Gadgetory

this is David with the verge and this is the iPad Mini with Retina display this is the tablet we've known was coming for 12 months since Apple released the first iPad Mini last year but when Apple announced it this fall the new 7.9 inch iPad came as a bit of a surprise its spec 4 spec almost identical as the iPad air with the same processor the same screen resolution the same storage options and the price went up the iPad Mini with Retina display starts at $399 for 16 gigabytes of storage and goes all the way up to a crazy 829 dollars for 128 gigs of storage and LTE the word mini used to mean something pejorative as if it was the weaker little brother of the standard larger iPad but this year Mini doesn't mean less it just means well smaller unlike the new iPad air the iPad Mini didn't get a big visual overhaul this year the air actually looks a lot like the mini now and the mini hasn't changed much it comes in Apple's new trademark silver and Space Gray and it's every bit as impressive as it was a year ago it's so solid so sturdy so compact it feels much colder and more machine-like than the Nexus 7 and it's a little harder to hold in one hand just because it's so thin and so wide but it's still totally unmatched in its build quality the Mini with Retina Display weighs about three-quarters of a pound and it's 7.5 millimeters thick thinner but slightly heavier than the Nexus 7 and actually imperceptibly heavier and thicker than last year's I've had many I can't say and notice the difference though it feels fantastic in two hands though in mine it's still too big to use comfortably in one with the same metal housing the same smooth back in the same tiny bezels the mini looks the same as it always did and then you turn it on the minis new 7.9 inch 2048 by 1536 display is just ridiculously gorgeous it's the same resolution as the iPad air but smaller obviously and it's 324 pixels per inch is incredibly high incidentally it's pixel density is almost identical to the Nexus 7 which has an also beautiful seven-inch 1920 by 1200 display the screen is beautiful and accurate it makes reading more fun games more immersive and watching videos all the better even if the 4:3 aspect ratio does lead to some pretty serious letterboxing together with the new super powerful a7 processor the new screen really changes the way I think about the iPad Mini I could read for hours on the Mini or watch movies without ever really remembering I was looking at a small screen this doesn't feel like a weaker cheaper version of the nine points I pet anymore just a smaller lighter one the a7 processor is crucial to because powering high res display like that is hard particularly heavy games do cause the iPad Mini to stutter but for the most part its really smooth and really fast the m7 motion coprocessor is here as well along with a FaceTime HD camera on the front a five megapixel camera on the back and the same dual microphones in stereo speakers as last year's model the new a7 is really the point and it makes a huge huge difference but it can't completely solve some of the problems iOS 7 still creates for all its power the iPad Mini with Retina display still stutters when you close an app using the five finger gesture iOS 7 just doesn't feel like it's done for the iPad I've had no huge earth-shattering problems but just too many tiny ones that said though iOS has one thing the Nexus 7 KitKat and Google can't touch the AppStore 475,000 tablet optimized apps Tim Cook told us and from paper and GarageBand all the way down to Twitter and Facebook the simple reality is that even as Android catches up to the iPhone it's in a distant second to the iPad when it comes to apps gaming might be the biggest discrepancy and it's one of the most fun things to do on the minis new Retina display I play ridiculous fishing the room and dozens of other games and too many of the best ones simply don't exist for Android tablets there's one downside to getting the mini such a high res screen some things can seem really ridiculously small some icons are navigational elements can be a little harder to press on the smaller screen they look great but they're not quite as roomy as on the iPad air for all the extra power and all the extra pixels the iPad minis battery life is still impressively good the 10 hours Apple claims is pretty close to correct though that's constant heavy use with more normal usage I'd expect to charge at every three or four days and the iPad minis battery life is mostly something you'll never have to worry about the iPad Mini with Retina display is in a weird spot on one hand it's competing with the Nexus 7 itself a beautifully crafted high-res tablet that starts at 170 dollars cheaper than Apple's tablet if all you want to do is watch Netflix or read books it's not an easy call between the two I like the iPad minis Hardware more and loved the 4:3 aspect ratio for reading and playing games but the Nexus 7 is really a spectacular tablet of course if you want to do more with your tablet it's no competition the iOS App Store is more than worth the price difference on the other side the $399 iPad Mini is far more similar to the $499 iPad air than the two models ever were before it's every bit the iPad Air's equal in every important way both tablets are portable beautiful and powerful do you want the big one or the small one no matter who you are or what you do with a tablet you can't really pick wrong and that might be the best thing about the iPad Mini there's not a single compromise anywhere I think that's worth paying a little more for