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

A balance between portability and usability made the 10.1 '' diagonal screens popular in the Mobile PC market (e.g., 10.1 '' mini-notebooks/netbooks, 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 '' mini-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. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.