I really don't know what Apple was thinking when they decided to take an OS that was designed for a 9.7" display and put it on a device with a 7.9" display. After using the mini for a couple days I realized that the resolution is ok, but since aspects of the OS are so small the already average resolution is exacerbated, and things look much worse than they need to. When you put the iPhone home screen next to the iPad mini's the apps icons are almost exactly the same size. This doesn't make any sense considering the difference in display size. The text size of app titles on the retina iPad look about 14pt font, but since even the text elements of the OS were squeezed into a smaller screen, the app titles on the mini look to be about 10pt font. Why didn't Apple think to change at least the text sizes of the OS elements. Using a compact version of safari is pretty difficult too. On the retina iPad it works fine, but since the exact app is squished onto the mini, tabs and the bookmarks bar are too small to use comfortably. The same thing can be said about many of the apps I've used so far, including 3rd party ones. I'm no expert, but I think Apple should have created a whole new resolution with an updated OS. Sure, it would be more difficult for developers but once the ecosystem got going it would result in a much better experience.
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iPad mini It's not the screen it's the OS
- Thread starter Mjmar
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I felt this way at first.
Less so now but they should incorporate some kind of multiple option scaler.
Like ipad 3/4 is still scaled to 1024x768 dpi on 1/2 hence no extra squinting.
Imagine if they ran it at like 2048x1536 native dpi. It would be nearly unusable
I know I'm probably mixing up terminology but hopefully ya catch my drift.
Less so now but they should incorporate some kind of multiple option scaler.
Like ipad 3/4 is still scaled to 1024x768 dpi on 1/2 hence no extra squinting.
Imagine if they ran it at like 2048x1536 native dpi. It would be nearly unusable
I know I'm probably mixing up terminology but hopefully ya catch my drift.
Icons on the iPad and iPhone are very different sizes: 57/114px (standard/retina) vs. 72/144px. Icons on the iPad mini are physically 25% larger than on the iPhone because of this.
Text size is 12pt Helvetica on all three devices. In typography, a point is a print size, not a screen size. It is 1/72". In theory, this means that text set in points should always show the same size regardless of resolution or pixel density, but it doesn't really work like that. (Also, don't confuse this with an iOS UI "point", which is a totally different unit.)
The text on an iPad's screen is about 22% larger than on an iPhone at the same point size. For example, the capital "C" in the Calendar app name is 9/18px tall on an iPhone and 11/22px on an iPad.
They did. Everything is physically larger on the iPad mini compared to the iPhone 3GS at the system level.
The historical reason for this was because the first iPad, at 132ppi, was about 20% less dense than the iPhone at 163ppi. So they bumped up text and icon pixel sizes 20-25% to compensate, so that the overall experience would still translate. That means that despite the same pixel density as non-retina iPhones, the iPad mini scales larger because it's an iPad, with iPad UI layout.
The only things that are the same size is the 44x44pt touch target and any pixel-sized artwork.
That was exactly what they didn't want to do when they created it.