iPad mini Conclusions:
The iPad mini is certainly a very capable small Tablet, but it does not follow in Apple’s tradition of providing the best display, or at least a great display – it has just a very capable display. What’s more, the displays on existing mini Tablets from Amazon and Google outperform the iPad mini in most of our Lab tests as documented below in the Shoot-Out Comparison Table. Some of this results from constraints within the iPad product line, and some to realistic constraints on display technology and costs, but much of it is due to a number of poor choices and compromises.
Lower Screen Resolution:
Many people were expecting a Retina Display like the new iPad 3, but that would have required a 326 Pixels Per Inch display with more than 4 times the screen area of the iPhone 5. That is currently out of the question for both cost and manufacturing volume and yield since it would need to be Low Temperature Polysilicon. Given that Apple has been sticking with either 1024x768 or 2048x1536 iPad displays for compatibility reasons, that meant the iPad mini had to be 1024x768 with 163 Pixels Per Inch. But that’s now considered to be rather on the low side, especially given that the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7 both have considerably sharper displays with 216 Pixels Per Inch. So Apple, the inventor of Retina Display marketing, now has a significant competitive shortfall on this very issue…
Improving Screen Sharpness:
Apple could have increased the iPad mini Screen Resolution in the same way as it did for the iPhone 5 – simply having older Apps running Letterboxed inside a higher resolution display, which would have been a great way to provide a higher Pixels Per Inch display. iOS and newer Apps would have used the full higher Resolution – that didn’t happen. While screen Resolution gets lots of attention from both consumers and marketers – it’s really only critical for providing visually sharp text – but that applies for most applications running on a Tablet. As we have pointed out a number of times, the best way to increase visual text sharpness on any display is by using Sub-Pixel Rendering, which Apple should now implement in order for the iPad mini to become competitive on visual sharpness…
Viewing Widescreen Content:
All of the iPads have a 4:3 Aspect Ratio screen, rather than the 16:10 or 16:9 Aspect Ratios found on most other Tablets. One advantage of the iPad’s more square 4:3 screen shape is that it lends itself better for use in both Landscape and Portrait viewing modes. Another is that a 4:3 screen is often better suited for reading because it has the same Aspect Ratio as content on 8.5x11 inch documents. But another major application for mini Tablets is viewing widescreen video content with Aspect Ratios of 16:9 (and higher for many movies). On the iPad mini 16:9 content is viewed Letterboxed with only 1024x576 Resolution, which is getting pretty close to Standard Definition video rather than true High Definition 1280x720 video on most other mini Tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7. A much better screen resolution choice for the iPad mini would have been 1280x960, because it could then deliver true HD video content, satisfactory Letterboxing for older 1024x768 Apps, plus much sharper text for reading…
Higher Screen Reflectance:
The iPad mini is the most portable of the iPads so it will often be used under brighter ambient lighting than full sized Tablets. As a result it’s more important for the mini to have a low Reflectance screen, otherwise reflections from the higher ambient lighting will reduce screen visibility and wash out the images and colors. Most displays are now coming with lower Reflectance screens. The Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7 managed to accomplish this, even at their low price points, but the iPad mini comes with an unusually high Reflectance – it reflects 53 percent more ambient light than the Nexus 7 and 41 percent more than the Kindle Fire HD. This is another poor choice and another significant competitive shortfall…
Smaller Color Gamut:
The previous generations of LCD Tablet and Smartphone displays had smaller Color Gamuts in order to improve their screen Brightness, Power Efficiency, and Battery Running Times. But that’s been changing due to both technology and competition. Full standard Color Gamut displays not only deliver more accurate and vivid colors, but are better in high ambient lighting because the additional color saturation improves image contrast. While the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 had reduced 61-64 percent Color Gamuts the new iPad 3 and iPhone 5 have full 100 percent standard Color Gamuts. So it was a surprise and major disappointment for the iPad mini to arrive with an antiquated smaller 62 percent Color Gamut, especially considering that the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7 both managed to deliver considerably larger 86 percent Color Gamuts. That’s another poor choice and another significant competitive shortfall…