iPad Mini Review

I laugh when I see people rage out once Apple releases a product that doesn't satisfy all their personal fantasies. You could fill a warehouse with the amount of different 7" Android based tablets and you don't hear a peep. Apple releases the iPad Mini and the rabid wall scratchers come out like werewolves on a full moon! If you're the type of person that feels devastated that the iPad Mini doesn't have a 7.8" 2048x1536 display then my best advise to you is..... don't buy it. Simple! :)
 
This is probably the only tablet I would buy. The 16:9 or 16:10 is the wrong shape for a tablet and 10" is too big.
 
Snowdog said:
Screen size gives you functionality (more space to work).
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Not true, usable resolution dictates your functionality(space to work).

Example, you can order a 15" MBP with a 1440x900 screen, or a 1680x1050 screen. The 1680x1050 screen (HighRes) is 25% more work space, on the same size screen.

But the rMBP is functionally equal to a 1440x900 MBP. The "native" resolution is identical, it just looks prettier for the same size.

All things being equal, that would be nice. But it's not equal, the battery life is less, the graphics card has to work MUCH harder, and the cost is more. And compared to my 15" HighResMBP my usable space is 75% of what it was.

Now with a rMBP you can scale the display to 1680x1050, or even 1900x1200, but the performance, which already is taking a hit driving a 2880x1800 panel, takes another hit, frequently reducing it below "acceptable levels" of performance (IMO! everyone is different of course!)


With the Ipad2/Ipad3/4, the usable space is identical, but the Ipad3/4 looks better, because of the Retina display. But this came at the cost of lower battery life, hotter running, and more expensive. Again, personal opinion, but not a worthy trade off IMO.
 
I find it funny that is has no retina display LMAO.

And that they will milk the consumer with the Retina Display in 6 month for even more money, "same price as the normal iPad probably"

Or maybe never since Samsung doesn't want to give them the displays no more.
 
Zumino Zufeilon said:
Not true, usable resolution dictates your functionality(space to work).

Example, you can order a 15" MBP with a 1440x900 screen, or a 1680x1050 screen. The 1680x1050 screen (HighRes) is 25% more work space, on the same size screen.
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Which is 25% smaller and may not be usable for some. You only have a small range were you can increase resolution, while shrinking the UI and still have it usable/functional. The real use for high dpi devices is presenting the same functional area, but making it look better - Aesthetics, not function.

Size on the other hand is pure function:

A 1280x800 smartphone would be a massive pain to browse the web on.

A 15" laptop with 1280x800 screen would be very usable for web browsing.

Size increased functionality dramatically even at the same resolution.
 
Downsizing to a smaller size tablet is all about portability IMHO, and that's why the iPad Mini is an overpriced failure. The current crop of 7" Android tablets are portable enough that I can toss them in my back pocket (and on some of my clothing, I can fit it in the front one as well.) The iPad Mini is too big for this. If I can't fit it in a pocket, then why do I care if it's a little smaller? Downsizing by two inches has almost no effect on its portability.
 
Daggah said:
Downsizing to a smaller size tablet is all about portability IMHO, and that's why the iPad Mini is an overpriced failure. The current crop of 7" Android tablets are portable enough that I can toss them in my back pocket (and on some of my clothing, I can fit it in the front one as well.) The iPad Mini is too big for this. If I can't fit it in a pocket, then why do I care if it's a little smaller? Downsizing by two inches has almost no effect on its portability.
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This is nonsense. The iPad mini is in the same size class as 7" Androids.

7" Kindle Fire HD:
7.6" x 5.4" x 0.4"
394 grams

iPad Mini:
7.87" x 5.3" x 0.28"
308 grams

The Nexus is a little more narrow, but the Mini is still thinner and lighter than any of the Android 7" tablets. It is just as portable.
 
Zumino Zufeilon said:
Not true, usable resolution dictates your functionality(space to work).

Example, you can order a 15" MBP with a 1440x900 screen, or a 1680x1050 screen. The 1680x1050 screen (HighRes) is 25% more work space, on the same size screen.

But the rMBP is functionally equal to a 1440x900 MBP. The "native" resolution is identical, it just looks prettier for the same size.

All things being equal, that would be nice. But it's not equal, the battery life is less, the graphics card has to work MUCH harder, and the cost is more. And compared to my 15" HighResMBP my usable space is 75% of what it was.

Now with a rMBP you can scale the display to 1680x1050, or even 1900x1200, but the performance, which already is taking a hit driving a 2880x1800 panel, takes another hit, frequently reducing it below "acceptable levels" of performance (IMO! everyone is different of course!)


With the Ipad2/Ipad3/4, the usable space is identical, but the Ipad3/4 looks better, because of the Retina display. But this came at the cost of lower battery life, hotter running, and more expensive. Again, personal opinion, but not a worthy trade off IMO.
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Lol you must have super amazing eyes. I scale mine to 1680x1050 and performance is fine. I have my complaints about the notebook but that is not one of them...
 
Daggah said:
Downsizing to a smaller size tablet is all about portability IMHO, and that's why the iPad Mini is an overpriced failure. The current crop of 7" Android tablets are portable enough that I can toss them in my back pocket (and on some of my clothing, I can fit it in the front one as well.) The iPad Mini is too big for this. If I can't fit it in a pocket, then why do I care if it's a little smaller? Downsizing by two inches has almost no effect on its portability.
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I wonder how many 7-inch tablets you have crushed from having them in your back pocket. :)
 
deathBOB said:
This is probably the only tablet I would buy. The 16:9 or 16:10 is the wrong shape for a tablet and 10" is too big.
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+1 on the wrong shape.

IMO, 10-inches is good for something, but not everything. I still enjoy using my iPad 3 for reading PDFs, many magazine, and many other things. But I like the mini too. I'm using both of them. I'll probably update to the LTE version when it comes out, though, so I will travel around with this. One thing I like about the mini is that it hides easier in my car than the full sized one does.
 
AQ_OC said:
+1 on the wrong shape.

IMO, 10-inches is good for something, but not everything.
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:D

I was looking at a mini for a custom car head unit, but don't know how much the labor would cost to get the molding for it.
 
Snowdog said:
This is nonsense. The iPad mini is in the same size class as 7" Androids.

7" Kindle Fire HD:
7.6" x 5.4" x 0.4"
394 grams

iPad Mini:
7.87" x 5.3" x 0.28"
308 grams

The Nexus is a little more narrow, but the Mini is still thinner and lighter than any of the Android 7" tablets. It is just as portable.
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The iPad Mini is over a half inch wider than my Nexus 7, and my Nexus 7 fits pretty much perfectly in my back pocket (i.e., a snug fit with very little room to move around, but not so tight as to be difficult to stash there.)

Way to arbitrarily choose one 7" tablet that's wider than everything else...

Edit: comparison of 4 different 7" tablets on The Verge:

http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/5831/2506/3767/5147/

All but one is less than 5" wide.
 
AQ_OC said:
+1 on the wrong shape.

IMO, 10-inches is good for something, but not everything. I still enjoy using my iPad 3 for reading PDFs, many magazine, and many other things. But I like the mini too. I'm using both of them. I'll probably update to the LTE version when it comes out, though, so I will travel around with this. One thing I like about the mini is that it hides easier in my car than the full sized one does.
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The widescreen aspect ratio is near perfect for comics, fine for reading, perfect for video playback...it's not ideal for web-browsing but I've never complained about it (I usually surf in landscape.)
 
Daggah said:
Way to arbitrarily choose one 7" tablet that's wider than everything else...

Edit: comparison of 4 different 7" tablets on The Verge:

http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/5831/2506/3767/5147/

All but one is less than 5" wide.
Click to expand...

Your pockets aren't universal. Even the Nexus won't fit in the back pockets of any jeans/dress pants I wear, so that is a moot comparison for many people.

How many people really want to carry a tablet in their pants pocket. It looks like you are grasping at straws here. As well as cherry picking results yourself.

Mini is 5.3" wide, Nook is 5.0" wide, Kindle Fire HD is 5.4" wide, and yes nexus is 4.72"

But the Mini is also significantly thinner which also aids in fitting in pockets.

Mini is certainly not out of place among this field for portability. It is also the lightest weight in this class, further aiding portability.

You are splitting extremely fine hairs to get down to finding some pants pockets that will only fit a Nexus, but not a Kindle HD, Nook, or iPad Mini, and then launch into a diatribe how the iPad Mini is not really portable.

This ends up looking like nothing more than a facetious anti-Apple rant with no generally applicability.
 
My GN7, Kindle Fire, and iPad mini all fit in the side pocket and the back pocket of the jeans I have on right now. I would never go any where with any of these devices in my pocket, however. When I went to vote today, I took the GN7 with me in front chest pocket of the jacket I had on.
 
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Daggah said:
The widescreen aspect ratio is near perfect for comics, fine for reading, perfect for video playback...it's not ideal for web-browsing but I've never complained about it (I usually surf in landscape.)
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But lousy for reading PDFs formatted to the plain paper size, which bites for any real world productivity use. And any tablet totally sucks for movie watching.
 
Snowdog said:
Your pockets aren't universal. Even the Nexus won't fit in the back pockets of any jeans/dress pants I wear, so that is a moot comparison for many people.

How many people really want to carry a tablet in their pants pocket. It looks like you are grasping at straws here. As well as cherry picking results yourself.

Mini is 5.3" wide, Nook is 5.0" wide, Kindle Fire HD is 5.4" wide, and yes nexus is 4.72"

But the Mini is also significantly thinner which also aids in fitting in pockets.

Mini is certainly not out of place among this field for portability. It is also the lightest weight in this class, further aiding portability.

You are splitting extremely fine hairs to get down to finding some pants pockets that will only fit a Nexus, but not a Kindle HD, Nook, or iPad Mini, and then launch into a diatribe how the iPad Mini is not really portable.

This ends up looking like nothing more than a facetious anti-Apple rant with no generally applicability.
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I'm not cherry-picking results, I'm comparing the iPad Mini to the tablet that I myself own. And my Nexus 7 goes in my pocket all the time with me. To the chow hall, to the Korean train stations, to the BX, to work...

The point is, if you're going to downsize a tablet like the iPad, downsize it to a size that actually offers something useful. The 8" 4x3 size, well...it doesn't. Not for me anyway.
 
Daggah said:
I'm not cherry-picking results, I'm comparing the iPad Mini to the tablet that I myself own.
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When you first made this claim it wasn't that specific. You claimed it was a failure because it didn't get as small as other Android tablets.

What it really boils down to, is that it actually is similar to some very popular Android tablets like the the Fire HD/Nook and only the much skinnier Nexus will fit into largish back pocket of your jeans, so potentially one sale lost, but I am betting not even that, because somehow I doubt you would buy one if it was the same width as the Nexus, you would just find another reason to crap on it.

As far as the failure part. It is sold out everywhere. Apple had a 3 Millions sale launch weekend between iPad4/Mini and from reports it was mostly Mini (which sold out) and iPad 4 received little attention (in stock everywhere).
 
Just like you would find any reason to defend it, so what's your point?
 
Daggah said:
Just like you would find any reason to defend it, so what's your point?
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The difference would be I am not making faulty assumptions about it being a failure, just because I dislike Apple.
 
Snowdog said:
The difference would be I am not making faulty assumptions about it being a failure, just because I dislike Apple.
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This response typed from my 11" Macbook Air.

There was nothing faulty about my assumptions. The half-inch difference in width between my N7 and the iPad Mini is significant and completely rules out the iPad Mini as a device I would own to have a more portable tablet. The fact that my N7 literally fits in my pocket is one of the absolute best things about it for my usage. Taking two diagonal inches off the regular iPad, slapping a mediocre 1024x768 screen, and overcharging by over $100 compared to the competition is not my idea of an awesome, revolutionary product, and only a fanboy would argue differently.
 
The fact that the Mini is sold out doesn't mean its better. It means the Apple marketing machine and the loyal fanbase is as strong as ever.
 
Daggah said:
This response typed from my 11" Macbook Air.

There was nothing faulty about my assumptions. The half-inch difference in width between my N7 and the iPad Mini is significant and completely rules out the iPad Mini as a device I would own to have a more portable tablet. The fact that my N7 literally fits in my pocket is one of the absolute best things about it for my usage. Taking two diagonal inches off the regular iPad, slapping a mediocre 1024x768 screen, and overcharging by over $100 compared to the competition is not my idea of an awesome, revolutionary product, and only a fanboy would argue differently.
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Just because it doesn't fit in your pocket, doesn't make it a failure.

MrCrispy said:
The fact that the Mini is sold out doesn't mean its better. It means the Apple marketing machine and the loyal fanbase is as strong as ever.
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I never said it was evidence that it was better.

It is pretty clear evidence that it isn't a failure.
 
Daggah said:
This response typed from my 11" Macbook Air.

There was nothing faulty about my assumptions. The half-inch difference in width between my N7 and the iPad Mini is significant and completely rules out the iPad Mini as a device I would own to have a more portable tablet. The fact that my N7 literally fits in my pocket is one of the absolute best things about it for my usage. Taking two diagonal inches off the regular iPad, slapping a mediocre 1024x768 screen, and overcharging by over $100 compared to the competition is not my idea of an awesome, revolutionary product, and only a fanboy would argue differently.
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The GN7 is being sold without profit. That is silly and unsustainable as a general principle.
 
Daggah said:
overcharging by over $100 compared to the competition is not my idea of an awesome, revolutionary product, and only a fanboy would argue differently.
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Can people please stop saying this kind of shit? They did a parts teardown of it recently and found it costs about the same to make as the competition ($24 more than the Kindle Fire HD) who are selling devices with no profit or at a small loss. I don't understand how pricing a device to drive profit makes it overpriced. It's the only way manufacturing is sustainable. 99% of other goods are sold at a price that makes a significant profit for the manufacturer/creator. If you think all those products are overpriced too, how do you buy anything?
 
Daggah said:
Tell that to Microsoft and Sony's console divisions.
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Why? Games drive the sales of those devices. Movies are better on a TV, not a tablet. And Android is not a compelling experience on a tablet, which is why Amazon uses a thick skin over top of it.
 
Even iPad skeptic and Windows superfan Paul Thurrott, thinks the Mini is great, but of course he must be in the tank for Apple. :rolleyes:
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/apple/compete-report-apple-ipod-touch-ipad-mini-144737

"Folks, welcome to my secret shame. For the past several weeks, I’ve been using the new iPod touch, and for a lot less time, of course, the new iPad mini. Both products are demonstrably better than the competition—heck, the iPod almost has no competition—despite my long-time complaints about the underlying iOS software on each. There’s no way to overstate this: The new iPod touch and iPad mini are just incredibly desirable tech devices. They’re almost without peer.

This is the ideal iPad.

In fact, it may be the ideal mini tablet. Take that, Amazon and Google.

The stories you’ve heard about the vaunted build quality are true: The iPad mini is a gorgeous, gorgeous device. It’s thin and light and can really be held in one hand. I’m not a huge fan of the “diamond chiseled” edges, which I find hard to the touch. And while I know the back is in fact aluminum, it seems like plastic to me … Until you try to flex the device, which you can’t since it’s so stiff and well-made. The iPad mini is the BMW of the tablet world. It’s nicer looking and better made than the competition. In this case, you really do get what you pay for."
 
AQ_OC said:
Why? Games drive the sales of those devices. Movies are better on a TV, not a tablet. And Android is not a compelling experience on a tablet, which is why Amazon uses a thick skin over top of it.
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Movies better on a TV? No shit? They're also better on a movie screen. Thank you for your insight.

Android is just fine on tablets. My N7 has handled pretty much everything I've wanted to use it for just fine.
 
Snowdog said:
Even iPad skeptic and Windows superfan Paul Thurrott, thinks the Mini is great, but of course he must be in the tank for Apple. :rolleyes:
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/apple/compete-report-apple-ipod-touch-ipad-mini-144737

"Folks, welcome to my secret shame. For the past several weeks, I’ve been using the new iPod touch, and for a lot less time, of course, the new iPad mini. Both products are demonstrably better than the competition—heck, the iPod almost has no competition—despite my long-time complaints about the underlying iOS software on each. There’s no way to overstate this: The new iPod touch and iPad mini are just incredibly desirable tech devices. They’re almost without peer.

This is the ideal iPad.

In fact, it may be the ideal mini tablet. Take that, Amazon and Google.

The stories you’ve heard about the vaunted build quality are true: The iPad mini is a gorgeous, gorgeous device. It’s thin and light and can really be held in one hand. I’m not a huge fan of the “diamond chiseled” edges, which I find hard to the touch. And while I know the back is in fact aluminum, it seems like plastic to me … Until you try to flex the device, which you can’t since it’s so stiff and well-made. The iPad mini is the BMW of the tablet world. It’s nicer looking and better made than the competition. In this case, you really do get what you pay for."
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I does feel good in the hand...but I still wish it had a retina screen.
 
AQ_OC said:
I does feel good in the hand...but I still wish it had a retina screen.
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I wish that too,but I was certain it wouldn't be retina, and I couldn't even imagine a serious case for them starting with retina. This is their entry level model for the foreseeable future, that enables them to have a very low (by Apple standards) entry price. It will remain in the lineup after the Retina mini ships and will drop in price (to $299 or a bit less), while I expect a rising price for the Retina Mini($350 or more).

Despite protest from some subset of online users, retina isn't that big of a deal for a lot of people. There was a report that said ~40% of iPad sales this summer were iPad 2 models.

iPad 2 has VERY noticeable pixels so the drive for retina should be much higher, and only 60% pay $100 more to get it.

On the Mini, the pixels will be less noticeable, and I think the number that actually pay more for Retina will be a minority, thus they need the non retina mini as much, if not more than the Retina model.

If they need the non Retina Model, then it only makes sense that they start with it.
 
I've had my iPad mini since Friday and I think it's great. I'm not that concerned a out the lack of retina screen, I upgraded from a gen 1 iPad. Even though I have an iPhone 4 and a retina MacBook it still looks smoother than my pc screens or my work Cinema Display.

I ordered on a whim not sure if I'd like it but it is worlds better than my old one. I will say the lightness of it really did surprise me and it is really comfortable to use.
 
Daggah said:
Movies better on a TV? No shit? They're also better on a movie screen. Thank you for your insight.

Android is just fine on tablets. My N7 has handled pretty much everything I've wanted to use it for just fine.
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You're the one tossing out Microsoft and Sony as selling hardware at no profit. If you have a zillion of gamers who are happy to drop $50 a pop, maybe you can get away with it. There has the be killer apps to make it worthwhile to toss away hardware...on a tablet, there are none...as most people have phones, nothing on a tablet is required for most. Movies are certainly not the reason...and games aren't either. Google and Amazon and helping to kill tablets on Android.
 
AQ_OC said:
Yes, I realize this and I believe I stated such in this thread. Doesn't mean I don't want one...
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That's fine, but I don't get why you'd ding the product because you want something that's not technologically possible at this particular moment. It's like bashing current SSDs because they don't offer a petabyte of storage with one terabyte/second transfer rates for $10.

And I say this as someone who waited three years for the Retina Display before buying an iPad. I get where you're coming from, but the lack of a Retina Display doesn't hurt the Mini.
 
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