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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ws3 - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Well there you go. Apple makes excellent products, so they get good reviews. What a surprise.Other people also make excellent products and get good reviews. So what's your beef?
p_giguere1 - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Objectivity is equality in opportunity, not outcome.The fact Apple products may get recommended more often than competing products in no way proves a lack of objectivity.
BPB - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Agreed.Dennis Travis - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
I like Windows Phones but lets face it, App support is very bad. If I can't get what I need to do what I need to do, I will go to a product that has the support. WP8 does not have that support at the moment anyway.kyuu - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
What a bunch of BS. What oh-so-important apps aren't present on WP8?Puberticus - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Most of them.MarcSP - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
I have all the apps I need in WP. You do not represent everybody. Case by case.MonkeyPaw - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
Perhaps he knows that he's writing to mainly potential Apple buyers. Let's face it, most people are going to stick with the platform they've already invested in (like apps, music, and videos).That said, I never pick up this "bias" that people claim, and I feel these Apple-bias complaints waste so much comment space here. Anand never says "go buy an Apple product or your family will disown you." He doesn't even talk about Apple's peripheral products (Airplay, iTunes, iCloud, etc.), he just calls the products what they are. I don't own a single Apple product, and I'm not a fan of iOS, but I can totally see the quality in Apple's product line, and I can even see why someone would like iOS. I own a Surface 2 and Lumina 521, but I won't deny that Apple makes a good product that lots of people like. That's all I hear Anand say in his articles. The site reviews the hardware, and lets the buyer decide what they want to buy. I just don't get why people take it so personally.
Puberticus - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
I think people literally cannot face the prospect that they bought the wrong product. And many will defend what they did to the last dying breath. It literally becomes a religious issue.Which IMHO, makes no sense since the technology in question doesn't give a damn about the owner. You can see it on other sites; the minute an Apple product is mentioned, the android fans come out of the woodwork for no other reason than to dis it. And it's obvious they've never touched the product they're criticizing. What the heck is that all about?!?
Absolutely bizarre.
KoolAidMan1 - Sunday, November 17, 2013 - link
Android fanatics on tech forums are louder and more irrational than any Apple user I've ever seen. Its weird since iDevices cross between both PC and Mac users.Teenage console fanboys are more sane than some of those people.