Apple iPad mini with Retina Display: Reviewed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 16, 2013 8:00 AM ESTCamera
The iPad mini with Retina Display features the same 5MP iSight rear facing camera and 1.2MP FaceTime HD camera as the iPad Air. Both are quite good for a tablet, aided by iOS’ excellent camera UI and the A7’s high performance ISP. The cameras also benefit from the same dual-mic setup of the iPad Air. I won’t talk too much about quality here as it’s no different than the Air, which I've already gone over in greater depth.
| Rear Facing Camera Comparison | |||||||
| Sensor | Resolution | Aperture | Focal Length | ||||
| Apple iPad Air | 5MP | 2592 x 1936 | f/2.4 | 3.3mm | |||
| Apple iPad 4 | 5MP | 2592 x 1936 | f/2.4 | 4.3mm | |||
| Apple iPad 3 | 5MP | 2592 x 1936 | f/2.4 | 4.3mm | |||
| Apple iPad 2,4 | 0.7MP | 960 x 720 | f/2.4 | 2.0mm | |||
| Apple iPad mini | 5MP | 2592 x 1936 | f/2.4 | 3.3mm | |||
| Apple iPad mini (Retina) | 5MP | 2592 x 1936 | f/2.4 | 3.3mm | |||
| Front Facing Camera Comparison | |||||||
| Sensor | Resolution | Aperture | Focal Length | ||||
| Apple iPad Air | 1.2MP | 1280 x 960 | f/2.4 | 2.15mm | |||
| Apple iPad 4 | 1.2MP | 1280 x 960 | f/2.4 | 2.18mm | |||
| Apple iPad 3 | 0.3MP | 640 x 480 | f/2.4 | 1.8mm | |||
| Apple iPad 2,4 | 0.3MP | 640 x 480 | f/2.4 | 1.8mm | |||
| Apple iPad mini | 1.2MP | 1280 x 960 | f/2.4 | 2.2mm | |||
| Apple iPad mini (Retina) | 1.2MP | 1280 x 960 | f/2.4 | 2.15mm | |||
WiFi & Cellular
The iPad mini with Retina Display inherits the same Qualcomm MDM9615 modem and 2-stream dual-band 802.11n from the iPad Air. The move to 2-stream 802.11n more or less doubles peak WiFi performance compared to last year’s mini. The mini's peak WiFi performance is pretty close to that of the iPad Air as well.
Lately I’ve really begun to appreciate the flexibility offered by tablets equipped with cellular modems. Especially now that it’s not terribly expensive to add a tablet to a shared data plan (or even free), the $130 LTE adder for the iPads is something worth seriously considering. The convenience of being able to pull out your tablet, wake it up, and immediately hop on the web/check email/tweet/etc… is awesome. Qualcomm's MDM9615 is a well known quantity at this point. I didn't run into any issues with its performance on the iPad mini.
| iPad Cellular Speeds | ||||||
| Property | iPhone 3G/3GS/iPad 1 3G | iPhone 4 / iPad 2 (GSM/UMTS) | iPhone 4 / iPad 2 (CDMA) | iPad 3 | iPad 4/iPad Mini | iPad Air/iPad Mini w/Retina |
| Baseband | Infineon X-Gold 608 | Infineon X-Gold 618 | Qualcomm MDM6600 | Qualcomm MDM9600 | Qualcomm MDM9615 w/RTR8600 |
Qualcomm MDM9615 w/WTR1605L |
| Max 3GPP Release Feature | Release 5 | Release 6 | Release 7 | Release 9 | Release 9 | Release 9 |
| HSDPA Category | Cat.8 - 7.2 Mbps | Cat.8 - 7.2 Mbps | N/A | Cat. 24 - 42 Mbps | Cat. 24 - 42 Mbps | Cat. 24 - 42 Mbps |
| HSUPA Category | None - 384 Kbps WCDMA only | Cat.6 - 5.76 Mbps | N/A | Cat.6 - 5.76 Mbps | Cat.6 - 5.76 Mbps | Cat.6 - 5.76 Mbps |
| EVDO | N/A | N/A | 1x/EVDO Rev.A | 1x/EVDO Rev.A | 1x/EVDO Rev.A | 1x/EVDO Rev.A |
| LTE | N/A | N/A | N/A | 100/50 UE Cat. 3 | 100/50 UE Cat. 3 | 100/50 UE Cat. 3 |
The new iPad mini, like the iPad Air, is extremely flexible from a mobile operator standpoint. Regardless of what operator you choose at the time of purchase, you can switch to others as long as you have an activated nano SIM (there’s apparently an exception for Sprint, but AT&T/T-Mobile/Verizon should all be easily switchable). The unlocked nature of the device makes it ripe for global use, especially with support for a total of 14 LTE bands (1,2,3,4,5,7,8,13,17,18,19,20,25 and 26).
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michal1980 - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
you must not have been here long enough. I'm still waiting for anand to change his name to appletigmd99 - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Prove his bias.tigmd99 - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
What has he said about either OS that is not true?Puberticus - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Seriously: if you don't like Apple gear and you weren't interested in a detailed review, why are you even commenting?pgari - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
I found Anand reviews a lot more unbiased (if any) than most of the people criticizing him: as a minimum he recognizes the weakness on Apple products as well the competitors' strengths, no as some people here who demonize Apple and reject all its products blindly.Disclaimer: My smartphone is a Nexus 5, my tablet a Venue 8 Pro and my laptop a MBA
tipoo - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Shame about the inferior display gamut and slower soc. Makes the choice between it and Air a bit muddier. Funny how when the first display comparisons went around the apple faithful thought it was a hoax, lol.solipsism - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
For me it's not a deal breaker as I never use my iPad much. It's mostly for reading so I'm hoping the iPad Mini will be a better fit than the 10" variant.Overall that display is very impressive, but those displays on Amazon Kindle HGX and Nexus 7 are even more impressive when you consider their cost. Sure, they aren't profiting and use them to sell there other services unlike Apple who's model is to sell HW, but's still impressive. The only reason I haven't chosen them since I can read just fine on them is the awful 16:10 and 16:9, respectively, aspect ratio. 4:3 is considerably more ideal and I wish others would follow.
teiglin - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Both of the Kindle Fire HDXs and the Nexus 7 are 16:10 (1920x1200 on the 7"-ers, and 2560x1600 on the HDX 8.9). Also the phrase "considerably more ideal" makes my brain hurt. As Brian once said, the battle for 4:3 is over and lost outside the iPad space (and LG phablets -_-)--even the iPhone gave up that ghost. I do miss 4:3 on the desktop though.solipsism - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
1) The iPhone was never 4:3.2) "More ideal" is not the same as "ideal".
3) There is obsolescing of aspect ratios as much you want to believe there is such a thing. There is only aspect ratios that are utilized for specific purposes and on a tablet 16:9 or 16:10 is not good for reading text, but 4:3 is. 16:9 is *more ideal* than 4:3 for video since it's closer to the common widescreen formats but most users don't spend the majority of their time watching videos.
teiglin - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
1) You're right, old iPhones were 3:2, but the point is that it gave up the fight against widescreen, just like other market segments.2) And I still take semantic issue with the idea of comparative ideal-ness--something is ideal, or it isn't. Something can be better or worse for a particular purpose, or closer to the ideal, but not more or less ideal.
3) Either you're missing a "no" in your first sentence, or I'm very confused. Either way, aside from my semantic quibbles, I don't generally disagree with what you're saying--4:3 is generally better for interacting with text than 16:9/10. Nevertheless, the fact remains that 16:9 is the standard for the vast majority of displays sold today, no matter how much I miss my first desktop LCD with its 5:4 aspect ratio.
What I find interesting in the discussion of aspect ratio is the lack of actual measurements. I mean, people mostly compare 7" tablets to the iPad mini, but the iPad mini's display is actually the same width as the 8.9" Kindle Fire's display (give or take a few hundredths of an inch). So maybe that should be the point of comparison for how much text you can display?