iPad mini iPad mini 7 display quality

[turbineseaplane]

I received mine today and I would rank the display as ok. Among the Apple devices I own, it's probably the worst, but it's on an acceptable level and, contrary to the screen of the Mini 6, it doesn't bother me too much.

Is it honestly "acceptable" though?
It feels like we are being soft on Apple, almost like they are our own kid or something

At the price point and for a "new/updated release" in 2024, basically 2025, I think it's offensive honestly

These should have WAY better screens than they do
Apple is just screwing people on these in my opinion

We all love the form factor, which I think heavily biases us to really want to like it ... but it's objectively pretty darned disappointing (the screen, not the other specs of it)

 

[schneeland]

Is it honestly "acceptable" though?
It feels like we are being soft on Apple, almost like they are our own kid or something

At the price point and for a "new/updated release" in 2024, basically 2025, I think it's offensive honestly
...

I don't disagree with you. Compared to my previous Mini 5, value for money is worse on the Mini 7 (same on the Mini 6 IMO). The only problem is: I'm a big fan of the iPad Mini - I probably use it nearly as much as my phone - and my Mini 5 was starting to show its age. And since Apple is now updating the Mini only every 2 or 3 years, I pulled the trigger on the Mini 7 (it helped that I got it for 520€ instead of the regular 600€). I certainly wish more excitement and less teeth-grinding was involved, though.

 

[rui no onna]

Is it honestly "acceptable" though?
It feels like we are being soft on Apple, almost like they are our own kid or something

At the price point and for a "new/updated release" in 2024, basically 2025, I think it's offensive honestly

These should have WAY better screens than they do
Apple is just screwing people on these in my opinion

OLED gives me migraines so I'm happy they used LCD on the Mini 7 (probably for the last time).

I haven't really noticed any difference between the Mini 6 and my other LCD-based iPads. I've never really noticed the jelly scrolling.

 

[Saturn1217]

I was worried about this too before getting mine but it has been largely a non-issue. Colors and contrast have been fine. Looks like any modern Apple display in that regard.

It could be a little brighter. In doors it is fine but even on an overcast day max brightness is just enough for reading black text on a white background comfortably. I imagine use in bright sun this tablet is unusable but I haven’t tried it myself yet.

Bottom line if you don’t care about jelly scroll or 60Hz or reading outside this display is good. Not great but pretty good.

 

[youchew]

Just went and saw these in the Apple Store and they are as mediocre as I was expecting

Something about the text is not very sharp for some reason too

It’s also a massive mistake to ever go over to the iPad Pro because it absolutely ruins any hope of ever enjoying the mini once you see that iPad Pro screen.

Ugh

I wish Apple would at least give us a paid option for an oled mini

I downgraded to a mini from a Pro, to me nothing beats the comfort of a mini even if the screen isn't at the same level; my Pro ended up collecting dust from how cumbersome I found it to be, so ymmv

 

[Fraserpatty]

Aside from jelly scrolling, which i never notice, how has your experience been with the ipad mini 7 display?

Every YouTube video I've seen, the ipad mini 7 display looks so dull, yellow tinted and so dim and unattractive. Curious how your experience has been with the ipad mini 7 display quality as I'm considering buying it.

Thanks!

The iPad mini seven siri just told me that she can’t read out announcements unless I have compatible earphones. My iPad Pro Siri does read out announcements, is there something that I am doing wrong? Why would the iPad mini not be able to read it out loud? I frequently turn my iPad off so that I can get my announcements while I’m doing something else. It is on iPadOS 18.1..

 

[bobval]

I've been using it for ten days, the display is excellent, with good contrast and colors.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I received mine today and I would rank the display as ok. Among the Apple devices I own, it's probably the worst, but it's on an acceptable level and, contrary to the screen of the Mini 6, it doesn't bother me too much.

I just scored a new Mini for $315 so I can live with that. The screen on my M2 iPad Air looks decent so I will compare them.

 

[thatJohann]

I bought and returned mine, the display is too dated.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I don’t understand how people aren’t noticing how much less sharp text is on the mini, especially if you zoom in on any text

when scales it is not sharp

 

[rui no onna]

I don’t understand how people aren’t noticing how much less sharp text is on the mini, especially if you zoom in on any text

when scales it is not sharp

Maybe what you're noticing is the lower contrast compared to OLED?

All my devices are LCD/Mini-LED and the mini looks sharp enough to me: iPhone SE 2022, iPad mini 6, M1 11" iPad Pro, M1 12.9" iPad Pro. The mini actually looks sharper (less jaggies) compared to the bigger iPads when viewing at a close distance.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Concerning the sharpness, it is odd since the Mini has always had the PPI advantage over the Pro’s presumably due to the smaller size. If anything the Mini should be much sharper but panel quality will make or break that.

 

[goodthymes]

Maybe what you're noticing is the lower contrast compared to OLED?

All my devices are LCD/Mini-LED and the mini looks sharp enough to me: iPhone SE 2022, iPad mini 6, M1 11" iPad Pro, M1 12.9" iPad Pro. The mini actually looks sharper (less jaggies) compared to the bigger iPads when viewing at a close distance.

I think this is exactly it. Reading his comment I got curious and pulled out my M4 pro and compared side by side with my Mini, using same webpage with dark text and white background with approximately same brightness level, zoomed in and took various photos so I can zoom further in. The text are not any less sharp, just the lower contrast becomes more apparent. But I do all my readings with white text with darkmode so I dunno 🤷‍♂️.

 

[G5isAlive]

I don’t understand how people aren’t noticing how much less sharp text is on the mini, especially if you zoom in on any text

when scales it is not sharp

no clue how far you zoom when you zoom in... you tend to look for problems, I tend to just use (and appreciate) the things. I read on my iPad mini at least 3 hours a day and find it perfectly sharp at any normal size level. I don't plan to zoom in so a letter fills the screen looking for a problem.

 

[jdb8167]

no clue how far you zoom when you zoom in... you tend to look for problems, I tend to just use (and appreciate) the things. I read on my iPad mini at least 3 hours a day and find it perfectly sharp at any normal size level. I don't plan to zoom in so a letter fills the screen looking for a problem.

Zooming in doesn’t affect the sharpness anyway unless you are looking at something like a PNG.

 

[G5isAlive]

Zooming in doesn’t affect the sharpness anyway unless you are looking at something like a PNG.

I agree with you was replying to someone saying text was not clear especially when zooming in lol

 

[Pbwallstreet]

Is it honestly "acceptable" though?
It feels like we are being soft on Apple, almost like they are our own kid or something

At the price point and for a "new/updated release" in 2024, basically 2025, I think it's offensive honestly

These should have WAY better screens than they do
Apple is just screwing people on these in my opinion

We all love the form factor, which I think heavily biases us to really want to like it ... but it's objectively pretty darned disappointing (the screen, not the other specs of it)

Tim Cook. You see all of these variations of products. The exact confusing mess that Steve Jobs put a stop to and cleaned up when he first came back to Apple. Apple needs to reduce its product assortment and go back to the Jobs mantra: just build the best product we know how. All of Apple's mobile devices should have 120 hz refresh rates at this point. Dump the stupid Pro label. Have one iPad model and offer it in 3 sizes: Max (13"), Regular (11"), and Mini (8.3"). Then sell more of just these 3 and get the prices down from economies of scale.

With Tim Cook, it's just a crapshow.

 

[Pbwallstreet]

Concerning the sharpness, it is odd since the Mini has always had the PPI advantage over the Pro’s presumably due to the smaller size. If anything the Mini should be much sharper but panel quality will make or break that.

I had the Mini 6. I sort of saw this lack of text sharpness too. One explanation may be the type of panel they use and problems with anti-aliasing in iPad OS.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I had the Mini 6. I sort of saw this lack of text sharpness too. One explanation may be the type of panel they use and problems with anti-aliasing in iPad OS.

I think the AA comment might be what I was seeing

Just looking at it, sharpness was ok on the Mini7, but when I zoomed in at all (the double tap on a block of text for example) when it rendered that, the sharpness was very visibly worse on the text.

 

[Pbwallstreet]

I tested the iPad Mini 7 today in store. I think I could live with the 60 hz refresh rate. I wish it was 120, but the screen quality is good. After testing it out, I feel like I would use it more than my 13” M4 iPad Pro.

I think the iPad Mini 7 is the best iPad.

 

[Radeon85]

I downgraded to a mini from a Pro, to me nothing beats the comfort of a mini even if the screen isn't at the same level; my Pro ended up collecting dust from how cumbersome I found it to be, so ymmv

I ended up doing that as well.

I really like the mini overall, I swapped from an iPad Pro 12.9 M1 2TB to the Mini A17 Pro 512GB because I just wanted a smaller tablet mainly and the larger iPad just wasn't getting much use lately. The last time I had a Mini was when the iPad Mini 3 came out, so it's been a very long time. I love the smaller size and compared to the larger one, and it pretty much weighs nothing in comparison, so it's much more comfortable to hold.

I really do miss the better quality screen, dropping from 120hz to 60hz is extremely noticeable to me, literally a night and day difference and I really miss Face ID, I haven't used Touch ID in many years, not since the iPhone X came out so it's really annoying to go back to that again. Why the hell have they not added Face ID to it by now is a really a mystery.

The Apple Pencil compatibility annoyed me as I had to spend £129 just to replace a perfectly working pencil, so that's money down the drain for no reason and I though Apple wanted to be environmentally friendly, guess not. Will say though that the new features on Pro one are pretty cool, but it would have been nice to use my previous one, ended up making the squeeze gesture a shortcut back to the home screen, and it works great. I just wish Apple made a Mini Pro that has all the features of the larger tablet but sticks to using the best iPhone chip at the time if they can't make an M CPU work due to power usage and heat, I bet that thing would sell amazingly well.

Overall though I'm extremely happy with the iPad Mini 7 as it's lightweight, still fast as it's pretty damn close to the M1 CPU and far more portable, screen quality is OK, nowhere near the mini LED or OLED, but it's fine. I'll definitely be using this one more.

 

[Pbwallstreet]

I ended up doing that as well.

I really like the mini overall, I swapped from an iPad Pro 12.9 M1 2TB to the Mini A17 Pro 512GB because I just wanted a smaller tablet mainly and the larger iPad just wasn't getting much use lately. The last time I had a Mini was when the iPad Mini 3 came out, so it's been a very long time. I love the smaller size and compared to the larger one, and it pretty much weighs nothing in comparison, so it's much more comfortable to hold.

I really do miss the better quality screen, dropping from 120hz to 60hz is extremely noticeable to me, literally a night and day difference and I really miss Face ID, I haven't used Touch ID in many years, not since the iPhone X came out so it's really annoying to go back to that again. Why the hell have they not added Face ID to it by now is a really a mystery.

The Apple Pencil compatibility annoyed me as I had to spend £129 just to replace a perfectly working pencil, so that's money down the drain for no reason and I though Apple wanted to be environmentally friendly, guess not. Will say though that the new features on Pro one are pretty cool, but it would have been nice to use my previous one, ended up making the squeeze gesture a shortcut back to the home screen, and it works great. I just wish Apple made a Mini Pro that has all the features of the larger tablet but sticks to using the best iPhone chip at the time if they can't make an M CPU work due to power usage and heat, I bet that thing would sell amazingly well.

Overall though I'm extremely happy with the iPad Mini 7 as it's lightweight, still fast as it's pretty damn close to the M1 CPU and far more portable, screen quality is OK, nowhere near the mini LED or OLED, but it's fine. I'll definitely be using this one more.

“iPad Pro 12.9 M1 2TB”

The Final Boss!!!

 

[Greenmeenie]

Of course an OLED iPad mini with 1,000 nits of brightness would be sweet. And I am sure we’ll get it someday. But the current iPad mini 7 screen isn’t bad at all. I wouldn’t go by youtube videos. I suggest going down to your local Apple store and checking it out in person. I just did. Perfectly fine for such a small tablet. As an artist, my main content creation device is my iPad Pro, but I always grab my ipad mini when i really wanna travel light. It’s the perfect size digital sketchbook when on the go. I traded in my iPad mini 5 for a new iPad mini 7. Mostly for the Apple pencil Pro support, but also for the new design, faster chip & extra ram. Even if I had an iPad mini 6 I’d probably upgrade for the Apple Pencil Pro alone. But I’m an artist. Others may want to wait until the iPad mini 8. But that’s not coming for another 3 yrs most likely.

 

[turbineseaplane]

ut the current iPad mini 7 screen isn’t bad at all. I wouldn’t go by youtube videos. I suggest going down to your local Apple store and checking it out in person. I just did. Perfectly fine for such a small tablet.

I guess I just don't agree

If these devices were $299 or something maybe, but it's a premium priced device for what it is and the size of the screen, etc

From Apple I just expect better
(yes I've used the Mini 7 at the store for about 30 mins and a Mini lover in general -- Mini 5 mega user)

 

[Radeon85]

If other companies can do higher refresh OLED panels on cheaper devices, then Apple has no excuse other than being cheap and lazy. The Steam Deck OLED only goes up to 90Hz but still does 1000 nits with HDR, and even that I’d be happy with on the mini.

For the prices that Apple charge I expect much better from them.