iPad mini If ipad mini 2 is not retina, I won't be bothering with Apple any longer...

[Anti-Lucifer]

I went to pick up some ink at office Depot today, and I got a chance to play around with the new Nexus 7. That screen - gorgeous. If the iPad mini fails to have a Retina screen, I will be disappointed. The thought actually crossed my mind to pick one up. I especially liked it's longer form factor- if felt great to use in landscape. I ultimately decided not to buy the N7, hoping Apple would bring a Retina screen to the mini. If they don't, I probably still won't get the N7 because of the lack of tablet specific apps, but I'll surely miss that display!

If i were you I would not do that. I purchased a N7.2 a few months ago and after about a couple weeks of extensive use, I still chose to return it.

Cons/Deal breakers for me:
* Screen aspect ratio is terrible for web pages.
* touch response at the time was not as accurate compared to an iPad 2!
* GPS problems (at the time, fixed now)
* lack of polished apps, terrible selection
* battery life was ok at best, nothing too bad, but not as good as an iPad mini
* Browser speed even with compression on, still slower than an iPad 4 with iOS 7 - just not optimized even with QUAD CORE proc!
* PDF viewing is terrible; it's SLOOOOW on rendering the PDF pages. Definitely a deal breaker for me.

Pros:
* an android device that has zero to no lag!
* astonishingly great screen resolution and color quality!
* great aspect ration for 16:9 movies even 16:10 screen AR; youtube is awesome
* thinner than an iPad mini
* android 4.3: just a wonderful and powerful computing platform
* VPN that STAYS connected!
* wonderful keyboard and touch screen editing vs crappy apple's keyboard
* the multitasking is wonderful with a single button press/swipe
* the build quality is some kind of rubbery grip on the back, it's not as premium as aluminum but the PRICE is what is so good about it!

At the end of the weeks, i just didn't like the device for web browsing and PDF browsing which I intend to use the device for. I still went back to my ipad 4 and man, the browser is so much faster and funny thing is it's faster even without google's compression enabled.

Overall, the new iPad 5/ipad mini 2 will just smoke the nexus 7. Sure it's more expensive but you're gonna be getting way better performance. Even my iPhone 5 browser on iOS 7 smokes the nexus 7.2

Apple really does know how to optimize their performance on these tablets. The sheer amount of quality TABLET apps is just astonishing vs any android/windows tablet. That is the ultimate deal breaker really, there are just not enough good apps on android tablets.

 

[Fanaticalism]

Hate to burst your Gradual comment, but here are a few of the iphone 5s changes that are not gradual...

1. FingerPrint Sensor

2. Much better camera with dual flash and a larger sensor. 15 percent larger sensor. Wider ƒ/2.2 aperture. True Tone flash. Burst mode and slo-mo video.

3. All-new A7, and M7 chips. The new 64-bit A7 chip delivers up to 2x faster CPU and graphics performance. And the new M7 motion coprocessor handles specific tasks to make iPhone 5s even more power efficient.

4. Ultrafast LTE wireless. iPhone 5s supports more LTE bands.

5. Gradual comes with the newest color, and that is all that is gradual

You kind of proved Corey Gibson's point. Points 3-5 are exactly what you'd expect for an annual update. It's an internal spec bump with a fingerprint sensor, which is the only non-"gradual" update. The camera bump is very good, IMO, although it's pretty common for each year or two (the 5 didn't really get an improved camera).

I think Corey Gibson is right... Apple plans many of their features, price points, releases, etc... far in advance. They are more concerned about profit than anything else, remember?

Back on topic... I agree with OP that the Mini should have a retina/high resolution display. I could see them dropping the 1st gen to $279 and making the retina $349, or something along those lines.

Fact is, there are cheaper tablets that are well rated and have both higher resolution screens and more storage. I hope there is a well executed retina Mini to be released soon.

Hehe, you beat me to it. What are gradual upgrades in terms of real world usage, many see as astounding upgrades due to the kool-aid, I'm sorry Keynote.

For me, a retina display, upgrade from A5 to A7x and improved battery life would be examples of improved and worthy upgrades. I've kept both iPad minis on iOS6 due to instability and lag. There is also a difference in how many applications run on the dated hardware.

----------

The sheer amount of quality TABLET apps is just astonishing vs any android/windows tablet. That is the ultimate deal breaker really, there are just not enough good apps on android tablets.

That was it for me too, couple with the fact that a tablet for me is primarily media consumption for traveling. I ended up exchanging it for a Note 8 due to the expandable storage, but my son dropped it getting out of the car and ended up using the accidental replacement program to get another ipad mini so my kids would both have the same tablet and quit their bickering about which game they wanted to play.

No clue what I am going to do for my personal tablet, as expandable memory and transferring of data are key for me, which an SD card provides.

 

[Solomani]

I'd be all in for a Space Gray, iPad Mini 2, 32gb, $349...Apple make it happen!

Yes, I could go for that. And screw the idea of a 16gb model, too small capacity for today's retina (HD) graphics apps.

 

[Cheffy Dave]

Well, I'm sure Apple MUST offer Retina now,its all but a given,so what is the purpose of the post, maybe you should leave NOW!

 

[Lindsford]

I hate the week before a major release. The crazies come out.

 

[macred]

I honestly thought, even without knowing much about the ipads, that the next logically step would be to introduce a retina ipad mini. It would be obvious progression.

Logical & obvious, are concepts that Apple tends to avoid in favor of maintaining their laser like focus on squeezing out every last dollar of profit.

All one has to do is read the high volume of posts in this forum that argue in favor of Apple, even at the authors own expense, and it becomes clear why Apple knows exactly how much it can get away with. Apples influence runs deep.



IE: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18146851/

 

[hologram]

Logical & obvious, are concepts that Apple tends to avoid in favor of maintaining their laser like focus on squeezing out every last dollar of profit.

You're wrong, of course. Apple also has to deal with the supply chain, availability of components, manufacturing capacity and time constraints. Believe it or not, those are "logical and obvious" reasons, to borrow your phrase.

But keep on complaining about a company wanting to make profits. Bad, nasty company wanting to make filthy money. Shame! They should take a lesson from Micrososft, Dell, Compaq, HP, and all those other companies who don't care about profits.

 

[rockyroad55]

Then again, retina didn't come to an ipad until the 3.

 

[FrankB1191]

I lost my much loved Mini a month or so ago, and bought another this past weekend. During that month, I used my Samsung 7" Tab 2, and its lower res display made web browsing extremely taxing on my eyes. It's smaller screen was as a real disappointment after owning a Mini for several months (not to mention an iPad 4 and rMBP). If the latest Mini gets a retina display, I'll return the one I bought. If not, no biggie. I kept iOS 6 on for a few days, and then installed iOS 7. Web browsing seems a bit slower, so an upgrade there might lead me to return this Mini for a faster version, but I don't care about colors or Touch ID.

Many companies give yearly gradual improvements (cars!), and it works well for Apple as a for-profit corporation. When people stop lining up a week ahead of a release, then things might change. That probably won't happen for a while, however.

 

[MacFriedRice]

No retina, no buy.

 

[cxc273]

It would be unusual for Apple to release a follow-up to the Mini without it being equipped with a Retina display, especially since: 1) all of Apple's other iOS devices are Retina-equipped; and 2) the vast majority of competing tablets have displays that are equivalent or superior from a pixel-density standpoint.

That being said, the current Mini is still a very capable device that a lot of people are very happy with, even though it's not Retina-equipped.

I passed on the Mini last year because of that reason, plus the fact that it was powered by the same chip inside the iPad 2. But that was a personal choice. Apple didn't make me buy the Mini, nor is it forcing folks to buy whatever's announced next week. If the updated Mini doesn't come with Retina, Touch ID, an A7 processor, or salad spinner, you don't have to buy it.

I don't believe there's a conspiracy on Apple's part to trickle out advancements to get people to ditch their old iPads and buy new ones. Is there a measure of planned obsolescence? Certainly. There will be faster processors, better chipsets, and so on, but it's not like Tim Cook is saying, "Let's hold Touch ID back until 2014 so we can get people to buy the iPad Mini 3."

Apple only adds features as part of the user experience. Most experts believe that the original Mini didn't come with Retina because Apple couldn't do it without compromising battery life and weight. The rumor mill seems to indicate that the upcoming Mini has largely solved that problem and that the Mini 2 will be a bit like iPad 3 in that it's a little bit thicker and heavier to accommodate the power-hungry Retina display.

I'm somewhat doubtful about Touch ID for the Mini. Though it's possible, I wonder: 1) Can Apple's suppliers manufacture enough of them not only for the iPhone 5s, but also for the Mini and/or iPad 5; and 2) Does Apple think Touch ID is crucial for the Mini? After all, the way a user holds and accesses an iPhone is very different (usually pulling out of pocket or purse with one hand) from how he/she uses an iPad (Mini or full sized).

I also wonder if Apple plans to re-align the Mini the way that it's done with the iPhone 5s and 5c, with the Mini being a less expensive option while the flagship iPad gets all the bells and whistles.

In any case, I do plan on selling off my iPad 3 and most likely go for the Mini 2. But I'll make my decision based on whatever's announced on Tuesday.

 

[loybond]

I really do prefer a 4:3 radio myself for tablets, and I wish the screen were bigger or at least the same size as the iPad mini, but I wouldn't say it's terrible for browsing.

The screen is small to the point that I think tablet optimized apps aren't that important on the nexus 7. Polish... This issue is mostly gone in my opinion now, I don't find there to be a massive difference like there one was.

Battery life is actually great, I can't see why you'd call it OK at best. If you want to see bad bad battery life check out a note 8!

Browsers can always be faster but I think chrome is acceptable on the new nexus 7. I love how android apps can tie in to other apps (eg share a link to Skype From chrome).

I'm gonna completely disagree with you on the PDF viewing. I thought the nexus didn't handle these week until I tried a side by did comparison with my iPad... The nexus is way, way faster at dealing with 100MB+ PDF files, both because of CPU and RAM. In fact, I think this is one of the few places where you can see the multiple cores flexing muscle.

I really like this thing for the price but also plan on picking up a 10" iPad 5!

Cons/Deal breakers for me:
* Screen aspect ratio is terrible for web pages.
* touch response at the time was not as accurate compared to an iPad 2!
* GPS problems (at the time, fixed now)
* lack of polished apps, terrible selection
* battery life was ok at best, nothing too bad, but not as good as an iPad mini
* Browser speed even with compression on, still slower than an iPad 4 with iOS 7 - just not optimized even with QUAD CORE proc!
* PDF viewing is terrible; it's SLOOOOW on rendering the PDF pages. Definitely a deal breaker

 

[II BISTRO II]

guys dont you get it?? OP needs to see in HD now!! , RIGHT NOW!

 

[sonicrobby]

I've honestly been hyped for the mini 2, but to hear these rumors that they will yet again release a substandard 720p display in the year 2014 is truly disappointing. I don't care about a processor upgrade that has diminishing returns or a fingerprint scanner I can live without. They better not make this mistake.

Well they can make the iPad mini 2 with retina, you may have to wait for Spring of 2014 though. Willing to do that?

Apple will release a mini 2 because it just makes sense from a business standpoint, the demand of year old technology is not there, so they will release the next product whether or not they have an updated screen. If Apple hasnt found a decent screen to put in there, what would they put in?

You cant just say "I want this is the next product, otherwise I wont buy any of your products over again." It sounds petty. Working on a design team is difficult, and making products, screens in this case, that are new and custom is a challenge. I would prefer Apple take their time to do a retina screen the right way than use those low quality screens that other companies use on their products.

Either way reports are mixed. They are doing their best to release retina this time around, but if they cant do it in the time frame they were given, then you'd have to wait 6 months. Just wait 4 more days and find out.

 

[blackhand1001]

If i were you I would not do that. I purchased a N7.2 a few months ago and after about a couple weeks of extensive use, I still chose to return it.

Cons/Deal breakers for me:
* Screen aspect ratio is terrible for web pages.
* touch response at the time was not as accurate compared to an iPad 2!
* GPS problems (at the time, fixed now)
* lack of polished apps, terrible selection
* battery life was ok at best, nothing too bad, but not as good as an iPad mini
* Browser speed even with compression on, still slower than an iPad 4 with iOS 7 - just not optimized even with QUAD CORE proc!
* PDF viewing is terrible; it's SLOOOOW on rendering the PDF pages. Definitely a deal breaker for me.

Pros:
* an android device that has zero to no lag!
* astonishingly great screen resolution and color quality!
* great aspect ration for 16:9 movies even 16:10 screen AR; youtube is awesome
* thinner than an iPad mini
* android 4.3: just a wonderful and powerful computing platform
* VPN that STAYS connected!
* wonderful keyboard and touch screen editing vs crappy apple's keyboard
* the multitasking is wonderful with a single button press/swipe
* the build quality is some kind of rubbery grip on the back, it's not as premium as aluminum but the PRICE is what is so good about it!

At the end of the weeks, i just didn't like the device for web browsing and PDF browsing which I intend to use the device for. I still went back to my ipad 4 and man, the browser is so much faster and funny thing is it's faster even without google's compression enabled.

Overall, the new iPad 5/ipad mini 2 will just smoke the nexus 7. Sure it's more expensive but you're gonna be getting way better performance. Even my iPhone 5 browser on iOS 7 smokes the nexus 7.2

Apple really does know how to optimize their performance on these tablets. The sheer amount of quality TABLET apps is just astonishing vs any android/windows tablet. That is the ultimate deal breaker really, there are just not enough good apps on android tablets.

Enabling force gpu rendering in developer options makes pdf rendering butter smooth and fast. I am not sure why adobe hasn't turned it on in their app. Its a single line in the code. I always turn force gpu rendering since it makes apps that don't use it by default run better. The touch response was fixed in the latest updates and the updates to chrome since release have made scrolling and page loading much better as well.

 

[joshdammit]

Hate to burst your Gradual comment, but here are a few of the iphone 5s changes that are not gradual...

1. FingerPrint Sensor

2. Much better camera with dual flash and a larger sensor. 15 percent larger sensor. Wider ƒ/2.2 aperture. True Tone flash. Burst mode and slo-mo video.

3. All-new A7, and M7 chips. The new 64-bit A7 chip delivers up to 2x faster CPU and graphics performance. And the new M7 motion coprocessor handles specific tasks to make iPhone 5s even more power efficient.

4. Ultrafast LTE wireless. iPhone 5s supports more LTE bands.

5. Gradual comes with the newest color, and that is all that is gradual

I love my iPhone 5s dearly, but it is very much a gradual update (although not as gradual as, say, the 4S or 3GS.) Please forgive me, because I'm going to be performing some very annoying devil's advocate routine here:

1. Fingerprint Sensor - Okay, this isn't exactly what I'd call gradual, either. It's an entirely new piece of technology for the iPhone. People see it as a gradual change overall because Touch ID doesn't really do much for the user experience after we've unlocked our phone and aren't buying any apps. This isn't a criticism, as Apple advertises it as technology that disappears when it's not needed. It's a smaller (albeit welcome!) feature that makes the iPhone a little bit better overall.

2. Camera - The 5s does not have a "much better camera." 15% larger sensor area is gradual. A slightly improved aperture is gradual. The True Tone flash, while a technological marvel in its own right, is only helpful in making dark shots a lot nicer. The megapixels have remained the same. And no, I'm not one of those dorks who think we need to pour megapixels into our new phones to constitute a "better" camera, but it's remained at 8 since... the 4S, I believe! The 5s's camera is definitely better, and all of the improvements you listed are welcome. But they are all smaller upgrades over last year's model's camera.

3. CPU - I personally agree with you that the A7 is not a gradual change, especially with the M7 added in. The benchmarks show that it's very much faster than previous iPhones, and the 64-bit feature helps future-proof the phone. The reason people see this as gradual as because, first of all, every iPhone has a new generation of ARM processors. The 4S had the A5, the 5 has the A6, and now we have the A7. My point is, a new CPU in the newest iPhone is pretty much a given; Apple could not go releasing a new iPhone without upgrading the processor (the 5C doesn't count for obvious reasons.) 64-bit isn't going to make a major difference in our experience at first (it's mostly a godsend for developers, as they update their apps to support it,) same with the M7. The end user, as of currently, aren't personally noticing the performance benefits of these chips, because the recent iPhones we've owned have all run pretty well in their own right. The new processor in each model just ensures that our phones won't run like crap in a year or two, when there's new software to download.

4. LTE - We already had Ultrafast LTE with the 5 (well, I didn't, because I had the 4S. And Sprint. ) More bands is great, but (if I'm not mistaken, and please correct me if I'm wrong) the biggest benefit of having more bands is if you're traveling a lot. This is very much an incremental upgrade.

5. Goooooooold! - Having a new color doesn't mean anything at all, other than there's a new color. It has no impact on the internal hardware or my experience with my phone at all.

Overall, I agree that when you put all of these changes together, you get a pretty decent new iPhone, which was the main reason I chose to upgrade now rather than wait another year for the 6. But they all are, for the most part, incremental upgrades. They just happen to be pretty awesome incremental upgrades (as far as I'm concerned.)

 

[candle]

I'm sure they'll do ok without you..

Probably true. But in general, an organization or company can still listen to their customer's without giving in to every request.