A new crown pneumonia epidemic has hit the smartphone industry hard, and it has saved two other areas without thinking, one is tablet computers and the other is PC.
The hot demand for online courses and remote office has made those manufacturers who abandon pit tablets start tablets again. Huawei MatePad, Xiaomi Tablet 5 Series, realme Pad, Lenovo Pad Pro, etc., as well as Android tablet veteran Samsung's Galaxy Tab have been updated, and the tablet market that has fallen for several quarters has been revitalized.
Under such heat, Google has also taken action. A few days ago, Google officially launched the Android 12L Beta version of the operating system, which is optimized for tablets, folding screens and other large-screen devices. Yes, in 2021, Google finally remembered that we still have android tablets.
Android 12L, Google finally remembered the Android tablet
Android 12L on top of Android 12, optimizes the display of notifications, quick settings, lock screen, overview, home screen and other elements, making them more beautiful and easy to use on large-screen devices.
The most intuitive update comes from the taskbar, which adds a little more iPadOS and Chrome OS flavor to Android tablets, and multitasking is more convenient. Android 12L also supports quickly entering split screen mode by dragging and dropping, which is much more comfortable than the split screen operation on mobile phones.
The second is compatibility mode and Enhanced Letterboxing, which is not so much an improvement as a compromise. Today's Android apps are rarely designed for tablets and are often only used on vertical screens. Android 12L's compatibility mode and mailbox mode are for this purpose.
On Android 12L, apps that have a fixed screen orientation or screen size that can't be adjusted, and whose maximum or minimum aspect ratio isn't compatible with the aspect ratio of the device's screen, will go into letterbox mode — in effect, forcing a landscape screen, with white space around it filled with a matte black border.
In addition, the improvement of Android 12L at this stage is lackluster, the quick setting switch has changed from a bottom card to a hovering card, and a new user login option has been added to the lock screen, which is almost interesting from the revolutionary new feature.
So how to try Android 12L? If you own a Pixel phone after the Pixel 3a or Pixel 3a XL, you can now get updates through the Android Beta Program. For tablet devices, Lenovo Tab P12 Pro (Xiaoxin Pad Pro 12.6 International Edition) is currently the only one that supports early adopters, and if the hands-on ability is relatively strong, it can also be swiped into the "Universal System Image" (GSI) on devices such as Xiaomi Tablet 5. If you're familiar with Android Studio, it's also possible to create a virtual device experience with it, which is more secure.
If you really don't have the device conditions, don't worry, Android 12L will be officially launched early next year, and it is expected that there will be manufacturer adaptations soon.
Chinese manufacturers, teach Google to make tablets?
In 2010, Jobs said at the first-generation iPad launch: "You can flip the iPad at will, face up and down, or use it flat, no matter how you want to use it, [the iPad] can automatically adjust." This is his ideal design for a "third type of device" tablet.
I didn't think that the tablet had only been beautiful for a few years, and then it fell silent. Manufacturers are buried in smart phone applications, when the application ecology of tablet computers does not exist, the basic operation of flipping tablets at will has become a luxury.
Apple Developer's Guide: "Support both portrait and landscape orientation if possible"
The Verge once published an article titled "Google has never taken tablets seriously", pointing out that Google lacks a coherent and orderly plan for Android tablets, and the android big-screen experience has never been better. Since Android 4.X, the Android tablet system has hardly received major updates, and Google is to blame for this.
Compared with Google's stagnation, domestic manufacturers have explored practical solutions on large-screen devices. Huawei's parallel vision is a proven strategy, which supports dual-task independent operation within an application, and even applications that are not supported in landscape mode can make full use of screen space under the horizontal screen.
If you trace the origins, the design concept of parallel windows is not actually the first of Huawei. The 2015 Taobao Windows 10 UWP edition has applied a similar design, which was developed by Microsoft officials and co-developed with Alibaba, using a two-part interface design, so that the application is no longer so awkward to use under the horizontal screen.
Taobao Windows UWP Edition
But in any case, parallel horizons have proven to be proven to be effective tablet interaction designs. The horizontal screen mode of the Xiaomi tablet and the parallel window function of the Lenovo tablet have the same magic.
Another idea for tablet applications is PC mode, which maximizes the use of screen space through windowed applications and improves multitasking efficiency. Huawei, Xiaomi tablet has the corresponding functions, Xiaomi MIX FOLD folding screen mobile phone, Lenovo tablet have provided PC mode, following the computer interface, overall is very in line with the user's intuitive operation. Many third-party Android x86 distribution systems are already familiar with PC mode.
Xiaomi MIX FOLD PC mode
Here's another google. On the latest Android 12L system, we only saw the split-screen display, and did not see the polished mature window mode, which really makes people wonder if Google is a tablet fundamentalist.
There is also a thinking that since the independent ecology of tablet computers is limited, can it be used as a carrier to create cross-screen collaboration? In the design of the cross-screen system, the design of Huawei Family Bucket and Xiaomi MIUI+ can be remarkable, and OPPO also focuses on the design of cross-screen interconnection function on ColorOS 12. Domestic smart phone manufacturers are invariably the same, if they want to create a family barrel, they must first work on its cross-screen interconnection.
What about Google? Google actually has a family bucket, but also a cross-screen design. However, Google's native cross-screen interconnection experience is very limited, almost can only be used with Chromebooks, Chrome OS is almost useless in China, the global share is less than 3%, how many users can enjoy this superior native cross-screen support?
epilogue
Since the debut of iPadOS in 2019, Apple's tablet-specific system has gone through three major releases. At this juncture, Google hastily launched the Android version of "iPadOS" to save the Barbaric Growth of the Android tablet, it is really late.
Before this, Google almost had to abandon the treatment, first gave up its own Nexus and Pixel tablets, and also directly lost the Android tablet system to make Chromebook tablets open a new pit. Fortunately, Android 12L is coming at the right time, and it is not too late to make up for it.
But that's not enough. Whether it is to compete with iPadOS, or to catch up with huawei Hongmeng, Xiaomi MIUI tablet and folding screen design, Android 12L needs more innovation. Reinvigorating the Android tablet, Google is in a position to do.
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