Question: Snapdragon 870 processor, 2.5K 120Hz refresh rate screen, stereo system, keyboard and stylus, which Android tablet is this?
Obviously, there is no unique solution to this problem, because the Xiaomi Tablet 5 Pro, Lenovo Xiaoxin Pad Pro, vivo Pad, OPPO Pad, Rescuer Y700 and other recently launched a series of Android tablets are similar configurations.
Since the configuration is similar, their software experience must have its own highlights.
Android tablets are feature-rich, but the details are a little bit poor
In fact, not only the hardware configuration, in terms of system experience, the direction of the Android tablet is also very unified, that is, to vigorously develop the horizontal screen scene.
Compared with the Xiaomi Tablet 4 that "lay flat" as a drama chasing artifact many years ago, today's manufacturers want you to use the tablet to do productivity work. Last year, the camera was placed above the vertical or mainstream, and now the OPPO Pad and vivo Pad released, even the camera has moved to the side, and the iron heart wants you to use the horizontal screen plus the keyboard. However, the "inner volume" road of Android tablets is not easy.
Because the Android horizontal screen ecology is too sloppy, if you want to expand the horizontal screen scene, manufacturers must promote third-party app developers to improve the horizontal screen ecology, in addition to adaptation, but also with a variety of practical system functions to improve the horizontal screen experience.
The first is the split screen, through buttons, gestures and other forms, running multiple software on a screen at the same time, adapting to the split screen mode of how many apps, has always been the focus of publicity by major manufacturers.
The second is "Parallel Horizon", when Huawei's EMUI expanded for the Android display framework, allowing different interfaces of an app to be displayed independently in different positions on the screen. The title catalog + article, product list + details were once the exclusive highlights of Huawei tablets.
Finally, the small window mode, the best small window experience should be the Xiaomi tablet's infinity window, just swipe from the corner, you can shrink the app to a small window mode, and adapt to a variety of sizes.
At the launch of vivo Pad, vivo said that the Android tablet released before, everyone is not very satisfied, although the parameters have not been lost, but the experience has not won.
The vivo Pad, which was finally released, did indeed do everything, split screen, in-app split screen, small window, service horizontal screen function should all have. After the experience, we also gave the evaluation of "coming a little later, the experience is really better".
But when I use an Android tablet, it always makes me feel uncomfortable.
This uncomfortable feeling is not easy to describe, and I will share it with you with a few examples.
When using WeChat in the horizontal screen, click "Discover", the status bar at the top of the right side becomes black, but I don't care. Open a video number, use the split screen of WeChat to chat with friends, hey, how does the video of the video number rotate?
If I accidentally change the direction of the tablet, the video number will not be able to find its own direction at all.
After using the split screen to exit, always have to exit one, and then exit the second, can not keep the split screen settings in the background, can not be a one-time exit of both.
When using the split screen function in the app, some can adjust the proportion of different interfaces after the split screen, and sometimes not.
▲ "Today's Headlines" that can adjust the proportion of split screens
▲ "Bilibili" that cannot adjust the proportion of the screen
Are these occasional bugs? I think it should not be, the trigger probability of 100% is not called a bug, this is a simple adaptation problem. These problems basically cover the popular Android tablets released in the past two years:
The system function experience is flawed, and there will always be frame drops in some places;
Third-party apps have a landscape mode, but they're not good enough;
Third-party apps adapt to system features (e.g., parallel horizons, small windows), but they are not perfect.
There are also bugs, such as when I use a certain tablet, when I type content with Graphite Documentation, the input box is always in the lower left corner of the screen. The other tablet, when using the built-in note app, will appear to be stuck.
▲ The text input box is in the lower left corner of the interface
All Android tablet conferences, will tell users, it adapts to how many apps of the large screen mode, has how many kinds of small windows optimized for large screens, split screen operations, every time I watch the conference, let me feel that the Android tablet is going to become, but as long as the hands-on experience, there will always be a feeling of becoming, but not completely.
▲ At the launch of the Android tablet, productivity is the main theme
Is the Android tablet not configured high enough? I think not, the performance has a Snapdragon 870, the screen has 2.5K, the accessory has a keyboard stylus, it is indeed not bad.
Is the Android tablet experience bad? In fact, it is not, the larger size of the Android tablet, so that the processor performance can be more fully released, play games or watch videos, the experience is still good. But as long as you connect the keyboard and stylus, when you want to do something with it, the details of the experience will be less interesting.
So, if the Android tablet can smoothly implement the various functions it advertises, without strange bugs, how about the horizontal screen experience? There will be a boost, but... Still not good enough.
A good landscape experience should conform to cognitive logic
The problem with Android tablets is in adaptation.
It's true, but not quite right.
But before arguing this point, I have one more question to ponder, that is, how to write it so that everyone can think that it is not an advertisement for Apple. So I'm going to start with some problems with iPad when using landscape screens.
The first is the adaptation of third-party apps, such as "Little Red Book" does not have a horizontal screen mode, if opened with an Android tablet, there is a "parallel horizon" can be used.
▲ The in-app split screen of "Little Red Book" on Android tablet
Secondly, in terms of system function, although the iPad also has a small window, it can only stay on the left and right sides of the screen in a long bar, and the experience is indeed inferior to the Android tablet that can change the size of the small window at will.
Okay, so let's talk about those things about operating logic.
In the era of physical fingerprint recognition, the most popular operation method for users is Meizu's mBack, although it is only a return, but it uses "light touch" and "heavy press" to correspond to the "first level" and "all" two return operations. Less effort and less officers, more effort to do more, in line with our intuition, almost no learning costs.
In the era of full screen, iPhone X combined with the previous right swipe back, with a thin lever to define the operation: throw out back to the desktop, pull down into one-handed mode, swipe left and right to switch apps, also in line with intuition.
If an operation doesn't go against intuition, it's through long periods of user education, such as screenshots.
After the iPhone was changed to a full screen, how to take screenshots and how to shut down made many users who got new mobile phones feel confused, and even made jokes that they could not turn off the plane. The reason is very simple, the user's familiar "power button + home button" screenshot is gone, the "power button" located on the right side of the fuselage is gone, it has a new name, called "side button".
▲ It takes time to relearn a function
The same situation also appears on the Android platform, in addition to the control center icon and "power + volume key" that everyone has, the two screenshot methods, the knuckle screenshot, the three-finger sliding screenshot, and the double-click screenshot all need to learn the cost. When testing an Android tablet before, the game blocked the button and pull-down control center, resulting in me unable to take a screenshot, in a panic tried a variety of screenshot methods, and finally succeeded in the three-finger slide.
▲ Two screenshot methods of Xiaomi Tablet
At this time, we have made two points of view clear: first, the operation should be intuitive, otherwise it will take a long period of user education; second: if it can't be done, then you should set up buttons with clear functions, such as Android's three major diamond keys, such as power and volume keys.
Meizu's mBack and iPhone's full-screen gestures are intuitive, and various screenshot gestures and iPhone shutdown methods have a long period of user education. But when it comes to the Android horizontal screen operation, in the past few years of barbaric growth, the operation method can almost be described as "each showing its magic".
Let's start with how iPad does it. When you open an app, you have two split-screen gestures. First, drag out the bottom dock, drag the app that you want to split the screen up, put the left left split screen, put the right right split screen, do not put it on the left and right, it will become a small window.
Second, drag to the left from the top middle of the app (with a "..." indication) to see the desktop, and then select another app in the desktop that you want to split. Of course, you can also drag to the right so that the previous full-screen app stays on the right.
Want to go back to the user interface of an app? Drag the middle divider to the side, and the one that remains becomes the only app on the screen, drag the app on the left to the right, and drag the app on the right to the left.
Directly swipe up can directly exit both apps, because they are exited at the same time, so these two apps will remain split screen in the background, which you can see in the multitasking interface. In the multi-task interface, you can also easily combine the split-screen styles of various apps by swiping and dragging.
This set of operations is very intuitive, if you want to go to the left split screen, drag to the left, want to combine the split screen in the background group, want to exit the split screen can also be easily realized. Even if you don't know the gesture, the "..."" at the top can be used to tap to achieve various split-screen functions.
The only thing that has a learning cost should be the new iPadOS 15 in the same app split screen, you need to open the app, drag out the dock, click the same app, so that you can create a new window, the personal experience is somewhat fragmented.
So, how does the Android tablet achieve split screen? To give a few simple examples, the Xiaomi Mi Tablet 5 is to enter the background, long press the app icon, click the split screen function button, to achieve split screen.
Oppo Pad is a two-finger slide from the middle into the split screen.
Vivo Pad is a three-finger swipe up to enter the split screen.
Remember what you said earlier? Obviously, two or three fingers are not in line with the intuition of "putting one app on one side and another on the other side". So do they educate users? OPPO Pad still follows the split-screen operation of OPPO Find N (but was released at the end of last year), but vivo Pad starts from scratch.
▲ Xiaomi does follow the split-screen method of the mobile phone, but it is not a gesture
Moreover, the entire set of split-screen operations of the iPad can also be achieved by dragging the pointer on the trackpad, but with the touch version of vivo Pad, the three-finger swipe up realizes the exit app - this operation has a long period of user education, but it is indeed different from vivo's own gesture logic.
In today's world where the screen is getting bigger and bigger and the keys are getting fewer and fewer, the gesture operation of smart devices should allow users to achieve various functions more quickly, rather than increasing the user's learning costs.
However, when I take off the keyboard and put down the pen, put up the screen to open the app, the Android tablet is still easy to use, just like the Android phone.
Of course, we should see advances in Android tablets
We were happy when Huawei almost single-handedly reinvigorated the Android tablet; when the Xiaomi tablet announced its return on Weibo and picked up the tablet business that had not been updated for several years, we were happy; when Vivo, as the first mobile phone manufacturer in domestic sales, was the last to launch the tablet.
No optimizations for large screens? Then actively promote the adaptation of third-party application developers; the keyboard "ESC" key is not natively supported? Then adjust the bottom of the system; lack of competitiveness? Then add innovative functions such as extended screen and multi-screen collaboration for tablets.
Recently, I have been interesting that vivo Pad supports saving two split-screen apps on the desktop and opening them in one step - although it does not retain the split-screen state in the background like iPadOS, Android manufacturers are still trying to save the country.
▲ The split-screen combination of today's headlines and Weibo
In the past few years of development, The Android tablet is no longer just a large Android phone used to watch dramas, which also makes Google start to pay attention to the large-screen market again.
At the end of 2021, Google announced Android 12L for large-screen devices and updated development standards and design resources. This time, Android natively supports a split-screen mode similar to iPadOS.
In addition, Google has also proposed an adaptive design that changes the way content is displayed according to different screen sizes. The underlying support will reduce the development and maintenance costs to a certain extent.
I admit that for many Android tablet users, a big screen that can catch up with dramas and play games is all they pursue for tablets. And with Google's native support and the manufacturer's efforts to adapt, all the dissatisfaction with the Android tablet can be brushed over with a sentence of "the future can be expected".
But today, when keyboards and stylus have become standard tablets, and every conference will take the horizontal screen function and third-party adaptation as highlights, Android tablets obviously have a long way to go.