Smaller than an iPad, but quite a bit bigger than an iPod touch, the iPad mini is a tablet that will fit in your handbag, but lets you do pretty much everything the 9.7-inch iPad can do.
It launched back in November 2012, but how
does it fare almost eight months down the road? As is Apple's way, the
price remains constant while competitors have arrived at lower prices.
The Nook HD and Nook HD+
are worthy rivals, both having higher resolution screens and straddling
the iPad mini's screen size at 7 and 9 inches respectively.
Amazon's pair of Kindle Fire HD tablets
also give you the option of 7- and 9-inch screens, but lock you into
Amazon's world. The Nooks, meanwhile, give you full access to Google
Play. See also Amazon Kindle Fire HD review.
The iPad mini, of course, locks you into
Apple's world, but it's arguably the best one. The real question, if
you've already decided you don't want to save money and get an Android
tablet, is whether to wait for the rumoured iPad mini 2, which is likely
to arrive with iOS 7 in a few months, and may well have a much higher resolution screen.
The iPad mini will also be updatable to
iOS 7, so if you're desperate to buy now, and you don't mind living with
the relatively low resolution screen, then read on...
iPad mini review: Screen
Although it's the same physical size as
its seven-inch rivals, it packs a bigger 7.9in screen. You wouldn't
think it, but this extra not-quite-an-inch gives the iPad mini around 35
percent more screen real-estate than a 7in tablet, and the difference
is noticeable. See also iPad 4 review.
We like the 4:3 form factor, which is only
really a disadvantage when it comes to watching videos, since 16:9
content has to be shown with black bars at the top and bottom, or the
sides cropped so it fills the screen. See also Apple iPad Mini vs Google Nexus 7 tablet comparison review.
To keep things simple, and likely to keep
costs down, the screen has the same 1024 x 768 resolution as the iPad 2.
This means it can run the existing - and extensive - catalogue of
iPad-specific apps. Most Android tablet owners have to put up with the
phone versions of apps.
The iPad mini's display has a higher pixel
density than the original iPad and iPad 2 because it's around 2in
smaller, but it's obvious that it's not as crisp as the iPhone or bigger
iPad's Retina displays. Fortunately, it's still an IPS panel, so
colours are vibrant and viewing angles excellent.
iPad mini review: Build quality
What strikes you as you pick up the iPad
mini is how light it is. It's less than half the weight of a third- or
fourth-generation iPad, and 23 percent thinner. Despite this, build
quality is spectacular and the mini feels as solid as a rock. The mini
is also noticeably thinner and lighter than most of its 7in rivals,
including the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. Take a look at our iPhone 5 review.
As you'd expect, it has the new Lightning
connector, so you'll need an adaptor to use 30-pin accessories - not all
of which will work.
UPDATE: Apple has now released a wide
selection of Lightning cables and adapters, including the extremely
expensive £39 Digital AV Adapter (read HDMI output). Beware that some
apps (particularly catch-up TV) do not support HDMI output, so don't
invest in the adapter thinking you can get around the AirPlay
restrictions this way.
The button layout is identical to a 9.7in iPad.
Like all recent
Apple iPads, the iPad mini has dual-band Wi-Fi, allowing it to roam
across the less crowded 5GHz radio band. Apple also lists channel
bonding in its spec, where two adjacent 20MHz channels are combined to
make a 40Hz channel for potentially greater throughput. Most people
won't get this benefit, though, as few have a router with a 5GHz radio,
or one that can operate on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously.
iPad mini review: Front and rear cameras
Both cameras on the iPad mini are
brilliant, the rear one especially so. It takes sharp photos in dingy
conditions (the photo below was taken with just a table lamp lighting
the room) and great-looking images with accurate colours in good light.
It's great for videos too (it has
stabilisation as well), and you'll feel more at home using this smaller
iPad rather than the big version for capturing what's going on. Plus,
there's face recognition on both cameras for photos and videos.
iPad mini review: Performance
Another similarity with the iPad 2 is the
processor. The A5 chip is getting a bit old, but our benchmark results
show it can still rub shoulders with the current crop of 7in tablets.
Importantly - and this is something benchmarks often fail to reflect -
the iPad mini feels snappy in use, whether loading apps, scrolling
around maps or browsing the web.
In the SunSpider JavaScript test, the iPad
mini scored 1442ms, which puts it towards the head of the pack, but in
the synthetic Geekbench 2, it managed only 752 - not a great score
compared to the Nexus 7 (1452) and even the Kindle Fire HD (1124). For
gaming, it's still pretty good, managing 24fps in GLBenchmark 2.5.1. The
Kindle Fire HD could muster only 8.2fps here, and the Nexus 7 just
14fps. It shows that, when it comes to more demanding games, the iPad
mini leads the way.
In terms of battery life, we found the
mini didn't quite live up to Apple's 10-hour claim. Running our usual
video-looping test, we recorded just 7 hours and 21 minutes with Wi-Fi
turned on. That was at maximum screen brightness, however, so at a lower
brightness, you might just reach 10 hours.
iPad mini review: Software
A slight surprise is the presence of Siri -
Apple's voice assistant - as it was previously thought the processor
was the reason for not including it on the iPad 2. The mini has most of
the other headline iOS 6 features as well, including flyover maps and
VIP mail, but doesn't get a panorama mode in the Camera app. You can, of
course, download any number of apps which will automatically stitch
photos together for you. Try Microsoft's Photosynth for great 360-degree
vistas.
One neat addition to iOS is that it
recognises if you're resting your thumb on the side of the screen or
interacting with an app. The side bezels are just 5mm wide so touching
the screen is inevitable, especially when reading an eBook.
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