Apple I Pad Mini Screen Review Although it's the same physical size as its seven-inch rivals, it packs a bigger 7.9 inch dcreen. You wouldn't think it, but this extra not-quite-an-inch gives the iPad mini around 35 percent more screen size than a 7 invh tablet, and the difference is noticeable. the 4:3 form factor, which is only really a disadvantage when it comes to watching movies since 16:9 content has to be shown with black bars at the top and bottom, or the sides cropped so it fills the screen. To keep things simple, and likely to keep costs down, the screen has the same 1024 x 768 resolution as the iPad 2. This means it can run the existing - and extensive - catalogue of iPad-specific apps. Most Android tablet owners have to put up with the phone versions of apps. The iPad mini's display has a higher pixel density than the original iPad and iPad 2 because it's around 2 8 inches smaller, but it's obvious that it's not as crisp as the iPhone or bigger iPad's Retina displays. Fortunately, it's still an IPS panel, so colours are vibrant and viewing angles excellent.
iPad mini review: Build quality What strikes you as you pick up the iPad mini is how light it is. It's less than half the weight of a third- or fourth-generation iPad, and 23 percent thinner. Despite this, build quality is spectacular and the mini feels as solid as a rock. The mini is also noticeably thinner and lighter than most of its 7 inch rivals, As expected it has the new Lightning connector, so you'll need an adaptor to use 30-pin accessories - not all of which will work.
. The button layout is identical to a 9.7inch iPad. Like all recent Apple iPads, the iPad mini has dual-band Wi-Fi, allowing it to roam across the less crowded 5GHz radio band. Apple also lists channel bonding in its spec, where two adjacent 20MHz channels are combined to make a 40Hz channel for potentially greater throughput. Most people won't get this benefit, though, as few have a router with a 5GHz radio, or one that can operate on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously.
iPad mini review: Performance
Another similarity with the iPad 2 is the processor. The A5 chip is getting a bit old, but our benchmark results show it can still rub shoulders with the current crop of 7 inch tablets. Importantly - and this is something benchmarks often fail to reflect - the iPad mini feels snappy in use, whether loading apps, scrolling around maps or browsing the web.
In the SunSpider JavaScript test, the iPad mini scored 1442ms, which puts it towards the head of the pack, but in the synthetic Geekbench 2, it managed only 752 - not a great score compared to the Nexus 7 (1452) and even the Kindle Fire HD (1124). For gaming, it's still pretty good, managing 24fps in GLBenchmark 2.5.1. The Kindle Fire HD could muster only 8.2fps here, and the Nexus 7 just 14fps. It shows that, when it comes to more demanding games, the iPad mini leads the way.
In terms of battery life, we found the mini didn't quite live up to Apple's 10-hour claim. Running our usual video-looping test, we recorded just 7 hours and 21 minutes with Wi-Fi turned on. That was at maximum screen brightness, however, so at a lower brightness, you might just reach 10 hours.
iPad mini review: Software
A slight surprise is the presence of Siri - Apple's voice assistant - as it was previously thought the processor was the reason for not including it on the iPad 2. The mini has most of the other headline iOS 6 features as well, including flyover maps and VIP mail, but doesn't get a panorama mode in the Camera app. You can, of course, download any number of apps which will automatically stitch photos together for you. Try Microsoft's Photosynth for great 360-degree vistas.
One neat addition to iOS is that it recognises if you're resting your thumb on the side of the screen or interacting with an app. The side bezels are just 5mm wide so touching the screen is inevitable, especially when reading an eBook.
