Hey guys it’s Brandon Miniman from Pocketnow.com, and this is our full review of the iPad mini.
Let’s get to it.
Apple doesn’t want you to think of the iPad Mini as a 7” tablet.
They want you to think of it as a smaller, lighter iPad.
It’s a subtle nuance, but helps to explain the pricetag of the iPad Mini, which is far
above its closest competitor, the Nexus 7.
We’ll talk more about pricing later.
Let’s take a closer look at the iPad Mini’s hardware.
The build quality of the iPad Mini is very, very high.
Like the full sized iPad, the iPad Mini is made from glass and metal, but on the Mini,
the use of these materials is much more striking because of its impossibly light weight and
incredibly thin profile.
We’re so used to the too-heavy weight of the 9.7” iPad, and the iPad Mini is the
opposite extreme.
Our review unit was black, which takes a lot of cues from the black iPhone 5 in terms of
the gunmetal backing and the shiny beveled edge.
The white model, like the white iPhone 5, has silver metal on the back and a chrome
beveled edge.
If you want to hide fingerprints, you should go with the white.
In-hand, the iPad Mini is effortless to hold at just 308 grams and 7.2mm in depth, which
is thinner than any smartphone we’ve ever tested.
When you pick up the mini after not using it, it’s cool to the touch, like the iPhone
5.
It’s wider than the Nexus 7 making it a little bit difficult to hold if you’re wrapping
your fingers around the edges with one hand.
The extra width also means that unlike the Nexus 7, the iPad Mini doesn’t fit into
a pant or jacket pocket.
But that extra width provides a lot more screen than on the Nexus 7, but it also means that
the bezels are super-thin, too thin to hold.
Fortunately, Apple has employed finger-rejection software to ignore presses occurring along
the side bezels.
It worked quite well.
We recently did a Nexus 7 and iPad Mini comparison, and we recommend that you go back and watch
that video if you’re considering both.
Let’s talk more about the screen.
At 7.9” and 1024x768 resolution, the iPad mini has the same resolution as the iPad 2,
but because the display is smaller, the pixels are slighter smaller as well, lending to a
higher PPI of 162 vs 131 on the iPad 2.
Comparivelty, the Nexus 7 with its 1280x800 7” screen has a PPI of 215.
If you’re coming from the iPad 3 or 4, which has the Retina display, you’ll absolutely
notice the difference, as up close, text and graphics appear pixelated.
But if you hold the iPad mini at a bit less than arm’s length, you really don’t notice
the lower resolution.
This is the compromise you’ll have to make if you’re sensitive about low resolution
screens.
It’s not a deal-breaker, but something to consider.
We should also note that because the iPad Mini has a 4:3 aspect ratio display, you get
black bars whenever watching video filmed in 16:9.
This is something that iPad owners have probably gotten used to.
Save for the resolution, the iPad Mini’s display is terrific, providing fantastic color
saturation and contrast that Apple mobile device displays are known for.
Viewing angles are also quite impressive.
Now let’s talk about specs.
The iPad Mini essentially has the same internals as the iPad 2: it has a dual-core A5 chip
with 512MB of RAM.
This is a bit of a downgrade from the latest iPad 4, which has double the RAM and the new
A6x CPU.
However, with far fewer pixels to push, the iPad mini doesn’t need such brawny hardware,
which can also compromise battery life.
We found performance to be spirited, with snappy app load times and smooth web browsing
performance.
Gaming, too, looked great on the iPad mini, except when pushed to the edge with some high
FPS titles that would cause the game to drop some frames and experience some lag.
But for most games, the iPad mini can keep up just fine.
And in fact, we found the gaming experience on the mini to be more natural than on the
9.7” iPad thanks to its lighter weight.
The cameras have been upgraded on the iPad mini, and we’re quite impressed.
The camera on the rear is a similar camera to what is found on the iPhone 4.
And the resulting 5MP pictures are actually quite good with great low-light and macro
performance.
The camera on the front is capable of recording 720p video, which made FaceTime calls look
better.
It’s also good in low light.
Perhaps the most compelling reason to get the iPad mini is not because of its hardware,
but because its app selection.
While we continue to be bored of iOS, we’re not bored of the endless selection of high
quality tablet apps that look just fine on the iPad mini’s smaller display.
Android fans might be tired of hearing about this app selection thing, but it makes a huge
difference in the user experience.
There’s an iPad app for just about anything.
The Android tablet app story is still a mess.
Now, onto some test notes.
WiFi performance on the iPad mini was slightly above average in terms of signal strength,
providing an extra bar of coverage when in the outer limit of a WiFi connection.
Typing on the iPad in portrait is very usable.
We’ve been waiting for better portrait typing on an iPad for quite some time, and while
the split keyboard option on the 9.7” model makes it easier, typing on the iPad mini in
portrait is like using a big smartphone.
Typing in landscape is also quite comfortable.
The new smart cover, a still too expensive $39, lacks the metal edge of the 9.7” smart
cover.
It also has two folds instead of three.
It worked quite well and provided a good viewing angle when watching video, and was sturdy
enough to stay in place when using it to browse the web.
Battery life on the iPad mini is impressive.
In our testing, it lasted around 10 hours of mixed usage.
And since most people will use their iPad mini for just a couple of hours per day, you
might not need to charge the mini but once every week or so.
As far as charging goes, we found the iPad 3 to take entirely too long to charge, requiring
a full 7 hours to get a full charge.
The iPad mini obviously has a smaller battery, and interestingly comes with the iPhone’s
5 watt charger.
Using that, the mini powers up in about 3.5 hours.
What happens if you use the 10w charger from the iPad 3 or even the 12w charger from the
iPad 4?
It does indeed charge faster, about 25% faster to be exact.
Of course, you shouldn’t make a habit of charging the iPad Mini with a charger not
intended for it.
Finally, the pricing of the iPad mini is suspect.
It starts at $329 but can cost as much as $659 with 64GB and the cellular data option.
With a $129 premium over the Nexus 7, Apple is making a statement that the iPad mini is
in another league.
And they are kind of right.
The iPad is the most mature tablet you can buy in terms of app selection, so with the
$129 premium, you’re paying for it.
So here’s what we like and don’t like about the iPad mini.
We like that the build quality is the best of any tablet we’ve used.
We like that iOS still has the best selection of tablet apps, and they all run great on
the iPad mini.
And we like that the iPad mini’s performance is plenty fast in day-to-day use.
We don’t like that the iPad mini is awkwardly wide for a 7”-class tablet, making it strange
to hold at times and nearly impossible to fit into a pocket.
We don’t like that the price is significantly higher than the Nexus 7.
And finally, we don’t like that iOS has become boring
and unchanged.