iPad Mini vs Others

7/28/2019 iPad Mini vs Others

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30+ Reasons Why Youd Be Crazy to Buy an iPad Mini (and One Reason Why Youll BuyIt Anyway)

When I took the first iPad home back in April of 2010, I thought its 9.7 screen was too large. Ithought the perfect size for a tablet was about 8 inches. Apparently I wasnt the only one who

wanted a tablet small enough that you can take it anywhere. Enter the iPad mini. There arecertainly some good qualities the iPad mini has. For one, the size is great and its the thinnest andlightest tablet available today. Unfortunately, its also one of the least competitive devices Applehas ever made. Here are 30+ reasons why I believe this is true.

A 32GB Nexus 7 costs $180 less than a 32GB iPad mini

1. Its much more expensive than other tablets You can now buy a 32GB Nexus 7 foronly $249. To get the same amount of storage in a iPad mini, youd have to spend $429.That over 70% more, for a product with worse performance. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 hasa larger screen with almost twice as much resolution and it costs $30 less than the iPadmini. The 16GB model of the Nexus 7 orKindle Fire HD are both only $199. Applecharges $329 for exactly the same amount of storage. That more than 65% more. To addinsult to injury, Apple charges another$130 for cellular support. Google only charges$50 more for cellular support on their Nexus 7 tablet. Apparently price does matter.Amazon sold a record number of Kindle Fire HDs the day after the iPad miniwas announced

Update (11/12):For a limited time you can buy the original 8GB Nexus 7 for only $159at Staples. Thats less than half of the price of the cheapest iPad mini.

The Kindle Fire HD has a much higher-quality display than the iPad mini


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2. Other tablets have much better displays The iPad mini is almost an inch largerthanthe Nexus 7 but has fewer pixels and no Retina display. Because of this, the iPad minihas a lower-resolution than every other tablet in the chart below. The Kindle Fire has atrue high-definition (HD) screen, while the iPad mini only has a SD screen. That meansthe 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD has an amazing 19201080 display with 193% more pixels

than the iPad mini (2,304,000 pixels vs. 786,432 pixels). The Kindle Fire HD also has56% more pixels-per-inch than the iPad mini (254ppi vs. 163ppi). There is evidence thatApple realizes it was a mistake to put such a poor quality panel in the mini and alreadyhas plans to replace it.

You can easily see the difference between the iPad mini and other tablets

Can you really tell the difference? Reviewers say that you can: If youve ever laid your eyeballson the ultra-smooth text rendered by the Retina iPad, its text will look fuzzy by comparison,especially at teensier type sizes.

John Gruber was even harsher in his assessment: The hardware and software are fantastic butthe screen is terrible compared to Apples Retina displays

TechCrunch adds, As someone who is used to a retina display on my phone, tablet, and evennow computer, the downgrade to a non-retina display is quite noticeable. This goes away overtime as you use the iPad mini non-stop, but if you switch back a retina screen, its jarring.

Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technologies adds, The $199 Amazon Kindle Fire HDand Google Nexus 7 both have considerably sharper displays with 216 pixels per inch, and theyboth delivered considerably sharper text.


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Its not expandable Many Android tablets come with a MicroSD slot so you can easilyexpand your memory (e.g. $199 Nook HD, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus, etc.) That means youcan double your memory for only $8, or quadruple your memory for $15. To double yourmemory on an iPad mini, youd have to spend $190 more! Thats one reason Apple has over 120billion dollars in the bank right now.

Another downside to not having removable media slot is the fact that you cant copy media liketo it without using a computer. My son pops the memory card out of his Go Pro camera, andsticks it right into his Asus tablet. No computer is required to copy video (or any other media).When he plugs his camera into the full-sized USB port on his tablets keyboard, it asks him if hewants to import his photos. This is a real time saver.

It doesnt have a quad-core processor Even though the Nexus 7 is only $199, it has apowerful quad-core processor. Having two extra cores allows the Nexus 7 to do more parallelprocessing, which is what graphically-intensive games need. Quad-core processors also oftenhave better battery life. The iPad mini only has a dual core processor.

When it comes to specs (except weight, thickness & camera) the iPad Mini doesnt come close tothe competition

It has inferior specs and a slower processor When it comes to specs (except weight,thickness and camera) the iPad Mini doesnt do well. You can see the areas in the above chartwhere the iPad mini under-performs in red, and over-perfoms in blue. Although Apple neverannounces processor speeds, we know the iPad mini has an A5 processor which has a maximumspeed of 800MHz to 1 GHz. Even if you assume its 1GHz, its still 50% slower than the fastesttablets on the market today.


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Worse brightness and contrast rating than other tablets The iPad mini has a lowermaximum brightness than the Kindle Fire HD. The iPad gets a contrast rating of only 43 inbright light, while the Kindle Fire HD gets a contrast rating of 68 (higher is better). The KindleFire HD also has a higher contrast ratio, but the differences are much smaller. Source

Worse color accuracy than other tablets If you want to see accurate colors in photos,

videos, and all standard consumer content the display needs to closely match the standard colorgamut that was used to produce the content. Normally Apple products do very well in this area:The new iPad 3 and iPhone 5 both have full 100 percent standard color gamuts, while muchmore affordable Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7 deliver an 86 percent color gamut.The iPad mini has a much poorer 62 percent color gamut giving it the worst color accuracyIve ever seen. As a result, its display is unable to produce very saturated colors, like fire enginered, which appear with a noticeable shift towards orange. Saturated purples are also especiallydifficult to reproduce on displays like the iPad mini with a reduced color gamut.

You can use Google Wallet anywhere you see these images

No NFC digital wallet support NFC and Google Wallet lets Nexus 7 tablet users buythings at over 300,00 PayPass-enabled cash registers in places like Best Buy, CVS Pharmacy,Einstein Bros Bagels, Home Depot, Jack in the Box, McDonalds, Peets Coffee, Pinkberry, RiteAid, Sports Authority, Whole Foods and many more places. You can learn more about NFChere. The iPad mini has something called Passbook, but it only works at Starbucks (and theApple Store).

GPS support is only available cellular models The iPad mini is small enough to take withyou anywhere, so it certainly makes sense that youd want it to have a GPS so you could use it

for directions. Unfortunately, you have to spend $130 more for a cellular model to get GPSsupport. Tablets like the Nexus 7 has full GPS support in their Wi-Fi only models.

It doesnt appear on your desktop as a drive Its a major hassle to get anything (butphotos) on or off of an iPad mini. Android devices dont need iTunes or iCloud to copy media.Just connect a USB cable, and your device will appear on your desktop like a hard disk. You canthen drag and drop any file (or folder) to it. This is really useful.

Some tablets have full-sized ports

It doesnt work with standard cables Many tablets (including the Kindle Fire HD) havemicro-USB and micro-HDMI jacks, so you can easily connect to a keyboard or televisionwithout purchasing an expensive cable. Others, like the Microsoft Surface RT or Toshiba Thrivehave full-sized USB jacks, so you can plug in any USB peripheral and dont need to buy aspecial cable. Apple uses proprietary connectors so they can sell you cables for $20 to $50. If


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you want an extra charging cable for an iPad mini, it will cost $19 and is hard to find. You canbuy an Android power cord almost anywhere for as little as $2.

Its AV adapter doesnt support 1080p Another big downside to Apples use of aproprietary Lightning cable is that its Digital AV adapter (which connects to the HDMI jackon your TV) doesnt support 1080p today. Its capable of supporting 1080p, but Apple has

chosen to hold back 1080p support for now.

The size of the letterbox displayed when movies are played on the iPad mini is much larger thanother tablets [Photo: Gizmodo]

No 16:9 screen, Reduced-quality movies Tablets are great way to watch movies, but allmovies are formatted to fit on a 16:9 display. Because the iPad Mini has a 4:3 aspect ratio, all16:9 movies need to be letter-boxed with only 1024576 resolution, which is getting pretty closeto standard definition video rather than true high-definition 1280720 video found on tablets likethe Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7. As Gizmodo points out, when you watch a movie in landscapetheres almost more letterboxing than actual video. Seriously. It. Looks. Ridiculous.

It has much less memory than other tablets Most Android tablets have 1GB of RAM.Thats twice the memory as the iPad mini has. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has 2GB of RAM,which isfour times as the memory as the iPad mini.

It has ineffective parental controls Apple finally added Parental Controls to iOS 6, butthey are buried is Settings and disabled by default. Even if mom is smart enough to find andenable them, her kids will still be able to read the copy of 50 Shades of Grey she bought sixmonths ago because Apples Parental Controls do not hide explicit books that are already in alibrary. The iPad mini is a single-user device and this prevents a good solution to this problem.By contrast, Nook tablets allow multiple users to share a single tablet using separate accounts.Each users content is hidden from other family members automatically, and profiles can bepassword protected. Parents with a Kindle Fire HD can also give access to appropriate contentfor each child. Once the Nexus 7 is upgraded to Android 4.2, it will also support user-profiles.


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You can share media by simply touching two NFC-enabled Android devices together

No touch-to-share Newer Android tablets like the Nexus 7 can easily share media bytouching another device with NFC support. This allows you to share photos, videos, contacts,Web pages as well as information between apps. You can see it in action here.

No replaceable battery Tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and Toshiba Thrivehave batteries which are easily replaceable. This is important, because all rechargeable batterieshave a limited life-span and need to be replaced.

Nano-SIM makes it harder to use with other carriers When you buy an iPad mini fromApples site with the cellular option, you will find that Apple forces you to pick a carrier. Otherunlocked tablets dont force you to do that. To use your iPad mini with most internationalcarriers you will still need a SIM cutter because the iPad mini uses a nano-SIM. Most carriersuse standard or micro-SIMs.

Limited stylus support Although you can use a capacitive stylus on an iPad mini, you dontget the same level of expression that you get on Android tablets. The Samsung Galaxy Note IIhas 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity. iOS also wont let you toggle between a brush, pencil or

eraser by simply holding the stylus above the screen and clicking a button. The stylus on theGalaxy Note II even lets you preview emails, photos or videos by hovering slightly above thescreen.

Kindle works great in bright sunlight

Android now beats iOS in many areas This may come as a surprise to some of you, butAndroid has many advantages over iOS 6. You can see them here.


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Readability issues with magazines The screen on the iPad mini is just too small to readmagazines or comics because of the tiny, non-adjustable typefaces used. Text looks pinched,because its optimized for the iPads larger display. The Kindle Fire HD gets around this issuewith its text view mode.

Its not a great eReader In the previous bullet I already pointed out the readibility issues

with magazines. Thats not the only reason why the iPad mini is not a good eReader. It also hasone of the most reflective displays youll find in a small tablet. Because of this, using the iPadMini outside is often a problem because of glare. How bad is it? According to Dr. RaymondSoneira of DisplayMate Technologies, The Screen reflectance on the iPad mini is surprisinglyhigh (9.0 percent). The Nexus 7 has a much lower 5.9 percent reflectance, while on the KindleFire HD has a reflectance of 6.4 percent. As a result, the iPad mini reflects 53 percent moreambient light than the Nexus 7 and 41 percent more than the Kindle Fire HD. Thats quite a largedifference.

It doesnt support Flash Flash may be a dying format, but there are still millions of Flashvideos around, and the iPad mini cant play any of them. All Android tablets running 4.0 (andearlier) can play Flash video. If you have a tablet running Android 4.1 (or later) youll need to

side-load Flash by following these easy instructions. You should not need to do this if youpreviously installed Flash before you upgraded to Android 4.1. If you have trouble playing Flashvideo with your stock browser use Firefox.

Other tablets have faster Wi-Fi than the iPad mini


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Slower Wi-Fi than other tablets Tablets like the Kindle Fire HD and Surface RT havedual-band Wi-Fi anddual MIMO antennas. This can result in 40% faster data speeds over Wi-Fi,and better range.

No infrared transmitter Tablets like the Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and GalaxyTab 2 7.0 along with Vizio and Sony tablets have built-in IR-transmitters so you can use your

tablet to control devices in your home like your TV without using Wi-Fi and special apps.The iPad mini does not have infrared support.

No multi-user support The iPad mini is a single-user device tied to a single iTunes account.Nexus tablets (and all other Android 4.2 devices) allow multiple users to log-in. Each user hastheir own home screen, background, apps and widgets. Things like game-progress and high-scores remain separate.

Mediocre-sounding speakers The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (and other tablets) have bettersounding speakers. Reviews say O.K. is also how Id describe the speaker system. The KindleFire HD, which sports Dolby stereo, pumped out noticeably more pleasing audio than the Minisspeakers.

Undesired side-effects of the new display One reviewer pointed out that because the

screen real estate is so much larger than an iPhone but icons are now roughly iPhone size, appswith lots of navigational elements can be a little less intuitive to navigate.

Very difficult to repair The iPad mini is much more difficult to repair than other tablets.iFixit gives the iPad mini a repairability score of 2 out of 10, where 10 is the easiest to repair.One of the main reasons why it gets such a poor score is because large amounts of cement holdthe front glass, logic board, battery, front camera, back camera, ribbon cables in place. Thiscement makes repair extremely difficult. By comparison, the Kindle Fire gets a repairabilityscore of 8 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair). The Nexus 7 gets a 7 out of 10 score, while theNook Tablet and Samsung Galaxy Tab get 6 out of 10 scores. All are much easier to repair thanthe iPad mini.

Cant make phone calls If youve installed a SIM card, you can make phone calls on

Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.7. You can also send or receive texts withoutusing a special third-party app. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 calling function has been upgraded to let youmake and receive voice calls privately by using Receiver Mode in public places.

No haptic feedback Most Android devices support haptic feedback. This gives you a littlevibration when you type, long press, or touch the navigation buttons. This makes it clear yourtouch was acknowledged, so you dont have to tap twice. Haptic feedback makes games muchmore enjoyable because of the tactile feedback.

Small keyboard makes it hard to type accurately The keyboard on the iPad mini is smallenough that youll have a hard time typing accurately on it. To some extent this issue is true with7 Android tablets, but you can install one of the many great third-party keyboards likeSwiftKey3, which have much more accurate corrections and predictions than the iOS keyboard.

You can see the dramatic difference here.


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The Nexus 10 has several different keyboard layouts like this one with number keys

It has a much worse on-screen keyboard Like the iPad mini, the Nexus 7 has standardkeyboard features like a spell checker, auto-capitalization and auto-correction. However, the

Nexus 7 has a much better on-screen keyboard. It has the ability to add words to a personaldictionary, show correction suggestions, perform gesture typing where you swipe from key tokey, show next-word suggestions and the ability to change your keyboard to one that is more PC-like and includes all numbers and extra keys.

Not able to easily load custom ROMs Android devices like the Nexus 7 dont come withlocked or encrypted bootloaders. That means you are free to install customs ROMs and fullytailor your device however you wish.

Hard for small hands to hold securely The iPad mini is wide enough that it is harder tocarry securely than Nexus 7. The bezel is also so narrow that its hard to hold the screen inportrait-mode without touching the active part of the touchscreen.

No LED alerts The Nexus 4 has a small LED indicator at the bottom of its front panel that

alerts you to missed calls, new messages or other system events. As with other Android phones,you can customize exactly how this LED works by installing a third-party LED control app likeLight Flow. The iPhone has a setting buried under Accessibility that flashes an LED when a callor text is received. The iPad mini does not support LED alerts at all.

Better tablets are on the way On Friday the Microsoft Surface RT tablet launches. Thefollowing week a new Nexus 10 tablet will be announced and the Acer Iconia Tab A110 tabletships. You get the idea. Every month there will be exciting new tablets launching which havebetter specs than the iPad mini. If you really must have an Apple tablet, at least wait a fewmonths until Apple replaces the poor-quality display in the mini with a Retina display.

The Nexus 7 is on several tablet of the year lists CNET says the Nexus 7 is the best smalltablet and ranks it higher than the iPad mini.

Why Youll Buy an iPad Mini Anyway

If youre an Apple fan, you dont comparison shop. You dont care that Apple products costmore and do less. Youll tell yourself that specs dont matter. Youll find a way to convinceyourself that all of the above reasons somehow dont apply to you. And, youll buy an iPad minianyway. And six months from now when Apple comes out with an iPad mini that is twice as fast


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as todays with a Retina display, youll buy that one too and thank Apple for doing so. Thismay sound harsh, but it applies literally to millions of people. So go ahead and buy one. Youknow you want it. You can see the iPad mini in action in this video.

- Rick

For the Apple Fanboys

1. This is an opinion piece - I think the title makes that very clear. Dont read this if you canthandle an opposing view point.

2. This article is focused on the advantages of other tablets Im aware there are goodreasons to buy Apple products. Since every other reviewer focuses on those, I saw value inshowing another point of view.

3. I dont just pick on Apple I write highly-opinionated articles about other companies as

well. Here are examples where I single out Samsung, AT&T, United, Google and Rhapsody.

4. I dont hate all Apple products I think most of the new products Apple announced aregood or great just not the new iPad 4 or iPad mini. I own two iPhones, an iPad 3 and an AppleTV. I buy Apple products when I believe they outperform other products andare notoutlandishly priced.

5. I want this to be factually correct Believe it or not, I really do try to keep my articlesfactually accurate. If think one of these points is incorrect, let me know and I will edit or deleteit.

6. Save your flames Youre not going to change my beliefs, just like Im not going to changesyours. Well just have to agree to disagree on this topic.

Thanks for making this my most popular blog post ever!


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UPDATE 1: Maybe I under-estimated the intelligence of Apple fans. Only 14% of thosesurveyed said they would definitely buy an iPad mini. When pitted against the Kindle Fire andNexus 7, 46% said theyd buy the Kindle Fire. The iPad mini came in second at 40% and Nexus7 came in last at 14%. If Apples stock price is an indication, investors dont seem too thrilledabout this product either.

It seems I wasnt the only one who thought the iPad minis price was too high

No one waits in line for the iPad mini at this Apple store in London.

UPDATE 2: Apple is seeing much shorter lines of people waiting to purchase an iPad minioutside their stores than theyve seen in the past. 20 minutes after opening the doors at theHouston Apple Store, there was no line whatsoever. Other web postings showed only a handfulof people in line at stores around the United States.


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iPad Mini vs Others

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