Apple iPad mini: hands-on
These were our thoughts and reactions on the night the iPad mini launched. Our colleagues Jason Snell and Dan Moren at MacWorld in the US attended the Apple launch and able to get some hands-on time with the iPad mini.
Exactly as the world expected, Apple has introduced a smaller version of the iPad. It's called, unsurprisingly, the iPad Mini and we've gone hands-on.
iPad mini price
For starters, price was one of the only unknown elements of the tablet before the launch event. Would Apple drop as low as the likes of Google and Amazon or not? Was the killer question. Well, the answer is no, and we're not very surprised. Although the price isn't a low as a Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire, at £269 it's still very tempting. Of course, if you want more storage and the addition of 4G cellar data then you'll need to pay up to £529.
iPad mini size
The iPad Mini is mini in a number of ways. For starters the screen is, as rumoured 7.9in compared to 9.7in of all previous iPads. Apple says this means you can old it in one hand. It's also considerably thinner and lighter than its bigger brother. At 7.2mm and 308g for the Wi-Fi only model its 23 thinner and 50 percent lighter. This means that anyone who has avoided the iPad because of its size has no excuse any more.
"Apple made a trade-off when it designed the original iPad with a 10-inch display: that big screen (and its weight) made the original too bulky to be held in one hand. It was and is a great two-handed device (or a one-hand-and-propped-on-your-lap device), but it isn't palmable," our colleagues opined.
"The iPad mini most definitely is. If you’ve got small hands and want to hold it in landscape orientation, you may find it a bit of a stretch. In portrait mode, it’s easy to grip the bottom bezel between thumb and finger, the way you might hold a book. The iPad mini is so light that holding it this way feels perfectly natural. It’s so small and light that we think kids will love it."
"Unlike previous iPads, the iPad mini’s bezel isn’t the same size all the way around: In portrait orientation, the left and right bezels are substantially thinner, as on an iPhone. Putting your thumb on it means touching the touchscreen. We suspect that Apple felt slimming down the bezel was an acceptable option, given that the iPad mini is light enough to hold in one hand."
"In landscape orientation, the larger bezels are on the sides, giving you plenty of room to grab on with those opposable thumbs of yours."
"The iPad mini is narrow enough that it’s easy to thumb-type on its software keyboard in portrait orientation—it’s kind of like a giant iPhone. Thumb typing on the full-sized iPad is a lot less comfortable unless you have the hands of an NBA player. We didn’t have much chance to test ten-finger typing, but given the smaller size of the iPad mini's screen, we’d imagine it’s going to be a little harder to touch-type on this device than on the full-sized iPad. Even if you’ve already mastered iPad typing, you may have trouble doing it on the iPad mini."
Colour options are the classic Apple black or white. However, this time the iPad Mini matches the iPhone 5 styling so the white version has a silver trim while the black has slate trim.
iPad mini screen
There's not much dazzling going on with the screen since it's not a Retina display like the most recent iPad. Instead it uses the same 1024 x768 resolution as the original iPad and iPad 2. This means it has the same 4:3 aspect ratio, ensuring apps and other content fits correctly.
According to Macworld: "Anyone accustomed to using an iOS device with a Retina display will immediately notice that the iPad mini doesn’t have one: Pixels are clearly visible. It’s very much like looking at an iPhone 3GS. It’s a good, bright screen, but if you’re a Retina convert, you will not be pleased."
"We looked at photos and text on the screen, and both looked good. By keeping the same number of pixels as found in the iPad 2 while decreasing the physical size of the screen, the result is a higher-resolution display; as a result, everything looks a bit better than on the iPad 2. We tried a variety of apps and didn’t have any trouble hitting what we wanted to tap on, despite the fact that every interface element on the iPad mini is slightly smaller than on a full-sized iPad."
"What’s really amazing about the iPad mini—perhaps its most surprising trait—is that while it has a much larger screen than its 7-inch Android-based competitors, it’s lighter than they are. That’s a big deal, because it means this device wins in two dimensions: It’s somehow managed to pack a bigger screen that can fit powerful tablet apps into a package that weighs less."
iPad mini hardware
Under the covers is the same Apple A5 processor which the iPad 2 runs on. It's a dual-core chip and perfectly capable of running iOS. Storage options match the iPad with Retina display at 16GB, 32GB or 64GB. Needless to say, there's no option to add to this with something like a microSD card.
Other specifications are well-rounded with a 5Mp iSight rear facing camera, a 1.2Mp FaceTime HD webcam, Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11a/b/g/n with 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Those opting for the Wi-Fi and cellular data model will be able to access 4G LTE in the UK. As expected, the iPad Mini uses the same Lightning connector found on the iPhone 5.
iPad mini software
Of course, the iPad Mini runs on iOS 6 and some users will be pleased to hear that this includes Siri. Apple claims the battery will last for up to 10 hours. Come back for our full review and we'll up date you on whether we found this to be the case or not.
iPad mini Smart Cover
Our colleagues had plenty to say about the iPad mini's bespoke cover and stand: "The iPad mini we tried came with an additional product: an iPad mini Smart Cover. In general, this accessory worked more or less like the full-sized iPad Smart Cover. Its metal hinge has been replaced by one that’s covered in the same material as the cover, so the design is a bit more cohesive. It was easy to snap on and off, and is so small that it adds very little bulk or weight to the already-small iPad mini."
"In general, we’re somewhat skeptical about cases for devices as small and light as the iPad mini, but the Smart Cover seems to be a good match for its device. Paired together, it feels like you’re carrying a small paper notebook in your hand. A bulkier case would mask the thinness and lightness of the device."
iPad mini conclusion
"If you think the iPad mini is just a small iPad, well, you’d be right. But it really needs to be seen to be understood. It’s tiny, light, and has great fit and finish. Its screen is good, but most definitely not of Retina quality. When you see one, and hold one, you’ll know if you want one. We’d direct you to your nearest Apple Store to check one out for yourself...but until November 2, you won’t be able to."
Chris Martin
Comments
Buckus Toothnail said: This is in response to a reply to my post that seems to have been deletedFirst of all where did I claim that Apple was SOLELY responsible for child labor and worker exploitation issuesNowhere so your point is invalid to being with However its sad that Apple apologists have resorted to the everyone does it line of defense with regards to these appalling human rights abuses rather than calling out Apple as their customers to address these issues and to improve the poor working and living conditions of their factory employeesThis isnt about supporting Apple over Google or preferring the iPhone over the Galaxy or whatever sad trivial concerns Apple apologists have devoted their lives to No this is about ethical business practices and corporate responsibility and with Apple now the worlds biggest and most profitable company they have the potential to also become the worlds biggest offender of child slave labor and worker exploitation as well as being the world leader in employee suicidesNot exactly the distinctions that Apple built its cool reputation on which was my entire point and which you entirely missed As for your second argument the issue isnt whether Apple has a right to protect ther IP which of course they do but the fact that Apple has shifted its focus away from innovation and competing in the marketplace to now behaving basically like a patent troll and competing in the court roomApple built its reputation and became the market leader by offering the best and most technologically innovative consumer electronics products on the market It did so by committing massive resources to research and development and making it the companys priority to innovating and devising new products that would enrich and improve the lives of its usersRecently however Apple has been losing much of that focus on product innovation and customer satisfaction and has instead turned its attention toward litigation against its competitors and seeking injunctions on their products Instead of offering superior products to compete with its competitors in the marketplace Apples strategy is now trying to BAN its competitors from the marketplace Whether these lawsuits have any merit is up for the courts to decide but Apple has mostly been LOSING their courtroom battles around the world including a rather humiliating defeat in the UK where the court ordered Apple to post a humbling apology to Samsung on its website and in newspaper ads acknowledging Samsung didnt copy their designsThe one major exception is Apples victory in a California court in which a jury awarded them 1 billion in damages against Samsung However that verdict is now being thrown into doubt because the US Patent Office recently invalidated 20 of Apples patents including ones that were determined by the jury to be infringed upon by Samsung and which formed much of the basis for the verdictPerhaps more important however is that all of these smartphone-related patent lawsuits that Apple and its competitors have been involved in the past two years has generated over 20 BILLION in COSTS for legal fees and related expenditures for all parties involvedIn contrast Apple spent JUST 34 billion on RampD during the 2012 fiscal year LESS that Microsoft Nokia Amazon Hewlett-Packard Samsung AND Google and ranks at the BOTTOM of all major tech firms in terms of RampD spent compared to overall salesAs a result Apples product innovations have noticeably taken a hit with the recent announcements of iPhone 5 iPad Mini and iPad 4 generating FAR less excitement and anticipation than previous versions and with Apple receiving some of their worst press in the last 15 years namely criticism of their decision to replace Google Maps in IOS 6 with their own Maps app that was deemed far inferior and borderline unusable and which prompted a rare public apology by Apple CEO Tim Cook and lead to the firing of IOS chief Scott ForstallAll these factors have contributed to an erosion in the publics perception of Apple leading to a decline in investor confidence which has resulted in a nosedive in Apples share price from a high of 705 on September 21 the day of the iPhone 5 launch to closing at 54706 today for a drop of around 158 points and wiping 141 BILLION off the companys market cap So the question isnt whether Apple has a right to protect ther IP and spending BILLIONS on patent lawsuits where the potential rewards are DWARFED by the costs and at the expense of taking focus away from their core strength which is product innovation but whether they SHOULD
Buckus Toothnail said: Wow what a total rubbish reviewThe TRUTH is the iPad Mini is a far inferior device compared to its competitors and yet costs 130 or 65 MOREHow is the iPad Mini inferior First off its display is only 1024x768 resolution which isnt even high-definition and only 163 pixels per inchThe Nook HD is 1440x900 resolution and 243 PPI while both the Kindle Fire HD 7 and Nexus 7 are 1280x800 resolution and 216 PPIThat means all of these competitors offer AT LEAST 30 higher resolution than the iPad Mini with the Nook HD even higherSecondly the iPad Mini uses the nearly two-years old 1GHz dual-core A5 CPU found in the iPad 2 iPhone 4S and iPod Touch 5 This chip is currently THREE generations behind the 14GHz dual-core A6X chip found in the iPad 4In comparison the Kindle Fire HD 7 uses a 12GHz dual-core OMAP 4460 CPU the Nexus 7 uses a 13GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core chip and the Nook HD uses a dual-core 13-GHz TI OMAP 4470 processorAll three of these CPUs are current generation and FAR more powerful than the iPad Minis A5In addition all three come with 1GB of RAM compared to the iPad Minis 512MB which is half the amount making the iPad Mini a far SLOWER and LESS POWERFUL machine that its competitorsAnd because all iPad apps since the introduction of the iPad 3 have been optimized for Retina Display the iPad Mini lacking a Retina Display was rendered OBSOLETE before it was even releasedThe crazy thing about all this however is that the iPad Mini costs 329 Its competitors Despite being far more powerful and advanced machines the Kindle Fire HD 7 Nexus 7 and Nook HD all cost just 199 or 130 LESS than the iPad MiniUnfortunately for Apple unlike the iPod Mini which created a new market for the company with lower-priced MP3 players the iPad Mini doesnt even qualify as a lower-priced tablet With a 130 price premium while offering less features than its rivals Apple with the iPad Mini has basically ceded the entry-level market to its competitors Worse because its 329 price tag is so close to the 399 price of the iPad 2 and just 170 less than the iPad 4 it will undoubtedly cannibalize the market of its full-sized siblings which is bad news for Apple given the far lower profit margins of the iPad MiniAnd with the Nexus 10 full-sized tablet coming out at US399 the same price as iPad 2 but far more powerful than the iPad 4 which costs 100 more the introduction of the 32GB Nexus 7 tablet at US249 bumping the 16GB model to US199 the launch of the Nexus 4 smartphone at 299 full price without a carrier contract and more powerful than iPhone 5 and the new Kindle Fire HDs and Nook HD and HD tablets as well as the Samsung Galaxy S3 Note 2 and S3 Mini smartphones Apple is facing attack on its ENTIRE LINE-UP of IOS productsGiven EVERY competitor model mentioned offers SUPERIOR hardware specs than its Apple counter-part at a LOWER cost and given that the Google Play store now has MORE Android apps available than Apples App Store for IOS Apple has now found itself on the losing side in both hardware AND softwareWith Googles Android now on 75 of all smartphones compared to 15 for Apples IOS Samsungs Galaxy S3 smartphone ALONE selling more units than the iPhone 4S in August and Apples tablet market share dropping from 95 in the third quarter of 2010 to now just 50 in the third quarter of 2012 Apples dominance in the mobile device market is coming to a quick endThe good news for Apple is that there are still sizeable segments of the population that are relatively uninformed about technology or uninterested in hardware specs or actual product performance and purchase electronic devices based solely on product image andor brand recognitionFor these consumers Apple undoubtedly has the advantage over its competitors and will continue dominating this sub-section of the market for the time being Whether these consumers who generally view Apple products more as status symbols than productivity devices can support Apples growth and share price remains to be seenAlso remains to be seen is whether Apple can hold onto its cool factor undoubtably one of Apples biggest assets and reasons for the companys success There are already cracks appearing on Apples cool facade from the child slave labor exploitation and worker suicides at its China factories the IOS 6 Apple Maps fiasco the unpopular and mostly losing patent trolling lawsuits waged on its competitors the negative public response to Apple patenting ideas and concepts like rectagular devices with rounded corners and home button the generally lackluster new features and improvements of iPhone 5 the introduction of iPad 4 just seven months after iPad 3 and now the disappointing specs and features of the iPad Mini while being priced far above its competitors superior offeringsAnd with reports coming out that Apple has spent BILLIONS on lawyers and litigation with its patent trolling lawsuits this year and MORE than it has on research and development spending less on RampD than Microsoft Nokia Amazon Hewlett-Packard Samsung and Google its now apparent that Apple has now lost its focus and ability to introduce the most innovative and cutting-edge products on the marketCoupled with Apples admission that it has spent over 1 billion in advertising and marketing campaigns for the iPhone and iPad it seems Apple now believes that ADVERTISING rather than INNOVATION is the key selling-point driving sales for its productsAnd with the initial sales success of the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini both products which are measurably inferior to its competiton and yet more expensive Apple may be right
Spartina3 said: 1 You had some good arguments but then lost credibility by suggesting that somehow Apple is solely responsible for child labor and worker exploitation issues as if the other manufacturers you mentioned devices are being made by happy singing elves in the North Pole2 So tired of people acting like Apple is the only Company that has litigation lawyers at their disposal you would think no one ever sued anyone before They have the right to protect ther IP as much as anyone else it just so happens that like it or not that they are a leader in the field
Buckus Toothnail said: Wow what a total rubbish reviewThe TRUTH is the iPad Mini is a far inferior device compared to its competitors and yet costs 130 or 65 MOREHow is the iPad Mini inferior First off its display is only 1024x768 resolution which isnt even high-definition and only 163 pixels per inchThe Nook HD is 1440x900 resolution and 243 PPI while both the Kindle Fire HD 7 and Nexus 7 are 1280x800 resolution and 216 PPIThat means all of these competitors offer AT LEAST 30 higher resolution than the iPad Mini with the Nook HD even higherSecondly the iPad Mini uses the nearly two-years old 1GHz dual-core A5 CPU found in the iPad 2 iPhone 4S and iPod Touch 5 This chip is currently THREE generations behind the 14GHz dual-core A6X chip found in the iPad 4In comparison the Kindle Fire HD 7 uses a 12GHz dual-core OMAP 4460 CPU the Nexus 7 uses a 13GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core chip and the Nook HD uses a dual-core 13-GHz TI OMAP 4470 processorAll three of these CPUs are current generation and FAR more powerful than the iPad Minis A5In addition all three come with 1GB of RAM compared to the iPad Minis 512MB which is half the amount making the iPad Mini a far SLOWER and LESS POWERFUL machine that its competitorsAnd because all iPad apps since the introduction of the iPad 3 have been optimized for Retina Display the iPad Mini lacking a Retina Display was rendered OBSOLETE before it was even releasedThe crazy thing about all this however is that the iPad Mini costs 329 Its competitors Despite being far more powerful and advanced machines the Kindle Fire HD 7 Nexus 7 and Nook HD all cost just 199 or 130 LESS than the iPad MiniUnfortunately for Apple unlike the iPod Mini which created a new market for the company with lower-priced MP3 players the iPad Mini doesnt even qualify as a lower-priced tablet With a 130 price premium while offering less features than its rivals Apple with the iPad Mini has basically ceded the entry-level market to its competitors Worse because its 329 price tag is so close to the 399 price of the iPad 2 and just 170 less than the iPad 4 it will undoubtedly cannibalize the market of its full-sized siblings which is bad news for Apple given the far lower profit margins of the iPad MiniAnd with the Nexus 10 full-sized tablet coming out at US399 the same price as iPad 2 but far more powerful than the iPad 4 which costs 100 more the introduction of the 32GB Nexus 7 tablet at US249 bumping the 16GB model to US199 the launch of the Nexus 4 smartphone at 299 full price without a carrier contract and more powerful than iPhone 5 and the new Kindle Fire HDs and Nook HD and HD tablets as well as the Samsung Galaxy S3 Note 2 and S3 Mini smartphones Apple is facing attack on its ENTIRE LINE-UP of IOS productsGiven EVERY competitor model mentioned offers SUPERIOR hardware specs than its Apple counter-part at a LOWER cost and given that the Google Play store now has MORE Android apps available than Apples App Store for IOS Apple has now found itself on the losing side in both hardware AND softwareWith Googles Android now on 75 of all smartphones compared to 15 for Apples IOS Samsungs Galaxy S3 smartphone ALONE selling more units than the iPhone 4S in August and Apples tablet market share dropping from 95 in the third quarter of 2010 to now just 50 in the third quarter of 2012 Apples dominance in the mobile device market is coming to a quick endThe good news for Apple is that there are still sizeable segments of the population that are relatively uninformed about technology or uninterested in hardware specs or actual product performance and purchase electronic devices based solely on product image andor brand recognitionFor these consumers Apple undoubtedly has the advantage over its competitors and will continue dominating this sub-section of the market for the time being Whether these consumers who generally view Apple products more as status symbols than productivity devices can support Apples growth and share price remains to be seenAlso remains to be seen is whether Apple can hold onto its cool factor undoubtably one of Apples biggest assets and reasons for the companys success There are already cracks appearing on Apples cool facade from the child slave labor exploitation and worker suicides at its China factories the IOS 6 Apple Maps fiasco the unpopular and mostly losing patent trolling lawsuits waged on its competitors the negative public response to Apple patenting ideas and concepts like rectagular devices with rounded corners and home button the generally lackluster new features and improvements of iPhone 5 the introduction of iPad 4 just seven months after iPad 3 and now the disappointing specs and features of the iPad Mini while being priced far above its competitors superior offeringsAnd with reports coming out that Apple has spent BILLIONS on lawyers and litigation with its patent trolling lawsuits this year and MORE than it has on research and development spending less on RampD than Microsoft Nokia Amazon Hewlett-Packard Samsung and Google its now apparent that Apple has now lost its focus and ability to introduce the most innovative and cutting-edge products on the marketCoupled with Apples admission that it has spent over 1 billion in advertising and marketing campaigns for the iPhone and iPad it seems Apple now believes that ADVERTISING rather than INNOVATION is the key selling-point driving sales for its productsAnd with the initial sales success of the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini both products which are measurably inferior to its competiton and yet more expensive Apple may be right