Retina iPad Mini's Display Criticized Over Poor Color Gamut and Accuracy

[Nightarchaon]

I use it about 2 feet away as well, and I can tell the difference plain as day between the two. There's just no comparison. Good news for you is that if you can't see a difference you have no reason to shell out money for an upgrade! The color gamut sucks on both, anyway, so you wouldn't be gaining much.

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Just because something is better than all of the other awful choices doesn't make it great.

Good point at both, i see no need to upgrade, and TBH my next "tablet" will probably be a Surface Pro 2 because i still need a full "PC" for work, and can continue to carry my iPad mini with me for ad-hoc stuff

 

[peterdevries]

Its not lost on people. Clearly its not the same. The objective data shows that.

You are misinterpreting his post. He was responding to my comment on screen real estate.

 

[AdonisSMU]

On the contrary, when compared side by side, I found that my iPhone 5's display looked much more yellow than the Retina mini, and I was disappointed with my iPhone's display, not the iPad's.

Thats because mini doesnt have the gamut to support accurate color like the flagship iPhone and iPad have,

 

[brdeveloper]

I think I'm too old to buying a tablet. A 15" rMBP looks a way more interesting piece of hardware to me. No need for an interactive TV (actually it's what a tablet means).

 

[MrXiro]

here's a guy who has no idea what he's talking about:

Why? Because his views don't match with yours?

He likes more color and though image retention is actually a non-issue in LCDs (it goes away in 5 min on a LCD and it only happens under extreme circumstances and not regular use) it still does affect the iPad Mini...

 

[ahlsn]

They're the same idiots who said "OMG my Air has a yellow screen!!!!!!!" Now the "color gamut" is the more important issue.

It's not that it's more important. It's both issues that affects the product quality. For a premium product I don't accept any of these issues. Also for me it's not only because someone mention this for me but I notice it very well my self.

 

[comatose81]

MacRumors reminds me of the Pee Wee's Playhouse episode where "color gamut" was the secret word of the day.

 

[SPUY767]

Damn you people are so ANNOYING!!! Shut up already and stop your whining. The RiPad Mini is fine. People are way too picky!!!

Yup, something that 99.999999999% of customers will never notice is picked on because every Apple product must have a flaw for the tech media to exploit for clicks. I declare this gamut-gate 2013!

 

[MrXiro]

After reading this article, I returned my 128GB iPad Air Wifi + AT&T LTE for a 16GB iPad mini with Retina Display Wifi only. Made the decision pretty easy for me!

That doesn't even make any sense... did you not know what you were buying in the first place or is this post sarcasm?

 

[SPUY767]

Good point at both, i see no need to upgrade, and TBH my next "tablet" will probably be a Surface Pro 2 because i still need a full "PC" for work, and can continue to carry my iPad mini with me for ad-hoc stuff

Having been given a surface by my employer, it's clumsy for the things that a tablet should be good at, and slow for the things that a laptop should be good at. It literally is the worst of both worlds.

 

[rayccorpuz]

Gonna get the iPad Air then

 

[mcdj]

Damn you people are so ANNOYING!!! Shut up already and stop your whining. The RiPad Mini is fine. People are way too picky!!!

ORLY?

So which is it buddy? We're annoying and picky, or YOU are?

I believe the word BUSTED applies quite nicely here.

 

[ChrisNH]

The will be on the Refurb site real quick now

I am guessing that this kerfuffle will cause the Retina iPad Mini to show up on the Refurb site a whole lot quicker than one might assume. And I suppose with some dollars knocked off the 'gamut' issue will be mitigated somewhat.

 

[comatose81]

That doesn't even make any sense... did you not know what you were buying in the first place or is this post sarcasm?

I read this article and changed my mind based on it. What doesn't make sense about that?

 

[MacDarcy]

Haven't gone down to an Apple Store and checked em out in person yet. But even before this possible screen color issue, I was pretty much not going to upgrade right now. My original iPad Mini is barely 8 months old, and I love it.

Won't buy a new one until I really need to. The Ipad Air looks cool, but I much prefer the size & portability of the mini.

 

[mcdj]

Gizmodo chimes in and agrees.

http://gizmodo.com/the-best-small-tablet-display-hint-its-not-the-ipad-1466653088

Ultimately, we're talking a noticeable, but not deal breaking difference. Apple knows this, and saved themselves a cool few million by squeezing out another year from old technology. This means they can spend that money R&D'ing next years iPads, which will have by then, caught up to this year's tech. They do the same thing every year...sell us slightly aging tech in a sleek package.

This is why Apple is smart, and profitable and successful, for now. Other companies have to pack their devices to the gills with specs specs specs, because they are missing the biggest spec of all...desirability. Apple has that in spades.

On geeky tech sites, Apple gets lambasted for continually under spec'd offerings. But in the Targets/Walmarts/Best Buys of the world, the shelves are empty. You do the math.

 

[catalyst6]

I think people also need to keep in mind the Mini's price was jacked up $70 to account for this new retina display. It's retina, but just not as nice as the others. I think that is frustrating.

Since Apple hasn't played the whole "let's disclose specs and technical figures" marketing game to their customers, is it any surprise people are surprised that a Retina Display on one device isn't the same as a Retina Display on another?

 

[bidwalj]

I own the device and the air. Put it this way, if you didn't read this you wouldn't be able to tell. Is the screen as vibrant as the air? No but it's not a step down either. In daily use you can't even tell.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Nothing new. Apple downgrades things in smaller products of a line from time to time to keep costs low. A good example is the 20" 2007 Aluminum iMac which used a crappy TN panel, a downgrade from the S-IPS panel in 20" 2006 white iMac (in contrast to IPS panel still used in the 24" iMac). They naturally chose downgrade the iPad mini rather than the iPad Air.

 

[bobr1952]

Definitely something to check in a side by side comparison at the Apple Store. I am leaning towards the Air anyway, but I certainly want to see for myself if my old eyes can really see a color difference.

 

[macguru212]

who is running apple these days?

Apparently not the tyrant we need.

 

[jreuschl]

It wouldn't be a big deal to me but Apple's justification for not producing a larger iPhone is becausethey feel the larger displays do not measure up in quality including white balance.

So now that doesn't matter?

 

[erthquake]

Where is the standard iPad in this diagram?

http://www.displaymate.com/Gamut_16.html

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Is this caring, or being insanely paranoid?

It's still a good-looking screen, but it's not pushing the state of the art like competitors are, and not as good as the screen on the larger sized model. That's a shame because they went to great lengths to differentiate the mini and Air by screen size and price alone this time around.

Although, I have to say, Anandtech needs to test more than one example. There are multiple suppliers and screens vary wildly even from the same supplier.

 

[Brian Y]

Is anyone *really* that bothered about colours on their iPad?

I went from an iPad -> iPad mini - and the portability, plus the extra sharpness of the screen compared to the larger retinas is worth any trade off in colour. To be perfectly honest, until it was pointed out, I hadn't noticed - it can't be that big a deal then.