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Walked into Best Buy to pick up a movie and asked a sales guy in passing if he knew when they would be receiving the Retina Minis, totally not expecting them to have them.

Walked out as the first customer to get one from that store. 128GB silver is currently syncing. :)

Cellular?
 
Got an Air already ummm
In the end, for me, I think the Air's screen size suits my need more…

I think the mini is great for the girls though!

I agree. I love my iPad Air. The larger screen is a big deal for me. I never even considered a iPad mini. I bought my mom a mini and she loves it but my wife did not go for the mini she wanted the iPad Air.
 
Why is this even a competition? At the end of the day they are both fantastic devices.

Agreed. I don't understand why people keep saying one is better than the other. It simply comes down to an individual's needs/preferences.
 
Only 1.3GHz?! Slower than the full-sized iPad Air? How dare they!! This would never happen if Steve Jobs were still alive.

/s


Sorry. Had to do it. No one else had posted that yet.

I loved my iPad mini, mostly I think because of the light weight as compared to the iPad 3. The iPad Air, however, is amazing. Nearly as light as a mini but with a bigger screen - better (IMHO) for reading and marking up PDF scientific journal articles.

Anyway, glad the retina mini's are out. I was expecting they wouldn't be released until much later this month.
 
bigger screen of Air might be better only for watching movies.for rest of the tasks the 7.9 inches retina mini's size is actually more suitable.
Air is still bulky and heavy when compared to the retina mini.
mini is overall a much better form factor.
I'm so glad I didn't jump to buy the Air! now I'll have the superior iPad.:cool:
 
That's pretty bad news, particularly if there's also thermal throttling as in the 5s, vastly reducing the performance after 1-2 minutes of full-speed operation.


To me that’s not an issue. Peep this insert form Anandtech.

“As I mentioned in our 5s review, I don't know that there are many (any?) applications on iOS 7 that can really take advantage of all the A7 has to offer.”

We have a hard time seeing a real world difference with totally different cpu’s let alone a 100mhz difference/thermal throttling with the same cpu architecture. Benchmarks are one thing but real world usage is another. I honestly don’t see a huge difference between my wife’s iPhone 5 vs. my 5S. The bigger question is app support for the A7; not this.
 
mini for me

I ordered mine first thing this morning. Bought it on-line since that was the only option today and I figured the store might not get inventory real soon.
They told me that it would be sent between 11/26/13 and 12/4/13. But I'm bettin/hopin' Apple will beat those dates.

In any case, I'm psyched and it'll take over for the 2nd gen iPad I've been using for several years. :)
 
I have an Air but used a mini for a month after selling my 4th gen early. I really, really, really miss my mini. Will probably get a 16 GB wifi mini for home when they hit refurb. Air is a cellular and used more for work. The mini really changed my perspective on things though. It's an incredible device.
 
Not necessarily. It may have the same clock speed, but doesn't mean it has the same software telling it when to throttle back.

Yup, if it does have throttling, it'll surely not be as bad as that of the 5s.

Nevertheless, Anandtech will surely report on this as well. We'll soon see.

----------

To me that’s not an issue. Peep this insert form Anandtech.

“As I mentioned in our 5s review, I don't know that there are many (any?) applications on iOS 7 that can really take advantage of all the A7 has to offer.”

We have a hard time seeing a real world difference with totally different cpu’s let alone a 100mhz difference/thermal throttling with the same cpu architecture. Benchmarks are one thing but real world usage is another. I honestly don’t see a huge difference between my wife’s iPhone 5 vs. my 5S. The bigger question is app support for the A7; not this.

Well, for high-res video decoding, even that of the simple(r) MPEG-2 (let alone the more complex H.264!), you need as much CPU performance as possible. Proper (meaning few dropped frames) MPEG-2 1080i60 decoding isn't even possible with the A6. Even 10% of a perforormance difference does matter in this case.
 
Air > mini

in more ways than one


Agreed... but only for me. As in, this classic my opinion is right and yours is wrong is just plain foolishness.

I am a musician and the 9.7 fits my gigging needs but if you need extreme portability but don't need a ton of real estate then the mini is the perfect choice. My wife has one and the lightness is incredible.

All the being said, I am in honeymoon state with the air, it has been an extreme transition to go from the 2 to the air. Good on ya Apple for making this many amazing products to cause such a stir!
 
I ordered mine first thing this morning. Bought it on-line since that was the only option today and I figured the store might not get inventory real soon.
They told me that it would be sent between 11/26/13 and 12/4/13. But I'm bettin/hopin' Apple will beat those dates.

In any case, I'm psyched and it'll take over for the 2nd gen iPad I've been using for several years. :)

I must have waked up earlier than you. My ship date is 1 to 3 days with a delivery eta of 11/20-11/22; and that’s standard delivery.
 
Yup, if it does have throttling, it'll surely not be as bad as that of the 5s.

Nevertheless, Anandtech will surely report on this as well. We'll soon see.

----------



Well, for high-res video decoding, even that of the simple(r) MPEG-2 (let alone the more complex H.264!), you need as much CPU performance as possible. Proper (meaning few dropped frames) MPEG-2 1080i60 decoding isn't even possible with the A6. Even 10% of a perforormance difference does matter in this case.

The iPad features dedicated hardware for decoding video. That's the reason why it has great battery life with video.
 
Sweet! Just ordered the 32gb verizon rMini!

Me too. Ordered it this morning! I'm hoping it beats the 10 B-Day delivery time by a lot. It will be my commuter Pad and mean I can leave the briefcase (or man purse) at home.
 
The iPad features dedicated hardware for decoding video. That's the reason why it has great battery life with video.

Only for non-interlaced H.264 up to 1080p.

- No MPEG-2
- No interlaced H.264
- No for example 2K

etc. With these, you must use software decoding.

And, of course, hardware acceleration can only be used with either the mov / mp4 / m4v containers or with background remuxing from MKV's, which rules out for example proper AirPlay playback.
 
Agreed. I don't understand why people keep saying one is better than the other. It simply comes down to an individual's needs/preferences.

Half the people want the Mini because it's smaller.
Half the people want the Air because it's bigger.

And they all think the other half is stupid. :mad:
 
Bought mine at 5am this morning...been waiting for a year...replacing a 4G iPod Touch.
 
Ordered 16gb Mini w Retina wifi white early this morning. This is my first iPad ever. Goes to show you how picky I am so indeed this is the best iPad ever. Those of you who ordered it too, have good taste.

Those of you who ordered the Air. Should've waited for black friday. $470 at Target + $100 gift card. No sale on the Mini though. Cause the Mini's the best. :D

I would not be laughing too loudly if I were you about being picky and at those who bought the Air. That 16GB iPad will be full up by lunch time... :eek:

32GB is the minimum really for iPad's to have any longevity of enjoyment without the hassle of having to keep making space.

You may want to amend that order.. Just saying. ;)
 
Hey what's all this Air vs Retina Mini trash talk?? :confused:
What ever happened to bashing Android? :D

There is absolutely no right answer to "Is an Air or Mini better?".

Think about it.. All of the thinking that goes on in making this decision.. Some people own laptops, some own MacBook Airs, while some only own a desktop. Some travel and/or commute a lot, some don't at all. Some like to read a lot, some like to play games instead. Some are used to their iPad 1, or 2. Some are used to their old mini.

There are just so many variables, many more that I haven't even touched on, that it really is such a personal choice.
Not only is there not a right answer, but your opinion doesn't really mean much in something like this because of how personal it is.

To each his own, whichever you choose, it is still an amazing new iPad running iOS 7 :)
 
I assume it's to compensate for the smaller battery area.

I don't think it's to differentiate the speeds in the products (it's just a 7% frequency difference anyway), since the iPad Mini Retina is advertised as giving similar performance, it's a big point of this new iteration.
 
It has 1 GB......

Your example only works when the iPad fails to perform. It is performing well at every app that designed for it.

Are you coming from the android or windows camp where stuff are grossly unoptimized and required so much RAM to run?
 
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