Following the official launch of Qantas' Boeing 787, Australian Business Traveller had the opportunity to nestle into the new economy seat as a taster of the what many travellers will experience once the red-tailed Dreamliner takes to the skies from late 2017.

The economy cabin's 166 seats will be arranged in a 3-3-3 layout.

While some of the 'seat elite' set are making their expected grumbles against this nine-across configuration, rather than an eight-abreast cabin (with 2-4-2 seating), the fact is that nine-across is the industry standard for the Boeing 787.

The Qantas Boeing 787 economy seat pitch is set to 32 inches, which is one inch more than the Qantas Airbus A380's economy seats.

And that one extra inch makes quite a difference, not just in legroom but in knee-room.

Bear in mind that hundreds of passengers fly each day between Sydney and Dallas on the Qantas superjumbo – I've done it, and I'll be first to agree that it's not comfortable – so this extra inch will be appreciated, especially on those very long flights which the Dreamliner will be making.

(Touted routes such as Perth-London, Sydney-Chicago and Melbourne-Dallas will all exceed 17 hours.)

And while the Boeing 787 economy seat is slightly narrower than Qantas' A380 benchmark – around 17.2 inches, down from the superjumbo's 17.5 inches – it's not something that anybody will notice. We're talking about less than half the diameter of a 5c coin.

Each economy seat reclines up to six inches, and passengers on those long Boeing 787 flights are certain to spend a lot of time in 'laid-back' mode.

It's quite comfortable, and more importantly, the extra inch of spacing between the seats means that even when the seat in front of you is fully reclined it won't be as intrusively 'in your face' as on other aircraft.

This photo gives you a sense of the practical room between seats, and also shows that I'm not always as po-faced as I may appear.

Qantas has put some thought into other ways to make the long trip slightly less of a trial.

Two netted pockets at the bottom of each seatback hold the airline-issued headphones and a water bottle.

(Our tip: bring your own noise-cancelling headphones, especially something super-compact like the Bose QC20s, and fling the supplied headphones into the overhead locker. Ditto for everything in the magazine pocket, barring the safety card of course, so there's more room for your own reading material or a tablet).

Up top sits an adjustable 12 inch touchscreen for the inflight entertainment system – and we know that's going to get a workout on those long flights.

Directly beneath this is a panel which reveals a nook for holding small personal items such as reading glasses.

The fold-down door to that cubby doubles as a stand for a tablet.

The setup here shows an iPad Mini, but a standard-sized tablet to around 10 inches (which includes most iPads and Android tablets) should also perch there without drama.

Note also the handy location of the USB port, so you can keep your tablet charged up while it's in use.

(There's also a universal AC socket lower down, between the seats, with two sockets for each set of three seats.)

The tray table slides up and out from a recess below the cubby.

This makes it possible to watch videos playing on your own tablet during the meal service.

The tray table flips back into a half-depth table if all you need is some space for your drink.

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