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All iPads My opinion: Displays of iPad Mini Retina and iPad Air

N

NYQ83

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 22, 2013
9
0
New York
I had two minis last year just because I love the form factor, but that display was just sad, so I returned them. I do love my iPad 4 generation display, and do to it I couldn't stick to lots of tablets, just because it is simply awesome.
Getting to my opinion. I have been waiting for Mini retina for a whole year, and I preordered it, and was so excited about it. I got it and loves it, until a friend of mine told me about this Gamut test, then I've put this thought in my head about how crappy the display truly is, and became very unhappy. I watched every video comparing both, and read forums here from beginning to end. Today play with my mini, I decided to compare to my iPhone 5S display, and you can see the difference, so I went out and bought iPad Air.
3 hours comparing both and to my iPad 4th generation, and my conclusion is, iPad 4th generation still has the best display, because it's right in between. Mini retina has gentler colors, tiny bit faded, while iPad Air has colors right in your face and too cartoony. Red color on Air hurts your eyes at full brightness and so does deep blue. Tried the same colors on mini retina, and they are more pleasant to look at. Then I watched videos, faces on Air look more greener, while on Mini Retina more true to life.
I can't imagine having Air colors on the Mini Retina, it's resolution is higher and having such cartoony colors will be a total pain to look at. I think Air colors should be toned down a little bit. Looking at a flower on it that has a rainbow of colors, the details are faded, lines on a petal drown due to over saturated colors, while on mini retina colors aren't so saturated and aren't as vivid as iPad 4th generation, but the details are just pleasure to look at.
At the end of the day, I pick Mini retina
Why? Form factor is just superb, much more portable than iPad Air. Colors are toned down, but at least they are not overly saturated. Speakers on Mini are much better in my opinion than Airs speakers.
 

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In the end buy what makes you satisfied. The internet has made people hyper sensitive to flaws in everything. There are no perfect, cars, devices, washer/dryers, men, women, houses. Take the Nexus 7. It has its flaws in the form of poor GPS lock, screen response, poor app selection, yet some people love it. I got the rMini because it fits my needs. I needed a small tablet to lecture from with good resolution, well stocked App Store, and works right out of the box. I do not want to wait for fixes to problems that are essential to the functionality of my device. When I tether my iPhone to my Verizon LTE rMini it locks on it and I can use GPS navigation with no problems at all. The screen is very responsive. Everything works as promised.

Am I disappointed that the Gamut is not as good as it could be. Yes, I am. But it is not a deal breaker to me. I like my rMini and I am keeping it. Plus, judging from the pics you posted, the difference is not that huge. Infact, given that ios7 is damn bright, less color accuracy might be a blessing in disguise.
 
I see what you mean but unless you had them side by side, it would be hard pressed to tell. Besides, I'm not doing any professional colour work so sweating the small stuff is just an exercise in obsession.

Lovin' my rMini so far.
 
nj1266 said:
In the end buy what makes you satisfied. The internet has made people hyper sensitive to flaws in everything. There are no perfect, cars, devices, washer/dryers, men, women, houses. Take the Nexus 7. It has its flaws in the form of poor GPS lock, screen response, poor app selection, yet some people love it. I got the rMini because it fits my needs. I needed a small tablet to lecture from with good resolution, well stocked App Store, and works right out of the box. I do not want to wait for fixes to problems that are essential to the functionality of my device. When I tether my iPhone to my Verizon LTE rMini it locks on it and I can use GPS navigation with no problems at all. The screen is very responsive. Everything works as promised.

Am I disappointed that the Gamut is not as good as it could be. Yes, I am. But it is not a deal breaker to me. I like my rMini and I am keeping it. Plus, judging from the pics you posted, the difference is not that huge. Infact, given that ios7 is damn bright, less color accuracy might be a blessing in disguise.
Click to expand...

I see it as both have flaws. One is too much and the other one is not enough. I rather go with not enough.

----------
Haifisch said:
I see what you mean but unless you had them side by side, it would be hard pressed to tell. Besides, I'm not doing any professional colour work so sweating the small stuff is just an exercise in obsession.

Lovin' my rMini so far.
Click to expand...

But when adding things up, like the price, and competition, you end up wanting the best even if you do not plan on doing any professional work on it.
 
NYQ83 said:
I had two minis last year just because I love the form factor, but that display was just sad, so I returned them. I do love my iPad 4 generation display, and do to it I couldn't stick to lots of tablets, just because it is simply awesome.
Getting to my opinion. I have been waiting for Mini retina for a whole year, and I preordered it, and was so excited about it. I got it and loves it, until a friend of mine told me about this Gamut test, then I've put this thought in my head about how crappy the display truly is, and became very unhappy. I watched every video comparing both, and read forums here from beginning to end. Today play with my mini, I decided to compare to my iPhone 5S display, and you can see the difference, so I went out and bought iPad Air.
3 hours comparing both and to my iPad 4th generation, and my conclusion is, iPad 4th generation still has the best display, because it's right in between.

I can't imagine having Air colors on the Mini Retina, it's resolution is higher and having such cartoony colors will be a total pain to look at. I think Air colors should be toned down a little bit. Looking at a flower on it that has a rainbow of colors, the details are faded, lines on a petal drown due to over saturated colors, while on mini retina colors aren't so saturated and aren't as vivid as iPad 4th generation, but the details are just pleasure to look at.
At the end of the day, I pick Mini retina
Why? Form factor is just superb, much more portable than iPad Air. Colors are toned down, but at least they are not overly saturated. Speakers on Mini are much better in my opinion than Airs speakers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your analysis and pictures. Personally, the 4th gen and Air look the same... I enjoy them both.
 
If you go looking for problems, you will find one. Like you said, you loved it until someone pointed out the gamut "issue".

Buy whatever works for you. No need to justify your purchase or partake in spec sheet and benchmark wars that don't affect your daily use of a device.

Most of the time it's just going to be displaying black and white text or heavily compressed low quality pictures on social networking sites anyway.
 
The Air fleshtones look better considering the woman has an olive skin type. The mini is too pink. Once you have a tv professionally calibrated you realize just how bad skin tones are on monitors out of the box. They always make people look too pink. In fact, most skin tones should be much paler than those 2 pictures.
 
nj1266 said:
In the end buy what makes you satisfied. The internet has made people hyper sensitive to flaws in everything. There are no perfect, cars, devices, washer/dryers, men, women, houses.
Click to expand...

It's the internet, but also consumers. We respond to 'more' like Pavlov's dog and this gamut thing is the perfect example. If more is better, then less must be worse, but many don't even know what gamut is. And as shown above, more can actually be worse.
 
I made due with an iPad 1 until my recent iPad air purchase and was fine with it. My photos looked fine as well as videos, web surfing and ebook reading.

But now the With the Air it's clarity and vividness is noticeably different in a good way but at the end of the day it nothing earth shattering and I could enjoy looking at photographs just as much on either tablet.

I think all this spec and screen comparing is almost obsessive compulsive. Unless your in the graphic business and colors need to be perfect I would just sit back and enjoy the ride with whatever form factor you like and stop comparing them and driving yourself crazy.

Does anyone have a relative or friend that would be playing around with the color on an old TV set when one was trying to watch a movie? I did and it would drive me nuts and stop me from enjoying the darn movie! Hope you can enjoy whatever tablet you end up with.
 
Yea speakers on Air are louder but I like the sound quality on the Mini. iPad 4 wins them all on image and sound, but the body is a downfall.
 
That Ipad Air Screen looks terrible. Looks like it's got a yellow haze on it. Look at the picture with the pencils. I'd take the ipad 4 out of those 3.
 
Only after someone mentioned the slight pink tones on the screen did I notice a difference. To me both look fine, perhaps I'm not as discerning as others :confused:
 
ok. firstly, I am viewing this thread on an ipad4 - with no significant screen issues and near 100% gamut.

on the pencils image, the rmini does not display a red pencil... it is more orange. this problem to me was unacceptable and hence why I returned my rmini.

I wonder whether the disputes on this board about the gamut are really between
a) air/ipad3&4 owners who can by virtue of accurate colour reproduction see the differences.
b) mini/rmini owners who view the page but can never see the red pencil properly on their device because of the gamut problem

both camps will believe that there is or is not an issue based on their perception on the device that they are viewing the image.

hence we will never agree !
 
deaglecat said:
ok. firstly, I am viewing this thread on an ipad4 - with no significant screen issues and near 100% gamut.
Click to expand...
You raise a good point, I'm currently looking at the images on my Mac Mini connected to a dell 24" monitor. I wonder how it will look on my rMBP or even my Mini.

Still with that said, I'm happy with the color rendition that I'm seeing on my rMini though I may be a bit less picky then others.
 
maflynn said:
You raise a good point, I'm currently looking at the images on my Mac Mini connected to a dell 24" monitor. I wonder how it will look on my rMBP or even my Mini.

Still with that said, I'm happy with the color rendition that I'm seeing on my rMini though I may be a bit less picky then others.
Click to expand...

the dell ultrasharp monitors are pretty good IPS panels, some dell monitors esp TN are less good.

its a bit like trying to view 4k tv demos on youtube... never gonna work !
 
I can tell you from first hand experience the airs have a greenish tint to the color. I tested a picture of my wife from are wedding day afew months ago. On the air she looks like she has greenish skin and on the rMini and original mini she looks like how she acualy looks.
 
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