Gadgetory

should you spend the extra cash on the new iPad Mini or save some and get the old one I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is the old iPad Mini versus the iPad Mini with Retina display last year Apple released the first edition of the 7.9 inch iPad lineup dubbed the iPad Mini compared to its full sized iPad sibling the Mini was seemingly a bit of a trade-off a cut in power and quality in favor of additional portability thanks to a reduction in both size and weight that trade-off or what many perceived as a compromise was the pitfall of the iPad Mini but Apple is at it again and this time it's no holds barred is the iPad Mini with Retina display the reboot the iPad Mini lineup needed or does it still leave much to be desired let's take a look we're not going to bore you with the intricate details when it comes to hardware just know this the old iPad Mini and iPad Mini with Retina display feature virtually identical designs and build quality they bear the same chassis x' or almost the same chassis x' some adjustments were made to account for the Retina display and additional battery at 200 millimeters tall 134 point 7 millimeters wide and 7.5 millimeters thick the new iPad Mini is just 0.3 millimeters thicker than last year's model the Wi-Fi only model of the original Mini was 308 grams while the LTE model the one we have on hand is 312 just a tad heavier is the new iPad Mini with Retina display 331 grams the only other notable difference is the addition of another mic near the top edge on the new iPad Mini and of course the LTE antenna cover which are new Wi-Fi only iPad Mini does not have aside from that the major differences are all on the inside last year's mini came in three storage capacities 16 32 and 64 gigabytes with 512 megabytes of RAM it's powered by an a5 chip composed of a one gigahertz dual-core CPU and a dual-core CPU it's fitted with a five megapixel rear camera and a 1.2 megapixel front camera and keeping things running is the 16 point 3 watt hour battery the iPad Mini with Retina display offers one additional storage option 128 gigabytes it comes with 1 gigabyte of ddr3 ram and is powered by the new a7 chip set a 1.3 gigahertz dual-core si you in a quad-core GPU it too has a 5 megapixel camera around back and 1.2 megapixel camera up front but it's battery is rated at 20 3.8 watt hours as indicated by the name the biggest difference however is the display both are 7.9 inch IPS LCD panels but the original iPad Mini came with a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels a density of 162 pixels per inch the Retina display I've had many bears a resolution of 2048 by 1536 pixels and a density of 324 pixels per inch and the difference can't be understated color seems slightly more saturated on the original iPad Mini but differences in contrast brightness and black levels are indistinguishable to the naked eye the retina display appears more neutral and temperature whereas the original airs on the warm side and the difference in clarity is incredible details are simply lost on the original iPad Mini display yet the finer details are accentuated on the retina display it's an impressive difference and if you're a pixel junkie like many of us here at pocket now this is all you need to see to justify the difference in price edges of icons are smooth and text is sharp the original meaning offers jagged edges on just about everything individual pixels are visible and this is not an issue on the new model and hardware alone these two devices look virtually identical but turn on the display and it's clear which takes the cake in this battle not to mention the upgraded internals are much needed and welcomed software between these two tablets is identical feature for feature essentially iOS 7 looks more fresh and cleaner with a handful of new features such as control center airdrop and improved test switching if you'd like to see more on iOS 7 we've extensively covered it and walk through videos and previous reviews the other important difference between last year's iPad Mini and the new Mini is performance the difference in the a5 and a7 chips is staggering apart you may not immediately see a difference the a5 is decent at running everyday tasks and simple applications however its performance in gaming sometimes suffers thanks to the two additional GPU cores double the RAM and a more efficient CPU the a7 doesn't show any signs of lag or stutter even in graphic intensive gaming both open applications and switch applications quickly but then your iPad Mini is a half beat ahead of the older Mini at just about everything it does the difference in benchmark performance may help put it into perspective a bit if that's your sort of thing the new iPad Mini finishes the SunSpider JavaScript test while the old Mini is just getting warmed up and it finishes nearly three times faster the speakers you would expect to be virtually identical but they have their differences located in the same place one on each side of the Lightning port along the bottom edge the older iPad Mini speakers have a little more punch behind them providing more volume yet the iPad Mini with Retina display speakers sound more full after extensive time with the old iPad Mini its battery life was always pretty impressive only needing to be charged every other day with heavier usage it's possible to run the battery down entirely in a single day but it takes some determination so far the newer iPad Mini is much of the same story the Retina display and a7 warranted a larger battery but Apple has seemingly maintained the 10-hour standard will provide more detail in the full review finally cameras they're fairly comparable between the two generations sometimes the new iPad would provide a washed-out image with a poor focus the next time the old iPad Mini would and the newer iPad will take a better shot every time it was back and forth and the only consensus we can come to is both are decent at taking pictures not bad not great and still just as awkward to hold and shoot with the answer to the hundred dollar question which is the better vibe is quite obvious the iPad Mini with Retina display offers the same great design and only adds 0.3 millimeters to the thickness and 23 grams to its heft while also improving the specs across the board it has a significantly better display performance is noticeably more smooth and it comes with an additional storage option and twice the RAM we'd be hard-pressed to recommend the older iPad Mini to anyone who values performance and display quality that said you can get more bang for your buck with last year's model it's $100 cheaper than the current model and at $300 it's not a bad deal simply put however the iPad Mini with Retina display is just a better deal at $400 if you're even considering the iPad Mini with a Retina display go for it you'll be much happier in the end that's all for now folks if you enjoyed the video let us know by clicking the thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see more videos like this one in the future as well as more iPad Mini coverage over the next few weeks be sure to follow us in all the usual places twitter google+ and facebook at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time