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iPad mini If you only had $300 to spend... Mini vs Nexus 7 (2013)
- Thread starter Kadin
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I bought an N7 last month to try out. I do like loading material outside of the iTunes environment. My big thing for these devices is I carry a lot of videos to watch during down time waiting for kids activities, doc appts, etc. The N7 is horrible at this. Where the iPad has a rather elegant video screen with episode names, a crisp thumbnail of the vid and whether it has been watched or not. The N7 puts a tile set of muddy thumbnails up. You don't even see the names of the movies or TV episode names. Awful.
I'm sure there is "an app for that", but the iPad kicks the N7 in the a** when it comes to this category. Which for me, is important.
I'm sure there is "an app for that", but the iPad kicks the N7 in the a** when it comes to this category. Which for me, is important.
Internaut
macrumors 65816
I have the first generation of both. If forced to choose, I'd take the Mini. The overall experience of using the device is more polished, and the range of iPad specific apps is still an advantage over Google's system.
If the person they're giving the gift to has never owned a phone or tablet with a high pixel density, then they probably won't care. When my brother bought the iPad mini, he thought the screen looked good only until he got an iPhone 5 to compare it to.
Melodramatic much?
To the OP:
I would highly recommend the iPad mini for the following reasons:
- Battery life - Nothing comes close to the battery life (in usage and/or standby) than the iPad. I'm not talking spec sheet, but real-life actual usage. Not having to worry to charge it daily is nice.
- Apps - It's not just the number of apps, but it is the quality of those apps. Tablets/phones are highly personal. We each work and think differently so it is nice to have a selection of good quality apps to choose from.
- Accessories - Similar to apps, there are many good quality accessories for the iPad.
Go to Best Buy and play with both or just buy them. And you probably can get a preowned in basically new condition of each for cheaper as well. Decide for themselves is always the best option. 16:10 aspect ratio on a 7" tablet just hasn't really done if for me. I own both and use the Mini more.
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If its someone whos never owned either.....definitely the iPad.
For the average user, having a stable, fast, and solid device with great customer support will definitely outweigh better specs and higher customization. iCloud is genius for bringing data to other devices, while you have to root the nexus and use titanium backup or something to even do that.
Android's appeal lies in the customization. After going through two very high end android devices (xperia tablet z and nexus 10) and having nothing but random restarts, memory leaks, and lag lag lag, Im done with it. Custom homescreen launchers and more freedom with many things like adblock was nice, but not at the expense of stability and support.
For the average user, having a stable, fast, and solid device with great customer support will definitely outweigh better specs and higher customization. iCloud is genius for bringing data to other devices, while you have to root the nexus and use titanium backup or something to even do that.
Android's appeal lies in the customization. After going through two very high end android devices (xperia tablet z and nexus 10) and having nothing but random restarts, memory leaks, and lag lag lag, Im done with it. Custom homescreen launchers and more freedom with many things like adblock was nice, but not at the expense of stability and support.
I wouldn't spend money on an ageing hardware - numerous people have said the mini struggles with ios7 the screen is terrible when compared to retina screens and other tablets of a similar value.
Although if the OP expected an objective opinion in an apple forum it was never going to come. Keep drinking the kool-aid guys.
Hmm, I just realised I don't know what the default Android video player looks like. I've always just used MX Player. Video playback is actually one of those thing where I prefer Android (with microSD card so Nexus is out) to iOS. Most of the content I watch is 16:9 so there's less letterboxing on Android tablets (commonly 16:10) or less distortion if I use fit to screen.
Overall though, iOS is just the more user friendly of the two.
Rather than accuse us of "drinking the kook-aid" why not address the three points I raised? Then all of us could benefit from your vast treasure of wisdom.
Better things to do tbh, enjoy the old mini, especially when you need to replace it again soon.
I have both and if I didn't do android app development I would not use the Nexus 7.
Just because it's speced doesn't mean it's useful. A fast tablet that can't do anything is still useless.
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The only thing my mini struggles with is ram. It does have to reload a lot of apps that were recently put in the background. But the Nexus 7 has unresponsive screen, freezing when doing basic tasks (using a DOM Parser to parse an XML of 1800 bytes gets it lagging >_>), and many other things others have mentioned.
Try again.
I'm typing this on a Mini (64GB), and the screen is anything but terrible. 
The idea that it uses old tech is moot, as iOS 7 runs just fine on mine. I have an Android phone, but Android tablets are lacking for the reasons already stated, and more. 16:9 on a 7" tablet is torture, and the Mini's display is 30% larger. That means less scrolling back and forth when looking at webpages. I have a 7" Android tablet, and couldn't stand it once I bought a Mini. A 16GB Mini is short on storage space, but that can be overcome by choosing which music and videos you really need, and using smaller file size videos. Streaming Netflix doesn't require additional storage, but will require a wifi network.
iOS 7 will be the iPad/iPhone OS for the next full year. It will still be available for use for at least a year beyond that. Google is having problems with the Nexus 7's touch response, and people are hoping that Android 4.4 will fix it. Hoping doesn't get you much, so I'd say the Mini is a safe bet.
The idea that it uses old tech is moot, as iOS 7 runs just fine on mine. I have an Android phone, but Android tablets are lacking for the reasons already stated, and more. 16:9 on a 7" tablet is torture, and the Mini's display is 30% larger. That means less scrolling back and forth when looking at webpages. I have a 7" Android tablet, and couldn't stand it once I bought a Mini. A 16GB Mini is short on storage space, but that can be overcome by choosing which music and videos you really need, and using smaller file size videos. Streaming Netflix doesn't require additional storage, but will require a wifi network.iOS 7 will be the iPad/iPhone OS for the next full year. It will still be available for use for at least a year beyond that. Google is having problems with the Nexus 7's touch response, and people are hoping that Android 4.4 will fix it. Hoping doesn't get you much, so I'd say the Mini is a safe bet.
I bought a Nexus after being disappointed at the original price $329 and very modest specs announced at the iPad Mini.
I gave it a few months and really wanted to love it. Some things were great. I absolutely loved the durability of it - the gorilla glass and rubber back made it a rugged device on business trips. I could toss it into a laptop bag or suitcase and not think twice about it. The 16:9 aspect was great for watching movies.
And it wasn't nearly as 'walled in' to the Apple ecosystem as I thought. I was able to easily move my music over. Most of the apps I use were available on the Google Play store. Like most people, the number of apps I use on a regular basis is a lot smaller than what I own. The cost of repurchasing 'must have' apps was less than $25.
But ultimately I got frustrated with the Nexus 7 as a tablet. The touchpoint on the screen was frustratingly inaccurate. I downloaded multiple keyboards...but none were as accurate as the iPhone keyboard I was used to. Although many apps were the same, many of them were not optimized for a tablet.
I finally gave in, sold the Nexus (which had lower residual value than Apple) and bought a Mini. Didn't regret it for a minute. It's just a better device all the way around.
All this was based on the original Nexus 7 and the iPad Mini. I don't know if the updated Nexus fixed a few of the frustrations with the original...
I gave it a few months and really wanted to love it. Some things were great. I absolutely loved the durability of it - the gorilla glass and rubber back made it a rugged device on business trips. I could toss it into a laptop bag or suitcase and not think twice about it. The 16:9 aspect was great for watching movies.
And it wasn't nearly as 'walled in' to the Apple ecosystem as I thought. I was able to easily move my music over. Most of the apps I use were available on the Google Play store. Like most people, the number of apps I use on a regular basis is a lot smaller than what I own. The cost of repurchasing 'must have' apps was less than $25.
But ultimately I got frustrated with the Nexus 7 as a tablet. The touchpoint on the screen was frustratingly inaccurate. I downloaded multiple keyboards...but none were as accurate as the iPhone keyboard I was used to. Although many apps were the same, many of them were not optimized for a tablet.
I finally gave in, sold the Nexus (which had lower residual value than Apple) and bought a Mini. Didn't regret it for a minute. It's just a better device all the way around.
All this was based on the original Nexus 7 and the iPad Mini. I don't know if the updated Nexus fixed a few of the frustrations with the original...
Are you the kind of person who gets mad when there's no bacon cheeseburger on the menu at a Michelin star French restaurant?
Are you the kind of person who goes to the Republican National Convention and wonders why no one wants your Vote Democrat bumper stickers?
Of course not? Silly, right?
Then why on earth would you log onto a site called MACrumors and expect to encounter anything less than full blown Apple fans?
This isn't ikindalikemacsbutanycomputerwilldo.com. It's not letsdiscussthemeritsofandroid.com. It's MACrumors.com.
If anyone is drinking the kool-aid, it's those delusional enough to think that their tired cliched references to drinking the kool-aid are the slightest bit clever, remotely original, or could possibly have any impact whatsoever on the macrumors community, besides the chuckling and head shaking.
I too bought a Nexus 7 just to mess around with Android. It was the 2012 model. And i just didn't like it. the touch screen was laggy at times, multi tasking would often cause it to freeze, it was a more frustrating than enjoyment. i sold it after 3 months and am excited to be getting one of the new ipads
The thing with Android devices is many of them have better specs than the iPad, but they still don't come close to performing as smoothly as an iPad. Ultimately it doesn't feel like the device you're holding has 2-4x more RAM than your old iOS device, more processing horsepower, etc. That's why the smart choice is always to buy the iPad and ignore the specs battle.
Not much no. Does web surfing badly (rendering, scrolling, etc), app are low or bad quality (uninstalled fb because it plainly sucked, only decent apps I've found are Google made and I have been trying to distance myself from that company so they're useless to me) Google now is fast, yes, but stupid AF, ported over games not as good. Don't like swipe so horrid keyboard. Need I go on?
I only have about 6 apps that I would use (if I indeed used my tablet) and that's about it. I can't do everything I can do with my mini.
Of course this is all opinion.
I love kool aid. It provides me with a wonderful experience and thats all I can ask for.
This is unfair to the nexus. One of the reasons for choosing a nexus is that you don't have to use the stock apps. Then people tout Apple's great app ecosystem and then don't even attempt to find a good video player. It is also dependent on how you had the videos formatted.