iPad Mini: Another iPad Mini Return

[cbdoc]

Gave it a shot, found the screen so incredibly crappy. It's too bad, love everything else about the device.

[HazyCloud]

After using it for a day or so, the screen doesn't even bother me. And this is coming from an iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and a 3rd gen iPad.

[rockyroad55]

Well. like I said, the mini isn't for everyone. At least you found out before the return period was over.

[maverick22]

I played with it a little at Best Buy. I didn't see the big deal. Yeah it may have not been as sharp as retina, but it still looked good in my opinion. I got one for my sister for Christmas, so I'll have to look at it more in depth then.

[marcperrot]

Originally Posted by maverick22

I played with it a little at Best Buy. I didn't see the big deal. Yeah it may have not been as sharp as retina, but it still looked good in my opinion. I got one for my sister for Christmas, so I'll have to look at it more in depth then.

Seconded. I played around with it, and while it's not nearly as clear as Retina, it's far from a bad screen. I'm debating replacing my iPad 3 with the mini, but I'm really not sure yet.

[scupking]

Originally Posted by marcperrot

Seconded. I played around with it, and while it's not nearly as clear as Retina, it's far from a bad screen. I'm debating replacing my iPad 3 with the mini, but I'm really not sure yet.

I replaced my three with a mini and have no issues.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by marcperrot

Seconded. I played around with it, and while it's not nearly as clear as Retina, it's far from a bad screen. I'm debating replacing my iPad 3 with the mini, but I'm really not sure yet.

Agreed. While it clearly isn't as nice as a retina screen it isn't too bad. Some people seem to think looking at it for more than 5 seconds will make your eyes bleed.

[iHeartsteve]

Originally Posted by HazyCloud

After using it for a day or so, the screen doesn't even bother me. And this is coming from an iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and a 3rd gen iPad.

Same here. I am very pro retina displays. If I didn't have ipad3 there's no way I could use this as my main device. I only use it in small increments since its my travel iPad. If I was using the mini for more than an hr then the screen quality would start to annoy me.

[Spellman Jones]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Agreed. While it clearly isn't as nice as a retina screen it isn't too bad. Some people seem to think looking at it for more than 5 seconds will make your eyes bleed.

Returned mine. The screen is fine. Having the same Safari aspect as the IPad, but on a smaller screen that gave me a little eye strain.

It is like having a picture of a car on the same Kodak glossy paper, but one is on 4x6 paper and the other is on a 3x5 sheet of paper. Both look clear, both show the same car, but try reading the license plate on both and the smaller one is just a tad more difficult.

The apps on the mini were fine. The form factor was awesome. Safari was my problem. The font was ok in landscape, but not at all pleasing in portrait.

For 329 bucks, I just felt that zooming in safari was an unreasonable compromise for me. I already have an iPhone that I have to zoom on -- an acceptable compromise for something I can put in my pocket, answer phone calls, and surf 3G on bus.

For $329, the device needed to separate itself from the limited viewing of a pocket device and the cumbersome size of the regular ipad. It accomplished that goal in all aspects except the browser. The thing is, I wanted to use it primarily for surfing on the go.

I tried other browsers, but I still felt I was compromising.

Maybe a "retina" screen may help, but I still think it was cramming the same content as the large ipad on the smaller screen that was my issue.

[cbdoc]

Originally Posted by Spellman Jones

Returned mine. The screen is fine. Having the same Safari aspect as the IPad, but on a smaller screen that gave me a little eye strain.

It is like having a picture of a car on the same Kodak glossy paper, but one is on 4x6 paper and the other is on a 3x5 sheet of paper. Both look clear, both show the same car, but try reading the license plate on both and the smaller one is just a tad more difficult.

The apps on the mini were fine. The form factor was awesome. Safari was my problem. The font was ok in landscape, but not at all pleasing in portrait.

For 329 bucks, I just felt that zooming in safari was an unreasonable compromise for me. I already have an iPhone that I have to zoom on -- an acceptable compromise for something I can put in my pocket, answer phone calls, and surf 3G on bus.

For $329, the device needed to separate itself from the limited viewing of a pocket device and the cumbersome size of the regular ipad. It accomplished that goal in all aspects except the browser. The thing is, I wanted to use it primarily for surfing on the go.

I tried other browsers, but I still felt I was compromising.

Maybe a "retina" screen may help, but I still think it was cramming the same content as the large ipad on the smaller screen that was my issue.

I think a retina display would make a big difference. I have very good vision, yet have to zoom in to read most text, otherwise it looks awfully pixelated and fuzzy.

[racoonboy]

I believe a retina would make a lot of diff. for sho!!! And im sure they can still sell it at $329. They just wanna make this price an official base price for mini 2 and 3 which will surely include retina. they just being too stingy on the first Gen.

[sdsvtdriver]

i want the retina in the mini.

i don't want the lower battery life / weight of the extra batteries required for retina in the mini.

hopefully, they'll solve this issue.

[EMAN19]

The screen doesn't bother me at all. Maybe it has something to do with coming from the iPhone 4, I don't know. But I pretty much love everything about my Mini. This is my second Apple product.

[hyteckit]

Well, I just got a galaxy note 2 and surprise how much more I enjoy reading PDFs, web pages, and magazines on the iPad mini over the note 2. The note 2 screen is just too small to be a good general e-reader.

The iPad mini screen is more than double the surface area of the note 2 screen. iPad mini's aspect ratio is also better for reading PDFs and e-magazines.

Although there are times I do wish the iPad mini has a retina screen. Would've made reading even more enjoyable.

[bmat]

To me the weight difference is noticeable on the ipad 2 versus 3. So when the mini goes retina I hope they can find a way to avoid that from happening.

Personally I don't find the screen all that bad, or mind zooming. I miss the real estate and sharpness on the 3 when looking at the whole webpage. But I really like the form factor of the mini. That said, I haven't let go of my 3 yet, as I need to make sure my preference for the mini isn't just a preference for whatever is newest and shiniest.

[smiddlehurst]

Originally Posted by racoonboy

I believe a retina would make a lot of diff. for sho!!! And im sure they can still sell it at $329. They just wanna make this price an official base price for mini 2 and 3 which will surely include retina. they just being too stingy on the first Gen.

For the umpteenth time, Apple are not being "stingy", this is an engineering issue. Specifically with current tech a retina display needs both a very large and power hungry SoC (the A6X) as well as a lot of battery power to run it. Fitting that into the iPad Mini chassis is pretty much impossible with current tech. That may well change in the upcoming months / years but anyone that thinks Apple didn't go Retina for non-engineering reasons isn't paying attention.

Anyway, to the OP: having now received and used an iPad Mini there's nothing whatsoever wrong with the screen. Just as clear as the PC monitor I use day-to-day and saying it's "incredibly crappy" is just nonsense. Would it be better with a higher resolution? Of course it would but the panel that's been used is no slouch and easily the equivalent to most 13" laptops in terms of sharpness.

[MonkeySee....]

Originally Posted by cbdoc

Gave it a shot, found the screen so incredibly crappy. It's too bad, love everything else about the device.

The screen is not crappy. Its perfectly fine.

[AndroidBlows]

I saw and held a mini yesterday for the first time and as one that thought the iPads were way too heavy i found the mini is way too heavy too. I don't know how people hold them and use them comfortably. Also, what is the point of having an LTE mini when you have an LTE iPhone 5. Seems stupid. But whatever. Have fun with it.

iPads just don't do anything for me. I can do everything I need to do on my 5.

[Jare]

Originally Posted by AndroidBlows

I saw and held a mini yesterday for the first time and as one that thought the iPads were way too heavy i found the mini is way too heavy too. I don't know how people hold them and use them comfortably. Also, what is the point of having an LTE mini when you have an LTE iPhone 5. Seems stupid. But whatever. Have fun with it.

iPads just don't do anything for me. I can do everything I need to do on my 5.

You've gotta hit the gym, ASAP.

I returned my Mini as well, but that was so I could purchase a 64GB iPad 4

[kodeman53]

Originally Posted by AndroidBlows

I saw and held a mini yesterday for the first time and as one that thought the iPads were way too heavy i found the mini is way too heavy too. I don't know how people hold them and use them comfortably. Also, what is the point of having an LTE mini when you have an LTE iPhone 5. Seems stupid. But whatever. Have fun with it.

iPads just don't do anything for me. I can do everything I need to do on my 5.

Too bad you can't simply state your opinion without calling everyone who disagrees with you stupid.

[Mjmar]

Picked one up from Target last night. Screen is pretty bad compared to retina, but the weight of my iPad 3 is pretty bad compared to the mini. There is no good solution right now.

[panda bear]

Originally Posted by AndroidBlows

I saw and held a mini yesterday for the first time and as one that thought the iPads were way too heavy i found the mini is way too heavy too. I don't know how people hold them and use them comfortably. Also, what is the point of having an LTE mini when you have an LTE iPhone 5. Seems stupid. But whatever. Have fun with it.

iPads just don't do anything for me. I can do everything I need to do on my 5.

Wow, the Mini is too heavy to hold and use comfortably? I'm a pretty small girl and i've got absolutely no problems with it.

Also, i'm not sure why having an iPhone with LTE affects whether you have an iPad with LTE. I'm kind of wishing I got one with a data plan now and i've only taken it out of my house a couple times. It's annoying having a device that is really made to access the internet and not be able to.

[jessica.]

You gotta do what you gotta do man. I can't see the big issue with the screen. It's unfair to compare it to retina really as nice as it would be to have it.

[D.T.]

Originally Posted by bmat

To me the weight difference is noticeable on the ipad 2 versus 3. So when the mini goes retina I hope they can find a way to avoid that from happening.

Personally I don't find the screen all that bad, or mind zooming. I miss the real estate and sharpness on the 3 when looking at the whole webpage. But I really like the form factor of the mini. That said, I haven't let go of my 3 yet, as I need to make sure my preference for the mini isn't just a preference for whatever is newest and shiniest.

The weight difference between the 2 and the 3/4 is 51g, that's about the weight of 3 CDs (just the disc). If Apple releases a Mini, same battery life, same physical size, 2048x1536 and it only picks up ~51g that would be spectacular

[Spock]

I played with one a few days ago, I didn't think the screen was that bad. Its far from perfect but it seemed very usable. I think that retina is a feature to get people to purchase the mini 2 so I'm going to pass on the first generation.