iPad mini Impression of mini retina display

ct1211 · Nov 27, 2013

For those thinking about the mini retina, you may want to try it in the store before buying.

The mini retina image is very washed out, and appears as grainy side by side with our iPad 2. When they first hit my local best buy I stopped in for a look. I thought the sales person was lying when he said the white one was the new retina and the black one the original (they only had the two out) they both appeared to have the same grainy washed out image. We'll I bought a 32GB LTE two days ago and sure enough, it's is not worth my money. What the hell did Apple do to mess this up?

IGZO not ready for prime time IMO.

wxman2003 · Nov 27, 2013

I own both the Air and rMini, and yes the gamut on the rMini is a bit washed out, but it's night and day better than my previous ipad 2 and has better clarity and sharpness compared to the first gen mini. They are the 2 best ipads on the market, hands down. I have seen the rMini and mini side by side before buying, and the mini looked like crap next to the rMini.

ct1211 · Nov 27, 2013

wxman2003 said:
I own both the Air and rMini, and yes the gamut on the rMini is a bit washed out, but it's night and day better than my previous ipad 2 and has better clarity and sharpness compared to the first gen mini. They are the 2 best ipads on the market, hands down. I have seen the rMini and mini side by side before buying, and the mini looked like crap next to the rMini.

Thank you for validating my concern! I agree with you, " A bit washed out" as you put it is not going to cut it moving forward. I was fearful the only dialog I would get on this subject would be from single-minded people destroying every point I was making. The Air is a bit better though.

boobie12 · Nov 27, 2013

ct1211 said:
For those thinking about the mini retina, you may want to try it in the store before buying.

The mini retina image is very washed out, and appears as grainy side by side with our iPad 2. When they first hit my local best buy I stopped in for a look. I thought the sales person was lying when he said the white one was the new retina and the black one the original (they only had the two out) they both appeared to have the same grainy washed out image. We'll I bought a 32GB LTE two days ago and sure enough, it's is not worth my money. What the hell did Apple do to mess this up? IGZO not ready for prime time IMO.

IgZo is also found in the iPad air. So that is not the reason. It just has a lower color gamut. Been noted many times. In many reviews. Was even on the front page I think.

ct1211 · Nov 27, 2013

boobie12 said:
IgZo is also found in the iPad air. So that is not the reason. It just has a lower color gamut. Been noted many times. In many reviews. Was even on the front page I think.

Yes, I'm aware of these stated issues, some will be fine with it others not so much. What would a new Apple product be without a bit of controversy

boobie12 · Nov 27, 2013

ct1211 said:
Yes, I'm aware of these stated issues, some will be fine with it others not so much. What would a new Apple product be without a bit of controversy

Yea I understand. I wasn't fine with it when I seen it so I'm sticking with my air, but you some ppl don't mind. I still think there both great. Ht sucks they held back on the mini

saberahul · Nov 27, 2013

I have an iPad 4 and went and bought the rMini for the wife. Tried it and played with it for a very long time and loved it. Did not notice anything.

Of course, if one compares them they may find something but my purpose is to use the tablet rather than compare it.

bidwalj · Nov 27, 2013

Put them both on max brightness and tell me how grainy it looks. The retina display destroys both the ipad 2 and mini gen 1.

RickTaylor · Nov 27, 2013

To me, the difference between the original mini and the retina is stunning, while the difference between the retina mini and the Air is subtle. Yes studying the Anand's picture of the wallpaper if I stare carefully enough I can see that red triangle has an orange tint, but I have trouble getting worked up about it. The difference in sound quality between the devices bothers me quite a bit more.

But that just goes to show that different people are sensitive to different issues, and as you say in the beginning of your post there's no substitute for getting one's hands on a unit and taking a look for oneself.

FrankB1191 · Nov 27, 2013

Air and rMini. The apple looks more natural on the rMini IMO. I had a Mini 1, and the rMini has much better colors and resolution. When I had an iPad 4 and Mini 1, I immediately noticed that the red corvette in the 2009 Star Trek movie was much more red on the retina display. I did the same comparison with my Air and rMini, and it is very close. Skin tones are an easy win for the rMini, but reds can appear more vibrant on the Air, depending on the movie. Skyfall is a movie I used to compare the two tablets, and Daniel Craig's face looks green. A woman appears in a red dress, and the Air made the red dress much more vibrant than it appeared on the rMini.

Google "red apple" and decide for yourselves. You can also look at the 13 minute long BBC Nature HD video on YouTube, and you should notice that they are very close. I am picky BTW, and didn't think I'd still own the rMini.

ct1211 · Nov 27, 2013

bidwalj said:
Put them both on max brightness and tell me how grainy it looks. The retina display destroys both the ipad 2 and mini gen 1.

My perfect tablet for consumption and getting work done would be an air, with the Amazon HDX 8.9 screen and the S Pen from the Note 10.1 (also the notes micro SD card holder SwiftKey keyboard app and GPS in WiFi version)

ct1211 · Nov 27, 2013

FrankB1191 said:
Air and rMini. The apple looks more natural on the rMini IMO. I had a Mini 1, and the rMini has much better colors and resolution. When I had an iPad 4 and Mini 1, I immediately noticed that the red corvette in the 2009 Star Trek movie was much more red on the retina display. I did the same comparison with my Air and rMini, and it is very close. Skin tones are an easy win for the rMini, but reds can appear more vibrant on the Air, depending on the movie. Skyfall is a movie I used to compare the two tablets, and Daniel Craig's face looks green. A woman appears in a red dress, and the Air made the red dress much more vibrant than it appeared on the rMini.

Google "red apple" and decide for yourselves. You can also look at the 13 minute long BBC Nature HD video on YouTube, and you should notice that they are very close. I am picky BTW, and didn't think I'd still own the rMini.

You have a lot of tablets! You just gave me a thought. The reason Apple turned down Gamut and accuracy on these new tablets is now clear to me. We now have the AIR tablet, to be followed this spring by..... Wait for it.... The new super Retina 4K PRO TABLET at a PRO price, crazy margins restored, stock price 650 done...

RickTaylor · Nov 27, 2013

FrankB1191 said:
Air and rMini. The apple looks more natural on the rMini IMO.

I don't know about the apple but the background looks brighter on the left display than the right. To me it looks nicer, though I have no idea if it's objectively more accurate. The display on the left looks smaller, so I'm guessing that's the retina mini? I would have thought the difference in sizes would have been more pronounced.

bidwalj · Nov 27, 2013

ct1211 said:
My perfect tablet for consumption and getting work done would be an air, with the Amazon HDX 8.9 screen and the S Pen from the Note 10.1 (also the notes micro SD card holder SwiftKey keyboard app and GPS in WiFi version)

What you want is besides the point. You mentioned it's as grainy as the ipad 2. It is not, not even close.

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ct1211 said:
You have a lot of tablets! You just gave me a thought. The reason Apple turned down Gamut and accuracy on these new tablets is now clear to me. We now have the AIR tablet, to be followed this spring by..... Wait for it.... The new super Retina 4K PRO TABLET at a PRO price, crazy margins restored, stock price 650 done...

Sounds like you are trolling now...not sure if anyone should take this thread seriously.

ct1211 · Nov 27, 2013

bidwalj said:
What you want is besides the point. You mentioned it's as grainy as the ipad 2. It is not, not even close.

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Sounds like you are trolling now...not sure if anyone should take this thread seriously.

What I want is not important ? Who are you?

bidwalj · Nov 27, 2013

ct1211 said:
What I want is not important ? Who are you?

What does what you want has anything to do with the screen of the retina mini? You said its as grainy as your ipad 2. It's not. Turn up the brightness then compare.

haruhiko · Nov 27, 2013

To call a 326ppi screen "grainy" is just unreasonable.

0029937 · Nov 28, 2013

I think the colours are fine and I absolutely love reading text on it but the uneven, yellow screens are a really bad. Between me and a family member we've gone through 5 and they didn't even come close to my girlfriends original Mini. If you want to test it just flip the Mini upside down and see if you notice if the keyboard is whiter on a certain side. A lot of people are noticing the bottom is warm(yellow) while the top is cool(blue).

Dlanod · Nov 28, 2013

0029937 said:
I think the colours are fine and I absolutely love reading text on it but the uneven, yellow screens are a really bad. Between me and a family member we've gone through 5 and they didn't even come close to my girlfriends original Mini. If you want to test it just flip the Mini upside down and see if you notice if the keyboard is whiter on a certain side. A lot of people are noticing the bottom is warm(yellow) while the top is cool(blue).

It's a disgrace. These devices should not have been shipped. The screens are clearly not ready for prime time.

maflynn · Nov 28, 2013

Dlanod said:
It's a disgrace. These devices should not have been shipped. The screens are clearly not ready for prime time.

I disagree,
My rMini doesn't exhibit any of these issues, and I'm quite pleased with it. You are forgetting that people only come here to complain and many of the people here are MR are extremely picky, some may have expectations that are too high. I remember seeing complaints that icons were off by 1 pixel.

My point is that while there does some to be some issues with the screen, I don't believe its endemic across every model and its a mistake to condemn a product based on some threads here at MR.

OP, I can only state that from the mini to the rMini, the screen improvement is huge. Its a great upgrade and I do recommend one

guineapig · Nov 28, 2013

Dlanod said:
It's a disgrace. These devices should not have been shipped. The screens are clearly not ready for prime time.

Still, the OP bought it.

Voting with the wallet is the only power we have.
If you despise it, then buy it anyway, you've already cast your vote.

As simple as that.

x-evil-x · Nov 28, 2013

haruhiko said:
To call a 326ppi screen "grainy" is just unreasonable.

Exactly.
If op can't see the difference between a non retina screen and retina then he should get his eyes checked.
Your iPad 2 doesn't look pixelated? Haha. I don't understand some people honestly.

Dlanod · Nov 28, 2013

maflynn said:
I disagree,
My rMini doesn't exhibit any of these issues, and I'm quite pleased with it. You are forgetting that people only come here to complain and many of the people here are MR are extremely picky, some may have expectations that are too high. I remember seeing complaints that icons were off by 1 pixel.

My point is that while there does some to be some issues with the screen, I don't believe its endemic across every model and its a mistake to condemn a product based on some threads here at MR.

OP, I can only state that from the mini to the rMini, the screen improvement is huge. Its a great upgrade and I do recommend one

People only come here to complain? Come on.

Z3man · Nov 28, 2013

ct1211 said:
For those thinking about the mini retina, you may want to try it in the store before buying.

The mini retina image is very washed out, and appears as grainy side by side with our iPad 2. When they first hit my local best buy I stopped in for a look. I thought the sales person was lying when he said the white one was the new retina and the black one the original (they only had the two out) they both appeared to have the same grainy washed out image. We'll I bought a 32GB LTE two days ago and sure enough, it's is not worth my money. What the hell did Apple do to mess this up? IGZO not ready for prime time IMO.

Exactly the same thing happened to me in currys/pcworld in the uk, it turned out both were the iPad 1. Two sales people told me it was the new retina mini and they wouldn't believe me it wasn't until i pointed out there was no second microphone on the back, then they had to apologise for being thick.

bevsb2 · Nov 28, 2013

0029937 said:
I think the colours are fine and I absolutely love reading text on it but the uneven, yellow screens are a really bad. Between me and a family member we've gone through 5 and they didn't even come close to my girlfriends original Mini. If you want to test it just flip the Mini upside down and see if you notice if the keyboard is whiter on a certain side. A lot of people are noticing the bottom is warm(yellow) while the top is cool(blue).

As a person who returned 3 iPad Airs with yellow screens, I can tell you that a tablet with a yellow screen can't display accurate colors no matter what the gamut is. My 4th Air with a good screen displays accurate colors (in my opinion of course). I don't have the rMini but have looked at it on several occasions and think the colors are fine. If you compare it side by side with the Air of course the colors are not as saturated. This would never be a deal breaker for me but I chose the Air as I prefer the larger screen.

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Z3man said:
Exactly the same thing happened to me in currys/pcworld in the uk, it turned out both were the iPad 1. Two sales people told me it was the new retina mini and they wouldn't believe me it wasn't until i pointed out there was no second microphone on the back, then they had to apologise for being thick.

A similar thing happened to me in Best Buy when I wanted to see the iPad 4. The sales person insisted the iPad 3 on display was the new 4. I had to point out that it didn't have the lightning connector port. It took a second sales person to convince him that I was right.

iPad mini Impression of mini retina display

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