Apple iPad Mini 8in tablet review
The tablet even Apple haters won't be able to leave alone
Hitting the Apple Store shelves a whole week after Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD tablets began arriving in the post, and two months after Google launched the Asus-made Nexus 7, the iPad Mini deserves to suffer in comparison. Even Google managed to slip a new 32GB version of its Nexus 7 under the radar at the beginning of the week.
Apple's iPad Mini: a terrific little device?
Practically all commentators argue that Google and Amazon have forced Apple into undue haste to develop its own 7in tablet, so it only stands to reason that the result will be a bodged rush-job... surely?
As it turns out, surely not. The iPad Mini is a terrific little device.
For starters, it is not “just a shrunk-down iPad” – as if doing so would somehow have made it easier to manufacture. Those familiar with full-size iPads will have no trouble locating the power and home buttons, volume controls, option switch and headphone socket. However, the shape of the device as a whole has been altered to allow it a narrower bezel on the long edges. Note that an overlapping thumb touching the edge of the screen does not interfere with scrolling.
Comfortable to hold in one hand without straining
There are more dramatic differences. Every time I handed the iPad Mini to someone for the first time, they’d make the same two observations: “Oh, it's really light,” invariably followed by, “it’s really thin”. The iPad Mini is comfortable to hold in one hand without straining, in much the same way that you'd hold an e-ink Kindle or Kobo. By comparison, Amazon's Kindle Fire HD is almost a third heavier and thicker.
Despite being the same width and only a little bit taller than the Fire HD, the iPad Mini presents a significantly bigger screen area that Apple rates as 7.9in diagonal. What this bigger space doesn't give you is more pixels: it’s not a Retina display. Instead, the iPad Mini’s screen resolution is just 1024 x 768 pixels, exactly the same as for the original iPad and the iPad 2 but compacted to 163ppi. In this regard, it’s left standing by the beautiful 1280 x 800 pixel competitors from Amazon and Google.
Hurrah! All your existing apps work immediately, unmodified. But Siri remains as useless as ever
Worse, it means the iPad Mini’s screen is unable to play HD movies at full 720p. It has the width, sure, but 1280 has to be squeezed down to 1024, and thus 720 to 576.
Next page: Detached Retina
COMMENTS
Re: Sheltered Life
"Specs specs specs specs specs specs that's all Android fans ever go on about"
... All thanks to its 3.1 million pixels. It’s the best mobile display ever.
The new A6X chip inside iPad is up to twice as fast as the previous-generation A5X chip,
The new iPad with Retina display features advanced Wi‑Fi that’s up to twice as fast as any previous....
And that's all from the iPad's front page,,,,
I personally couldn't give a flying monkeys what OS something is running, so long as it's priced and specc'd for what I want to do.
I use mine for web browsing & videos. So for me so long as it can output 1080p with out add on's (bar a £10 cable) and browse the web I'm happy, for others they may want more power and more toys.
Personally I've been in this game far to long to be bothered by this pointless willy waving. At the end of the day, if you are buying a device because it looks super trendy, or because it's an open platform with no restrictions and you can do what you want, as opposed to buying it because it actually does what you want it to do, then you've still yet to grow up.
So please, buy the device you want and stop this pointless he said, she said crap, some of us are really bored of it now.
Re: Couldn't Happen To A Nicer Company
"Cheap Android tablets feel like shit. They use thin, horrible plastic, they are slow and they are buggy."
Perhaps stop shopping for tablets in supermarkets..
" I work with phones and tablets all day long"
Translation: I work in an Apple Store.
"if you add up the device features as a whole it's worth every penny."
No it's not. No GPS, Shite maps, no NFC, no multi-use logon, and a rubbish 4:3 non-HD panel, couple with a mediocre (by Nexus7 standards) GPU/CPU, and the infamous Apple lock-in to proprietary formats and connectors and all for an extra £150...
Re: Sheltered Life
""Cheap Android tablets feel like shit. They use thin, horrible plastic, they are slow and they are buggy.
If you are only basing on price alone, then yeah, the iPad Mini gets beaten, but if you add up the device features as a whole it's worth every penny.""
.....Oh great, compare a £259 iPad Mini with a <£100 android, 'cos that's a fair fight......................
Why not compare a 16GB/No SDHC/No HDMI Nexus 7 at £159 with a 16GB/No SDHC/No HDMI iPad Mini at £269 then I'll discuss with you. If you want to tell me that quad-core is too slow, or take umbrage at the grippy rubberised back, them I'm confused. So what do I get for paying 70% more?
My fingertip grip on a Mini in Dixons told me that it's too wide for my hands and although tethered to the display, also too wide for my inside jacket pocket.
If I have to put it in my bag, or can't grip it properly when say on the tube, then it's not fit for going out and about which is surely the selling point for a mini??
Re: Sheltered Life
"They use thin, horrible plastic"
There is somethign nice about plastic. My kids' $120 chinese ICS tablet survived way too many drops, with no damage. My pampered iPad on the other hand, has dents even though it never flew.
In fact the chinaPad is much nicer to hold with the rounded edges. And it's lighter, too.
Meh...
Doesn't look like anything interesting.
Then again I didn't bother scrolling the review down. I believe this is the approved way to view Apple pages is it not?
