standard.

 

Using your iPhone 5s as an example, we can calculate the exact diagonal length including the bezel, using the officially measured length and width, as provided here:

http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_5s-5685.php

 

L x W: 4.87 x 2.31 Inches.

 

Using this calculation:

length of diagonal = sqrt (x^2 + y^2)

sqrt = Square Root btw.

 

So lets do the math, shall we?

 

L = x, W = y

x = 4.87

y = 2.31

 

sqrt (4.87^2 + 2.31^2)

sqrt (23.7169 + 5.3361)

sqrt (29.053)

length of diagonal = 5.39008348729405118107714515099

 

Rounded, that's 5.4" diagonally, including the bezel.

 

Now, that's of course larger then the figure you measured (4.07"). But I suspect that you measured the diagonal of the screen, corner to corner, and then just extended outward until you reached the bezel, rather than actually measuring the diagonal length of the 5s, corner to corner (to properly include the bezel).

 

Anyway, the point I'm making is that your measurement system is:

1. Inconsistent (How do you determine what you measure? From corner to corner, bezel included, or from screen edge to edge + as far as you need to go to reach the end of the bezel?)

2. Incorrect based on mine, and others, research. Now to be clear, I don't have a 5s in front of me to measure.

 

I created a handy mspaint picture to display the irregularities of measuring "The bezel". Both are "technically" correct, but both produce a wildly different number:

 

[Techhog]

Which is cheating. Going by the dimensions of the person's hand and the ratio of finger lengths and widths to each other, that is a small hand holding a 5.x" visible screen with large bezels.

Well, you're wrong unless this tablet is measured differently than every other tablet screen. The "dimensions of the person's hand" are your random assumptions...

 

If you were right, this would be marketed as a 9.1-inch tablet.

[patrickjp93]

Well, you're wrong unless this tablet is measured differently than every other tablet screen. The "dimensions of the person's hand" are your random assumptions...

If you were right, this would be marketed as a 9.1-inch tablet.

They're not assumptions. I ran it through a blob analysis program and checked it against some known anatomical ratios where the percentage difference gives you a close approximate idea of how wide and long said hand is.

[Techhog]

They're not assumptions. I ran it through a blob analysis program and checked it against some known anatomical ratios where the percentage difference gives you a close approximate idea of how wide and long said hand is.

... lol

 

No, I'm really laughing. How about this: show me a tablet with thick bezels and the screen size measured the way that you claim.

[Captain_Slow]

1024x600...

 

 

vomit.

[Sauron]

I'd actually buy it, if only the screen was 720p.

[Sauron]

not bad but toshiba is know for filling its hardware with a bunch of bloatware, wouldn't be surprised if this thing runs twice as fast with a clean OS reinstall

 

Well, you can do that ^^

[Hulk]

I can't wait for VGA to die. Analog video output just needs to go. It's shit. DVI is too large a port too. We only need HDMI and DisplayPort derivatives at this point. Everyone else can go to Hell.

Well, all the projectors in my school use VGA so I don't really have a choice now do I?  

[Ruostunut kokis]

It's cheap, and even though the resolution isn't that good (still definitely usable), storage is tiny (although expandable with a Micro SD card), and maybe has not so good build quality, I understand if this becomes common among students. It's small enough computer to take with you at all times to take notes, maybe use it as a media device, and because it's a Windows 8 tablet, use Microsoft office / OpenOffice / other similar program. For a student that makes more sense than a similarly priced android tablet, as it's cheap and you can actually do schoolwork on it as you can use lots of programs you might need in studies. Though a keyboard dock would be a really useful accessory, still though, not a bad tablet IMO.

 

Although I personally would still look for similarly priced / cheaper second-hand laptops, gives more flexibility, typing is easier and I don't mind the extra weight / size...

[patrickjp93]

Well, all the projectors in my school use VGA so I don't really have a choice now do I?

We have dongles for that. My college's projectors support VGA and DVI-I/D and I think HDMI. Luckily projector makers are finally catching up.

[dalekphalm]

We have dongles for that. My college's projectors support VGA and DVI-I/D and I think HDMI. Luckily projector makers are finally catching up.

In the corporate world, 99% of Projectors are still VGA only. The reason is that many of them were installed years ago, and still function. Why replace something that still works when most of the time they're just doing PowerPoint slideshows.

 

Also, DVI only works with dongles if it carries the analog signal. Many newer DVI ports are digital only, which means an active adapter (thus more expensive) is required. That's not to say all DVI ports are now being made digital only, but it is becoming more popular.

 

As an example, our Dell workstations here at work don't have any Analog outputs at all. The DVI connections are digital only. We need active adapters to output to VGA. Course this is onboard video, not a dedicated GPU.

[patrickjp93]

In the corporate world, 99% of Projectors are still VGA only. The reason is that many of them were installed years ago, and still function. Why replace something that still works when most of the time they're just doing PowerPoint slideshows.

Also, DVI only works with dongles if it carries the analog signal. Many newer DVI ports are digital only, which means an active adapter (thus more expensive) is required. That's not to say all DVI ports are now being made digital only, but it is becoming more popular.

As an example, our Dell workstations here at work don't have any Analog outputs at all. The DVI connections are digital only. We need active adapters to output to VGA. Course this is onboard video, not a dedicated GPU.

All the more reason to phase out VGA from everything. Make the corporations but new things and stimulate the economies instead of sitting on wealth

[dalekphalm]

All the more reason to phase out VGA from everything. Make the corporations but new things and stimulate the economies instead of sitting on wealth

Or... and this is out of left field - they give that money to their hard working employees instead? Then those employees can buy all the HD projectors you want

 

While keeping an active IT upgrade cycle is extremely important, upgrading something that still works is a waste of money, and means something else won't get upgraded instead. It's not like Windows XP, where the OS was outdated and a security hole nightmare.