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FrozenDarkness

macrumors 68000
Mar 21, 2009
1,727
968
Irony is the ipad mini probably has a higher dpi than most of your computers and TVs. The horror.

I would rather have a retina screen, who wouldn't? It's absolutely retarded to suggest apple didn't include it just to gauge customers.
 
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kappaknight

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2009
1,595
91
Atlanta, GA
Apple pretty much blew it with the mini. Sorry but its true. Whether you consider the half assed scaled down from 9.7 inch to 7.9 inch apps that end up with text too small to the low resolution and contrast on the minis screen. This isn't even including the ridiculous price tag and outdated hardware inside of it.

The ipad mini needs its own app layouts and not just reuseing the 10 inch layouts most of which end up too small on the 7.9 inch screen. They should have gone for a closer to 7 inch size and had a 16x10 layout like the nexus 7 (with an atleast 1280x800 resolution). The ipad mini is exactly comfortable to grasp with one hand because its too wide. As far as the apps scaling thats Apples fault for messing up in the first place and not making iOS with multiple resolutions in mind like android, windows, blackberry, and pretty much any other os works.

It really sounds like you should just get a Nexus 7 and never come back to these forums.
 

fertilized-egg

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2009
2,109
57
Apple pretty much blew it with the mini. Sorry but its true. Whether you consider the half assed scaled down from 9.7 inch to 7.9 inch apps that end up with text too small
...
The ipad mini needs its own app layouts and not just reuseing the 10 inch layouts most of which end up too small on the 7.9 inch screen.

If the developers followed Apple's guideline, the iPad apps on mini should match iPhone apps in size. I always found 7" tablets to be too small and somewhat awkward in portrait with the wide aspect ratio. For this, I find iPad mini a lot better in usability.

My guess is from now on the developers will test their apps on iPad mini and then blow them up onto the bigger iPad. This will probably make the apps easier to use on the larger iPad as well.
 

Deasnutz

macrumors 6502
Jun 9, 2011
268
62
Irony is the ipad mini probably has a higher dpi than most of your computers and TVs. The horror.

I would rather of a retina screen, who wouldn't? It's absolutely retarded to suggest apple didn't include it just to gauge customers.

It's about pacing the gadget market. Sell the ***** screen product first when you have a gimmick, then sell it again with "new features".
 

FrozenDarkness

macrumors 68000
Mar 21, 2009
1,727
968
It's about pacing the gadget market. Sell the ***** screen product first when you have a gimmick, then sell it again with "new features".

And you know it's as simple as putting the screen in right? You're a supply chain MBA and also a hardware engineer? Fact is A5 can't drive retina and nobody knows if A5X will survive in the mini form factor.
 

Dlanod

macrumors 65816
Jul 11, 2008
1,000
96
UK
I have to apologize to all of the people that I questioned when they said that the iPad mini screen was terrible.

I bought the Mini and returned it within 24 hours. Why? It was smooth, fairly enjoyable to use, but that screen...the screen isn't just bad...it's horrendous.

I congratulate every one of you who love your minis and I wish you years of enjoyment, but for me I can't understand how it is selling so well.

I was able to return mine and leave with an iPad 4 for $170. That's a small price to pay for such a dramatic upgrade.

Again, it's just one person's opinion and I don't begrudge anyone who enjoys theirs, but I am stunned Apple put out a product in 2012 with such a porous display.

Yup. Totally agree. The screen is woeful for a 2012 device from Apple. First time I have seen them behind the curve for years. Mine awaits pick up for a refund too.
 

iAi

macrumors 6502
Sep 26, 2012
291
0
Mods,

This is really getting annoying. Please delete or merge this duplicate thread.
 

jon3543

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2010
609
266
Is the iPad Mini screen really that bad?

Oh yes, absolutely. Only reason they get away with it is because they're Apple. If any other company would have come out, in late 2012, with a display this far inferior in resolution to the competition, people would have called it the end of said company. But Apple can get away with it. And I say this as probably one of Apple's biggest fans.

But it's not that inferior to the competition. Load a full-size web site like cnn.com on a Mini, Nexus 7, and Kindle Fire HD. You will need to rotate to landscape and/or zoom to read and operate them comfortably. In portrait mode, when viewing a web site scaled to fit horizontally, and assuming a 1" wide character to keep things simple, the Mini obviously has 163 pixels in which to render that character. Not so obviously, the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD have only about 170 pixels to render that same character. This is due to the 7" 16:10 tablets being only about 79% the width of the 7.85" 4:3 Mini, so that 1" wide character on the Mini is only .79" on the other tablets. Being smaller also means you have to squint more. Things improve in landscape mode, but the Mini gets an advantage from being able to display more vertically; IOW, it sucks less in landscape mode than the other tablets.

For larger text, like the default size in iBooks, the Mini looks fine to me. The real problem is with rendering insanely small text as in the scenario described above, and I would guess PDFs would be another problem area for all these small, low resolution tablets, but I didn't test that. In another thread, I talked about "pinching in" to shrink cnn.com down to Mini size on a Retina iPad, and at the 7.85" 4:3 Mini size, the iPad's 264 PPI still looked pretty darn good on the scaled-down web page. A 7" 16:10 tablet would need 264/.79 = 334 PPI to look as good at rendering web pages at their standard size in portrait mode. The Retina Mini will no doubt be 326 PPI like the iPhone/Touch and look fantastic; the 7" tablets would need 326/.79 = 413 PPI to be as sharp. They'll be considerably less than that though and look fine.

In summary, 216 > 163 isn't the whole story.
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,612
7,790
Only you can answer how it looks to YOU. You should try to visit Apple store to see for yourself because everyone has different eye sight and standards.

THIS. For instance, from the five minute look of the mini I got at an Apple store today, I thought that the mini screen was fine. But then, I don't mind occasionary reading on my iPad 2, despite having both an iPad 3 and iPhone 5. Yes, the iPad 2’s screen is not as good as the iPad 3 or iPhone 5, but for me, it's still perfectly usable. Other people feel that once they get used to a retina screen, they can't stand a non-retina screen. So only you can decide if the mini screen is ok for you.
 

weas

macrumors member
Nov 4, 2012
49
0
Seville, Spain
I know when I had an iPhone 4 and then bought an iPad 2, I hated the bad resolution.

Now I am used to nice iPhone 5 and Retina iPad 3. Will the iPad Mini look bad to me?

I have had an iPad 3 and now an iPad 4, and when I visited the store to check it out the screen resolution ached my eyes. To me it just felt wrong.... I understand the mini is a trade off and that they had to take some specs out, but to me its like a step back to the past.
If you already have an iPad 3 you don't need to upgrade (downgrade?) to an iPad mini
 

EmaDaCuz

macrumors regular
Apr 30, 2012
152
55
THIS. For instance, from the five minute look of the mini I got at an Apple store today, I thought that the mini screen was fine. But then, I don't mind occasionary reading on my iPad 2, despite having both an iPad 3 and iPhone 5. Yes, the iPad 2’s screen is not as good as the iPad 3 or iPhone 5, but for me, it's still perfectly usable. Other people feel that once they get used to a retina screen, they can't stand a non-retina screen. So only you can decide if the mini screen is ok for you.

THIS. I still think that the screen is more than good for normal use, like web browsing, emailing, gaming and so on. If you have to read books or documents where the text body is VERY small, you may find the screen inadequate. I personally have no problem with it.
 
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HowardSmith

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2012
863
0
To,each his own but the mini did not do it for me.

This is all about choice and by introducing the mini, it give people more choice. It is just choice each has to make. I choose to carry the iPad 3 and 4. I will pay the weight and size penalty (LOL) for the retina screen and that wonder keyboard real estate. ;):p
 

Nhwhazup

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2010
3,450
1,697
New Hampshire
I don't have a mini but have contemplated getting one. However, I can't see going backwards from the retina display. I'll wait until the next version comes out with retina display.
 

N0ddie

macrumors 6502
Oct 23, 2011
416
98
Glasgow
I can see it being a backwards step if you've been Retina'd.

Going from an iPad 2 though, the screen on the mini is definitely better.
 

Skika

macrumors 68030
Mar 11, 2009
2,999
1,246
I love the lightness and design of the mini but non-retina is a no go for me.

Tried it just the other day at the store. Would feel really bad if i trade it for my iPad 3.
 

michaeljohn

macrumors 6502
Oct 27, 2012
279
0
Here is a screenshot from my Mini zoomed in way closer than anyone would ever be viewing this forum or any text. Click it and look at it full size. If it looks pixelated, you are extremely anal about things. The screen is just fine for most everything under normal use and I have an iPhone 5.
 

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LanEvo

macrumors 6502
Sep 5, 2010
434
2
NorCal
I seriously don't thing the display is all that big of a deal, i would take a faster processor and more RAM any day, coming from an iPad 3 with the addition of a Mini, I find them both pretty easy to adjust to. Now going from iPad 3 to iPad 2 was a huge jump, but the Mini looks really good for its display. I personally enjoy it as it is with no complaints, just maybe a better camera or something. But I'll survive until the next one.

So no, it really isn't that bad, even for reading and such.
 

Tsuchiya

macrumors 68020
Jun 7, 2008
2,310
372
It isn't bad per se...

...but if you've used a retina iPad then the difference is quite dramatic.
 

davidjearly

macrumors 68020
Sep 21, 2006
2,264
371
Glasgow, Scotland
It isn't anywhere near as bad. For me, a bigger issue is the size of the yet natively. However, I view most sites in landscape which negates this. When zoomed in, the pixelation is hardly noticeable unless you look for it.

The issue is completely overblown by the spec fans that care more about what's inside than how the device works!
 

zhenya

macrumors 604
Jan 6, 2005
6,929
3,677
Here is a screenshot from my Mini zoomed in way closer than anyone would ever be viewing this forum or any text. Click it and look at it full size. If it looks pixelated, you are extremely anal about things. The screen is just fine for most everything under normal use and I have an iPhone 5.

You got it backwards. Lower resolution screens tend to look better at larger font sizes. Zoom OUT to where the text is small and, especially in portrait orientation, it will be uncomfortably fuzzy.
 

corvus32

macrumors 6502a
Sep 4, 2009
761
0
USA
You got it backwards. Lower resolution screens tend to look better at larger font sizes. Zoom OUT to where the text is small and, especially in portrait orientation, it will be uncomfortably fuzzy.

Fuzzy text goes away when you zoom in. Backlight bleeding and off color tints never do, so there's more to a screen than pixels per inch.
 

haruhiko

macrumors 604
Sep 29, 2009
6,529
5,874
I know when I had an iPhone 4 and then bought an iPad 2, I hated the bad resolution.

Now I am used to nice iPhone 5 and Retina iPad 3. Will the iPad Mini look bad to me?


Norm in MacRumors:

If I have the iPad mini:

Nooooooooo!! The screen is NOT bad at all. It's excellent, crystal clear. I have no problem reading any small text PDF, they are crystal clear, clearer than fine print text! What's the point of having 2xxppi! It's much better than the iPad 1/2! You wouldn't be complaining if it is 2010!

If I don't have the iPad mini:

WTF Apple released a low resolution screen in late 2012? It's a money grab. I won't buy it unless it has retina. Never. My eyes bleed. I got a headache just by looking at it.


:D
 
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