The only catch is that the 2013 upgrades come at a price: $399 for the base 16GB configuration. That’s $70 more than when the Mini debuted last year (that 2012 model remains on sale, with a price cut to $299). And it's significantly more than rival tablets from Google and Amazon. On the other hand, it’s also $100 less than the base iPad Air model.
With the screen and spec caveats of last year's Mini, it presented a real compromise compared to the big iPad of the time. This year? There aren’t really any technology drawbacks at all compared to the full-size iPad. It’s literally down to a size preference, and value proposition. Do you want to pay $400 for a mid-size tablet -- or $500 for its big brother? Or are you more comfortable with Android and Amazon models that are considerably more affordable?
Design: Retina display...and a tiny bit heavier and thicker
Nothing’s really changed in the iPad Mini’s form. It has the same basic compact design as last year, which the iPad Air now also adopts: thin side bezels, a flat back, and a generally wafer-thin, metal-and-glass look. It’s actually a tad thicker and heavier than the older model -- 23 grams for the Wi-Fi version, 29 grams for the 4G model -- but you’d never know it from holding it. I’ve used an iPad Mini for a year, and holding a new one at Apple’s event felt nearly identical. The Mini’s much smaller than a larger iPad, but it’s still not really pocket-friendly unless you have very large, deep pockets.
The Mini comes in two colors: white and silver looks the same as last year, but the black and slate model’s been subtly adjusted to space gray, using the same lighter-metal back as the iPhone 5S and iPad Air.
As for the screen...well, that’s a big improvement, indeed. Other 7-inch tablets routinely hit 1080p resolution, such as the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HDX, with 1,920x1,080 resolutions and 323 pixels per inch. The Mini’s 2,048x1,536 resolution amounts to 326 pixels per inch, offering even better pixel density over a larger amount of screen real estate. And the Mini’s screen is 7.9 inches with a more square-ish 4x3 aspect ratio -- not the 7-inch widescreen form factor of the aforementioned Google and Amazon models.
As we mentioned, the Retina Mini has a 64-bit A7 processor, just like the iPhone 5S and iPad Air. It also has an M7 coprocessor, which helps track motion and could be used for motion-aware apps and to reduce strain on battery life. It has a better front-facing camera than the last Mini, an improved MIMO Wi-Fi antenna (but no 802.11ac wireless), and improved LTE connectivity internationally for LTE models.
In a lot of ways, the Retina Mini’s much like the iPhone 5S, except it lacks a fingerprint-sensing Touch ID home button: this year’s iPad home button still has a square on it, and won’t do anything with your fingerprint except collect a slight smudge.
Price: clearly no budget mini-tablet
This isn’t a budget tablet, but it’s clearly not meant to be. It’s a packed-to-the-gills little tablet beast. The storage configurations now add a 128GB model: the Wi-Fi-only 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models cost $399, $499, $599 and $699 respectively. LTE-equipped versions, available in the US from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, cost $129 more: $529 to a sky-high $829.
The iPad Mini’s already been designed to truly do a lot of tasks equally as well as a larger-size iPad, and that Retina Display makes it a better e-reader, Web browser and photo viewer. But its price seems to acknowledge its versatility. And, while it’s $100 less than an iPad Air for the same specs and promised battery life, some people will inevitably consider paying up just for a physically larger screen on the Air, even at the same resolution.
iPad Mini versus the non-Apple competition
Of course, the tablet world is no longer an Apple-only affair. To that end, the iPad Mini with Retina is entering a very competitive landscape of small and midsize tablets (7 to 9 inches). The 7-inch Google Nexus 7 -- with its crisp 1080p screen -- starts at $229 for 16GB, and costs just $269 to double that storage capacity; the 32GB model with LTE can be had for $349 -- $50 cheaper still than the Wi-Fi-only, 16GB version of the Retina Mini.
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