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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R0H1T - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
Too bad Apple fanbois need to be spoon-fed by this site & dozens like this one in order for'em to make an informed decision "to buy or not to buy" the latest iToy out in the market ):akdj - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
Sadly DBags like you wade though the review, 178 replies, and take the time to spew such drivel ONLY because your mother said "Hell No I'm not buying you one!! Get out. Get a job...buy one YOURSELF!"News. Flash. R0H1T....the iPad is no 'toy'. You certainly reveal your 12 maybe 13 year old age by calling it such. What was only a decade ago, even five years ago available only in lap or desktop form with two hours of batter life and spinning hard drives with less than a quarter the resolution has now become ubiquitous. Common place....and in many cases the ONLY computer many people need. Go on....feed you spider. Someday you'll be able to have one too
Grow. Up.
reggjoo1 - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
Let me get this out of the way, I think apple makes great tablets, but I won't leave android for ios. The Ipad mini, sounds great, and advances the game, hardware, and performance wise. I like android over ios, because you can make your device, your device. I can adjust how the memory performs, set permissions for my apps, change the look, and feel to my liking, etc.. Even if I see someone with the same model, brand, I know my android, is uniquely my own, you can't do that with apple, I like a os setup just for me, and look the way i want. Give apple it's props, but it's just not for me. In a few months, someone will come out with something anyway, I like the competition in mobile.tytung - Monday, November 18, 2013 - link
Easy, just jailbreak it, or wait until there's a jailbreak.hlovatt - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
Great review and amazingly quick after the device went on sale, it really must take a lot of time and effort to so comprehensively test a device. Great work.Pity that the iHater brigade are posting on AnandTech, the comments used to be so much more insightful. Rather than saying that Anand is biased for pointing out that 'a Nexus 7 isn't as good but is cheaper', it would benefit people who want to buy an Android tablet to say great product this is what I want for the next iteration of the Nexus. Competition is good, don't kill it.
Another alternative is that these people are paid to post negative comments on all good Apple reviews. If they are paid negative comments I hope they get found out and kicked off. That way we can all enjoy our geeking out without the painfully biased comments.
psyside1 - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
So this is why Nexus 5 review is not yet done, now its all clear.hlovatt - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
I think you are demonstrating that you are a one eyed iHater, e.g. in this very forum people are asking where reviews of the Apple MacBook Pro are. Does that make the site Dell biased? No, AnandTech have finite resources and such quality reviews take time so they unfortunately can't do everything and have to prioritise. Presumably they also rely on supply of product to review, they couldn't possibly afford to purchase everything they review.psyside1 - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
They cant afford? LOL!!!!!beggerking@yahoo.com - Monday, November 18, 2013 - link
exactly! i was wondering why Nexus 5 was not up while the the AIr went up the same day it was released.chubbypanda - Tuesday, November 19, 2013 - link
I'm afraid it's Brian, not Anand, who's working on Nexus 5 review.