iPad mini [MERGED] The iPad Mini looks beautiful until you turn it on.

Now that I have the iPad Mini in hand, I can compare the display quality between my iPad (first gen), iPhone 5, and Kindle.

With the same book pulled up, I can see that the iPad mini's larger display provides more screen real estate to display the pages. Character definition between the iPad-1 and the mini is about the same but subpar to the kindle - no surprise. The kindle's e-ink is great.

Comparing the mini to the iPhone's display is a little more difficult given the smaller screen on the iPhone.

Overall I do see a bit of jagginess on the letters especially if I take my glasses off and bring the display up close to my face. That is if I use it normally I'm not noticing too much. So for me, the mini looks beautiful and the display is fine, though apple could have done better.

I am disappointed in the screen. Turning up the brightness helps to alleviate some of the font-fuzz a bit.

Quantus said:

I am disappointed in the screen. Turning up the brightness helps to alleviate some of the font-fuzz a bit.

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I agree

This is getting ridiculous... Firstly, the iPad mini screen resolution is that of the iPad 2 (which people had no problems with at the time), yet in the smaller size it bumps the PPI significantly - and makes it superior to the iPad 2.

Keep in mind that all the Macs that we use all the time (with the exception of the rMBPs) have MUCH lower PPIs than the iPad Mini. Yet we're totally fine with them.

And finally - there are 100s of threads about this very issue. No need to start a new one every time And - If ya think the pixed density is too low for some odd reason ("unusable"? - give me a break), just don't buy it.

EDIT : May have been to harshly put in retrospect. Apologies. But you get my point.

I like the form factor so much that I'll probably keep the mini. But disappointed nonetheless. Can't wait for retina-mini. It will be the perfect tablet.

chrisrosemusic1 said:

Yup, this is a drip feed test product to see how well people buy it, then a proper one will arrive within 9 months, guaranteed!

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I 100% agree!

Bought one this morning for my daughter and have been playing with it and comparing it to my Ipad3

1. The screen does look poor compared to the retina iPad, but take that away and your eyes and brain adjust pretty quickly.

2. I already think this is a better form factor than the iPad for the majority of uses of an iPad (reading, couch surfing, you tube, personal gaming)

3. It is pricey for what you get, but holding it next to a nexus 7, it trounces it in terms of build quality and feel. The screen is a draw to my eyes by the way. You can see the nexus is sharper, but the color and contrast is better on the iPad mini

I think what has happened is that when Apple was designing the iPad at first a 7 inch tablet really wasn't ideal and thus Steve was trash talking it.

But technology has since caught up allowing the thinner body and small (at least on the sides) bezel, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, IOS has evolved compared when it was released making a smaller form factor practical

All the hints are there (the design language, build quality) that going forward, the mini will be the primary iPad. Apple is just being conservative with this model and toeing the market (which really is the most negative thing about the mini)

seajewel said:

It's usually not pictures where it's the most noticeable. It would be stuff like reading PDFs, reading books in iBooks, etc. the font will be noticeably less "sharp"

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Well I had a gander at MacLife Magazine a few minutes ago. I zoomed in on the small text to read it. But I already do that on my iPad 3 anyway so I think the "unusable" tag was rather harsh.

It does have the same number of pixels as the iPad 2. Since the scree is smaller, then the pixels are smaller and more densely packed together.

Perhaps the OP has unbelievable vision compared to many of us to discern such a huge and unforgivable difference.

Gris Gris Man said:

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Cool! What is this device, and where can I buy one? I can't tell the difference between this screen and a Retina display. If only it came in amber, though...

boshii said:

I have a retina iPad and i've thought about selling it for a mini, but i'd hate to avoid using it because the display sucks.

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So you rather go for the lower resolution, inferior processor iPad Mini instead of your retina iPad?

Unless size is the most important reason to make the switch, I do not see the logic in doing such thing.


People need to understand that the iPad Mini was created to satisfy that minority of people who complained about the size of the iPad since its first release one came out. Besides size and price, there's no real winning situation.

MrXiro said:

Writing this post on the on the mini now... Looks great, feels great I am very happy with this. Can I see pixels? Yes. Does everything still look great? Yes!

And my last 4 devices in this order; iPod Touch 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad 3rd gen LTE. The 163ppi is a non-issue. I wish I never got the 3rd gen to be honest, too heavy and it stutters briefly when I bring up the controls on video playback, we should be at the age where video playback is as smooth as mp3 playback. In retrospect it was a stop gap/beta product that should have been allowed to mature before it was released. The iPad 4th gen is the complete product.

I am selling my iPad 3 and keeping the Mini.

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So I just tried out my iPod/iPhone version of Angry Birds and Bad Piggies. Now THAT is a reason to miss retina on iPads wow I don't remember those games looking that pixelated on my iPad. Granted those games were optimized for retina and therefore looked nearly as good as the HD versions bown up 2x.

I love the form factor, but this screen is awful. Even the iPad 2's screen looks better in my opinion.

Turning up the brightness does help, but wow this is terrible.

seajewel said:

Maybe it is unusable for his purposes. If I bought it purely to read pdfs and such for work I would probably not find it great either. To each his own and it's good to hear of other's opinions.

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I suppose you're correct. I'm just tired of hearing about how horrible the screen is. There are multiple posts about the screen resolution as it is.

jaw04005 said:

I love the form factor, but this screen is awful. Even the iPad 2's screen looks better in my opinion.

Turning up the brightness does help, but wow this is terrible.

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If the price was $249 or less, I'd accept the screen resolution, but at ~$350 w/ taxes, it's harder to justify.

If this was a competitor's device, I wonder how many of you would be as forgiving for the lack of retina-like display.

I just got the 64GB version and I'm quite happy with it. The screen doesn't look that bad. Once the 2nd gen comes out my son can have this one. Happy days #

onthecouchagain said:

If this was a competitor's device, I wonder how many of you would be as forgiving for the lack of retina-like display.

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Probably very forgiving since I don't believe any competitor has retina tablets.

Glockron said:

Keep in mind that all the Macs that we use all the time (with the exception of the rMBPs) have MUCH lower PPIs than the iPad Mini. Yet we're totally fine with them.

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This quote enlightened me a lot. I just realized that my macbook air has a lower ppi and I don't complain. I am getting the iPad mini!

Amazing Iceman said:

So you rather go for the lower resolution, inferior processor iPad Mini instead of your retina iPad?

Unless size is the most important reason to make the switch, I do not see the logic in doing such thing.


People need to understand that the iPad Mini was created to satisfy that minority of people who complained about the size of the iPad since its first release one came out. Besides size and price, there's no real winning situation.

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I always thought the iPad was too big to be taken outside of my house. I felt goofy using it anywhere else but home or work.

skyler286 said:

If the price was $249 or less, I'd accept the screen resolution, but at ~$350 w/ taxes, it's harder to justify.

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Very true. For $249-$279 I probably would've sucked it up. But for $329, the bar was a little higher.

maflynn said:

Probably very forgiving since I don't believe any competitor has retina tablets.

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The Nexus 10 is 2560 x 1600. That's retina+.

Nikos said:

The iPad Mini is a beautiful and elegant piece of hardware, but the screen renders it unusable to me. We've pretty much known for months that it would carry the same resolution as the iPad 2, but coming from a 3rd generation iPad and iPhone 5, I can't help but cringe when I look at the iPad Mini's display. It might actually look worse than the iPad 2, from what I remember, for some reason. It almost looks like it's not at its native resolution.

If you have become accustomed to looking at retina displays and have any concern about about the iPad Mini's display, I urge you to check it out in store before purchasing. When the iPad Mini does finally get a retina display, it will be perfect. I'm not bashing the product. It really is beautiful, until you start to use it.

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To sum up you are saying:

I'm so pro apple I actually troll the apple boards now.

boshii said:

The Nexus 10 is 2560 x 1600. That's retina+.

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It doesn't have the Apple logo. Therefore cannot possibly be better. How dare you!

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maflynn said:

Probably very forgiving since I don't believe any competitor has retina tablets.

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You, perhaps, but would the masses? If I had to bet, I'd say no.

After about a half hour of browsing webpages, I'm close to returning. Over 90% of pages require double tap zoom to comfortably read the text.

It's better than the iPad 2,
but falls short of expectations given the iPhone 4/4s/5 and iPad 3 were all retina and look incredible.

This one does not look incredible. We expect incredible from Apple.

Maybe Apple should have also offered a Retina version too, at a higher price and let the buyer decide .

I would have paid extra for retina, but even this version will sell fine as is.

It's really designed as a larger alternative for the $199 touch user, generally tweens, they should be happy?

jaw04005 said:

I love the form factor, but this screen is awful. Even the iPad 2's screen looks better in my opinion.

Turning up the brightness does help, but wow this is terrible.

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It looks better than the iPad 2 to me. Same resolution, with higher dpi. It looks great, I've had all the iPads so far and it's not worse than the iPad 2.