The 7.9in Apple iPad Mini made a jaw-dropping first impression when it arrived last year and a disappointing, nose-scrunching second one. Cooing over the slim, light and elegant design we could hardly believe our luck, brain cells frantically bashing into one another to try to make sense of tablet hardware this impeccable. Until we turned it on, that is. And saw a 1024x768 iOS homescreen of comparatively fuzzy icons and text – the likes of which we thought we’d left behind with the iPhone 3GS.
We understood that Apple had to do something to keep costs from spiralling out of control, but we were also a little heartbroken. Cupertino had given us a taste of this smaller, leaner iSlate and as soon as we had it in our hands, we knew exactly what we wanted: an iPad Mini with a Retina display. Not a slightly faster iPad 4 or iPad 5. A Retina Mini.What. More. Can. We. Say? The Mini was such a phenomenal piece of design – as important to Apple’s future slates as the iPhone 4 was to its smartphones – that not only is it almost identical on the second Mini but the 9.7in iPad Air is now just an oversized version of the smaller tab too.
With the cool-to-the-touch aluminium build, rounded edges and machined speaker grilles come the sheer terror of scratching or knocking it against your laptop, coffee cup or stray bony elbows. It’s also smooth enough to slip from the hand if you don’t rest those corners firmly in your palm creases. Everything becomes the enemy, your own butter fingers included. That’s why, criminal as it is, most Mini buyers will probably end up housing the iPad Mini’s famous form (now in Space Grey and Silver) in a case – at least Apple’s own Smart Case doesn’t add too much bulk.
It’s a touch heavier and a smidgeon thicker than last year’s model – 331g and 7.5mm versus the originals’ vital stats of 312g and 7.2mm. You honestly won’t notice either of these changes to the dimensions as they’re fairly tiny. What you will notice is the bump in speed thanks to the A7 chip and the bigger battery, which are no doubt responsible for the extra grams and micrometers.
As with the Air there’s no Touch ID fingerprint scanning for the Mini. But compared to the bigger iPad, this is a much niftier bit of kit. The Air is now thinner and lighter, but there’s no denying a 9.7in screen still takes up a fair bit of space. Occasionally you’re going to decide it’s too big to take out and will leave it on the bedside table at home. Not so the Mini.
Just remember, this isn’t a 7in tablet. It’s not quite as pocketable as the Google Nexus 7 or Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7in (the two main rivals we’ve been comparing it to). It’s not quite as light, either - though all three are light enough to hold for much longer periods than a 10in tab. And both 7in slates are more comfortable to type on with two hands than the Mini, too. So why are we sticking by the Mini? Because that extra screen space, especially the big vertical chunk, really does change how you use the iPad compared to its Android rivals.
0 comments:
Post a Comment