Apple’s mini table gets Retina display BY KAREN HASLAM
Pros: Retina display; A7 processor
Cons: Looks at lot like previous model
Company: Apple, apple.com/uk
Price: Wi-Fi, £319 (16GB), £399 (32GB), £479 (64GB), £559 (128GB); Wi-Fi and Cellular, £419 (16GB), £499 (32GB), £579 (64GB), £659 (128GB)
The iPad Air was rightly getting the majority of attention at the journalist gathering after the Apple iPad keynote, given that it’s had a complete redesign making it lighter and thinner. After all, before you turn on the new iPad mini, it looks a lot like the previous model, but once you see the screen you’ll appreciate the di fference thanks to the Retina display. This new screen o ers 326ppi (pixels per inch), compared to 163ppi on the first-generation model – that’s more than the iPad Air, which gets 264ppi. The iPhone 5s o ers the same pixel density as the new iPad mini – 326ppi.
Apple used the AutoCAD app to show off the 3D capabilities of the new iPad mini. It was also able to demonstrate zooming in to see the fi ne detail in one of the designs, something that might have been lost in a blur on the previous mini. Your photos will look great, too. We watched the new iPhoto iOS app at work, as beautiful images were edited to look even more impressive using sliders that anyone will be able to master.
Given that the original iPad mini is still on sale and has had its price reduced to £249, will the Retina display make a difference to warrant the upgrade? While it’s one of those things you won’t necessarily miss if you don’t already have it, we certainly think it makes enough of a di fference to warrant the extra cash – and there isn’t a massive di erence in the price anyway if you’re buying a new iPad.
If you are still wondering what a Retina display is, it’s an Apple-coined term for a screen where the pixels are so closely packed that – in ‘normal’ use – the human eye can’t pick out individual pixels. In e ffect, it’s fooled into thinking that whatever is on the screen is real. It’s not completely true that the new iPad mini is the same as the old model, as there are minor differences in measurements. The latest release is a little heavier – 331g compared to 308g for the old Wi-Fi tablet, and 341g versus 312g on the previous cellular option.
It’s not a big difference, though, and the Retina display is worth the sacrifice. The dimensions are very slightly different, too. The new model is 7.5mm deep compared to 7.2mm. While we are talking a fraction of a millimetre here, it may be enough to stop older iPad mini cases fitting perfectly.
The other di fference is the colour scheme. While there isn’t a collection of iPhone 5c-like colours, new white and silver and black and space grey options replace last years white and black. There were claims that in adding a Retina display, the iPad mini would require a more powerful processor. So it wasn’t a surprise to see that it’s using the same A7 processor.
As with the processor demands, it was generally concluded that the reason the original iPad mini didn’t have a Retina display was due to the need to ease demand on the battery and processor. For this reason we expected that the new model would need a bigger and heavier battery to match its predecessor’s battery life. While there’s a minimal weight increase and the depth is a fraction more, it has a battery offering just as much battery life as its predecessor. That’s up to 10 hours surfing the web, watching video and listening to music over Wi-Fi, nine if you are on a cellular network. Every iPad offers the same battery life, at least according to Apple’s tests.
Since many people getting an iPad are used to charging their iPhone every day, we don’t think that battery life will be perceived as an issue. Like the iPhone 5c, 5s and iPad Air, the new iPad mini doesn’t offer Wi-Fi 802.11ac. It does, however, have MIMO, which the old model didn’t.
We’re concerned that on Apple’s UK website, the iPad mini is still described as Wi-Fi or 3G, with no mention of 4G. The company did say that this tablet is capable of working with more bandwidths than any other, though, so we are quietly confident it will all turn out to be okay. Apple may just be playing it safe, for now while it’s verified for all the UK networks. Some people will no doubt be disappointed not to see much more new in the way of technology. However, we can’t expect giant leaps forward every time. Sometimes technology doesn’t move forward at the speed everyone would like, held back mostly by the cost of constructing then whizz bang components for our gadgets.
At the time of writing, Apple had yet to provide us with an official launch date. According to the company’s website, the iPad mini with Retina display will be coming “later in November”. The company may not want to pinpoint a particular date because of supply issues – there have been rumours all year that the Retina display was going to cause delays. At least rumours that the Retina display iPad mini wouldn’t launch until next year didn’t turn out to be true.
The iPad Air will go on sale on Friday 1 November. Last year, the Wi-Fi models of both the iPad mini and fourthgeneration iPad went on sale on Friday 2 November, but there was a two-week delay before the cellular versions shipped on 16 November. In line with this, Apple may be ready to ship the Retina iPad mini on Friday 15 November, but it seems likely that it will be later in the month.
The last two Fridays in the month are the 22 and 29 November. Americans will be celebrating thanksgiving on 28 November, with Black Friday being the following day, so Apple could launch the new iPad mini on the big sales day that is Black Friday. Macworld’s buying advice The introduction of a new Retina display has forced Apple to up the price of the iPad mini 2, so it’s now £50 more expensive than the original model. The new entry price of £319 may put off some, especially when confronted by alternative non-Apple tablets at lower prices.
The good news is that the original iPad mini will still be available at a lower price, and this is great news for anyone who wants to get a brand new iPad for the lowest price possible. The price difference is £70 and may well be considered enough of a saving for those looking for a bargain. While there are cheaper tablets available from other manufacturers this is a good entry point for an iPad with all the extra software and services that Apple provides.
We think that the new Retina display is a great reason to spend the extra £70 compared to the old iPad mini, but you could equally well decide to spend another £80 and purchase the £399 16GB iPad Air. Where in the past we were drawn to the iPad mini because it was so much lighter than the full-sized iPad, it is no longer such a huge difference in weight as it was. Whereas last year everyone was predicting that the iPad mini would be a full-sized iPad killer, this year the new iPad Air could be an iPad mini killer.
