I haven't read through the whole review, just the conclusion, but the side-by-side photo with the Nexus really accentuates how much larger the Mini is. Other than that difference, I think ecosystem is the only significant reason to buy the Mini over a competing tablet. The hardware just doesn't impress like the iPad 3.
I tried it out at a store and my impression is holding it one-handed is pretty uncomfortable. I also find the Nook tablet pretty uncomfortable to hold one handed, but the Mini is certainly no better, probably worse. Plus, holding it one-handed in portrait (if you grip from the side) blocks some of the screen.
I'd have to agree. While the mini is thinner and has perhaps somewhat better build quality compared to the nexus 7, when comparing them side to side, I'd have say my Nexus 7 was more comfortable to hold in one hand. Also it just happens to fit in my jacket pocket while the mini is too wide.
Even though the aspect ratio in the mini might be preferable for web, you still end up zooming, and then again video is better with a 16:9 display.
But yes, it is 15 mm (1.5 cm, 0.6 inch) wider, it has to be taken into account. Though most of its width is compensated by lesser thickness, so overall perimeter just a little bit bigger than that of Nexus 7.
I think the backside material of the Nexus 7 is what makes it so comfortable to hold, next to the size. Unlike my iPad 2 it simply doesn't feel uncomfortable at any point. Can't get to cold or hot or be slippery.
Oh, a Nexus 7 with the hardware of the Nexus 10 and a 1600x1200 8" screen and the Nexus 7 backside... My dream tablet. Alternatively a iPad Mini with a full Retina screen and a A6X/2 GB RAM (the 512 GB is the worst part of my iPad 2 and I can't believe they did it again in 2012 with the Mini).
A: 110mm x 178mm B: 129mm x 198mm Trade: 135mm x 216mm
Nexus 7: 120mm x 198mm iPad mini: 135mm x 200mm
The A format paperback is the kind you can shove in your back pocket. Easy to hold in one hand. The B is slightly bigger, and most people can hold it in one hand. The trade paperbacks are the bigger more expensive kind, more like a hardcover book but with a soft cover. Most people have to bend them to hold in one hand.
The Nexus 7's width falls between A and B paperbacks in width. The iPad Mini is trade paperback size in width, even with the reduced bezel. Personally I think Apple goofed here, picking a size larger than what the publishing industry settled on as ideal for one-handed carrying and reading after decades of product testing.
I'm pretty sure Apple chose to make the iPad Mini 7.9" instead of 7" because the 4:3 aspect ratio would've made movies on a 7" iPad smaller than on 7" 16:9 Android tablets. By making the iPad Mini 7.9" they make movies on it slightly bigger than on a 7" Android tablet. But the cost in one-handed holdability isn't worth it IMHO.
Actually, the iPad mini is almost exactly the same size and shape as the Amazon Kindle 2 (the old white keyboard one), differing only in slightly higher weight. The dimensions are so close that I have to believe that Apple was using the K2 as a reference for the mini.
Most K2 users agree that it is extremely easy and comfortable to hold one-handed for hours, and very easy to carry.
Put a $5 silicon or TPU case on the mini, and it too becomes extremely comfortable to hold for hours.
no i own one and if your hand gets tired then you can balance it on one hand, i can grip it for a while and I have a case aswell on it so that is thicker!!
Top of the summary gives it away: "In my first week with the iPad mini, it quickly became the iPad I actually wanted to carry around. The mini's form factor is really where all of the innovation is. It's thin, light and an almost perfect balance of functional screen size and portability. I really love this form factor."
By specs, the mini is unimpressive. It's using a SOC introduced in early 2011. We've been accustomed to high resolution mini-tablets from B&N, Amazon, Google, etc. It has less memory and costs significantly more (particularly for higher SKUs).
But, at least for the reviewer, the form factor trumps all these things, at least for purposes of a "carry computer". Thinner and lighter than the 7" tablet comparison, with significantly more usable display space (Android 4.x soft buttons do not help here) in nearly the same frontal area.
Would it be a better product if it sported an A6X SOC and a retina display? Certainly, on paper. It also likely would need a ~25 Wh battery and substantial increases in both weight and thickness .. same sort of changes from the iPad 2 to iPad 3.
iPad mini should have been introduced last year when the 32nm SOC was available IMO .. it would have provided a useful bifurcation vs the 3rd gen iPad's bulk gains, and perhaps we'd have an A6 SOC in the iPad mini today.
I doubt Apple could have shipped a 32nm SoC last year in volume. The A5r2 was already the first shipping SoC produced on Samsung's 32nm process, ahead of Samsung's own designs, when it launched on the iPad2,4 in March 2012. And that was only used for low volume test production with the 45nm A5 iPad 2 continuing to be available. Apple prioritizing the iPhone 5 to receive a 32nm SoC first and waiting until now for high volume 32nm production to introduce 32nm iPad Mini, 5th gen iPod Touch, and iPad 4 makes sense.
GPU performance is still surprisingly good, better than even the newest Android-running hardware. What is it with other companies not keeping up with Apple's older hardware?
--------------------------------------------------------- RE: Not a bad product by marvdmartian on Wednesday, November 21, 2012 Typical Apple product, that will sell like hotcakes: getting less, paying more, nothing new. --------------------------------------------------------- Typical Fandroid, never sees the forest for the trees. Apple is the best and has been so since 2007 - at building SoC. Apple is the best at supporting its devices long term.
Now with iOS 6 - which is mostly supported (not all the features) for an old 3GS phone - you could argue you are getting less - maybe on the older devices (no Siri, Apple Maps is not as good as as Google Maps ... right now... etc..)
Still iOS 5 is very nice for older things and Android/Google/Moto/Samsung/HTC has rarely updated their "better" hardware at all ... you can blame that on the carriers all you want, but that is also what you are buying.
Buying more often, spending more time doing something that maybe should just work?
I know Google is trying (or starting to), but they really have almost no support for the majority (75%+ ) of the devices in their 'ecosystem'. What's the point of better hardware when it runs slower/worse from the start and never gets updated?
Did you have a joint before you wrote this drivel? Or does your mind work this bad drug free? ^^
Good SoCs? Are you serious? Just because people work'd the shaft so hard when A6 came out doesn't mean that Cortex A9 based soc is viable coming into 2013.
Apple is currently behind the curve on both tech processes (28 nm vs 32 nm) and performance (cpu and ram speed but not gpu)
In case of ipad mini. You get less. (2 year old tech) you pay more (than any competition out there). But somehow we miss the forest for the trees?
Oh but it supports the amazing dated and feature free ios6! That's great. Except well.. (opinion incoming) I don't like ios. I find it restrictive and boring.
GPU performance isn't anywhere near "better than even the newest Android-running hardware." It's identical to Exynos 4412's Mali400 MP4 and the ubiquitous MSM8960's Adreno 225, and markedly behind Exynos 5's Mali 604T and APQ8064's Adreno 320. Unless you were forgetting to look at the "offscreen" results?
because more RAM is free and takes up absolutely no space or battery power? What are you smoking?
So it looks like Apple did install more RAM - its invisible and takes up no space and does not use any energy/battery at all ... and well its not actually in the iPad mini because Apple has to deal with the pesky physics of the world.
also, could we please have a nexus 7 and ipad mini display at the same size at least? the side by side thing you guys have shows a zoomed in nexus 7 vs zoomed out ipad mini, it shows the illusion that ipad mini displays much more content than nexus 7 while in reality the nexus 7 packs more pixel.
Is this not the default behavior of the Nexus? Everything in Chrome always looks so big to me, all of Android I think actually. The UI, the buttons, just are way too big.
Who manufactures the display? I recall in reviews of old this was mentioned, would be nice to see in future reviews of anything with displays this info, thanks.
Since the current-gen ipad-retina-displays are pretty abysmal in terms of power usage (see displaymate's measurements for example), would it be unreasonable to expect LTPS or IGZO panels to make things considerably better?
Apple uses Low-Temperature polysilicon IPS in iphone for a reason and it's said that the forthcoming IGZO's would help in power consumption as well.
I think that Ipad 4 is a "failure" as it doesn't address any of the shortcomings of the 3rd Gen ipad. Namely weight, thickness and reasonably poor visibility in direct sunlight. Though Apple just decided it's not worth the tradeoff to use A6 instead of A6x to reduce the battery weight by a tiny margin.
Firstly - the iPad 4 isn't a 'new iPad' as much as the iPad 3 was - it's an upgrade a partial way through the year, so it shouldn't be expected to address all 'the shortcomings'.
Secondly - the iPad 4 doubles the GPU power which addresses the single biggest issue with the iPad 3 - the underpowered GPU. It's significantly faster than any other tablet (as is the iPad 3).
Also it was important to get all the devices using the lightning connector.
Also known as the biggest ripoff apple has yet produced. Lightning connector (differently shaped usb 2.0), not-really-upgraded soc which brought nothing for the end user. Right? Because iOS is always super smooth? Or is it not?
Wait wait wait and you're also saying that having even more unused gpu power is a shortcoming that was addressed? Well no point arguing with such logic.
Especially since the cpu is already outdated. A9's (even with a custom memory controller) are so 2011.
Man you are a MASTER of facepalms. You initiate a wave of them with every post of yours.
Why did you zoom in on the Anandtech website on the Nexus 7, whilst the iPad mini is zoomed out, it makes the Nexus look like it can't display a full webpage which it can!! Subtle Anti-Android bias strikes again.
I don't know about bias (I like to attribute ignorance over malice) but it seems particularly bad that not only is the N7 zoomed in compared to the Mini, but it's zoomed in so much that the N7's image is larger than the Mini's.
I can see zooming so that they're physically the same size (but then the N7 would be using more pixels to render the same thing) but it's not even at that level.
Our Win8 performance guide will be done this week. We're not doing a massive review (that would mostly be rehashing our significant DevPrev and ConPrev articles) will hit all the high points.
And note that what Anand does has no bearing on Win8. AnandTech is more than one person, and in this case since I'm the OS guru it's my article.
That's not exactly true, the iPad mini was launched nearly a month ago, our review of it is very late. In the interim I have published articles on Intel's SSD DC S3700, Microsoft's Surface, the Titan Supercomputer at ORNL and Samsung's Cortex A15 based Chromebook.
No offence but you could have just said - "same soc as ipad 2. Same display as ipad 2 except smaller so pixels are slightly denser Its lighter than ipad 2 and has the same form factor but smaller."
There I wrote the review for you.
Instead you guys put out this monster - showing tests? Of the same soc? Again?
Well one more review site feels the need to get some apple advertisement revenue.
And I approve how you compared it to mini cooper. Yeah great comparison especially since mini cooper is a car for people who can't afford a decent one but really want to seem cool...
So yeah. What makes this product great is the apple logo on the back. As usual.
Anandtech's Microsoft Surface review was up 3 days before the device was on sale and their Windows RT review was up the day before it shipped. The iPad Mini review comes 18 days after the tablet went on sale and they aren't or haven't yet done an iPad 4 (18+ days) or 5th gen iPod Touch (36+ days) review. From this you conclude that Apple reviews get done right away and Microsoft reviews take forever?
Ryan already explained why they aren't doing a massive review for Windows 8 and are doing more focused articles instead, which doesn't seem unreasonable.
I don't see the reasoning behind your dissapointment. I've been reading for years (despite my only just making an account haha); they are easily the most informative on the internet. The crew here does stellar indepth reviews for pretty much everything. Don't use your own personal misgivings against Apple in an attempt to discredit the hard work that goes into reviewing these products, or the invaluable service it does for the internet and consumer knowledge.
Fixed. The black mini wasn't mine so I no longer had that for comparison, had to use the white model for this shot - but I hope this better shows the difference. I also exported the full size shots at 2800px wide if you want to get a better, up-close look between the N7 and iPad mini.
I included two shots on the display page, but here's a link to all 4 I just took:
Here's another display-related thing to fix: the charts for Brightness (black and white) and contrast don't include the Nexus 7 for some bizarre reason..hmm...but the later charts on the same page 4 do.
While I understand where you're coming from, the reason the Nexus is zoomed in is because the Nexus "fakes" it's resolution in the web browser to about 603 so that responsive web pages render elements larger so they're easier to use on the Nexus 7. So the side by side photo is simply comparing the default view on load.
In fact, this is actually somewhat of a negative for the iPad Mini on responsive sites because it means it's rendering pages designed for a much larger display.
Now this would be something interesting to investigate and inform readers about. I didn't know about different devices presenting different resolutions and am not sure what the differences really mean.
As a medical student I fast pretty fast in preordering the cellular white iPad mini here in Germany. It is the perfect size to fit into a white coats pocket. I will read a lot of books on it, so it was a hard decision between this and the 4th Gen iPad. But size does matter and eventually Retina will come to the mini line. For right now I just have to live with the resolution.
This is a big issue for me with the Ipad 2, and it will be the same with Ipad mini. When I try to use the Ipad2 as a productive device I often lose information I write because the webpages and apps has to reload when the device gets out of memory and have to free something to load the next app/webpage. And this has become much worse as the Ipad has aged, so it's terrible that they are selling a new device with only 512MB of RAM.
But hopefully people will use this smaller device as a consumption device, and not a productivity device.
Excellent review as always, balanced and informative. It's a pity that Apple can't easily go to an intermediate resolution like 1600 x 1200, like Android can, but is stuck with the rezdoubling. For me the mini would have felt more futureproof if they had used an A6 with 1Gb memory. but then this is Apple....
Now it's easy to understand why Apple wanted to ban the Galaxy Tab 7.7. The iPad Mini is a rip-off of it. With a much worse display since the GT7.7 had a Super Amoled + display of superior resolution. Samsung was a year ahead of Apple and it still holds up great, if Samsung updated it to Jelly Bean.
I would like to see a new Galaxy Tab 7.7.
And the display is a disapointment. It makes it a no buy device instantly, it's 130$ more expensive than the Nexus 7 and offers a worse display. Anyone that picks the Mini should only do it by the form factor or preference by iOS.
The form factor is why I'm considering the iPad Mini over the Nexus 7. It has great build quality, is thinner, lighter, yet has battery life that is similar or better and has a screen that's a third larger. The Nexus 7's advantage in screen resolution in itself is not as important for me because the screen is smaller so showing more tiny content isn't useful. The lower pixel density is a concern for clarity. The CPU may be weaker, but the GPU is stronger which given good GPU acceleration for UI responsiveness is a reasonable exchange. $130 more maybe worth it if the better form factor makes the device more useable so that it sees more use.
+1 to wanting an updated Galaxy Tab 7.7. I have the P6810 and it's definitely the best tablet ever.
Sadly it's probably not going to happen. The 7.7 barely made it to the US and when it did, it was stripped of its phone functionality and cost $700 from VZW. I don't have any basis to speak to its international sales, but they didn't include it in the list of incoming JB updates, which doesn't speak well to its popularity.
Well hardware variety is a key Android advantage. Samsung introduced the Galaxy S III mini in the 4" form factor of the iPhone 5. If the iPad Mini shows demand for a ~8" form factor, I don't see why Samsung wouldn't want to introduce a new Galaxy Tab 7.7 to tap into that market.
> The second option would be to pick a new resolution that wasn't an integer multiple of the current one [...] Picking a non-integer multiple of those resolutions would force Apple to do some scaling and filtering to hit the new resolution, which could reduce quality. Apple does this on the MacBook Pro with Retina Display to enable higher resolution modes. To maximize image quality however, Apple renders the desktop offscreen at 4x the resolution and then scales down to fit the panel. There are obvious performance concerns here as well.
If you want to make an analogy with the highest resolution on the rMBP, you have to take a 1536x1152 screen (i.e. 75% of the retina iPad res, just as the physical 2880x1800 pixels of the rMBP15 screen represent 75% of the 3840x2400 res) and scale down the 2048x1536 resolution on the physical pixels of the screen. So, the 4x part of the work would be done at the same price as on current retina iPad (and the same on your example: for 1600x1200, you're not go to do 1024x768 -> 3200x2400 -> 1600x1200 but 1024x768 ~> 2048x1536 -> 1600x1200). Still need to scale down after, though. But sub-pixel rendering probably make things better on OS X compared with what would happen on iOS. No talk about AutoLayout?
I'm not sure why the general unavailability of tablet app versions for the android is not even mentioned in the summary as the big quality tablet software library is one of the most convincing points on top of the build quality to spend the extra $130 on the iPad mini. And no its not about OS preference or investment into an ecosystem, its about the general machine abilities and usability - if its more like a big phone or a small tablet.
Hardware wise and depth wise the review is spot on though, don't get me wrong! Great job, guys!
I see this comment posted all the time and don't get it. What is the unavailability or lack of tablet app versions on Android? This is a serious question because I might miss something obvious.
I have 2 android tablets and used the iPad 1 and iPad 2 which I wanted to buy as I am quite invested in the Apple system thanks to my iPhones. The lack of any way to transfer photos from a drive to the iPad and also back was why I looked at Android tablets to begin with. Trying to upload photos on blogger was also a painfull experience, which worked perfect on Android.
I am using quite a few apps and have found all apps I was using on iOS on Android (or good/better substitutes). Unlike on iOS I never need to worry about getting HD or non HD versions for apps and all look perfectly fine. Where iPhone apps need to be re-scaled 2x on the iPad and look blurry, I never had this problem on Android and all apps look perfectly fine. Also most apps take advantage of the higher resolution and display size without problem. Sure, some apps could benefit of having a better interface on the tablet but these apps usually use the same interface on the iPad.
So your comment strikes me as someone who has not really used Android tablets in the last year or maybe I misunderstood something.
On another note, all the benchmarks prove nothing really as in real life most tasks would be done faster and easier on an Android device and I have yet to see a proper real-world review of these devices.
Take for example some basic tasks I do with my device: - Checking the weather: On Android I can now see it without unlocking my device on the lockscreen with a widget, or on the homescreen with a widget. On iOS I need to find and start the weather app, sure the weather app will start faster due to the better benchmark performance than it might on Android but on Android I don't need to bother. - Reading news using Pulse (or any other news App): iOS devices start the app very fast but then need to start downloading the latest data once the app is started. On Android the app might start a few ms slower but the latest updates have been done in the background so I can actually read the news right away. - Attaching a file to an email you reply to: iOS only allows to attach pictures to emails you reply to since iOS 6 with a long press, before it meant hitting reply, closing the email app, opening the picture viewer, finding the pictures, hitting select, then copy, closing the picture viewer, opening the mail app and hitting paste. On Android you just click attach and select any app you want to use, then simply select the file you want and it can be any file type not just emails. - Uploading pictures: The iPad is much faster at importing pictures via the Camera connecting kit than the Transformer for example but I can't choose the location or decide if I want to import both JPG and RAW files, nor can I import anything that is not under the DCIM folder. On Android I simply browse the file system and decide where to copy from an paste to, plus I can do this both ways so it allows to create a backup when travelling without a computer. - Freeing up space: On Android I can delete any type of file or app from anywhere on the system, on iOS I can not delete any music or pictures I imported through itunes so am stuck with it till I get back to a computer.
These are all things I do on a regular basis or have struggled with and I would like to see in a real world review because there the iPads would not look very good, great build and everything.
Wow...where to start? I'm both an iOS and Android user--iPad 4/iPhone 5 and Nexus/Xoom/Note (original) owner. I'm an iOS developer--and working on learning development with Android. Right there is an excellent place to start! Really cool 'coding' programs. I'm using Codea, but there are man...including the new drag n drop SkripKit...or Pythonista, which allows direct export to XCode! Productivity---I'm not a big fan of Docs2Go. It's what I use on Android...because it's what's available. In comparison...the iOS offering of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote...this is huge for me, especially with the plethora of Apple products we are trying to keep sync'ed Creative work---My day job is my audio/video production company....been at it for 21 years now and this past summer, we did 132 weddings and class reunions. The iPad/Mac combo has completely revolutionized my business. Between using dJay for ceremonies (where you need only 3 or 4 songs), Garage band for recording ceremonies live--Real, true Korg synths, excellent video production facilities with Avid and iMovie...a LOT more tools for YOUR photography!!!! There are a couple decent editing apps in the Play Store---but they pale in comparison to iOS offerings. Drawing apps...cookbooks, games, games and more games!!! The list TRULY goes on and on and on... There absolutely is a gaping hole in 'tablet optimized' apps in 'Droid-Land'. My fingers are crossed---but for now, if you truly want to be productive--at least in creative work, there truly is NO comparison. Sorry---not sure how you've not seen this owning both platforms AND being a photog. Not even hard core Android fans or sites would argue this...especially in the tablet world---we are rooting for more development in this sector J
I still fail to see why Android lacks tablet optimized apps, all apps run fine on a tablet. Are there apps on iOS that would be good to have on Android, sure there are and probably more than the other way around but for me I have all apps I need and all work fine on a tablet so there is not issue with optimization. For productivity and Office apps you should try Polaris office as I find this to work well but if Office is a priority I would simply get a Windows RT or 8 tablet and use the real deal.
As for your comment "a LOT more tools for YOUR photography!!!!".
- I have not tried or bought every app in the Apps store but there is no easy way to view a picture 1:1 without it having been re-scaled by iOS so this is a big issue. I have not found an app that can browse pictures and can show me EXIF information, Histogram or any other shooting information. - I can not create a simple subfolder to organize my pictures during travels, a major issue for me or maybe I just can't see how to do this. - I can not separate JPGs from RAW files, nor can I rename a file. - No way to view 2 pictures side by side. - Can't backup my pictures without a computer to another drive or SD card. - Not possible to resize pictures for quicker upload. - Posting a picture on Blogger and changing the size it appears is a nightmare. - Impossible to access any pictures not found in the DCIM folder nor can I access pictures at home on my NAS for viewing or editing.
All this I can do with either standard pre-installed software or use Photo Mate, Photo Editor and so on. There is also Photoshop Touch available if I want to use layers.
Don't get me wrong the proper iPads (I don't think the mini servers any purpose) can be quite useful despite being limited by Apple for no real reason. But having used tablets for travelling since they were known as UMPCs the iPad simply does not allow me to do what I need while traveling where both the transformer and Nexus 7 works just fine, the transformer even better than a netbook.
Having more software available is never a bad thing though so I hope to see more on Android since it's the more useful OS because it allows more freedom. Having said this, there is certainly no shortage of tablet apps for Android and most things work just as well if not better.
Firstly, it's a iPad Mini review, so Android things don't figure that much into it. Secondly, it's getting better every day. There are tablet-aware Apps for most purposes I use tablets for - RSS reading, browsing, Comic reading, Twitter, Facebook, G+, Music, Photo Viewing... They might not always be the official Apps (Twitter's and Facebook's offerings are a joke on both Android and iOS), but they are quality Apps doing a great job on tablets.
chrome is my favorite for desktop but, it blows on tablets. you will see android tablets score better simply by using a different browser. boat browser will run circles around chrome.
I just bought an iPad mini a few days ago and I'm loving it. My cousin's iPad now looks absolutely huge in comparison. The small form factor feels like the way it should've been the whole time. I don't care if it doesn't fit into my pockets, my pockets are for my phone and wallet. Someone previously said that if they're gonna carry it in a bag then they might as well get the normal iPad. I disagree because the small form factor doesn't just apply to portability, it also applies to your experience whilst carrying it. When holding the mini, I literally feel like I'm holding a small notepad. It's brilliant.
I'm in no way an Apple fan (there are several reasons I dislike them in fact), having stopped using any Apple products since about a year ago, but I have to say, they really know what they're doing when considering their products' usability. When the iPhone 5 was released, I said to myself, "Damn, they did it again". Why? Because I have a HTC One X and as much as I love the big screen, it just isn't as practical as the "slightly longer, but same width" iPhone 5. They came up with a way to increase the screen size whilst maintaining the usability. Typical Apple. Same as the mini. There's a reason it's not as small as the Nexus 7. I saw the Nexus 7 and I kept thinking that I would never use it. Compared to my phone, it's not THAT much bigger, certainly not a big enough leap to make carrying both devices at the same time worthwhile in my opinion. The mini however, even though it's only slightly bigger, manages to cross over to the whole-other-device category. Of course, this is just my opinion, but for my money, the iPad mini is certainly worth the extra cash.
Just give the 7" the 2048 res treatment, and then double the 10" iPad's resolution once again! lol.
Seriously though, it involves support on their end for some software changes, hope they follow through. I doubt they would want this mini to always (even the near future) have this resolution.
LCDs in phones are at 440 ppi with some manufacturers testing almost 500 ppi so with a big investment from Apple, doubling the Retina (264 ppi) iPad's resolution would probably be possible within 1 or 2 years. It wont happen though because of reduced battery life and reduced performance on current hardware for a very subtle gain in image quality. It will probably be 5 years before we see 10 MP+ tablets because battery life and light weight are more important. Mobile SOCs also just aren't fast enough. Even with DDR3 next year the iPad will still only have twice the memory bandwidth it had for the iPad 3, not enough to even attempt 4x the pixels. Getting enough memory bandwidth for double Retina in an iPad will require next generation DDR technology or an even wider memory system which won't be viable anytime soon.
I just hope the "resolution war" on tablets and phones to be over at 400 dpi, but it should be already over at 350 dpi.
From the human sight point of view it is basically over. The extra power and resources should go to better frame rates, better graphics and battery life.
Today there are a few ridiculous measurements or also detrimental technology examples going higher every day like the dynamic contrast on TVs or the megapixel war on tiny consumer sensor cameras. They are misleading advertisement.
500 dpi is useless to 99.9% of humans at almost all ages even if the technology allows to go further and further.
It's going to age very fast with that ancient cpu, and only 512mb of memory. Basically the moment the mini 2 comes out with a faster cpu this one will be forgotten and apps won't run on it.
tbh seems like a rip off to me. It says something that the main reason I read for buying it is the shape of the screen - you've got to love that a lot to buy something that is all the other ways worse then it's much cheaper competition.
You actually anticipate developers will drop support for the iPad Mini "the moment" the 2nd generation is released? The 1GHz A5/A5X CPU is also used in the iPad 2 and iPad 3, while the slower 800Mhz A5 is used in the iPhone 4S and 5th gen iPod Touch which will both be on sale into 2014 given Apple's 3 year iPhone and 2 year iPod Touch sale cycles as they move down price tiers. The majority of iOS devices are A5 devices and will be for the next year or 2. The vast majority of apps still support 3rd generation devices and 4th generation device support is even higher. Apple's license agreement guarantees the iPad Mini will get iOS 7 and historically each device runs 3 major OS revisions over it's lifespan, so the iPad Mini will likely get OS updates into 2015. The chances of developers dropping support for 5th generation devices like the iPad Mini in the next year or 2 seem slim.
You can think that if you like but 512mb of ram is already a limiting factor, and the cpu/gpu will start to be come one too as time goes by.
This is the world of apple - if it's not new then it doesn't matter, and with the mini you are essentially buying something that's already 1 1/2 years old.
Except its 512MB (megabytes, no mb or megabits) of RAM.... but I know what you are saying. I suppose you should have some concern, but then again Apple - at least for the last few years - has been the best at SoC and even my old arsed iPhone 3GS runs well with iOS 5. It could run iOS 6, though it wont have the best features ... so that should change your mind.
Unlike Google/OEMs/phone carriers, Apple supports its hardware and you get more out of the hardware - even when the specs are not "as good" as the competition.
CPU is still ok, GPU the same, but the 512 MB RAM is absolutely something that's a worry. It wasn't enough on my iPad 2 a year ago and it's very annoying in Safari if you have several tabs. And it will only get worse as time moves on. Adding another 512 MB RAM would have cost Apple basically nothing and made the product a lot more future proof (as far as it is possible in this fast-moving segment of a fast-moving industry).
I hope Google keeps the same screen size for the next 7" Nexus, but trims into the border a bit on the sides. Right now it's right at the limit for wrapping a hand around it, and I have pretty big hands.
And also its all metal back is too slippery compared to the Nexus 7. I waited for both to be release before I bought the Nexus 7 32Gb. (bought one by selling my iPad 2013 model -- never really used it much)
If Apple is Apple they should have made this higher end and price it at 400$, and that still is what Job's Apple would do.Next year with the ipad 2 gone,they would need to drop the ipad 4 to 400$ or retire it so covering the 400$ range with the mini would make more sense.The cost of the SoC is a relative thing,32nm yields will get better by then,keeping it thin could be problematic if they double the res.
PS; i am in no way suggesting this would be a price worth paying, just sayiing what would Apple do.
Is it possible Apple made the iPad mini worse than they were capable of, right now, just so that they can effortlessly update it and make more money out of it?
Like any product designer, Apple has got to optimize for a variety of factors including component availability, component cost, final sale price, what features customers want, what features customers can tolerate not having, etc. If they just cared about maximizing profits they might as well have just thrown in the A4 from the iPhone 4 and a larger version of the TN panel used in the iPhone 3GS since they share the same dpi anyways.
The iPad Mini already has worse battery life than the iPad 2 even without a retina display. Adding a retina display and a faster SoC to drive it will make this even worse unless a larger battery is included. One of the main features of the iPad Mini is how thin and light it is, even thinner and lighter than competing 7" tablets despite having a larger screen. Gaining a retina display in exchange for a thicker, heavier tablet may silence some complaints but will only create new ones. What's worse, a thicker, heavier design might make the iPad Mini difficult to hold given it's thin bezel design with limited grip area, so is a non-starter given current technology in 2012. Hopefully Anand is wrong in his prediction that a Retina iPad Mini isn't possible in 2013 either and that improvements in display tech, battery tech, and a move to the Samsung 28 nm process for the SoC will make it happen.
Whilst I'm sure it was possible for Apple to include the retina display and the A6 SoC, it's more likely that they chose not to since it would make the device bigger and heavier due to the bigger battery it would require. Apple was simply not willing to make that sacrifice. Next year when the technology is more mature, they will implement it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: On purpose by marcolorenzo on Wednesday, November 21, 2012 Whilst I'm sure it was possible for Apple to include the retina display and the A6 SoC, it's more likely that they chose not to since it would make the device bigger and heavier due to the bigger battery it would require.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exactly - this is the iPad 4 (gen)!
Thanks for the article, but the most interesting thing you mention never gets explored at all in the article. On the first page you say:
"But here’s the thing - I don’t consider the iPad mini a competitor to the Nexus 7. The Nexus 7, to me, is what I buy if I’m in the market for a $199 tablet or I want a 7” Android device. It’s a completely different experience than the iPad mini. In my mind, the closest competitors for the iPad mini are, in order, the iPad 2, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9”, and the Nook Tablet HD+. The iPad 2 is obvious because these are the two lowest priced iOS tablets right now, and with similar underlying hardware, they’re actually pretty closely matched. I think the latter two are especially interesting comparisons to make, because all three exist in the ~$300 “small premium tablet” niche that has suddenly appeared."
You say that the comparison with the Nook HD+ and Kindle are the most interesting comparisons, in a small premium tablet niche, but you never come back to this. Can you elaborate on this, maybe in a followup article? I for one have basically discounted the iPad Mini, and the kindle in favor of the Nook HD+. I haven't bought it yet, but I am leaning heavily - the only drawback is the lack of camera and GPS. The price, quality of screen build quality is compelling. In general I feel that Nook HD/HD+ doesn't get the respect it deserves. I have been holding off because I can't any serious (e.g. Anandtech type) reviews of the device and i want to read some real discussion of it's qualities and get a no-bs assessment of the good and bad and comparison to the Kindle and nexus 10.
So that's my Thanksgiving wish - if you have down time, can we please have a review of the Nook HD +?
Seconded. The Nooks and Kindles may be some of the more popular tablets among the less tech savvy. They aren't the fastest or most up to date, but they do have nice feature sets, and B&N doesn't overcharge for built-in storage upgrades. The Nook HD+ and Fire HD 8.9" both have very high resolution screens. Maybe the custom software makes them harder to review? I still think it's worth it even if they aren't directly comparable to other tablets for that reason, plus you could explore loading custom ROMs if possible (I didn't bother to look up whether they are hackable)
Exquisite screen. It is sunlight readable though not quite as good in high glare situations as my x220. Easy to navigate Mini-SD card. (Almost a guarantee that it will eventually be hackable to unlocked Jelly Bean Glory) Runs Android 4.0 Lots and lots of books Can use flash if desired. (You have to "buy" it for free from the store.) Yes, I hate flash, but html 5 hasn't taken over everything yet. Here's hoping it does soon. The screen allows for "normal" navigation of the web. I set the browser to use the desktop version of websites rather than the mobile versions. Full day battery life under fairly heavy use. Multiple user accounts (For anyone with kids this is a huge plus)
Weaknesses No cameras Walled Garden approach which stops access to many apps (no GooglePlay) No GPS No 3G/4G Browser can be a little clunky and slow at times (I blame flash) Not the full tablet experience
To sum it up: The Nook HD+ is a great eReader/tablet hybrid. It does not, however, give the full "tablet experience." For me it was the ideal choice because I'd rather do all my serious computing on my x220 or my desktop. The Nook HD+ is for reading and instant-on web browsing.
I'm a little retro as I hate GPS's as a general rule. (I can't say how often I've wanted to grab the gps out of the idiot driver's car in front of me and smack him upside the head with it for paying more attention to the GPS than the people he almost killed on the road.) With that in mind, the lack of GPS didn't matter to me. However, I think I'm probably in the minority in this regard.
I also didn't care about the lack of a camera. Simply put, I don't think tablets are a form factor that needs a camera at all, except maybe to read bar/qr codes and what not for shopping. Tablets, unlike phones, are just too damn big to use as a point and shoot camera and I'd much rather use my laptop for Skype.
But I'm sure there are plenty of people who would like cameras and a GPS. If that is so, the Nook HD+ is simply not the tablet for them.
The walled garden can be a bit of an issue. It won't have automatic facebook updates like the Surface. It won't be able to put you in the center of your digital life. Being locked out of the google app store is annoying. This is, by far, the greatest weakness of the Nook HD+ to me. It's hugely annoying to know that there are apps I want to use (HBO Go, Smartglass, etc.) that the HD+ can run, but that Barnes and Noble has locked me out of. Barnes and Noble does sell apps, but it's extraordinarily limited. Simply put: If apps are important to you, don't buy the Nook HD+. Since MS put a lot of money into Barnes and Noble, I hope that Smartglass, Office, and what not come to it soon. It would be nice to read the many long word documents I read on it.
As long as someone understands the limitations of something like the Nook HD+ then it's a very good eReader/Tablet for the money. I hope that someone puts out a dualboot hack to Jellybean or beyond eventually for it, but I'm content even it doesn't come out. For my usage model, it works pretty well. The desktop is for serious computing and gaming. The laptop is my mobile work machine and computing light. The Nook HD+ is for reading and light browsing.
Thank you for the in depth post. For me, the only need for a camera on a tablet is for video conferencing informally - e.g. let me parents video conference with the grandkids on the fly. I don't understand why anyone would hold up a tablet form factor to take a still picture or video - too much risk of dropping it. I'd rather use my phone for that. The GPS is one thing I would miss - I really love Google Maps on my phone, and not having that is something I really have to think about twice.
I also noticed one or two minor hiccups on the NOOk when i played with it but attributed it to the fact that it was one week after release, and a software patch will iron everything out when it comes out.
I don't really plan to watch movies on it (that's what my 23" samsung screen is for) and I'm not that concerned about the app store so much. You hit my needs on the head - instant-on web experience. Plus fantastic reading capabilites. I need great text and the ability to render PDF well since i read a lot of technical stuff and I don't want to keep zooming in to read each sentence/paragraph. I got a Kindle touch (non-glow) last holiday season and it's great for reading, but the browser was horrible - I would rather crawl over broken glass than use it, and the PDF rendering was so bad i just wouldn't use if I had to read a PDF.
Are there others out there with a different experience on the Nook?
Also, - and this is directed to Anand - it would be nice to have it specs and performance comparisons. It would be nice for example to know how it's brightness levels or browser speed compares to it's rivals.
"But here’s the thing - I don’t consider the iPad mini a competitor to the Nexus 7."
This is the most used line in the iPad mini reviews and the only way really to make it look good. I am sorry but the iPad mini is too big to fit in a jacket pocket so needs a bag to carry, by which point you're better off with a bigger tablet, the screen resolution is too low so you have to constantly zoom in to pages and lose the 'benefit' of the extra width, it's very slippery so impossible to securely hold in one hand by which time you can hold a bigger tablet with 2 hands. All this and it costs a lot more than the Nexus 7 so no wonder it's not a competitor, it's not even in the same league. The iPad mini is in it's own highly priced toy league, not small enough, not big enough and not good enough compared to any other tablet you could get.
But like the others I would like to see the comparison with the Nook HD+ and Fire HD 8.9".
You've obviously had NO experience with iOS. If there is a 'toy' on the market, it's the Nexus 7. Period. The iPad family has a couple hundred thousand apps to take advantage of...sure, if you want to fill it up with kids' games..it can become a toy. However...if you choose, you can actually get shit done with an iPad, play cool games, make music, edit photography and motion, fill your library with books, buy the music you want---and keep it 'well organized', rent a movie, subscribe to magazines...everything the Nexus does but with MANY more options to choose from post purchase---definitely NOT a 'toy'
"You've obviously had NO experience with iOS. If there is a 'toy' on the market, it's the Nexus 7. Period."
If you say so it must be right. ;)
Sorry but the iPad mini is a toy and an expensive one at that. Even you agree that the Nexus 7 can do everything the iPad mini does post purchase but simply offers more options for some apps where the Nexus 7 offers more options for other things (like using a different browser, decent maps, ability to stream music and movies from a usb flash drive or sd card and so on).
And I think after 3 iPhones and no Android device over the past 4 years I would have at least some idea about iOS. I don't care what system I use as long as it does the job and before ICS was released Android was simply unusable for me but has now moved past iOS.
In iOS you can use a different browser, utilize any mapping program you so choose...including Google maps with an icon (easy workaround)--and I gotta tell ya, I've got a 32GB micro SD card in my (original GNote). It's not nearly as easy to store apps and/or media...and then access it as easily as if it was hosted on the built in NAND storage. As I said, I'm an owner of bit iOS and Android--love them both for different reasons. But your 'toy' reference is ridiculous. As is your outright dismissal of anything 'Apple' related. Granted, I'm still on ICS on my Note, but in no way, shape or form has Android passed up iOS. The biggest problem I face is constant lag. All over the place. Same on my previous Nexus phone...and we've also got a Nexus 7 in possession. Initially I didn't believe the 'mini' rumors, so we grabbed the Nexus 7. There are many, MANY Apps in the 'Droid market that simply won't install if you have a tablet (phone apps)--I've even run into this on my Note, as it's considered a 'tablet' Honestly, I've no idea how you can argue this. It's an absolute fact! The Play Store is horrendously 'lacking' when it comes to 'tablet' optimized apps. That's not up for debate You mention earlier that you're a 'professional photog' and need the ability to dump your RAW files in the field. Don't you use CF cards like most of us? I shoot a Canon 5dIII and 1dmkIV. Perhaps we have more in common than different. However, I'd love to hear how you're handling RAW offloads in the field on an Android tab. Would you care to share your workflow? The Canon RAW files will indeed upload to your iPad through a direct connection from iPad to camera via USB on the camera connection kit. Excellent access to 'Box' 'Dropbox' or any of the other cloud storage options. However, I've not yet worked with another pro photog using anything but a laptop to offload files. Tablets, I agree, aren't QUITE powerful enough for 23 MB file manipulation. However, if you're making it work somehow on you Nexus, I really want to know. As far as your previously owned devices, you are away that each yearly update to iOS gadgets ( most recently iPhone 5 and iPad 4) have doubled in their respective horsepower as well, correct? If your last couple iDevices were the 3GS and original or even second iPad, I can understand your comments a bit easier...But these days, there isn't a true 'challenger' on the market that competes on equal footing with the 'large' iPad and iPhone 5. Not when you take into account the development platform available for iOS. Not when you take into account the number or real, true apps available for said devices..Don't you find it kinda weird that half of the top ten paid apps in the Play store are 'tools' and ROM/Bootload, phone hacker stuff vs. real, true productive, and enjoyable apps in the iOS 'App Store'? I do...I've actually taken the time to scroll through the 'top 500' Play store paid and free apps. It's an ugly joke in comparison. And honestly, I'm rooting for Android. Competition is good for all of us. But to date Apple's SDK and its ease of use with Xcode, blows Google's development process out of the water. And if you take the time and open your eyes you'll see exactly what I mean. The UI of the OS is only a way to access the 'apps'. That's where things get done. After customizing your widgets, picking your default browser and keyboard, then what? One needs software to be productive. To date, the developers are definitely working iOS. Android, not so much.
A buddy of mine in town for the holidays, and a big apple fan, more or less agreed with me on the iPad mini. He wants an iPad, was excited about the mini (mainly price vs. value curve) - until he saw it. He has one of the iPhone 5s (and a Mac laptop) and he's been a fanboy dating back to the original MacIntosh and he's not a techie, but he kept saying he couldn't justify buying a tablet with a worse screen than his phone, not for that kind of money. I think Apple may have miscalculated or maybe they're targeting a different market niche than I'm thinking. I still haven't move on the Nook HD+ - hoping they run a sale before Christmas (yeah, I know, optimistic thinking), but the more I weigh things in my mind, the more I'm ok with not having a camera or GPS. I'll probably upgrade my phone to a Lumia Win8 to get the killer camera, and I'll have GPS on that (hopefully it won't suck) but really, I want GPS on all the time and completely portable, and that means phone. I guess what I really wnat if an iPad for instant access w/o turning on a machine at night or the morning to check email etc., as well as read books, and I just can't justify either iPad's cost at this point for that. I should not, I don't intend to view movies, listen to music or play video games wiht it - that's what I have a 23" samsung screen and a nice set of speakers for.
Having been an Apple users with all the models of the iPhone and iPad, I bought a Nexus 7 as I wanted something to watch movies on that would fit into a jacket pocket. After all the stuff written about how bad android was and a lack of apps, I was a little nervous. Having used it for the past three months, there is not a single app I use on iOS that I can't get on my Nexus 7 and in general they run better on the Nexus 7.
So to read a review for the iPad Mini that is worse than the Nexus 7 in most technical tests, costs almost twice as much and most importantly is actually too big to be considered 'pocketable', I have to say that it smacks of bias.
Hey Anand. You didn't mention RAM at all in your review. You recommended the Mini over next year's A6-based one considering just performance but never mentioned RAM which I believe is the biggest factor in these devices.
I have an iPad 1 which I still use. In 2012 that means no support for the latest iOS, apps and browser crashing constantly and virtually no support for newer games. All because of it's crummy 256MB of RAM. This isn't just a performance issue like like pages not scrolling fast enough or getting sub 30fps in the maps app. This is things not working. Period.
In the no-VM world of iOS, less RAM doesn't mean worse performance, it means things crash and don't work. One year after the iPad 1, the majority of iOS devices moved to 512MB and pretty soon after that developers (including Apple) stop supporting these really constrained 256MB.
So: iPad mini. A 1.5 year old SoC with 512MB RAM. How likely is it that it will go the route of the iPad1 come 2013 and all the iOS devices have 1GB RAM? Pretty likely. Wouldn't you say the iPad mini 2 with presumably A6 and 1GB RAM will have much better longevity compared to this first generation device (a la iPad 2 vs iPad 1)? So I'd have a hard time recommending it, just like I'd highly recommend (in hindsight) waiting for the iPad 2 instead of getting an iPad 1 should 2010 come around again.
^ this. My sister has an original iPad 1 and it crashes all the time due to lack of RAM. I never understood, for the life of me, why Apple is always so stingy with RAM on their devices.
As you say, by next year most applications won't be able to run on the mini due to the lack of RAM no matter how pretty it is, or amazing form factor it ha,s or how well built it is, none of this will be able to help. Period.
I bought the original iPad and as many was amazed by the build-quality (stupid sharp edges excluded) and how fluid surfing the web felt considering the hardware. But I also within 15 minutes realised that it was badly memory-starved. Apple is an amazing company taking great pride in the user-experience of its products, but back then they goofed up badly.
I feel the same about the Mini. The CPU may be old but it's still fairly competent, the GPU still among the best, and the screen size may be close to perfect. But only 512 MB of RAM just ain't sufficient for today, even less for tomorrow.
Being slow to increase RAM and VRAM is consistently an issue with Apple. That's the case with Macs as well.
For the iPad 1, it wasn't just that 256MB of RAM was small. Rapid drop-off in app support for the iPad 1, especially in games, is due to the resolution being so high in comparison to the RAM. The GPU was also underpowered compared to the resolution. 3rd gen devices have 480x320 screens and 256MB of RAM while the iPad 1 has 5.1x the pixels with the same 256MB of RAM. The 4th gen iPod Touch is affected by this too having a 960x640 screen with 256MB, but the iPad 1 is even worse with 1.3x the pixels of the 4th gen Touch. Support for the 4th gen iPod Touch in games isn't perfect, but is better than the iPad 1, which indicates that 256MB in itself isn't the limitation, but the drop in support for the iPad 1 is a combination of 256MB RAM with the higher 1024x768 resolution and the iPad 1 no longer being sold after 2011. The iPad 1 received 2 major OS updates (iOS 4.x and 5.x) post launch like other iOS devices so its OS support wasn't prematurely terminated.
I think the situation will be different for the iPad Mini 1. The iPad 2/Mini doubles the RAM to 512MB while keeping the resolution the same, which alleviates the poor resolution-RAM ratio of the iPad 1. 512MB of RAM represents the majority of iOS devices including the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad Mini 1, and 5th gen iPod Touch, of which given historical patterns, the iPhone 4S and 5th gen iPod Touch and perhaps even the iPad Mini 1 itself will sell into 2014. Given historical patterns, OS support for the iPhone 4S, 5th gen iPod Touch, and iPad Mini 1 should continue into 2015. Seeing it's only in 2012 that developers are really beginning to require 512MB of RAM, I don't see them already upping the minimum requirement to 1GB in 2013. Especially not when that eliminates the majority of their potential customer base, when those devices are still being actively sold into 2014, and receiving OS support into 2015. I think 2014 is a more realistic date for when apps will begin to stop supporting 512MB devices.
Personally, seeing the CPU was unchanged and the GPU is only 2x faster despite the 4x increase in resolution making it slower at native resolution than the iPad Mini 1 and iPad 2, I wouldn't be surprised if the iPad 3 loses app support before the iPad Mini and iPad 2.
Of course, just because apps continue to support 512MB devices doesn't mean the usage experience won't be degraded or sub-par. I can see that becoming an issue faster than app support.
I guess you reviews the Wifi-only version, but I'd like to see some analysis of the cellular connectivity options, especially what LTE bands are supported in the available SKUs.
The mini lacks a GPS on the base model making it useless for using any map software with turn-by-turn prompts.
The Nexus 7 has a built in GPS chip (and a very effective one and way better pin pointing location than a TomTom) and Google Maps works great on the Nexus 7 (you can download maps for offline use).
The lack of GPS on any tablet is a deal breaker for me.
Adding in the omission GPS with the other short comings along with its sky high price makes the mini just an overpriced iToy. The Nexus 7 is a much much better deal.
I think we have all forgot what gave us forgot what gave us 7" tablets. A "tablet" - i.e a tablet PC running Windows was normally in the 12-14" range. The JooJoo was a 12" tablet as well. Apple brought it down to 10" and sold a ton of those.
At the same time a large number of more or less obscure manufacturers brought out 7" tablets *not* because 7" was considered the best compromise but because those panels could be bought dirt-cheap. But this also gave us this idea that a small tablet was supposed to be 7" while a large tablet was to be 10". I would say this is an anomaly, tablets have for the last ten years been larger than 10".
Maybe the "correct" size for a small tablet is in the 8-8.5" range? I was playing with my friends Motorola Xoom 2 (8.2", 1280x800) and while a bit heavier than my 7" tablet it seemed to hit the perfect size. Not so big or heavy as to be cumbersome, while still packing almost 40" more screen area.
Too much focus is being put on the device being pocket-able, how many really bring a tablet in their coat or pants? Just the idea of asking for a device to be pocket-able while still lacking a 3G/4G connection is just plain silly. Instead focus should be put on how it feels in hand but also how much space it occupies on a table. The 10" iPad was always too big to fit comfortable on my table while still having space for a cup of tea, a notebook, a plain book or the remotes for the TV and receiver.
Incredibly too much... By the 4th generation of these, 32GB should be standard and 64GB a $100 upgrade...
The BOM on 32GB NAND in this fashion is what? $15? Even if it's $20($10 x 2 16GB), they are getting a 1000% profit margin on that upgrade from 16 to 32 GB??
But they know we all have huge iTunes libraries we'd want on it...
Unfortunately there will never be a do-it-yourself tablet similar to the PC market. I stopped paying Dell and Gateway and HP a LONG time ago for their ridiculous profit methods.
Not sure if this has already been rehashed, but the pixel size is what kills the ipad mini for me. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, and I can SEE the pixels and it drives me nuts. The ipad mini has an even bigger screen with about the same number of pixels... Also, samsung fits in pocket, mini doesn't. I like the ipad mini's form factor, but again if it won't fit in my pocket it'll probably never leave the house...
I bought Nexus 7 when it was released. This is what i can tell you after few months of usage.. "Its a good hardware in a crappy software". Iwould say the higher price premium on ipad mini is justified for software.
Most of the apps are zoomed over apps for Nexus 7. I hate that part of it. For example i use this app called apex launcher in my samsung s 3 and when i try using it on Nexus 7 all the icons are so small that they are hardly recognizable.
I donot understand why Google cannot optimize the apps to their own Nexus tablets. Anand do you know whats stopping them from doing this?
Am I the only person who thinks Anand is just another Apple shill who just falls over himself supporting any and every Apple product out there? Please. What ever happened to the objectivity that once was the hallmark of Anandtech? I've watched the same thing happen to Tom's Hardware over the years. I guess it must be the koolaid they drink.
I really don't think it's necessary to make personal insults against the staff. Yes anand clearly likes apple. But look around. So does half the continent.
You state that the mini display is great but, in your own tests...
Pixel density - 5th of 7 brightness -13th of 17 contrast - 17th of 17 calibration - 6th of 7 grayscrale - 3rd of 7 saturation - 4th of 7 GMB - 6th of 7
I dont understand your conclusion. Doesnt add up to a great display to me.
FIrst, the tests were against other rather good screens. So coming in "average" is actually quite good. Here's the key statement, near the end of the review, "It pains me to say it, but compared to most similarly priced notebooks, the iPad mini's display is amazing."
Second, often times the margin of difference must not have seemed significant to Anand. For example, if two screens are 1% apart on a particular metric (pulling a number from nowhere) then which came in 1st vs 2nd is a relatively meaningless.
i personally dont get it. i have an ipod touch, iphone and ipad and pretty much never use the ipod or ipad. the ipad is only good for checking an email quickly or looking at a youtube video. anything beyond that and its frustrating to use. personally i would rather have a laptop/ultrabook. not sure i understand making the mini other than just to have a cheaper "i" product to complete with kindles and androids. i didnt think apple was about going cheap.
I can't see how any tech enthusiast site could look at the Mini and be impressed at the overall product. A 1 1/2 year old SoC. A screen resolution that goes back even farther and skimping out at 512MB or RAM. Any other manufacturer tried to pull that off would get slammed on all points but because the Mini has a nice case well all is good I guess...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How does this thing get positive reviews?....Oh wait its Apple. by Jumangi on Wednesday, November 21, 2012 I can't see how any tech enthusiast site could look at the Mini and be impressed at the overall product. A 1 1/2 year old SoC. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can not see it, because it is in the software... the SoC the apps, etc... you miss the forest for the trees. You miss the computer (system or tablet) for the specifications of the various parts...
I was wondering if you had any plans to review the new B&N Nook HD 7" tablet? It would be interesting to read your findings on it's higher resolution screen. Also any plans for a tablet round up pre-xmas, as they are a nice size/price for potential presents? It seems the choice comes down to Nexus 7 vs N&B Nook/Kindle fire HD or the mini Ipad for iOS.
"I don’t consider the iPad mini a competitor to the Nexus 7"
What the heck? I jsut do not understand the continuous worshipping of this company's garbage products. It is almost like people dont even actually use these things. In reality, ther eis no difference between this and something like a nexus 7. They're both going to be extremely limited, extremely frustrating devices. iPoopa are anything but buttery smooth flawlessly running devices these biased reviewers make them out to be. I can make my iPoop crash just by opening webpages. Every time I'm scrolling thru the app store it lage like hell. The thing is really unbearably slow in jsut about everything. I only have about 100 apps installed. (58 of which want to update right now, but hell if I'm gonna bother.) I hate this thing. I only use it as a remote control nowadays. Even that crashes. It's really terrible. I refuse to believe that it is something unique to my device. What's more liekly to me is that the people who never have any problems with these things are the people who never actually use them.
I have a 3rd gen iPad and decided to give the mini a try. I was a little reluctant because of the display (it is definitely a step down from the 3rd gen), but I agree with Anand that the form factor is great. The full size iPad is a little heavy to hold and read on a train or airplane, but the mini excels at that. Hopefully Anand is wrong and Apple can figure out a way to get a Retina Display into the mini form factor sometime in 2013. If they do, I think that the mini would actually be the preferred iPad choice overall.
I had an original Kindle Fire last year, but never used it much and wound up selling it. I think I'll keep the iPad mini, though for now I also think I'll keep the 3rd gen iPad.
The Mini is all well-and-good for the "carry-it-anywhere-squint-and-peer" crowd, but as someone who mainly uses my iPad on the couch and such around the house, I'd rather have one with a BIGGER display, not smaller. Make it thinner so there's no weight penalty, and with a display about the size of an 8-1/2x11 sheet, or a standard magazine. (Particularly since magazine and other media consumption is a big use.)
There's no way to make it thinner or just weight the same with a larger display. The display is a major power consument in tablets, make it larger, brighter or in a higher resolution and it draws *much* more power.
Why on your pictures for the comparison of the letter 'e' and the 'topic of the webcast' text, the RGB components of pixels appear vertically aligned on the mini, and horizontally aligned on the iPad 2. And the contrary on the Safari icon comparison on the mini vs the 4?
Please some "fanboy" leaves an and staff alone. I think they did a fair comparison, and comment about it. It is foolish to say that is 1 and a half year technology, why don't those fanboy army try to make it and fit the 45nm A5X or A6 with holding 10 hours battery life without make it thicker.
It is a nice device for reading and easy to carry around but there is a downsize to become a productive tool at work. The price is relatively expensive than other, but the thing is Apple is a company that unlike google and amazon to cut their throat and sell it with no profit because Apple is software and hardware company and Google and amazon is ads and service company.
I'll be selling the N7 and replacing it with a mini, will likely wait till it hits the Apple refurb store though.
Build quality: the iPad mini wins, hands down,
Form factor: again, a big plus, the thing feels more like an e-reader than a tablet, and the extra screen real estate does make a big difference. 7" is just too small for a great smaller tablet experience.
Software: Yeah, iOS is due for an overhaul, but frankly, I have never used widgets that much, preferring to use folders to group the actual apps. I tire of widget overload, saw an SGN II the other day with the home screen filled with widgets and it was way too damn busy.
And as far as the "OMFG, Anand is biased" comments, give it a flipping rest, the man benches the crap out of the latest and greatest on a nearly daily basis, can he be allowed to like something you don't?
Anand likely cost Apple millions by proving the antenna system on the iP4 was defective, and he has some very strong empirically proven data that the iPad mini is a parts bin device with a screen that lags the industry. Yet the device meets his needs.
I own an iPad and debated between the Mini and the Nexus 7. I went with the Nexus 7.
Without rooting, I can copy files from camera to external hard drive without resorting to wifi or buying anything extra. GPS, turn by turn voice navigation, offline maps, easy integration with Google tools like Mail, Picasa Web, YouTube, etc... I can see why someone would want a wider screen, but the narrower N7 can fit in more pockets and make for easier holding on the train. And in general, there is much more detail in settings.
The N7 is sorely missing a rear facing camera. I like to photograph articles, documents, basically text. The 1.2 megapixel front facing camera is not enough to capture text clearly. The build quality is a little suspect, for example, the screen lifting problem.
Jelly Bean, in general, may be more buttery smooth than its predecessors, but it is much easier navigating iOS, selecting text, scrolling, etc... iOS is much more responsive.
Obviously iOS app selection is better, but I notice that Android equivalent apps are not as good. For example, the Kindle app on iOS, when you highlight a word on the bottom of the screen, the definition appears on the top, which allows you to alter the highlighting selection. The Android version, the definition covers the bottom so you can't change the highlighting selection. I noticed other instances of how the iOS app works better than its Android equivalent. Dropbox, Evernote for example.
Google Play has a limited selection of movies and tv shows compared to iTunes/Amazon.
So my use case for the big iPad is reading music scores from the piano, reading books with complex formatting, reading novels at home - fewer page turns, videos and apps I can't get on Android. The N7 for everything else.
So the above N7 drawbacks for me are well worth the $130 savings.. Hope this helps others in their decision.
I went to an Apple store today (Black Friday) planning to buy a 4th-gen iPad on sale. Though I hadn't yet seen a mini, I dismissed it out of hand because I "wanted a retina display". It happened that there was a mini next to a iPad 4 on display, so I compared them. The resolution difference wasn't really obvious to me (after all, the mini has a higher pixel density than the iPad 2), and in reading text (web pages, for example) I felt no clear preference. The mini's display was somewhat yellower/warmer than the 4's, which I didn't much care for. However, I opened Apple Maps on both, and was shocked to see that that the mini had a MUCH clearer display than the 4. On the mini, the smallest streets were clear at the zoom level where they appeared, but on the 4 they were so washed out as to be almost invisible. And in pretty much every other respect, the mini's Maps display looked better. I spent half an hour mucking with brightness and zoom levels trying to equalize the displays for a fair test, but no matter what I did the mini display was dramatically better.
So, I tried an iPad 2 next to a 4, and got exactly the same results. The 2's display looked very much like the mini's (albeit larger), with map details much clearer than on the 4 (a *different* 4 from the one I compared to the mini, so this wasn't just a sample glitch with that particular iPad). I called over a store rep and showed him my results. He said "Hmm... but the Retina Display is better on things like photos and videos. Watch..." and he brought up the same sample image on both. We were both surprised to see that the image on the 2 was again dramatically nicer (less washed out, in particular) than on the 4, and at that point I realized that the real difference is that the 4's display has rather poor contrast (for which there is no adjustment), which would account for all the differences I observed.
I very much prefer the Retina Display on my iPhone 4s (and my wife's 5) over the previous ones, but on the iPads it seems to be significantly flawed (at least with the two samples I tried). I left the store with an iPad mini, even though it was the only iPad not on sale today.
I have a feeling that iPad reviewers haven't really been doing side-by-side comparisons between models. I dread the day when the iPad mini gets "upgraded" with a Retina Display--maybe I'll stock up on them now.
I had the iPad 2 for a while and sold it as too large to take it with me daily. I purchased the wifi 32GB black model. It is the apps available for iOS that make the iPads attractive. I use n-Stream for Naim network player, use it as remote with Logitech app. Skype works well, Textplus for free texting nice.
I tried Rim blackberry playbook, liked actual hardware but no apps I could use....
Even with Targus case Mini iPad fits inside pocket of winter jacket when walking, hopefully once summer comes around I find summer jacket with large enough inside pocket.
Regular iPads at work feel heavy now compared to Mini, so I agree with Anand.
You wrote "It pains me to say it, but compared to most similarly priced notebooks, the iPad mini's display is amazing."
Should be "It pains me to say it, but compared to most similarly priced notebooks, the iPad mini's display is amazing trash. I really do not know what's went wrong with Apple and in which city dump near Cupertino they found such display"
The problem of going the Full Retina Display Route is that that is an even ultra higher resolution than the iPad 3-4. And the battery and GPU needed would make it heavier, larger, and more expensive. This is thus not the route.
Apple can more easily make the iPad Mini like the iPhone 5: increasing the vertical resolution and not forcing existing apps to rerender. They just keep working as before but with letter-boxing. This solution would increase the resolution so it is Retina-like and would work with existing apps.
If you give someone $5 they will ask "why didn't you give me" $10. Just the fact that most applications that a few years ago could only be performed on a desktop or laptop are now being implemented in handheld devices is freaking awesome!! who cares about the minor dimension differences in between the devices.
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Greg512 - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
I haven't read through the whole review, just the conclusion, but the side-by-side photo with the Nexus really accentuates how much larger the Mini is. Other than that difference, I think ecosystem is the only significant reason to buy the Mini over a competing tablet. The hardware just doesn't impress like the iPad 3.Jorange - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
But is it too wide to hold one-handed for long periods?Greg512 - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
I tried it out at a store and my impression is holding it one-handed is pretty uncomfortable. I also find the Nook tablet pretty uncomfortable to hold one handed, but the Mini is certainly no better, probably worse. Plus, holding it one-handed in portrait (if you grip from the side) blocks some of the screen.Pantsu - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I'd have to agree. While the mini is thinner and has perhaps somewhat better build quality compared to the nexus 7, when comparing them side to side, I'd have say my Nexus 7 was more comfortable to hold in one hand. Also it just happens to fit in my jacket pocket while the mini is too wide.Even though the aspect ratio in the mini might be preferable for web, you still end up zooming, and then again video is better with a 16:9 display.
DERSS - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
But yes, it is 15 mm (1.5 cm, 0.6 inch) wider, it has to be taken into account. Though most of its width is compensated by lesser thickness, so overall perimeter just a little bit bigger than that of Nexus 7.DeciusStrabo - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
I think the backside material of the Nexus 7 is what makes it so comfortable to hold, next to the size. Unlike my iPad 2 it simply doesn't feel uncomfortable at any point. Can't get to cold or hot or be slippery.Oh, a Nexus 7 with the hardware of the Nexus 10 and a 1600x1200 8" screen and the Nexus 7 backside... My dream tablet. Alternatively a iPad Mini with a full Retina screen and a A6X/2 GB RAM (the 512 GB is the worst part of my iPad 2 and I can't believe they did it again in 2012 with the Mini).
Solandri - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Standard paperback book sizes are:A: 110mm x 178mm
B: 129mm x 198mm
Trade: 135mm x 216mm
Nexus 7: 120mm x 198mm
iPad mini: 135mm x 200mm
The A format paperback is the kind you can shove in your back pocket. Easy to hold in one hand. The B is slightly bigger, and most people can hold it in one hand. The trade paperbacks are the bigger more expensive kind, more like a hardcover book but with a soft cover. Most people have to bend them to hold in one hand.
The Nexus 7's width falls between A and B paperbacks in width. The iPad Mini is trade paperback size in width, even with the reduced bezel. Personally I think Apple goofed here, picking a size larger than what the publishing industry settled on as ideal for one-handed carrying and reading after decades of product testing.
I'm pretty sure Apple chose to make the iPad Mini 7.9" instead of 7" because the 4:3 aspect ratio would've made movies on a 7" iPad smaller than on 7" 16:9 Android tablets. By making the iPad Mini 7.9" they make movies on it slightly bigger than on a 7" Android tablet. But the cost in one-handed holdability isn't worth it IMHO.
They tried to make up for it by cutting down weight, which makes it easier to hold by one edge. But that carries its own drawbacks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MMmLQlrBws#t=0m30s
Jakers Ugly Brother - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
Actually, the iPad mini is almost exactly the same size and shape as the Amazon Kindle 2 (the old white keyboard one), differing only in slightly higher weight. The dimensions are so close that I have to believe that Apple was using the K2 as a reference for the mini.Most K2 users agree that it is extremely easy and comfortable to hold one-handed for hours, and very easy to carry.
Put a $5 silicon or TPU case on the mini, and it too becomes extremely comfortable to hold for hours.
darwinosx - Friday, November 30, 2012 - link
Apple did nothing with 7' Android tablets in mind.stfuyolo - Sunday, February 17, 2013 - link
no i own one and if your hand gets tired then you can balance it on one hand, i can grip it for a while and I have a case aswell on it so that is thicker!!protomech - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Top of the summary gives it away:"In my first week with the iPad mini, it quickly became the iPad I actually wanted to carry around. The mini's form factor is really where all of the innovation is. It's thin, light and an almost perfect balance of functional screen size and portability. I really love this form factor."
By specs, the mini is unimpressive. It's using a SOC introduced in early 2011. We've been accustomed to high resolution mini-tablets from B&N, Amazon, Google, etc. It has less memory and costs significantly more (particularly for higher SKUs).
But, at least for the reviewer, the form factor trumps all these things, at least for purposes of a "carry computer". Thinner and lighter than the 7" tablet comparison, with significantly more usable display space (Android 4.x soft buttons do not help here) in nearly the same frontal area.
Would it be a better product if it sported an A6X SOC and a retina display? Certainly, on paper. It also likely would need a ~25 Wh battery and substantial increases in both weight and thickness .. same sort of changes from the iPad 2 to iPad 3.
iPad mini should have been introduced last year when the 32nm SOC was available IMO .. it would have provided a useful bifurcation vs the 3rd gen iPad's bulk gains, and perhaps we'd have an A6 SOC in the iPad mini today.
seanleeforever - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
not sure how that quote answers Jorange's questions. but that's the internet nowadays.protomech - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Is it? It looks like it's a reply to Greg512. Certainly that's how I intended it.But, as you say, that's the internet nowadays.
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
I doubt Apple could have shipped a 32nm SoC last year in volume. The A5r2 was already the first shipping SoC produced on Samsung's 32nm process, ahead of Samsung's own designs, when it launched on the iPad2,4 in March 2012. And that was only used for low volume test production with the 45nm A5 iPad 2 continuing to be available. Apple prioritizing the iPhone 5 to receive a 32nm SoC first and waiting until now for high volume 32nm production to introduce 32nm iPad Mini, 5th gen iPod Touch, and iPad 4 makes sense.protomech - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Good point.. I thought it had shipped late last year.KoolAidMan1 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
"By specs, the mini is unimpressive."GPU performance is still surprisingly good, better than even the newest Android-running hardware. What is it with other companies not keeping up with Apple's older hardware?
Greg512 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Yea, the GPU is good. But, for the price, the screen, CPU, and RAM are kinda poor. The Mini performs well now, but I question its long-term viability.marvdmartian - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Typical Apple product, that will sell like hotcakes: getting less, paying more, nothing new.drx11 - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
---------------------------------------------------------RE: Not a bad product by marvdmartian on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Typical Apple product, that will sell like hotcakes: getting less, paying more, nothing new.
---------------------------------------------------------
Typical Fandroid, never sees the forest for the trees.
Apple is the best and has been so since 2007 - at building SoC.
Apple is the best at supporting its devices long term.
Now with iOS 6 - which is mostly supported (not all the features) for an old 3GS phone - you could argue you are getting less - maybe on the older devices (no Siri, Apple Maps is not as good as as Google Maps ... right now... etc..)
Still iOS 5 is very nice for older things and Android/Google/Moto/Samsung/HTC has rarely updated their "better" hardware at all ... you can blame that on the carriers all you want, but that is also what you are buying.
Buying more often, spending more time doing something that maybe should just work?
I know Google is trying (or starting to), but they really have almost no support for the majority (75%+ ) of the devices in their 'ecosystem'. What's the point of better hardware when it runs slower/worse from the start and never gets updated?
Alucard291 - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
Did you have a joint before you wrote this drivel? Or does your mind work this bad drug free? ^^Good SoCs? Are you serious? Just because people work'd the shaft so hard when A6 came out doesn't mean that Cortex A9 based soc is viable coming into 2013.
Apple is currently behind the curve on both tech processes (28 nm vs 32 nm) and performance (cpu and ram speed but not gpu)
In case of ipad mini. You get less. (2 year old tech) you pay more (than any competition out there). But somehow we miss the forest for the trees?
Oh but it supports the amazing dated and feature free ios6! That's great. Except well.. (opinion incoming) I don't like ios. I find it restrictive and boring.
So your point is?
jaydee - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Keep in mind those FPS benchmarks don't take into account screen resolution. Nexus 7 is driving a higher resolution display, pushing 30% more pixels.Azuredragoon - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
The GPU test does take into account screen resolution with the offscreen 1080 testslowlymarine - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
GPU performance isn't anywhere near "better than even the newest Android-running hardware." It's identical to Exynos 4412's Mali400 MP4 and the ubiquitous MSM8960's Adreno 225, and markedly behind Exynos 5's Mali 604T and APQ8064's Adreno 320. Unless you were forgetting to look at the "offscreen" results?http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph6429/51693...
DeciusStrabo - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
1 GB RAM and the iPad Mini would be so much better, at basically no cost for Apple or in battery life.drx11 - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
because more RAM is free and takes up absolutely no space or battery power? What are you smoking?So it looks like Apple did install more RAM - its invisible and takes up no space and does not use any energy/battery at all ... and well its not actually in the iPad mini because Apple has to deal with the pesky physics of the world.
seanleeforever - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
few things here:nexus 7 actually fit in all my pant's pocket, it has portability of a phone as far as i am concerned.
nexus 7 has usb host mode which can access your usb device.
if i need to carry ipad mini in a bag, which i will have to, i might as well just get regular size ipad.
just my 2 cents.
seanleeforever - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
also, could we please have a nexus 7 and ipad mini display at the same size at least?the side by side thing you guys have shows a zoomed in nexus 7 vs zoomed out ipad mini, it shows the illusion that ipad mini displays much more content than nexus 7 while in reality the nexus 7 packs more pixel.
Mumrik - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Actually a pretty good point.EnzoFX - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Is this not the default behavior of the Nexus? Everything in Chrome always looks so big to me, all of Android I think actually. The UI, the buttons, just are way too big.Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Done, updated :)daar - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Who manufactures the display? I recall in reviews of old this was mentioned, would be nice to see in future reviews of anything with displays this info, thanks.zepi - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Since the current-gen ipad-retina-displays are pretty abysmal in terms of power usage (see displaymate's measurements for example), would it be unreasonable to expect LTPS or IGZO panels to make things considerably better?Apple uses Low-Temperature polysilicon IPS in iphone for a reason and it's said that the forthcoming IGZO's would help in power consumption as well.
I think that Ipad 4 is a "failure" as it doesn't address any of the shortcomings of the 3rd Gen ipad. Namely weight, thickness and reasonably poor visibility in direct sunlight. Though Apple just decided it's not worth the tradeoff to use A6 instead of A6x to reduce the battery weight by a tiny margin.
doobydoo - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Firstly - the iPad 4 isn't a 'new iPad' as much as the iPad 3 was - it's an upgrade a partial way through the year, so it shouldn't be expected to address all 'the shortcomings'.Secondly - the iPad 4 doubles the GPU power which addresses the single biggest issue with the iPad 3 - the underpowered GPU. It's significantly faster than any other tablet (as is the iPad 3).
Also it was important to get all the devices using the lightning connector.
Alucard291 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Yeah its the newer new ipad >.>Also known as the biggest ripoff apple has yet produced. Lightning connector (differently shaped usb 2.0), not-really-upgraded soc which brought nothing for the end user. Right? Because iOS is always super smooth? Or is it not?
Wait wait wait and you're also saying that having even more unused gpu power is a shortcoming that was addressed? Well no point arguing with such logic.
Especially since the cpu is already outdated. A9's (even with a custom memory controller) are so 2011.
Man you are a MASTER of facepalms. You initiate a wave of them with every post of yours.
NCM - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Alucard291 writes: "Lightning connector (differently shaped usb 2.0)"Bzzt! Wrong.
Thanks for playing, come back when you've done your research properly.
Jorange - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Why did you zoom in on the Anandtech website on the Nexus 7, whilst the iPad mini is zoomed out, it makes the Nexus look like it can't display a full webpage which it can!! Subtle Anti-Android bias strikes again.ChronoReverse - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
I don't know about bias (I like to attribute ignorance over malice) but it seems particularly bad that not only is the N7 zoomed in compared to the Mini, but it's zoomed in so much that the N7's image is larger than the Mini's.I can see zooming so that they're physically the same size (but then the N7 would be using more pixels to render the same thing) but it's not even at that level.
michal1980 - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
because Anand's bias is showing.Still waiting for this rumored 'Anandtech' windows 8 review. But OMG look a small ipad, the site owner himself reviews.
Might as well start renaming the website 'appletech'
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Our Win8 performance guide will be done this week. We're not doing a massive review (that would mostly be rehashing our significant DevPrev and ConPrev articles) will hit all the high points.And note that what Anand does has no bearing on Win8. AnandTech is more than one person, and in this case since I'm the OS guru it's my article.
michal1980 - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
I'm just disapponted that a site I've trusted and visted for years, is changing focus.if its an apple thing, there are tons of in depth reviews done right away, product, os, accessories etc etc.
windows is now becoming the abandoned step child.
look at this, pages of writing, that could be summed up in 2 words:
smaller ipad.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
That's not exactly true, the iPad mini was launched nearly a month ago, our review of it is very late. In the interim I have published articles on Intel's SSD DC S3700, Microsoft's Surface, the Titan Supercomputer at ORNL and Samsung's Cortex A15 based Chromebook.Take care,
Anand
Alucard291 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
No offence but you could have just said - "same soc as ipad 2. Same display as ipad 2 except smaller so pixels are slightly denser Its lighter than ipad 2 and has the same form factor but smaller."There I wrote the review for you.
Instead you guys put out this monster - showing tests? Of the same soc? Again?
Well one more review site feels the need to get some apple advertisement revenue.
And I approve how you compared it to mini cooper. Yeah great comparison especially since mini cooper is a car for people who can't afford a decent one but really want to seem cool...
So yeah. What makes this product great is the apple logo on the back. As usual.
Jakers Ugly Brother - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
It would be so nice to read one single tech thread without running into a paranoid "Oh noes another site has sold out to Apple" screed like yours.But no, you haters have to spread your sick, sad bile across everything you see.
Thanks for lowering the signal to noise ratio of yet another comment section.
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Anandtech's Microsoft Surface review was up 3 days before the device was on sale and their Windows RT review was up the day before it shipped. The iPad Mini review comes 18 days after the tablet went on sale and they aren't or haven't yet done an iPad 4 (18+ days) or 5th gen iPod Touch (36+ days) review. From this you conclude that Apple reviews get done right away and Microsoft reviews take forever?Ryan already explained why they aren't doing a massive review for Windows 8 and are doing more focused articles instead, which doesn't seem unreasonable.
blacksamurai30 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I don't see the reasoning behind your dissapointment. I've been reading for years (despite my only just making an account haha); they are easily the most informative on the internet. The crew here does stellar indepth reviews for pretty much everything. Don't use your own personal misgivings against Apple in an attempt to discredit the hard work that goes into reviewing these products, or the invaluable service it does for the internet and consumer knowledge.Keep up the good work Anandtech!
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Wow, honest mistake, let me reshoot that real quick. I shot that before I left for SC12 and didn't catch it in my final assembly of the article today.If anything, the photo I posted is contrary to the point I make in the text above. Things are bigger on the iPad compared to the Nexus 7.
Give me a few and I'll get a better photo up.
Take care,
Anand
Kepe - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
The same thing happened in two pictures. On pages 4 and 11, although that's the same image file.http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/tablets/apple/...
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Fixed in both places. Thank you!seanleeforever - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
and now you have to update the tags..for example. the last page, ipad mini is actually on the right. i am sure no one would mistaken those two, but still.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Fixed. The black mini wasn't mine so I no longer had that for comparison, had to use the white model for this shot - but I hope this better shows the difference. I also exported the full size shots at 2800px wide if you want to get a better, up-close look between the N7 and iPad mini.I included two shots on the display page, but here's a link to all 4 I just took:
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/tablets/apple/...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/tablets/apple/...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/tablets/apple/...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/tablets/apple/...
Take care,
Anand
MadMan007 - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Here's another display-related thing to fix: the charts for Brightness (black and white) and contrast don't include the Nexus 7 for some bizarre reason..hmm...but the later charts on the same page 4 do.Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Fixed, thank you :)Take care,
Anand
ksherman - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
While I understand where you're coming from, the reason the Nexus is zoomed in is because the Nexus "fakes" it's resolution in the web browser to about 603 so that responsive web pages render elements larger so they're easier to use on the Nexus 7. So the side by side photo is simply comparing the default view on load.In fact, this is actually somewhat of a negative for the iPad Mini on responsive sites because it means it's rendering pages designed for a much larger display.
Source: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1663
MadMan007 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Now this would be something interesting to investigate and inform readers about. I didn't know about different devices presenting different resolutions and am not sure what the differences really mean.Galatian - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
As a medical student I fast pretty fast in preordering the cellular white iPad mini here in Germany. It is the perfect size to fit into a white coats pocket. I will read a lot of books on it, so it was a hard decision between this and the 4th Gen iPad. But size does matter and eventually Retina will come to the mini line. For right now I just have to live with the resolution.Granseth - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
This is a big issue for me with the Ipad 2, and it will be the same with Ipad mini. When I try to use the Ipad2 as a productive device I often lose information I write because the webpages and apps has to reload when the device gets out of memory and have to free something to load the next app/webpage. And this has become much worse as the Ipad has aged, so it's terrible that they are selling a new device with only 512MB of RAM.But hopefully people will use this smaller device as a consumption device, and not a productivity device.
ratte - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Excellent review as always, balanced and informative.It's a pity that Apple can't easily go to an intermediate resolution like 1600 x 1200, like Android can, but is stuck with the rezdoubling. For me the mini would have felt more futureproof if they had used an A6 with 1Gb memory. but then this is Apple....
MadMan007 - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Yeah, they need something obvious but AWESOME to make sure everyone buys a new one next year.Gaugamela - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Now it's easy to understand why Apple wanted to ban the Galaxy Tab 7.7. The iPad Mini is a rip-off of it. With a much worse display since the GT7.7 had a Super Amoled + display of superior resolution.Samsung was a year ahead of Apple and it still holds up great, if Samsung updated it to Jelly Bean.
I would like to see a new Galaxy Tab 7.7.
And the display is a disapointment. It makes it a no buy device instantly, it's 130$ more expensive than the Nexus 7 and offers a worse display. Anyone that picks the Mini should only do it by the form factor or preference by iOS.
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
The form factor is why I'm considering the iPad Mini over the Nexus 7. It has great build quality, is thinner, lighter, yet has battery life that is similar or better and has a screen that's a third larger. The Nexus 7's advantage in screen resolution in itself is not as important for me because the screen is smaller so showing more tiny content isn't useful. The lower pixel density is a concern for clarity. The CPU may be weaker, but the GPU is stronger which given good GPU acceleration for UI responsiveness is a reasonable exchange. $130 more maybe worth it if the better form factor makes the device more useable so that it sees more use.teiglin - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
+1 to wanting an updated Galaxy Tab 7.7. I have the P6810 and it's definitely the best tablet ever.Sadly it's probably not going to happen. The 7.7 barely made it to the US and when it did, it was stripped of its phone functionality and cost $700 from VZW. I don't have any basis to speak to its international sales, but they didn't include it in the list of incoming JB updates, which doesn't speak well to its popularity.
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Well hardware variety is a key Android advantage. Samsung introduced the Galaxy S III mini in the 4" form factor of the iPhone 5. If the iPad Mini shows demand for a ~8" form factor, I don't see why Samsung wouldn't want to introduce a new Galaxy Tab 7.7 to tap into that market.chleuasme - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
> The second option would be to pick a new resolution that wasn't an integer multiple of the current one [...] Picking a non-integer multiple of those resolutions would force Apple to do some scaling and filtering to hit the new resolution, which could reduce quality. Apple does this on the MacBook Pro with Retina Display to enable higher resolution modes. To maximize image quality however, Apple renders the desktop offscreen at 4x the resolution and then scales down to fit the panel. There are obvious performance concerns here as well.If you want to make an analogy with the highest resolution on the rMBP, you have to take a 1536x1152 screen (i.e. 75% of the retina iPad res, just as the physical 2880x1800 pixels of the rMBP15 screen represent 75% of the 3840x2400 res) and scale down the 2048x1536 resolution on the physical pixels of the screen.
So, the 4x part of the work would be done at the same price as on current retina iPad (and the same on your example: for 1600x1200, you're not go to do 1024x768 -> 3200x2400 -> 1600x1200 but 1024x768 ~> 2048x1536 -> 1600x1200). Still need to scale down after, though.
But sub-pixel rendering probably make things better on OS X compared with what would happen on iOS.
No talk about AutoLayout?
Formul - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
I'm not sure why the general unavailability of tablet app versions for the android is not even mentioned in the summary as the big quality tablet software library is one of the most convincing points on top of the build quality to spend the extra $130 on the iPad mini. And no its not about OS preference or investment into an ecosystem, its about the general machine abilities and usability - if its more like a big phone or a small tablet.Hardware wise and depth wise the review is spot on though, don't get me wrong! Great job, guys!
Cristian Sorega - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I see this comment posted all the time and don't get it. What is the unavailability or lack of tablet app versions on Android?This is a serious question because I might miss something obvious.
I have 2 android tablets and used the iPad 1 and iPad 2 which I wanted to buy as I am quite invested in the Apple system thanks to my iPhones. The lack of any way to transfer photos from a drive to the iPad and also back was why I looked at Android tablets to begin with. Trying to upload photos on blogger was also a painfull experience, which worked perfect on Android.
I am using quite a few apps and have found all apps I was using on iOS on Android (or good/better substitutes). Unlike on iOS I never need to worry about getting HD or non HD versions for apps and all look perfectly fine. Where iPhone apps need to be re-scaled 2x on the iPad and look blurry, I never had this problem on Android and all apps look perfectly fine.
Also most apps take advantage of the higher resolution and display size without problem. Sure, some apps could benefit of having a better interface on the tablet but these apps usually use the same interface on the iPad.
So your comment strikes me as someone who has not really used Android tablets in the last year or maybe I misunderstood something.
On another note, all the benchmarks prove nothing really as in real life most tasks would be done faster and easier on an Android device and I have yet to see a proper real-world review of these devices.
Take for example some basic tasks I do with my device:
- Checking the weather: On Android I can now see it without unlocking my device on the lockscreen with a widget, or on the homescreen with a widget. On iOS I need to find and start the weather app, sure the weather app will start faster due to the better benchmark performance than it might on Android but on Android I don't need to bother.
- Reading news using Pulse (or any other news App): iOS devices start the app very fast but then need to start downloading the latest data once the app is started. On Android the app might start a few ms slower but the latest updates have been done in the background so I can actually read the news right away.
- Attaching a file to an email you reply to: iOS only allows to attach pictures to emails you reply to since iOS 6 with a long press, before it meant hitting reply, closing the email app, opening the picture viewer, finding the pictures, hitting select, then copy, closing the picture viewer, opening the mail app and hitting paste. On Android you just click attach and select any app you want to use, then simply select the file you want and it can be any file type not just emails.
- Uploading pictures: The iPad is much faster at importing pictures via the Camera connecting kit than the Transformer for example but I can't choose the location or decide if I want to import both JPG and RAW files, nor can I import anything that is not under the DCIM folder. On Android I simply browse the file system and decide where to copy from an paste to, plus I can do this both ways so it allows to create a backup when travelling without a computer.
- Freeing up space: On Android I can delete any type of file or app from anywhere on the system, on iOS I can not delete any music or pictures I imported through itunes so am stuck with it till I get back to a computer.
These are all things I do on a regular basis or have struggled with and I would like to see in a real world review because there the iPads would not look very good, great build and everything.
akdj - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Wow...where to start?I'm both an iOS and Android user--iPad 4/iPhone 5 and Nexus/Xoom/Note (original) owner. I'm an iOS developer--and working on learning development with Android. Right there is an excellent place to start! Really cool 'coding' programs. I'm using Codea, but there are man...including the new drag n drop SkripKit...or Pythonista, which allows direct export to XCode!
Productivity---I'm not a big fan of Docs2Go. It's what I use on Android...because it's what's available. In comparison...the iOS offering of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote...this is huge for me, especially with the plethora of Apple products we are trying to keep sync'ed
Creative work---My day job is my audio/video production company....been at it for 21 years now and this past summer, we did 132 weddings and class reunions. The iPad/Mac combo has completely revolutionized my business. Between using dJay for ceremonies (where you need only 3 or 4 songs), Garage band for recording ceremonies live--Real, true Korg synths, excellent video production facilities with Avid and iMovie...a LOT more tools for YOUR photography!!!! There are a couple decent editing apps in the Play Store---but they pale in comparison to iOS offerings. Drawing apps...cookbooks, games, games and more games!!! The list TRULY goes on and on and on...
There absolutely is a gaping hole in 'tablet optimized' apps in 'Droid-Land'. My fingers are crossed---but for now, if you truly want to be productive--at least in creative work, there truly is NO comparison.
Sorry---not sure how you've not seen this owning both platforms AND being a photog. Not even hard core Android fans or sites would argue this...especially in the tablet world---we are rooting for more development in this sector
J
Cristian Sorega - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
I still fail to see why Android lacks tablet optimized apps, all apps run fine on a tablet.Are there apps on iOS that would be good to have on Android, sure there are and probably more than the other way around but for me I have all apps I need and all work fine on a tablet so there is not issue with optimization.
For productivity and Office apps you should try Polaris office as I find this to work well but if Office is a priority I would simply get a Windows RT or 8 tablet and use the real deal.
As for your comment "a LOT more tools for YOUR photography!!!!".
- I have not tried or bought every app in the Apps store but there is no easy way to view a picture 1:1 without it having been re-scaled by iOS so this is a big issue. I have not found an app that can browse pictures and can show me EXIF information, Histogram or any other shooting information.
- I can not create a simple subfolder to organize my pictures during travels, a major issue for me or maybe I just can't see how to do this.
- I can not separate JPGs from RAW files, nor can I rename a file.
- No way to view 2 pictures side by side.
- Can't backup my pictures without a computer to another drive or SD card.
- Not possible to resize pictures for quicker upload.
- Posting a picture on Blogger and changing the size it appears is a nightmare.
- Impossible to access any pictures not found in the DCIM folder nor can I access pictures at home on my NAS for viewing or editing.
All this I can do with either standard pre-installed software or use Photo Mate, Photo Editor and so on. There is also Photoshop Touch available if I want to use layers.
Don't get me wrong the proper iPads (I don't think the mini servers any purpose) can be quite useful despite being limited by Apple for no real reason. But having used tablets for travelling since they were known as UMPCs the iPad simply does not allow me to do what I need while traveling where both the transformer and Nexus 7 works just fine, the transformer even better than a netbook.
Having more software available is never a bad thing though so I hope to see more on Android since it's the more useful OS because it allows more freedom. Having said this, there is certainly no shortage of tablet apps for Android and most things work just as well if not better.
DeciusStrabo - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
Firstly, it's a iPad Mini review, so Android things don't figure that much into it.Secondly, it's getting better every day. There are tablet-aware Apps for most purposes I use tablets for - RSS reading, browsing, Comic reading, Twitter, Facebook, G+, Music, Photo Viewing...
They might not always be the official Apps (Twitter's and Facebook's offerings are a joke on both Android and iOS), but they are quality Apps doing a great job on tablets.
rakez - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
chrome is my favorite for desktop but, it blows on tablets. you will see android tablets score better simply by using a different browser. boat browser will run circles around chrome.marcolorenzo - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
I just bought an iPad mini a few days ago and I'm loving it. My cousin's iPad now looks absolutely huge in comparison. The small form factor feels like the way it should've been the whole time. I don't care if it doesn't fit into my pockets, my pockets are for my phone and wallet. Someone previously said that if they're gonna carry it in a bag then they might as well get the normal iPad. I disagree because the small form factor doesn't just apply to portability, it also applies to your experience whilst carrying it. When holding the mini, I literally feel like I'm holding a small notepad. It's brilliant.I'm in no way an Apple fan (there are several reasons I dislike them in fact), having stopped using any Apple products since about a year ago, but I have to say, they really know what they're doing when considering their products' usability. When the iPhone 5 was released, I said to myself, "Damn, they did it again". Why? Because I have a HTC One X and as much as I love the big screen, it just isn't as practical as the "slightly longer, but same width" iPhone 5. They came up with a way to increase the screen size whilst maintaining the usability. Typical Apple. Same as the mini. There's a reason it's not as small as the Nexus 7. I saw the Nexus 7 and I kept thinking that I would never use it. Compared to my phone, it's not THAT much bigger, certainly not a big enough leap to make carrying both devices at the same time worthwhile in my opinion. The mini however, even though it's only slightly bigger, manages to cross over to the whole-other-device category. Of course, this is just my opinion, but for my money, the iPad mini is certainly worth the extra cash.
EnzoFX - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Just give the 7" the 2048 res treatment, and then double the 10" iPad's resolution once again! lol.Seriously though, it involves support on their end for some software changes, hope they follow through. I doubt they would want this mini to always (even the near future) have this resolution.
Zink - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
LCDs in phones are at 440 ppi with some manufacturers testing almost 500 ppi so with a big investment from Apple, doubling the Retina (264 ppi) iPad's resolution would probably be possible within 1 or 2 years. It wont happen though because of reduced battery life and reduced performance on current hardware for a very subtle gain in image quality. It will probably be 5 years before we see 10 MP+ tablets because battery life and light weight are more important. Mobile SOCs also just aren't fast enough. Even with DDR3 next year the iPad will still only have twice the memory bandwidth it had for the iPad 3, not enough to even attempt 4x the pixels. Getting enough memory bandwidth for double Retina in an iPad will require next generation DDR technology or an even wider memory system which won't be viable anytime soon.jecastejon - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I just hope the "resolution war" on tablets and phones to be over at 400 dpi, but it should be already over at 350 dpi.From the human sight point of view it is basically over. The extra power and resources should go to better frame rates, better graphics and battery life.
Today there are a few ridiculous measurements or also detrimental technology examples going higher every day like the dynamic contrast on TVs or the megapixel war on tiny consumer sensor cameras. They are misleading advertisement.
500 dpi is useless to 99.9% of humans at almost all ages even if the technology allows to go further and further.
Dribble - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
It's going to age very fast with that ancient cpu, and only 512mb of memory. Basically the moment the mini 2 comes out with a faster cpu this one will be forgotten and apps won't run on it.tbh seems like a rip off to me. It says something that the main reason I read for buying it is the shape of the screen - you've got to love that a lot to buy something that is all the other ways worse then it's much cheaper competition.
marcolorenzo - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Did you look at the benchmarks? I'm not sure I would say that it is "all the other ways worse then it's much cheaper competition."As a HTC One X user, I can tell you first hand the Tegra 3 isn't the sum of its parts, and the benchmarks that Anand provides proves that.
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
You actually anticipate developers will drop support for the iPad Mini "the moment" the 2nd generation is released? The 1GHz A5/A5X CPU is also used in the iPad 2 and iPad 3, while the slower 800Mhz A5 is used in the iPhone 4S and 5th gen iPod Touch which will both be on sale into 2014 given Apple's 3 year iPhone and 2 year iPod Touch sale cycles as they move down price tiers. The majority of iOS devices are A5 devices and will be for the next year or 2. The vast majority of apps still support 3rd generation devices and 4th generation device support is even higher. Apple's license agreement guarantees the iPad Mini will get iOS 7 and historically each device runs 3 major OS revisions over it's lifespan, so the iPad Mini will likely get OS updates into 2015. The chances of developers dropping support for 5th generation devices like the iPad Mini in the next year or 2 seem slim.Dribble - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
You can think that if you like but 512mb of ram is already a limiting factor, and the cpu/gpu will start to be come one too as time goes by.This is the world of apple - if it's not new then it doesn't matter, and with the mini you are essentially buying something that's already 1 1/2 years old.
drx11 - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
Except its 512MB (megabytes, no mb or megabits) of RAM.... but I know what you are saying. I suppose you should have some concern, but then again Apple - at least for the last few years - has been the best at SoC and even my old arsed iPhone 3GS runs well with iOS 5. It could run iOS 6, though it wont have the best features ... so that should change your mind.Unlike Google/OEMs/phone carriers, Apple supports its hardware and you get more out of the hardware - even when the specs are not "as good" as the competition.
DeciusStrabo - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
CPU is still ok, GPU the same, but the 512 MB RAM is absolutely something that's a worry. It wasn't enough on my iPad 2 a year ago and it's very annoying in Safari if you have several tabs. And it will only get worse as time moves on. Adding another 512 MB RAM would have cost Apple basically nothing and made the product a lot more future proof (as far as it is possible in this fast-moving segment of a fast-moving industry).karasaj - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
Will it blend?Zink - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MMmLQlrBwstwtech - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
I hope Google keeps the same screen size for the next 7" Nexus, but trims into the border a bit on the sides. Right now it's right at the limit for wrapping a hand around it, and I have pretty big hands.Crocography - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
And also its all metal back is too slippery compared to the Nexus 7. I waited for both to be release before I bought the Nexus 7 32Gb. (bought one by selling my iPad 2013 model -- never really used it much)jjj - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - link
If Apple is Apple they should have made this higher end and price it at 400$, and that still is what Job's Apple would do.Next year with the ipad 2 gone,they would need to drop the ipad 4 to 400$ or retire it so covering the 400$ range with the mini would make more sense.The cost of the SoC is a relative thing,32nm yields will get better by then,keeping it thin could be problematic if they double the res.PS; i am in no way suggesting this would be a price worth paying, just sayiing what would Apple do.
dishayu - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Is it possible Apple made the iPad mini worse than they were capable of, right now, just so that they can effortlessly update it and make more money out of it?ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Like any product designer, Apple has got to optimize for a variety of factors including component availability, component cost, final sale price, what features customers want, what features customers can tolerate not having, etc. If they just cared about maximizing profits they might as well have just thrown in the A4 from the iPhone 4 and a larger version of the TN panel used in the iPhone 3GS since they share the same dpi anyways.The iPad Mini already has worse battery life than the iPad 2 even without a retina display. Adding a retina display and a faster SoC to drive it will make this even worse unless a larger battery is included. One of the main features of the iPad Mini is how thin and light it is, even thinner and lighter than competing 7" tablets despite having a larger screen. Gaining a retina display in exchange for a thicker, heavier tablet may silence some complaints but will only create new ones. What's worse, a thicker, heavier design might make the iPad Mini difficult to hold given it's thin bezel design with limited grip area, so is a non-starter given current technology in 2012. Hopefully Anand is wrong in his prediction that a Retina iPad Mini isn't possible in 2013 either and that improvements in display tech, battery tech, and a move to the Samsung 28 nm process for the SoC will make it happen.
marcolorenzo - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Whilst I'm sure it was possible for Apple to include the retina display and the A6 SoC, it's more likely that they chose not to since it would make the device bigger and heavier due to the bigger battery it would require. Apple was simply not willing to make that sacrifice. Next year when the technology is more mature, they will implement it.drx11 - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
--------------------------------------------------------------------------RE: On purpose by marcolorenzo on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Whilst I'm sure it was possible for Apple to include the retina display and the A6 SoC, it's more likely that they chose not to since it would make the device bigger and heavier due to the bigger battery it would require....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exactly - this is the iPad 4 (gen)!
aravenwood - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Anand,Thanks for the article, but the most interesting thing you mention never gets explored at all in the article. On the first page you say:
"But here’s the thing - I don’t consider the iPad mini a competitor to the Nexus 7. The Nexus 7, to me, is what I buy if I’m in the market for a $199 tablet or I want a 7” Android device. It’s a completely different experience than the iPad mini. In my mind, the closest competitors for the iPad mini are, in order, the iPad 2, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9”, and the Nook Tablet HD+. The iPad 2 is obvious because these are the two lowest priced iOS tablets right now, and with similar underlying hardware, they’re actually pretty closely matched. I think the latter two are especially interesting comparisons to make, because all three exist in the ~$300 “small premium tablet” niche that has suddenly appeared."
You say that the comparison with the Nook HD+ and Kindle are the most interesting comparisons, in a small premium tablet niche, but you never come back to this. Can you elaborate on this, maybe in a followup article? I for one have basically discounted the iPad Mini, and the kindle in favor of the Nook HD+. I haven't bought it yet, but I am leaning heavily - the only drawback is the lack of camera and GPS. The price, quality of screen build quality is compelling. In general I feel that Nook HD/HD+ doesn't get the respect it deserves. I have been holding off because I can't any serious (e.g. Anandtech type) reviews of the device and i want to read some real discussion of it's qualities and get a no-bs assessment of the good and bad and comparison to the Kindle and nexus 10.
So that's my Thanksgiving wish - if you have down time, can we please have a review of the Nook HD +?
Thanks,
Michael
MadMan007 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Seconded. The Nooks and Kindles may be some of the more popular tablets among the less tech savvy. They aren't the fastest or most up to date, but they do have nice feature sets, and B&N doesn't overcharge for built-in storage upgrades. The Nook HD+ and Fire HD 8.9" both have very high resolution screens. Maybe the custom software makes them harder to review? I still think it's worth it even if they aren't directly comparable to other tablets for that reason, plus you could explore loading custom ROMs if possible (I didn't bother to look up whether they are hackable)GiantPandaMan - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I have the Nook HD+. Here's my take on it:Strengths
Exquisite screen. It is sunlight readable though not quite as good in high glare situations as my x220.
Easy to navigate
Mini-SD card. (Almost a guarantee that it will eventually be hackable to unlocked Jelly Bean Glory)
Runs Android 4.0
Lots and lots of books
Can use flash if desired. (You have to "buy" it for free from the store.) Yes, I hate flash, but html 5 hasn't taken over everything yet. Here's hoping it does soon.
The screen allows for "normal" navigation of the web. I set the browser to use the desktop version of websites rather than the mobile versions.
Full day battery life under fairly heavy use.
Multiple user accounts (For anyone with kids this is a huge plus)
Weaknesses
No cameras
Walled Garden approach which stops access to many apps (no GooglePlay)
No GPS
No 3G/4G
Browser can be a little clunky and slow at times (I blame flash)
Not the full tablet experience
To sum it up: The Nook HD+ is a great eReader/tablet hybrid. It does not, however, give the full "tablet experience." For me it was the ideal choice because I'd rather do all my serious computing on my x220 or my desktop. The Nook HD+ is for reading and instant-on web browsing.
I'm a little retro as I hate GPS's as a general rule. (I can't say how often I've wanted to grab the gps out of the idiot driver's car in front of me and smack him upside the head with it for paying more attention to the GPS than the people he almost killed on the road.) With that in mind, the lack of GPS didn't matter to me. However, I think I'm probably in the minority in this regard.
I also didn't care about the lack of a camera. Simply put, I don't think tablets are a form factor that needs a camera at all, except maybe to read bar/qr codes and what not for shopping. Tablets, unlike phones, are just too damn big to use as a point and shoot camera and I'd much rather use my laptop for Skype.
But I'm sure there are plenty of people who would like cameras and a GPS. If that is so, the Nook HD+ is simply not the tablet for them.
The walled garden can be a bit of an issue. It won't have automatic facebook updates like the Surface. It won't be able to put you in the center of your digital life. Being locked out of the google app store is annoying. This is, by far, the greatest weakness of the Nook HD+ to me. It's hugely annoying to know that there are apps I want to use (HBO Go, Smartglass, etc.) that the HD+ can run, but that Barnes and Noble has locked me out of. Barnes and Noble does sell apps, but it's extraordinarily limited. Simply put: If apps are important to you, don't buy the Nook HD+. Since MS put a lot of money into Barnes and Noble, I hope that Smartglass, Office, and what not come to it soon. It would be nice to read the many long word documents I read on it.
As long as someone understands the limitations of something like the Nook HD+ then it's a very good eReader/Tablet for the money. I hope that someone puts out a dualboot hack to Jellybean or beyond eventually for it, but I'm content even it doesn't come out. For my usage model, it works pretty well. The desktop is for serious computing and gaming. The laptop is my mobile work machine and computing light. The Nook HD+ is for reading and light browsing.
aravenwood - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Thank you for the in depth post. For me, the only need for a camera on a tablet is for video conferencing informally - e.g. let me parents video conference with the grandkids on the fly. I don't understand why anyone would hold up a tablet form factor to take a still picture or video - too much risk of dropping it. I'd rather use my phone for that. The GPS is one thing I would miss - I really love Google Maps on my phone, and not having that is something I really have to think about twice.I also noticed one or two minor hiccups on the NOOk when i played with it but attributed it to the fact that it was one week after release, and a software patch will iron everything out when it comes out.
I don't really plan to watch movies on it (that's what my 23" samsung screen is for) and I'm not that concerned about the app store so much. You hit my needs on the head - instant-on web experience. Plus fantastic reading capabilites. I need great text and the ability to render PDF well since i read a lot of technical stuff and I don't want to keep zooming in to read each sentence/paragraph. I got a Kindle touch (non-glow) last holiday season and it's great for reading, but the browser was horrible - I would rather crawl over broken glass than use it, and the PDF rendering was so bad i just wouldn't use if I had to read a PDF.
Are there others out there with a different experience on the Nook?
Also, - and this is directed to Anand - it would be nice to have it specs and performance comparisons. It would be nice for example to know how it's brightness levels or browser speed compares to it's rivals.
Cristian Sorega - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
"But here’s the thing - I don’t consider the iPad mini a competitor to the Nexus 7."This is the most used line in the iPad mini reviews and the only way really to make it look good. I am sorry but the iPad mini is too big to fit in a jacket pocket so needs a bag to carry, by which point you're better off with a bigger tablet, the screen resolution is too low so you have to constantly zoom in to pages and lose the 'benefit' of the extra width, it's very slippery so impossible to securely hold in one hand by which time you can hold a bigger tablet with 2 hands. All this and it costs a lot more than the Nexus 7 so no wonder it's not a competitor, it's not even in the same league.
The iPad mini is in it's own highly priced toy league, not small enough, not big enough and not good enough compared to any other tablet you could get.
But like the others I would like to see the comparison with the Nook HD+ and Fire HD 8.9".
akdj - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
You've obviously had NO experience with iOS. If there is a 'toy' on the market, it's the Nexus 7. Period. The iPad family has a couple hundred thousand apps to take advantage of...sure, if you want to fill it up with kids' games..it can become a toy. However...if you choose, you can actually get shit done with an iPad, play cool games, make music, edit photography and motion, fill your library with books, buy the music you want---and keep it 'well organized', rent a movie, subscribe to magazines...everything the Nexus does but with MANY more options to choose from post purchase---definitely NOT a 'toy'J
Cristian Sorega - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
"You've obviously had NO experience with iOS. If there is a 'toy' on the market, it's the Nexus 7. Period."If you say so it must be right. ;)
Sorry but the iPad mini is a toy and an expensive one at that. Even you agree that the Nexus 7 can do everything the iPad mini does post purchase but simply offers more options for some apps where the Nexus 7 offers more options for other things (like using a different browser, decent maps, ability to stream music and movies from a usb flash drive or sd card and so on).
And I think after 3 iPhones and no Android device over the past 4 years I would have at least some idea about iOS.
I don't care what system I use as long as it does the job and before ICS was released Android was simply unusable for me but has now moved past iOS.
akdj - Saturday, November 24, 2012 - link
In iOS you can use a different browser, utilize any mapping program you so choose...including Google maps with an icon (easy workaround)--and I gotta tell ya, I've got a 32GB micro SD card in my (original GNote). It's not nearly as easy to store apps and/or media...and then access it as easily as if it was hosted on the built in NAND storage. As I said, I'm an owner of bit iOS and Android--love them both for different reasons. But your 'toy' reference is ridiculous. As is your outright dismissal of anything 'Apple' related. Granted, I'm still on ICS on my Note, but in no way, shape or form has Android passed up iOS. The biggest problem I face is constant lag. All over the place. Same on my previous Nexus phone...and we've also got a Nexus 7 in possession. Initially I didn't believe the 'mini' rumors, so we grabbed the Nexus 7. There are many, MANY Apps in the 'Droid market that simply won't install if you have a tablet (phone apps)--I've even run into this on my Note, as it's considered a 'tablet'Honestly, I've no idea how you can argue this. It's an absolute fact! The Play Store is horrendously 'lacking' when it comes to 'tablet' optimized apps. That's not up for debate
You mention earlier that you're a 'professional photog' and need the ability to dump your RAW files in the field. Don't you use CF cards like most of us? I shoot a Canon 5dIII and 1dmkIV. Perhaps we have more in common than different. However, I'd love to hear how you're handling RAW offloads in the field on an Android tab. Would you care to share your workflow? The Canon RAW files will indeed upload to your iPad through a direct connection from iPad to camera via USB on the camera connection kit. Excellent access to 'Box' 'Dropbox' or any of the other cloud storage options. However, I've not yet worked with another pro photog using anything but a laptop to offload files. Tablets, I agree, aren't QUITE powerful enough for 23 MB file manipulation. However, if you're making it work somehow on you Nexus, I really want to know.
As far as your previously owned devices, you are away that each yearly update to iOS gadgets ( most recently iPhone 5 and iPad 4) have doubled in their respective horsepower as well, correct? If your last couple iDevices were the 3GS and original or even second iPad, I can understand your comments a bit easier...But these days, there isn't a true 'challenger' on the market that competes on equal footing with the 'large' iPad and iPhone 5. Not when you take into account the development platform available for iOS. Not when you take into account the number or real, true apps available for said devices..Don't you find it kinda weird that half of the top ten paid apps in the Play store are 'tools' and ROM/Bootload, phone hacker stuff vs. real, true productive, and enjoyable apps in the iOS 'App Store'? I do...I've actually taken the time to scroll through the 'top 500' Play store paid and free apps. It's an ugly joke in comparison. And honestly, I'm rooting for Android. Competition is good for all of us. But to date Apple's SDK and its ease of use with Xcode, blows Google's development process out of the water. And if you take the time and open your eyes you'll see exactly what I mean. The UI of the OS is only a way to access the 'apps'. That's where things get done. After customizing your widgets, picking your default browser and keyboard, then what? One needs software to be productive. To date, the developers are definitely working iOS. Android, not so much.
aravenwood - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
A buddy of mine in town for the holidays, and a big apple fan, more or less agreed with me on the iPad mini. He wants an iPad, was excited about the mini (mainly price vs. value curve) - until he saw it. He has one of the iPhone 5s (and a Mac laptop) and he's been a fanboy dating back to the original MacIntosh and he's not a techie, but he kept saying he couldn't justify buying a tablet with a worse screen than his phone, not for that kind of money. I think Apple may have miscalculated or maybe they're targeting a different market niche than I'm thinking. I still haven't move on the Nook HD+ - hoping they run a sale before Christmas (yeah, I know, optimistic thinking), but the more I weigh things in my mind, the more I'm ok with not having a camera or GPS. I'll probably upgrade my phone to a Lumia Win8 to get the killer camera, and I'll have GPS on that (hopefully it won't suck) but really, I want GPS on all the time and completely portable, and that means phone. I guess what I really wnat if an iPad for instant access w/o turning on a machine at night or the morning to check email etc., as well as read books, and I just can't justify either iPad's cost at this point for that. I should not, I don't intend to view movies, listen to music or play video games wiht it - that's what I have a 23" samsung screen and a nice set of speakers for.Michael
Speedfriend - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Having been an Apple users with all the models of the iPhone and iPad, I bought a Nexus 7 as I wanted something to watch movies on that would fit into a jacket pocket. After all the stuff written about how bad android was and a lack of apps, I was a little nervous. Having used it for the past three months, there is not a single app I use on iOS that I can't get on my Nexus 7 and in general they run better on the Nexus 7.So to read a review for the iPad Mini that is worse than the Nexus 7 in most technical tests, costs almost twice as much and most importantly is actually too big to be considered 'pocketable', I have to say that it smacks of bias.
kLy - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Hey Anand. You didn't mention RAM at all in your review. You recommended the Mini over next year's A6-based one considering just performance but never mentioned RAM which I believe is the biggest factor in these devices.I have an iPad 1 which I still use. In 2012 that means no support for the latest iOS, apps and browser crashing constantly and virtually no support for newer games. All because of it's crummy 256MB of RAM. This isn't just a performance issue like like pages not scrolling fast enough or getting sub 30fps in the maps app. This is things not working. Period.
In the no-VM world of iOS, less RAM doesn't mean worse performance, it means things crash and don't work. One year after the iPad 1, the majority of iOS devices moved to 512MB and pretty soon after that developers (including Apple) stop supporting these really constrained 256MB.
So: iPad mini. A 1.5 year old SoC with 512MB RAM. How likely is it that it will go the route of the iPad1 come 2013 and all the iOS devices have 1GB RAM? Pretty likely. Wouldn't you say the iPad mini 2 with presumably A6 and 1GB RAM will have much better longevity compared to this first generation device (a la iPad 2 vs iPad 1)? So I'd have a hard time recommending it, just like I'd highly recommend (in hindsight) waiting for the iPad 2 instead of getting an iPad 1 should 2010 come around again.
djpavcy - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
^ this. My sister has an original iPad 1 and it crashes all the time due to lack of RAM. I never understood, for the life of me, why Apple is always so stingy with RAM on their devices.As you say, by next year most applications won't be able to run on the mini due to the lack of RAM no matter how pretty it is, or amazing form factor it ha,s or how well built it is, none of this will be able to help. Period.
Calista - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
^+1I bought the original iPad and as many was amazed by the build-quality (stupid sharp edges excluded) and how fluid surfing the web felt considering the hardware. But I also within 15 minutes realised that it was badly memory-starved. Apple is an amazing company taking great pride in the user-experience of its products, but back then they goofed up badly.
I feel the same about the Mini. The CPU may be old but it's still fairly competent, the GPU still among the best, and the screen size may be close to perfect. But only 512 MB of RAM just ain't sufficient for today, even less for tomorrow.
ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Being slow to increase RAM and VRAM is consistently an issue with Apple. That's the case with Macs as well.For the iPad 1, it wasn't just that 256MB of RAM was small. Rapid drop-off in app support for the iPad 1, especially in games, is due to the resolution being so high in comparison to the RAM. The GPU was also underpowered compared to the resolution. 3rd gen devices have 480x320 screens and 256MB of RAM while the iPad 1 has 5.1x the pixels with the same 256MB of RAM. The 4th gen iPod Touch is affected by this too having a 960x640 screen with 256MB, but the iPad 1 is even worse with 1.3x the pixels of the 4th gen Touch. Support for the 4th gen iPod Touch in games isn't perfect, but is better than the iPad 1, which indicates that 256MB in itself isn't the limitation, but the drop in support for the iPad 1 is a combination of 256MB RAM with the higher 1024x768 resolution and the iPad 1 no longer being sold after 2011. The iPad 1 received 2 major OS updates (iOS 4.x and 5.x) post launch like other iOS devices so its OS support wasn't prematurely terminated.
I think the situation will be different for the iPad Mini 1. The iPad 2/Mini doubles the RAM to 512MB while keeping the resolution the same, which alleviates the poor resolution-RAM ratio of the iPad 1. 512MB of RAM represents the majority of iOS devices including the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad Mini 1, and 5th gen iPod Touch, of which given historical patterns, the iPhone 4S and 5th gen iPod Touch and perhaps even the iPad Mini 1 itself will sell into 2014. Given historical patterns, OS support for the iPhone 4S, 5th gen iPod Touch, and iPad Mini 1 should continue into 2015. Seeing it's only in 2012 that developers are really beginning to require 512MB of RAM, I don't see them already upping the minimum requirement to 1GB in 2013. Especially not when that eliminates the majority of their potential customer base, when those devices are still being actively sold into 2014, and receiving OS support into 2015. I think 2014 is a more realistic date for when apps will begin to stop supporting 512MB devices.
Personally, seeing the CPU was unchanged and the GPU is only 2x faster despite the 4x increase in resolution making it slower at native resolution than the iPad Mini 1 and iPad 2, I wouldn't be surprised if the iPad 3 loses app support before the iPad Mini and iPad 2.
Of course, just because apps continue to support 512MB devices doesn't mean the usage experience won't be degraded or sub-par. I can see that becoming an issue faster than app support.
Klug4Pres - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I guess you reviews the Wifi-only version, but I'd like to see some analysis of the cellular connectivity options, especially what LTE bands are supported in the available SKUs.HighTech4US - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
The mini lacks a GPS on the base model making it useless for using any map software with turn-by-turn prompts.The Nexus 7 has a built in GPS chip (and a very effective one and way better pin pointing location than a TomTom) and Google Maps works great on the Nexus 7 (you can download maps for offline use).
The lack of GPS on any tablet is a deal breaker for me.
Adding in the omission GPS with the other short comings along with its sky high price makes the mini just an overpriced iToy. The Nexus 7 is a much much better deal.
Calista - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I think we have all forgot what gave us forgot what gave us 7" tablets. A "tablet" - i.e a tablet PC running Windows was normally in the 12-14" range. The JooJoo was a 12" tablet as well. Apple brought it down to 10" and sold a ton of those.At the same time a large number of more or less obscure manufacturers brought out 7" tablets *not* because 7" was considered the best compromise but because those panels could be bought dirt-cheap. But this also gave us this idea that a small tablet was supposed to be 7" while a large tablet was to be 10". I would say this is an anomaly, tablets have for the last ten years been larger than 10".
Maybe the "correct" size for a small tablet is in the 8-8.5" range? I was playing with my friends Motorola Xoom 2 (8.2", 1280x800) and while a bit heavier than my 7" tablet it seemed to hit the perfect size. Not so big or heavy as to be cumbersome, while still packing almost 40" more screen area.
Too much focus is being put on the device being pocket-able, how many really bring a tablet in their coat or pants? Just the idea of asking for a device to be pocket-able while still lacking a 3G/4G connection is just plain silly. Instead focus should be put on how it feels in hand but also how much space it occupies on a table. The 10" iPad was always too big to fit comfortable on my table while still having space for a cup of tea, a notebook, a plain book or the remotes for the TV and receiver.
Quad5Ny - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
There is a Pop-over interactive banner ad running that opens when you try to hit the x, please take a look. Thanks.http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=34271...
vicbdn - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
"but in terms of repsonsiveness" In the conclusion.BSMonitor - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Incredibly too much... By the 4th generation of these, 32GB should be standard and 64GB a $100 upgrade...The BOM on 32GB NAND in this fashion is what? $15? Even if it's $20($10 x 2 16GB), they are getting a 1000% profit margin on that upgrade from 16 to 32 GB??
But they know we all have huge iTunes libraries we'd want on it...
Unfortunately there will never be a do-it-yourself tablet similar to the PC market. I stopped paying Dell and Gateway and HP a LONG time ago for their ridiculous profit methods.
TouchPadKing - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Not sure if this has already been rehashed, but the pixel size is what kills the ipad mini for me. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, and I can SEE the pixels and it drives me nuts. The ipad mini has an even bigger screen with about the same number of pixels... Also, samsung fits in pocket, mini doesn't. I like the ipad mini's form factor, but again if it won't fit in my pocket it'll probably never leave the house...Rising - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I bought Nexus 7 when it was released. This is what i can tell you after few months of usage.."Its a good hardware in a crappy software". Iwould say the higher price premium on ipad mini is justified for software.
Most of the apps are zoomed over apps for Nexus 7. I hate that part of it. For example i use this app called apex launcher in my samsung s 3 and when i try using it on Nexus 7 all the icons are so small that they are hardly recognizable.
I donot understand why Google cannot optimize the apps to their own Nexus tablets.
Anand do you know whats stopping them from doing this?
Magwitch - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Am I the only person who thinks Anand is just another Apple shill who just falls over himself supporting any and every Apple product out there? Please. What ever happened to the objectivity that once was the hallmark of Anandtech? I've watched the same thing happen to Tom's Hardware over the years. I guess it must be the koolaid they drink.uhuznaa - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Well, maybe this *is* objective and what you want to read is something subjective that starts and ends with "everything Apple is crap"?This review points out all the weak points of the device, comes with a lot of objective numbers and benchmarks -- what do you miss exactly?
andrewaggb - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I really don't think it's necessary to make personal insults against the staff. Yes anand clearly likes apple. But look around. So does half the continent.edsib1 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
You state that the mini display is great but, in your own tests...Pixel density - 5th of 7
brightness -13th of 17
contrast - 17th of 17
calibration - 6th of 7
grayscrale - 3rd of 7
saturation - 4th of 7
GMB - 6th of 7
I dont understand your conclusion. Doesnt add up to a great display to me.
admiralpumpkin - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
The answer is two-fold.FIrst, the tests were against other rather good screens. So coming in "average" is actually quite good. Here's the key statement, near the end of the review, "It pains me to say it, but compared to most similarly priced notebooks, the iPad mini's display is amazing."
Second, often times the margin of difference must not have seemed significant to Anand. For example, if two screens are 1% apart on a particular metric (pulling a number from nowhere) then which came in 1st vs 2nd is a relatively meaningless.
jonjonjonj - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
i personally dont get it. i have an ipod touch, iphone and ipad and pretty much never use the ipod or ipad. the ipad is only good for checking an email quickly or looking at a youtube video. anything beyond that and its frustrating to use. personally i would rather have a laptop/ultrabook. not sure i understand making the mini other than just to have a cheaper "i" product to complete with kindles and androids. i didnt think apple was about going cheap.Jumangi - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I can't see how any tech enthusiast site could look at the Mini and be impressed at the overall product. A 1 1/2 year old SoC. A screen resolution that goes back even farther and skimping out at 512MB or RAM. Any other manufacturer tried to pull that off would get slammed on all points but because the Mini has a nice case well all is good I guess...drx11 - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------How does this thing get positive reviews?....Oh wait its Apple. by Jumangi on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
I can't see how any tech enthusiast site could look at the Mini and be impressed at the overall product. A 1 1/2 year old SoC.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can not see it, because it is in the software... the SoC the apps, etc... you miss the forest for the trees. You miss the computer (system or tablet) for the specifications of the various parts...
jb14 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Hi Anand thanks for the article.I was wondering if you had any plans to review the new B&N Nook HD 7" tablet? It would be interesting to read your findings on it's higher resolution screen. Also any plans for a tablet round up pre-xmas, as they are a nice size/price for potential presents? It seems the choice comes down to Nexus 7 vs N&B Nook/Kindle fire HD or the mini Ipad for iOS.
Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
"I don’t consider the iPad mini a competitor to the Nexus 7"What the heck? I jsut do not understand the continuous worshipping of this company's garbage products. It is almost like people dont even actually use these things. In reality, ther eis no difference between this and something like a nexus 7. They're both going to be extremely limited, extremely frustrating devices. iPoopa are anything but buttery smooth flawlessly running devices these biased reviewers make them out to be. I can make my iPoop crash just by opening webpages. Every time I'm scrolling thru the app store it lage like hell. The thing is really unbearably slow in jsut about everything. I only have about 100 apps installed. (58 of which want to update right now, but hell if I'm gonna bother.) I hate this thing. I only use it as a remote control nowadays. Even that crashes. It's really terrible. I refuse to believe that it is something unique to my device. What's more liekly to me is that the people who never have any problems with these things are the people who never actually use them.
Constructor - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
You keep it from even installing any of the offered updates and then you complain that it doesn't work as well as it should?Look into a mirror one of these days if you're searching for the source of your problems.
KPOM - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I have a 3rd gen iPad and decided to give the mini a try. I was a little reluctant because of the display (it is definitely a step down from the 3rd gen), but I agree with Anand that the form factor is great. The full size iPad is a little heavy to hold and read on a train or airplane, but the mini excels at that. Hopefully Anand is wrong and Apple can figure out a way to get a Retina Display into the mini form factor sometime in 2013. If they do, I think that the mini would actually be the preferred iPad choice overall.I had an original Kindle Fire last year, but never used it much and wound up selling it. I think I'll keep the iPad mini, though for now I also think I'll keep the 3rd gen iPad.
ABR - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
The Mini is all well-and-good for the "carry-it-anywhere-squint-and-peer" crowd, but as someone who mainly uses my iPad on the couch and such around the house, I'd rather have one with a BIGGER display, not smaller. Make it thinner so there's no weight penalty, and with a display about the size of an 8-1/2x11 sheet, or a standard magazine. (Particularly since magazine and other media consumption is a big use.)uhuznaa - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
There's no way to make it thinner or just weight the same with a larger display. The display is a major power consument in tablets, make it larger, brighter or in a higher resolution and it draws *much* more power.PrayForDeath - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Hey Ananad,When can we expect to see the iPad 4 review? I'd love to read your in-depth analysis on the new hardware and how it compares to previous generations.
chleuasme - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Why on your pictures for the comparison of the letter 'e' and the 'topic of the webcast' text, the RGB components of pixels appear vertically aligned on the mini, and horizontally aligned on the iPad 2. And the contrary on the Safari icon comparison on the mini vs the 4?chleuasme - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
And same* thing* on the Safari iconA.T. - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Please some "fanboy" leaves an and staff alone. I think they did a fair comparison, and comment about it. It is foolish to say that is 1 and a half year technology, why don't those fanboy army try to make it and fit the 45nm A5X or A6 with holding 10 hours battery life without make it thicker.It is a nice device for reading and easy to carry around but there is a downsize to become a productive tool at work. The price is relatively expensive than other, but the thing is Apple is a company that unlike google and amazon to cut their throat and sell it with no profit because Apple is software and hardware company and Google and amazon is ads and service company.
pliablemoosethebanned - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I bought a N7, and use it every day,I'll be selling the N7 and replacing it with a mini, will likely wait till it hits the Apple refurb store though.
Build quality: the iPad mini wins, hands down,
Form factor: again, a big plus, the thing feels more like an e-reader than a tablet, and the extra screen real estate does make a big difference. 7" is just too small for a great smaller tablet experience.
Software: Yeah, iOS is due for an overhaul, but frankly, I have never used widgets that much, preferring to use folders to group the actual apps. I tire of widget overload, saw an SGN II the other day with the home screen filled with widgets and it was way too damn busy.
And as far as the "OMFG, Anand is biased" comments, give it a flipping rest, the man benches the crap out of the latest and greatest on a nearly daily basis, can he be allowed to like something you don't?
Anand likely cost Apple millions by proving the antenna system on the iP4 was defective, and he has some very strong empirically proven data that the iPad mini is a parts bin device with a screen that lags the industry. Yet the device meets his needs.
Spoelie - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
http://www.displaymate.com/iPad_mini_ShootOut_1.ht...It seems the reflections are the worst of its problems, as this tablet is more likely to be used outside
menevets - Friday, November 23, 2012 - link
I own an iPad and debated between the Mini and the Nexus 7. I went with the Nexus 7.Without rooting, I can copy files from camera to external hard drive without resorting to wifi or buying anything extra. GPS, turn by turn voice navigation, offline maps, easy integration with Google tools like Mail, Picasa Web, YouTube, etc... I can see why someone would want a wider screen, but the narrower N7 can fit in more pockets and make for easier holding on the train. And in general, there is much more detail in settings.
The N7 is sorely missing a rear facing camera. I like to photograph articles, documents, basically text. The 1.2 megapixel front facing camera is not enough to capture text clearly. The build quality is a little suspect, for example, the screen lifting problem.
Jelly Bean, in general, may be more buttery smooth than its predecessors, but it is much easier navigating iOS, selecting text, scrolling, etc... iOS is much more responsive.
Obviously iOS app selection is better, but I notice that Android equivalent apps are not as good. For example, the Kindle app on iOS, when you highlight a word on the bottom of the screen, the definition appears on the top, which allows you to alter the highlighting selection. The Android version, the definition covers the bottom so you can't change the highlighting selection. I noticed other instances of how the iOS app works better than its Android equivalent. Dropbox, Evernote for example.
Google Play has a limited selection of movies and tv shows compared to iTunes/Amazon.
So my use case for the big iPad is reading music scores from the piano, reading books with complex formatting, reading novels at home - fewer page turns, videos and apps I can't get on Android. The N7 for everything else.
So the above N7 drawbacks for me are well worth the $130 savings.. Hope this helps others in their decision.
Rodney McKay - Friday, November 23, 2012 - link
I went to an Apple store today (Black Friday) planning to buy a 4th-gen iPad on sale. Though I hadn't yet seen a mini, I dismissed it out of hand because I "wanted a retina display". It happened that there was a mini next to a iPad 4 on display, so I compared them. The resolution difference wasn't really obvious to me (after all, the mini has a higher pixel density than the iPad 2), and in reading text (web pages, for example) I felt no clear preference. The mini's display was somewhat yellower/warmer than the 4's, which I didn't much care for. However, I opened Apple Maps on both, and was shocked to see that that the mini had a MUCH clearer display than the 4. On the mini, the smallest streets were clear at the zoom level where they appeared, but on the 4 they were so washed out as to be almost invisible. And in pretty much every other respect, the mini's Maps display looked better. I spent half an hour mucking with brightness and zoom levels trying to equalize the displays for a fair test, but no matter what I did the mini display was dramatically better.So, I tried an iPad 2 next to a 4, and got exactly the same results. The 2's display looked very much like the mini's (albeit larger), with map details much clearer than on the 4 (a *different* 4 from the one I compared to the mini, so this wasn't just a sample glitch with that particular iPad). I called over a store rep and showed him my results. He said "Hmm... but the Retina Display is better on things like photos and videos. Watch..." and he brought up the same sample image on both. We were both surprised to see that the image on the 2 was again dramatically nicer (less washed out, in particular) than on the 4, and at that point I realized that the real difference is that the 4's display has rather poor contrast (for which there is no adjustment), which would account for all the differences I observed.
I very much prefer the Retina Display on my iPhone 4s (and my wife's 5) over the previous ones, but on the iPads it seems to be significantly flawed (at least with the two samples I tried). I left the store with an iPad mini, even though it was the only iPad not on sale today.
I have a feeling that iPad reviewers haven't really been doing side-by-side comparisons between models. I dread the day when the iPad mini gets "upgraded" with a Retina Display--maybe I'll stock up on them now.
SanX - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
ROTFL go to the eye doctorusually only technical illiterates or salespeople having merchant interest write such bs
miatadan - Saturday, November 24, 2012 - link
I had the iPad 2 for a while and sold it as too large to take it with me daily. I purchased the wifi 32GB black model.It is the apps available for iOS that make the iPads attractive. I use n-Stream for Naim network player, use it as remote with Logitech app. Skype works well, Textplus for free texting nice.
I tried Rim blackberry playbook, liked actual hardware but no apps I could use....
Even with Targus case Mini iPad fits inside pocket of winter jacket when walking, hopefully once summer comes around I find summer jacket with large enough inside pocket.
Regular iPads at work feel heavy now compared to Mini, so I agree with Anand.
SanX - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
You wrote "It pains me to say it, but compared to most similarly priced notebooks, the iPad mini's display is amazing."Should be "It pains me to say it, but compared to most similarly priced notebooks, the iPad mini's display is amazing trash. I really do not know what's went wrong with Apple and in which city dump near Cupertino they found such display"
jameskatt - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
The problem of going the Full Retina Display Route is that that is an even ultra higher resolution than the iPad 3-4. And the battery and GPU needed would make it heavier, larger, and more expensive. This is thus not the route.Apple can more easily make the iPad Mini like the iPhone 5: increasing the vertical resolution and not forcing existing apps to rerender. They just keep working as before but with letter-boxing. This solution would increase the resolution so it is Retina-like and would work with existing apps.
MobiusStrip - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
Another idiotic glossy screen.iSee - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
These are also all reasons the iPad and iPhone can't have retina displays.Hm.
Alex Veit - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - link
If you give someone $5 they will ask "why didn't you give me" $10.Just the fact that most applications that a few years ago could only be performed on a desktop or laptop are now being implemented in handheld devices is freaking awesome!!
who cares about the minor dimension differences in between the devices.
By the way, if you own an iPad and you want to get the most out of it http://d7a79zq53j51xd1830fjvzkexx.hop.clickbank.ne...">Click
here to get some awesome stuff.
EarthCore - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
AnandTech "unbiased" tests always seem to be skewed toward Apple. The Nexus 7 can easily get 13+ hours runtime looping a 720p movie:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2...