iPad mini Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Vivek Gowri on November 20, 2012 6:10 PM ESTBattery Life and Charging
The iPad mini features an integrated 16.3Wh battery, easily smaller than the 43Wh unit in the iPad 3/4 but even smaller than the 25Wh used in the iPad 2. Given that the mini has roughly the same internals as the iPad 2,4, but with a substantially smaller battery, you can expect a corresponding decrease in battery life. The display is also smaller, which should reduce some of the power requirements a bit.
We've started running our new smartphone web browsing battery life test on tablets as well. If you missed its introduction in our iPhone 5 review, here's a bit about the new test:
We regularly load web pages at a fixed interval until the battery dies (all displays are calibrated to 200 nits as always). The differences between this test and our previous one boil down to the amount of network activity and CPU load.
On the network side, we've done a lot more to prevent aggressive browser caching of our web pages. Some caching is important otherwise you end up with a baseband/WiFi test, but it's clear what we had previously wasn't working. Brian made sure that despite the increased network load, the baseband/WiFi still have the opportunity to enter their idle states during the course of the benchmark.
We also increased CPU workload along two vectors: we decreased pause time between web page loads and we shifted to full desktop web pages, some of which are very js heavy. The end result is a CPU usage profile that mimics constant, heavy usage beyond just web browsing. Everything you do on your device ends up causing CPU usage peaks - opening applications, navigating around the OS and of course using apps themselves. Our 5th generation web browsing battery life test should map well to more types of mobile usage, not just idle content consumption of data from web pages.
The mini actually outlasts the 3rd gen iPad in our heaviest WiFi web browsing battery life test, but the 4th gen iPad's move to a 32nm SoC solves that problem. Under load however both the new iPad and the mini are fairly close in terms of battery life.
We haven't yet rerun our new test on all of the tablets, so we turn to our older 4th gen test to provide some additional reference points:
If we look back at our older test we get good perspective on everything. The iPad 2,4 still remains the king of single battery tablets, and the mini just barely makes it over 9 hours of use on a single charge. The mini still lasts long enough for it to be more of an all-day device than a notebook.
Our video playback test remains unchanged from previous tablet reviews. Here I'm playing a 4Mbps H.264 High Profile 720p rip I made of the Harry Potter 8 Blu-ray. The full movie plays through and is looped until the battery dies. Once again, the displays are calibrated to 200 nits:
Apple's video decode hardware implementation has always been stellar, as a result the mini manages to do very well here. At over 11 hours of video playback on a single charge, the mini is only bested by some of its larger iPad brethren. The iPad 2,4 remains insanely awesome here.
Our final cross-platform battery life test is the new GLBenchmark 2.5.1 Egypt HD test. Here we have a loop of the Egypt HD benchmark, capped to 30 fps, running on all of the devices with their screens calibrated to 200 nits.
I no longer have a 45nm iPad 2 so I don't have results for it here, but the combination of the small 1024 x 768 display and 32nm A5r2 silicon gives the mini better battery life than the iPads equipped with a Retina display. The iPad 2,4 continues to offer amazing battery life here.
The GLBench battery life test gives us a reasonable minimum for the iPad mini's battery life, with the video playback test giving us a good maximum. You can expect to see 6.4 - 11.2 hours out of a single charge from the mini.
The mini comes bundled with a 1A charger identical to what you get with an iPhone 5 or a 5th gen iPod Touch. Using the new Lightning connector it'll take about 4 hours to complete a charge on the iPad mini.
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Constructor - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
You keep it from even installing any of the offered updates and then you complain that it doesn't work as well as it should?Look into a mirror one of these days if you're searching for the source of your problems.
KPOM - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I have a 3rd gen iPad and decided to give the mini a try. I was a little reluctant because of the display (it is definitely a step down from the 3rd gen), but I agree with Anand that the form factor is great. The full size iPad is a little heavy to hold and read on a train or airplane, but the mini excels at that. Hopefully Anand is wrong and Apple can figure out a way to get a Retina Display into the mini form factor sometime in 2013. If they do, I think that the mini would actually be the preferred iPad choice overall.I had an original Kindle Fire last year, but never used it much and wound up selling it. I think I'll keep the iPad mini, though for now I also think I'll keep the 3rd gen iPad.
ABR - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
The Mini is all well-and-good for the "carry-it-anywhere-squint-and-peer" crowd, but as someone who mainly uses my iPad on the couch and such around the house, I'd rather have one with a BIGGER display, not smaller. Make it thinner so there's no weight penalty, and with a display about the size of an 8-1/2x11 sheet, or a standard magazine. (Particularly since magazine and other media consumption is a big use.)uhuznaa - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
There's no way to make it thinner or just weight the same with a larger display. The display is a major power consument in tablets, make it larger, brighter or in a higher resolution and it draws *much* more power.PrayForDeath - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Hey Ananad,When can we expect to see the iPad 4 review? I'd love to read your in-depth analysis on the new hardware and how it compares to previous generations.
chleuasme - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Why on your pictures for the comparison of the letter 'e' and the 'topic of the webcast' text, the RGB components of pixels appear vertically aligned on the mini, and horizontally aligned on the iPad 2. And the contrary on the Safari icon comparison on the mini vs the 4?chleuasme - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
And same* thing* on the Safari iconA.T. - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
Please some "fanboy" leaves an and staff alone. I think they did a fair comparison, and comment about it. It is foolish to say that is 1 and a half year technology, why don't those fanboy army try to make it and fit the 45nm A5X or A6 with holding 10 hours battery life without make it thicker.It is a nice device for reading and easy to carry around but there is a downsize to become a productive tool at work. The price is relatively expensive than other, but the thing is Apple is a company that unlike google and amazon to cut their throat and sell it with no profit because Apple is software and hardware company and Google and amazon is ads and service company.
pliablemoosethebanned - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - link
I bought a N7, and use it every day,I'll be selling the N7 and replacing it with a mini, will likely wait till it hits the Apple refurb store though.
Build quality: the iPad mini wins, hands down,
Form factor: again, a big plus, the thing feels more like an e-reader than a tablet, and the extra screen real estate does make a big difference. 7" is just too small for a great smaller tablet experience.
Software: Yeah, iOS is due for an overhaul, but frankly, I have never used widgets that much, preferring to use folders to group the actual apps. I tire of widget overload, saw an SGN II the other day with the home screen filled with widgets and it was way too damn busy.
And as far as the "OMFG, Anand is biased" comments, give it a flipping rest, the man benches the crap out of the latest and greatest on a nearly daily basis, can he be allowed to like something you don't?
Anand likely cost Apple millions by proving the antenna system on the iP4 was defective, and he has some very strong empirically proven data that the iPad mini is a parts bin device with a screen that lags the industry. Yet the device meets his needs.
Spoelie - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
http://www.displaymate.com/iPad_mini_ShootOut_1.ht...It seems the reflections are the worst of its problems, as this tablet is more likely to be used outside