Barry Schwartz, via TED Talk:
With so many options to choose from, people find it very difficult to choose at all.
Choice, In General ¶
Ask any libertarian. Scratch that. Ask anyone who values the freedom of choice: Is choice better for us? I had always thought, and continue to think, yes. Of course choice is good. It has been the basis for much of the progression our free American society has undergone.
How could choice ever be a bad thing?
I started writing this post on October 17, 2014, a day after Apple’s “It’s been way too long” event. As we all know, there’s nothing quite like an Apple event to inspire angst. I had been wanting for an additional screen to bring with me to work, and I was really trying to avoid bringing my MacBook. Having a normal person job made it hard to survive all day with just an iPhone. I was not alone. Sure, the bigger screen made all that tapping and pinching and scrolling all the more enjoyable on a display 0.7" bigger than before. Still, though, I wanted a bigger display for which to consume media whilst not performing irreversible surgical procedures on peoples teefs. I had a MacBook that I loved, yes, but I really did not desire to carry that around back and forth from the car to the office, from the office to the car, etc., even if it meant doing so in the most awesome messenger bag of all time, recommended to me by a friend.
So the natural conclusion that follows, then, would be for me to get an iPad. Simple. Boom. Done. Or was it that easy after all?
The meat of the problem is this:
There are too many choices.
Which takes me to my conundrum:
Which iPad? ¶
There is not just one iPad. There is a whole slew. Like, over 50 different combinations apparently. And the choice was made more difficult this year (compared to last year), because last year the only real decision to be made was whether one wanted a 7.9" display or a 9.7" display. Besides a slightly less than spectacular color gamut befalling the iPad mini with Retina display (“iPad mini 2” as of 10/16/14), the two iPads were almost completely identical.
This was going to be harder than I thought. Now I had to decide whether Touch ID was really worth the $100 differential between the iPad mini 2 and 3. It seems most bloggers I trusted agreed it was definitely not worth it. Also, would I continue to be happy with the ‘below iPad Air 1/2 quality’ display if I chose the mini 2 or 3?
Less Choice In General? ¶
Before I muddle through my final decision-making process, ponder on this: Imagine if there were only one Mac desktop to choose from. Or one Mac notebook to choose from? Sure, it would seem terrible because there would be no option to separate power users from casual ones, as there would not be customizable processor upgrades, RAM upgrades, etc. But I postulate this instead: imagine the lack of stress that goes along with that. This is exactly what Barry Schwartz talks about in his book (and in his TED Talk liked in this article’s title).
Back To Reality ¶
Getting back to my hypothetical Apple hardware scenario, what if all we had in the decision making process was this simplistic flowchart I devised in two seconds:
- Want to sit at a desk with a big ol’ screen and type? Easy, get an iMac.
- Want to sit on the couch and type things? Easy, get a MacBook.
Obviously the reality of the situ is that there are many iMacs (and Mac Pros), and there are many MacBooks. The decision on what Apple hardware product to buy could never be made as simple as my aforementioned postulates. That said, up until Fall 2014, the choice for an iPad was just about as simplistic as my hypothetical suggestions above.
This is where we are now:
- Want to take a screen to work that is bigger than an iPhone? Easy, get an iPad.
- Want to decide what iPad to get? Easy, you’re screwed. Do not pass go, and do not collect $200.
After October 16, 2014 there were now many iPads (and relatively many iPhones as of last month) to choose from.
How I Decided ¶
Firstly ¶
The mini sized iPad is just a gem of a device. I ruled out the Air-sized models fairly early on in the decision making process, much as I had done this time last year. I have had all three iterations of the mini iPad: the original, the Retina-ized version, and the current Touch ID enabled version. Without telling the end from the beginning, suffice it to say that the smaller form factor just works really well for me. It is small enough to one hand very comfortably, and its size differential makes it a lot easier to hold in portrait / reading mode two handed vs the Air models. Yes, it has a slightly more washed out color palette than its bigger brothers as well. But text is still supremely amazing compared to the original iPad mini, and reading articles via Instapaper and Reeder is a completely enjoyable experience on the mini-sized device with its higher-than-the-Air’s pixel density of 326 PPI.
Secondly ¶
I had to decide between the cellular and Wi-Fi only models. I liked the ease of use that the cellular models provide: just unlock the device and I am connected. I can always connect to Wi-Fi if I will be consuming a lot of data, etc. No matter where I am—Wi-Fi or no Wi-Fi—I can use my iPad as an iPod, as a phone, and as an internet communicator. That said, the cellular models command a $130 premium. That’s not necessarily chump change. Moreover, they are also slightly heavier, due to the cellular radios involved.
Thirdly ¶
This year, the capacity choices were a little convoluted. Much has been said about Apple’s [seemingly] purely operationally-motivated choice to double up only the second and third tiers of storage, leaving the bottom of the lineup with a measly 16 GB. I had gone back and forth on whether 16 GB was personally viable for me any longer when deciding which iPhone 6 to get. Here’s the thing: iOS 8, all by itself, takes up around ~4GB. So, right out of the box, users are left with maybe 11-12 GB of actual storage to use. Throw in a couple of big games, a podwrangling app full of the best podcasts out there, and those 11-12 GB get used up real quickly. Forget about bringing any episodes of your favorite TV show on the go with only that much storage space. No, 16 GB just would no longer cut it (even with everything in the cloud these days). Therefore, the next step up would have to suffice. In the case of all the Apple mobile stuffs this year, the next jump up from 16 GB is 64 GB. Oh. neat.
Finally ¶
After having an iPhone 5S and subsequently the 6 / 6 Plus, not having the Touch ID sensor on my iPad seemed like a step backwards. Versus swiping and passcode’ing like a heathen, it is just so much easier to thumb that precious sapphire-adorned sensor to unlock my phone. Why would I want any different for my tablet?
“This is it”: I chose the the iPad mini 3 (Wi-Fi/Cellular) 64 GB (iPad4,8). Am I completely confident in my decision? That’s a tough one to answer. All I can say is that I occasionally look over on the display of Allison’s iPad Air and wonder, could Barry Schwartz be right in this situation too?