4 ms·

The iPad Air

15 points by _pius 13y ago

jrockway 13y ago
The iPad community is starting to give the amateur cyclist "weight weenies" a run for their money when it comes to inane banter about the weight of an object. Here's an experiment. Divide 100 people into 4 groups: one group gets to compare the weight of a 1 pound block of lead and a 1.4 pound block of lead, the second gets 1.4 pounds and 1 pound, the third 1 and 1, the fourth 1.4 and 1.4. See if anyone can actually tell which one weighs more.
- gms 13y ago
  Extra mass makes itself more known the longer you hold it (e.g. bags of groceries). As the NYT reviewer said: 'My hand didn’t cramp up while grasping the iPad Air for an hour while watching movies or playing games'.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- snogglethorpe 13y ago
  To be fair though, 40% isn't a trivial difference for something that you spend a lot of time holding up in the air. I find that with phones and pads, it's more than there's sort of a threshold, and those over it feel "heavy" and just sort of unpleasant to hold. Below that threshold, lighter can be nice, but it isn't critical, and it can be a negative if it makes something feel cheap. [This is the sort of thing that makes me strongly avoid buying mail-order... "feel" matters a lot in many cases, and it's often very hard to judge from specs.]
- bradleyland 13y ago
  When you're holding something the way you hold an iPad -- or at least the way I do -- the weight of the device is amplified through leverage. I tend to grip my iPad the way I do a book; near the bottom. The fulcrum point of support is at my wrist, which is always far from the center of gravity of the iPad. Gripping it from the bottom makes it worse, as the total weight of the iPad is suspended above my wrist. I constantly find myself swapping between gripping where I want to grip (near the bottom) and some other position that requires less effort. Even then, human anatomy dictates that the fulcrum point is always well outside the bounds of the device. I've owned an iPad 1 (680g) and an iPad 3 (650g). Even the seemingly tiny reduction in weight was noticeable when holding the iPad near the bottom. I've held an iPad Mini, and the difference is night and day. The iPad Air weighs 181g less than the iPad 3, but only 138g more than the iPad Mini. That means the iPad Air is closer in weight to the Mini than it is the outgoing iPad. If you don't think that's an appreciable weight difference that you'll feel every time you use an iPad, then you've got some serious gorilla-strength arms.
  - jrockway 13y ago
    I use a Nexus 10 and the weight is fine for a JFK-SFO flight. (It's 1.3 pounds.) Sure, you shift it around a few times, just like you adjust your legs or get up to use the bathroom. Lighter is better, but I don't think it warrants so much discussion.
- pohl 13y ago
  The iPad community is starting to give the amateur cyclist "weight weenies" a run for their money... Heck, you should hear people who read books talk about hardcover vs paperback. Weight is an oft-cited difference between the two. Better still, eavesdrop into conversations about the tradeoffs of Minority Report style user interfaces – wherein arm-fatigue is a huge minus, and there's nothing in their hand at all. Wonder why that is.

15 points by _pius 13y ago

The iPad community is starting to give the amateur cyclist "weight weenies" a run for their money when it comes to inane banter about the weight of an object. Here's an experiment. Divide 100 people into 4 groups: one group gets to compare the weight of a 1 pound block of lead and a 1.4 pound block of lead, the second gets 1.4 pounds and 1 pound, the third 1 and 1, the fourth 1.4 and 1.4. See if anyone can actually tell which one weighs more.

gms 13y ago
Extra mass makes itself more known the longer you hold it (e.g. bags of groceries). As the NYT reviewer said: 'My hand didn’t cramp up while grasping the iPad Air for an hour while watching movies or playing games'.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
snogglethorpe 13y ago
To be fair though, 40% isn't a trivial difference for something that you spend a lot of time holding up in the air. I find that with phones and pads, it's more than there's sort of a threshold, and those over it feel "heavy" and just sort of unpleasant to hold. Below that threshold, lighter can be nice, but it isn't critical, and it can be a negative if it makes something feel cheap. [This is the sort of thing that makes me strongly avoid buying mail-order... "feel" matters a lot in many cases, and it's often very hard to judge from specs.]
bradleyland 13y ago
When you're holding something the way you hold an iPad -- or at least the way I do -- the weight of the device is amplified through leverage. I tend to grip my iPad the way I do a book; near the bottom. The fulcrum point of support is at my wrist, which is always far from the center of gravity of the iPad. Gripping it from the bottom makes it worse, as the total weight of the iPad is suspended above my wrist. I constantly find myself swapping between gripping where I want to grip (near the bottom) and some other position that requires less effort. Even then, human anatomy dictates that the fulcrum point is always well outside the bounds of the device. I've owned an iPad 1 (680g) and an iPad 3 (650g). Even the seemingly tiny reduction in weight was noticeable when holding the iPad near the bottom. I've held an iPad Mini, and the difference is night and day. The iPad Air weighs 181g less than the iPad 3, but only 138g more than the iPad Mini. That means the iPad Air is closer in weight to the Mini than it is the outgoing iPad. If you don't think that's an appreciable weight difference that you'll feel every time you use an iPad, then you've got some serious gorilla-strength arms.
- jrockway 13y ago
  I use a Nexus 10 and the weight is fine for a JFK-SFO flight. (It's 1.3 pounds.) Sure, you shift it around a few times, just like you adjust your legs or get up to use the bathroom. Lighter is better, but I don't think it warrants so much discussion.
pohl 13y ago
The iPad community is starting to give the amateur cyclist "weight weenies" a run for their money... Heck, you should hear people who read books talk about hardcover vs paperback. Weight is an oft-cited difference between the two. Better still, eavesdrop into conversations about the tradeoffs of Minority Report style user interfaces – wherein arm-fatigue is a huge minus, and there's nothing in their hand at all. Wonder why that is.