All iPads iPad mini vs iPad 4 for reading

[Davidkoh]

For me the mini is just too small. It's not the lack of retina but rather the size of everything that annoys me. On my iPad 4 i never feel things are too small to read comfortably, but on my fiancés mini I often get the feeling i'd like to zoom in a bit on webpages.

I don't find it much more mobile anyhow as neither of them will fit into the pockets of my coats or jackets.

 

[cypriot]

For me the mini is just too small. It's not the lack of retina but rather the size of everything that annoys me. On my iPad 4 i never feel things are too small to read comfortably, but on my fiancés mini I often get the feeling i'd like to zoom in a bit on webpages.

I don't find it much more mobile anyhow as neither of them will fit into the pockets of my coats or jackets.

You probably got used to big screen so you feel the need to zoom.

 

[erichess22]

Hello all. So I am torn between the two devices. Currently I have a iPad mini and I really like the device overall. I'm not completely satisfied with it but it's probably the best tablet that I've tried so far. I like the size and weight of it but i'm not completely sold on the screen, the lower resolution does bother me a little bit. Another thing that I wasn't to fond of on the mini was when I went to watch a movie the letterbox seemed to take up almost half the screen. Also at times I notice some lag and/or unrecognized gesture inputs. It's not terrible just not as smooth as I would have liked it. I haven't spent a lot of time playing with a iPad 4, just a few mins in the store and it looked nice but I didn't want to plop down $500 for it, however if it would be noticeably better then I could justify doing it.

What I would mainly use the device for would be to read school books, to watch movies on when I travel, web surfing, skype/face time chat, and e-mail. I'm not a big gamer on tablets.

I've had a hard time finding reviews that go in depth on the use of the mini or iPad 4 for reading textbooks. From what I saw people like the mini because it is lighter and easier to hold for reading, however people liked the iPad 4 for having the better screen and not having to zoom in to read something.

Thanks.

Depends where you are going to be doing your reading. If you can set it up somewhere I would go with the 4 but if you're going to be holding it a lot definitely stay with the mini. The 4 is a lot heavier and I don't like holding it for long periods of time.

 

[beysus]

Depends where you are going to be doing your reading. If you can set it up somewhere I would go with the 4 but if you're going to be holding it a lot definitely stay with the mini. The 4 is a lot heavier and I don't like holding it for long periods of time.

This.

I agree that the Retina display is so much better for reading, but I wouldn't be comfortable to take it somewhere else than my couch or bed. The mini got the perfect size to me for reading outside the house.

 

[tekboi]

until the mini comes w/ a retina display, I would easily choose the 4.

 

[Davidkoh]

You probably got used to big screen so you feel the need to zoom.

Nope, more like text is considerably smaller at an arms length away from my eyes so if I don't zoom links and whatnot is harder to hit/read.

 

[lokster]

The retina quality is too big of a difference compare to the ipad mini, the ipad retina is a definite win for reading, you can keep zooming in on a PDF and you will never see the text pixilate unless you got a low quality PDF

I enjoy reading a lot on my ipad 3

 

[raccoonboy]

Since we're discussing reading, you'll have those annoying black bars above and below anything formatted for print. So that's magazines and PDFs. Not to mention because its narrower the same magazine page is even smaller.

If this is so for reading. U can't have it all. For HD movies, there will be letterbox. But pls dont forget PPI of Nexus compare to mini. I think you can still read very well even with those black bars above and under the pdfs.