Tablets iPad Mini vs Nexus 7- User Comparison

[MRU]

Update: I have noticed while in the App store that when scrolling through a bunch of free apps while installing and downloading multiple apps the store begins to slow down a bit when refreshing the screen as you go down through the list. I have only noticed this when doing a ton of stuff at once. Anyone else have the same issue?

The new app store is crappy performance on all our ios devices including the new mini and the new 4th gen as well as our 3rd gen iPad and my iPhone 5.

Seems to be since iOS 6 and the re-design, but yeah I wouldn't just blame the mini on this one tbh.

 

[nickftw8686]

I don't have a Mini, but I have a Nexus, and The device described in some of these posts sounds nothing like mine. No lags, gorgeous (slightly roo dim) screen, great apps, great size, and a joy to use. I am even considering selling my Ipad foe a Nexus 10 in a few weeks.

I used my nexus 7 everyday and enjoyed using it. I just happen to enjoy the mini more so far. For the extra cash it has been a worthy upgrade. But I would not tell someone to not buy a nexus 7 if they want a good sub 300 dollar device or love android.

 

[Wrathwitch]

It's kinda sad that my android tablet can't run some of my favorite games and work related apps even though they are android apps listed in the google play store.

It's just shows up as 'incompatible'.

Games like Dead Space.
Apps like RingCentral.

This is my exact same issue with the S3. There are so many things I really like about this phone, and reasons why I don't want to switch backbut as stupid as it sounds. I miss plants vs zombies on my phone! I have to also confess that I wish the device was only 4.5". I'm kinda screwed in a way. Don't want to go back to iPhone until they increase their screen size to something that makes ME happy.


I want a hybrid Android/iOS phone!

 

[nickftw8686]

Yeah see that is the problem. People are like oh people dont need 10,000 apps, they only need 5-15 apps, which is probably true for the average user. However with android being so fragmented, you never know if the new device you just got will run the apps in the store. This is a big problem in my opinion and has been reason why I gave up on android for now. The hardware was never the issue with my droids or nexus, it was the apps.

I can have the best piece of hardware on earth but if the software does not meet my needs,then I just have a very nice looking paperweight, or half usable device.

I wouldnt be as concerned if it was just legacy devices with the issue, but its brand new devices and brand new apps. Like MS smart glass for example, or a few other key apps.

 

[Rodster]

However with android being so fragmented, you never know if the new device you just got will run the apps in the store. This is a big problem in my opinion and has been reason why I gave up on android for now. The hardware was never the issue with my droids or nexus, it was the apps.

I recently had that problem. Apps I bought for the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 would not run on my N7.

 

[nickftw8686]

My first tablet was the transformer prime, got it on sale for 370 with 32gb of storage and was super excited then when I got home and stared downloading apps I either couldn't run the one I wanted or it was a stretched phone app. I ended up selling it to a friend a month later. Now with the nexus 7 the stretched apps don't look as bad vs a 10 inch screen but its still annoying. I used to think app selection wasn't a big deal or using a stretched phone app but I won't be going back to it ever again. At least with my windows phone with the lesser app selection he apps it does have look great and have a super cool new feel to them. But the quality of apps apple has is def. a big deal. Quality and quantity, hard to find both but they seem to have it for now. Hopefully the rest will catch up or surpass them.

 

[Rodster]

At least with my windows phone with the lesser app selection he apps it does have look great and have a super cool new feel to them.

Yeah I can relate. I have a Zune HD player and all the limited apps for it looked great on the small screen. But getting back to the Android market. I don't mind some of the apps even if they were not intended for that device. Most of the apps/games look gorgeous on any of my Android devices. And as has been mentioned, things will only get better with the success of the Nexus line and Kindle Fire tablets.

I own a KF-HD and there are many apps specially designed for the KF and more are popping up. Apps like CNN, ABC News are optimized for the Fire. I've noticed this trend since owning one.

 

[nickftw8686]

Yeah I can relate. I have a Zune HD player and all the limited apps for it looked great on the small screen. But getting back to the Android market. I don't mind some of the apps even if they were not intended for that device. Most of the apps/games look gorgeous on any of my Android devices. And as has been mentioned, things will only get better with the success of the Nexus line and Kindle Fire tablets.

I own a KF-HD and there are many apps specially designed for the KF and more are popping up. Apps like CNN, ABC News are optimized for the Fire. I've noticed this trend since owning one.

Yeah true, I had a kindle fire that my fiancé now uses and she loves it, has the apps she wants and she can read all of her kindle books. It is a good device for amazon media consumption and is starting to get some nice apps as well.

 

[Rodster]

Yeah true, I had a kindle fire that my fiancé now uses and she loves it, has the apps she wants and she can read all of her kindle books. It is a good device for amazon media consumption and is starting to get some nice apps as well.

I returned my 7" HD. It was too small and I replaced it with the N7. I pre-ordered the 8.9 HD. Looking forward to that.

I'm an Amazon Prime member so for me the content on the KF makes it worth the purchase. I realize as others have said you can access your content on any device but the Prime content has been optimized for the Kindle Fire line. I love watching free shows, movies and reading books. Amazon has a very capable ecosystem and it's only getting better.

 

[nickftw8686]

I returned my 7" HD. It was too small and I replaced it with the N7. I pre-ordered the 8.9 HD. Looking forward to that.

I'm an Amazon Prime member so for me the content on the KF makes it worth the purchase. I realize as others have said you can access your content on any device but the Prime content has been optimized for the Kindle Fire line. I love watching free shows, movies and reading books. Amazon has a very capable ecosystem and it's only getting better.

Very nice, Yeah i love amazon prime, i buy and ship so much stuff from there they probably think I have a store lol. I mainly stream my prime instant video movies to my tvs so its a nice feature to have on the mini but i found myself not using it that much on the kindle fire. Maybe with the 8.9 inch screen more people will watch movies on it. For kindle content it is a great device for sure.

I am kinda glad I am not able to have such easy access anymore to buying stuff from amazon, I already buy enough haha.

 

[paulsalter]

t is a good device for amazon media consumption and is starting to get some nice apps as well.

I am confused how you have been criticising the google play store but then say a positive about the amazon app store

in the UK the amazon app store is quite poor, apps it does have are the same or older versions than the play store, free apps on the play store are sometimes paid ones on amazon and selection is very small

is the amazon app store that much better where you are?

I do use both, but mainly only get the free daily ones from amazon

 

[torana355]

1. Screen size- I like the fact that the screen is bigger/wider. The brightness and text look great. I have never used a retina device more then for a few minutes so it looks fine to me. The Nexus 7 would auto dim and then not come back to brightness a lot which was annoying, it would just randomly do it, not cause of any lighting changes. The Nexus 7 screen is still a good screen but the quality and colors are a bit lacking. I cant really notice the higher res difference either between the two.

I find the Nexus 7 screen is much sharper due to the higher ppi, the quality and colors are very similar, both are IPS panels. You say you can notice a difference in the colours but not the resolution, the difference in resolution is HUGE!!

2. Performance- The Mini is fast and fluid, I have yet to encounter a slow down. The Nexus 7 had some browser lag and scrolling lag on the home screen, but overall it ran great as well. Both open apps very fast, and can run multiple apps at once fine.

I find the N7 on Jellybean buttery smooth, no slowdowns whatsoever on my unit. The Chrome Mobile browser is rubbish, i use Xscope which is faster and smoother then Safari on the mini. Also the N7's extra ram is quite evident once you have many tabs open ect.

Wi-fi- The wifi performance is much better on the mini, sitting in the same room and same distance from my router with both devices I have full bars vs having half bars with the Nexus, also my Nexus had issues losing its wifi signal when waking up multiple times, requiring a reboot since I owned it. So far the mini does not have this issue.

I find the wifi performance exactly the same, if anything my N7 achieves higher speeds at identical distances from my router.

3. Keyboard- The Mini keyboard input is better. I like how it is bigger with the wider screen and the key input feedback just feels tighter and better executed. I have smaller hands and I can use both tablets just fine, and the mini actually feels a bit better using just my thumbs to type given the wider screen.

The N7 with swiftkey 3 destroys the Mini's keyboard in every way.

4. Apps- The main reason I switched to the Mini was better apps and I can say it was a good switch. The same apps I have on my Nexus 7 are just overall better on the iPad Mini, plus I can finally use some apps that were missing from the google play store.

No arguments here the app selection is better for tablets on the Apple store.

5. Build Quality- Hands down the Mini, It feels great in your hands and is SUPER lightweight. The Nexus 7 a, being that it is cheaper also feels cheaper, but it did not feel like a plastic pos like some people make it out to be, it is a lightweight device that feels solid in your hands, although for some reason after holding it for awhile my palms wold hurt, which might be from the way the bezel is designed. For the money the build quality is okay, but you can tell for the extra price in the Mini the build quality beats it by far.

Again not true, the N7 build quality is not that bad, it actually feels much better in hand. How does the N7 "feel" cheaper?

 

[nickftw8686]

I find the Nexus 7 screen is much sharper due to the higher ppi, the quality and colors are very similar, both are IPS panels. You say you can notice a difference in the colours but not the resolution, the difference in resolution is HUGE!!



I find the N7 on Jellybean buttery smooth, no slowdowns whatsoever on my unit. The Chrome Mobile browser is rubbish, i use Xscope which is faster and smoother then Safari on the mini. Also the N7's extra ram is quite evident once you have many tabs open ect.
I find the wifi performance exactly the same, if anything my N7 achieves higher speeds at identical distances from my router.


The N7 with swiftkey 3 destroys the Mini's keyboard in every way.


No arguments here the app selection is better for tablets on the Apple store.


Again not true, the N7 build quality is not that bad, it actually feels much better in hand. How does the N7 "feel" cheaper?

1.The resolution difference is not huge, I am sorry unless you have superman eyes, its not that noticeable at all.

2. Wifi performance on my nexus 7 was spotty and dropped signals. If the tablet went to sleep it would not reconnect and would randomly drop. I have a stronger signal strength with the mini and it does not drop connections like the nexus 7 did. Maybe i had a bad one but I am not the only one reporting these issues.

3. Build quality is not as good. For one mine had the issue where the screen was not tight enough to the body and it moved when you pressed down on the sides when swiping or holding it. This was one DAY 1 with the device. Google around you will see its a common problem. The tablet also feels cheaper. Plastic vs aluminum just does not feel as nice. The tablet did not feel like total crap in the hand but I prefer the mini over it. I also as I have stated in the thread find the mini easier to hold given the way the weight is distributed throughout the device. I never said the build quality was super bad but it is sub par compared to the apple device. I think most will agree with me on that one. But hey for 200 bucks, its a good device, but you get what you pay for, just like most things in life.

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I am confused how you have been criticising the google play store but then say a positive about the amazon app store

in the UK the amazon app store is quite poor, apps it does have are the same or older versions than the play store, free apps on the play store are sometimes paid ones on amazon and selection is very small

is the amazon app store that much better where you are?

I do use both, but mainly only get the free daily ones from amazon

To clarify I was saying that the amazon app store does have some nice apps, but it is nowhere near as big or good as the google play store, which in my opinion is not as good as the apple app store. The kindle fire is great for amazon content,reading and streaming movies, not much else at this point, but that will improve over time. I have not used a kindle fire HD yet so others might have a better idea on how the new one improves over the last one that I had.

 

[Rodster]

I am confused how you have been criticising the google play store but then say a positive about the amazon app store

in the UK the amazon app store is quite poor, apps it does have are the same or older versions than the play store, free apps on the play store are sometimes paid ones on amazon and selection is very small

is the amazon app store that much better where you are?

I do use both, but mainly only get the free daily ones from amazon

He's not contradicting himself because Google's and Amazon's ecosystems are separate. Unless you root a Kindle Fire you are blocked off from Google Play. And yes here in the US the Amazon ecosystem is very good and is only getting better.

 

[paulsalter]

He's not contradicting himself because Google's and Amazon's ecosystems are separate. Unless you root a Kindle Fire you are blocked off from Google Play. And yes here in the US the Amazon ecosystem is very good and is only getting better.

I am not denying that Amazon eco system is good, I like Amazon for a lot of things

my point was, you cannot say Amazon app store is good and then criticise Google Play

Anyway, It looks like I misread the post so the point is not really relevant

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To clarify I was saying that the amazon app store does have some nice apps, but it is nowhere near as big or good as the google play store, which in my opinion is not as good as the apple app store. The kindle fire is great for amazon content,reading and streaming movies, not much else at this point, but that will improve over time. I have not used a kindle fire HD yet so others might have a better idea on how the new one improves over the last one that I had.

I agree, would love to get a fire hd to play around with

 

[Rodster]

I am not denying that Amazon eco system is good, I like Amazon for a lot of things

my point was, you cannot say Amazon app store is good and then criticise Google Play

Yes, one can criticize the other because they are not connected. There's content specific to the Kindle Fire tablets that's unavailable on Google Play so your post is quite relevant.

 

[paulsalter]

Yes, one can criticize the other because they are not connected. There's content specific to the Kindle Fire tablets that's unavailable on Google Play so your post is quite relevant.

Do you have some examples?

I have been looking but cannot find anything

 

[Rodster]

Do you have some examples?

I have been looking but cannot find anything

I don't have my 7" KF as I returned it for the 8.9" version but yeah there are some killer apps just for the KF.

One you might be interested in is the BBC app. Simply awesome !

Off the top of my head ABC News, CNN, USA Today are all great. WebMD has a beautiful app. As you can tell i'm a news junkie. There game apps specific to the KF. I can post those once I get my 8.9 HD from Amazon.

 

[nickftw8686]

yahoo sports fantasy football, direct tv, direct tv remote, file transfer software, file manager hd i believe, i dont know if it has changed but i think fox news app was not there or was bad, the facebook app on the old kindle fire just took you to the mobile browser, not sure if that has changed. Skydrive as well was not there when i had mine and xbox smartglass.

But this might of changed since I used the fire, I haven't used it in months, since i gave it to my fiance.

 

[paulsalter]

I don't have my 7" KF as I returned it for the 8.9" version but yeah there are some killer apps just for the KF.

One you might be interested in is the BBC app. Simply awesome !

Off the top of my head ABC News, CNN, USA Today are all great. WebMD has a beautiful app. As you can tell i'm a news junkie. There game apps specific to the KF. I can post those once I get my 8.9 HD from Amazon.

yahoo sports fantasy football, direct tv, direct tv remote, file transfer software, file manager hd i believe, i dont know if it has changed but i think fox news app was not there or was bad, the facebook app on the old kindle fire just took you to the mobile browser, not sure if that has changed. Skydrive as well was not there when i had mine and xbox smartglass.

But this might of changed since I used the fire, I haven't used it in months, since i gave it to my fiance.

not sure if we are talking about the same thing

I can see all these apps on Google Play (not tried them so don't know about quality of them)

 

[nickftw8686]

not sure if we are talking about the same thing

I can see all these apps on Google Play (not tried them so don't know about quality of them)

Yeah i just did some searching on the amazon app store and it looks like in the last month or so they have released most of the ones i brought up, I dont know if they are good or not but its nice to see the apps are growing for the device. I know when I had the first kindle fire the app's were few and far between. However it would be nice if the google play store and amazon store combined. One big giant android store for all android based tablets vs the apple store lol.

 

[paulsalter]

Yeah i just did some searching on the amazon app store and it looks like in the last month or so they have released most of the ones i brought up, I dont know if they are good or not but its nice to see the apps are growing for the device. I know when I had the first kindle fire the app's were few and far between. However it would be nice if the google play store and amazon store combined. One big giant android store for all android based tablets vs the apple store lol.

It's very good they are growing, competition between them

If I want a book, look at Amazon, Google and others and get from cheapest
If I want an app look at Amazon or Google and get the cheapest

I have found one that is KF exclusive (hopefully only short term), Lovefilm instant, a UK movies streaming service, similar to Netflix but better selection (for uk anyway)

 

[lianlua]

I find the Nexus 7 screen is much sharper due to the higher ppi, the quality and colors are very similar, both are IPS panels. You say you can notice a difference in the colours but not the resolution, the difference in resolution is HUGE!!

It's not huge unless you think that the step up from the iPad 2 to the iPad mini is huge, too. And the Nexus 7 has well-documented problems with its color and brightness--it was the big reason I went with the Kindle Fire HD at the time. It had, bar none, the best small tablet screen on the market.

 

[kenypowa]

I don't have a Mini, but I have a Nexus, and The device described in some of these posts sounds nothing like mine. No lags, gorgeous (slightly roo dim) screen, great apps, great size, and a joy to use. I am even considering selling my Ipad foe a Nexus 10 in a few weeks.

I tried the mini yesterday and while it's a solid product, it doesn't really justify the 65% ($130) premium over N7. I like N7's 16:10 screen aspect ratio much better than iPad mini. N7 feels better at hand, but that's a personal preference. Android apps, at least the popular ones, are on par as on iOS.

On the other hand, I still have my iPad. It's good to have best of both worlds.

 

[Vetvito]

I'm a avid Android user, and I love it. However I'm getting a Mini for my daughter and one for me. The apps are just better on IOS. I don't use many apps, but the apps I do use are shockingly better on IOS.

I had windows phone, but if it's not a news app; it just not there or absolutely poor.

Apps I use daily are Tapatalk, Banking, pocket, my Xbox live, NBA Game Time, and all of them are just better on IOS.

So it looks like Mini for me.