“The iPad mini, Apple’s first tablet to feature a smaller display, is very light. So light that when I picked up the box it crossed my mind there was no iPad mini inside, just a charger plug, cable and, you know, gubbins,” David Phelan writes for The Independent. “But there it was nestled into the lid… It’s not as light as a monochrome ebook reader like the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, but it beats the other 7in colour-screen tablet contenders… Being lighter than these rivals is a big deal. If you’re going to hold an ebook, the lighter the better. And the iPad mini is thin, too, way thinner than the Nexus or Fire HD.”
“Where rivals are glass and ridged plastic, Apple’s model is glass and aluminium. Choose the black version and the back is a dark, smokey colour while the fashion-forward white edition has a lighter, silvery back. It is far and away the glitziest small-screen tablet with exceptional build quality and rich details like the chamfered edges that give the frame a pleasing finish,” Phelan writes. “This is a high-end gadget.”
Phelan writes, “In most usage, the iPad mini display is way more than good enough. It makes video playback look tremendous and you can zoom in on widescreen movies so they fill the screen – something Amazon’s LoveFilm app doesn’t permit. Open iBooks or the iPad Kindle app and the display makes print look sharp, crisp and highly readable. After all, this new machine’s screen has crammed all the pixels from the iPad 2 into a smaller space, so of course it’s sharper, and few people complained about the iPad 2 screen being less than attractive.”
“Oh, and if you plump for a ‘wi-fi and cellular version,’ you can get the blisteringly fast 4G LTE speeds promised by EE when its network goes live this week,” Phelan writes. “If all this makes the iPad mini a no-brainer of a purchase, it very nearly is. The only other reason to pause is the price… Aesthetically, the iPad mini is the most attractive tablet from any manufacturer yet, including Apple. It feels better in the hand than other small-screened tablets. The materials alone mean it’s no wonder it costs more and – I’d say – it’s worth it.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
CNET reviews Apple’s iPad mini: The new standard for little-tablet design – October 31, 2012
NYT’s Pogue reviews Apple’s iPad mini: ‘All the iPad goodness in a more manageable size; it’s awesome’ – October 31, 2012
USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple’s iPad mini: ‘A splendid choice; terrific for reading, watching movies and playing games’ – October 31, 2012
Mossberg reviews Apple’s iPad mini: ‘An impressive feat; the perfect solution’ – October 31, 2012