Apple iPad mini Review Discussion

[Louie Tran]

Rumors of Apple developing a smaller tablet have been going around since the release of the very first iPad. Four generations later, the iPad mini has arrived in what is now a highly competitive market in the tablet world. Apple currently reigns supreme with each reincarnation of its iconic 9.7-inch tablet, but it faces tough competition from devices such as the Kindle Fire, Nook, and the Google Nexus 7 at very attractive price points and more portable designs. Apple has now fired back with the release of the iPad mini.

At 7.9-inches, with a lower resolution and slower processor than the retina iPads, and at a non-competitive starting price point of $330, does this current iPad have any relevance in this market? Lets find out.

Read the full content of this Article: Apple iPad mini Review

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[AnthonyReed]

The thing is, until you've tried more than one tablet, how do you know if you've got a great tablet or not? How many of us get to try out different ones? I check out the tablets my graphic design colleagues have when I see them and have time to review what they have, but I wouldn't even know 4G LTE on AT&T (what I have in San Francisco) from another network from another carrier. That's what's so tricky about this industry. You just roll with what you have.

[r0k]

I don't agree that the retina display is such a big deal. I got an iPad mini for Christmas this year and I love it. It's smaller (roughly half the size) and lighter than my iPad 1 and it is an excellent ereader. It is almost exactly the same size as the original Kindle keyboard.

The only down side I noticed was that in some games with small on-screen elements, it was harder to see things and it was more difficult to get the game to recognize that I was tapping a particular object. While I'm sure a retina display would solve these issues, I'm quite content with the 1024x768 screen the iPad mini already has.

I found the process of migrating from my iPad 1 to the iPad mini to be completely seamless by restoring from iCloud. I was happy to find that the mini works in all the wifi hotspots I had set up on my old iPad 1.

I've also owned a rather poor Gingerbread based Sylvania Android tablet along with a couple of smaller Android devices. While I'm upset that Apple doesn't allow an essential app like wifi analyzer in the iOS app store, I like every other aspect of iOS better than I like any aspect of Android including JellyBean which I have running on my Motorola Razr M work-issued phone.

I've given some thought to picking up a Nexus 7 just to tinker with and if I ever do, I'll write up a side by side review.