Just one day after the announcement of Apple's latest gadget, the iPad mini, the dust is beginning to settle but the excitement is still fresh. Is the iPad mini worth the trouble? I'm not sure, but I am sure of one thing and that is no matter if the iPad mini is worth the money, people will buy them...lots of them. Before we start getting into why I think the iPad mini is or is not worth your time and money, let's review a little bit about it.
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| iPad mini Mail App |
The iPad mini is essentially a smaller iPad 2. The screen size measures in at 7.9" compared to the iPad 2's at 9.7". It's lighter and thinner and has a smaller bezel on the long sides of the display. It comes in both black and white variations like the iPad 2 and has the same screen resolution of 1024 x 768. The same resolution allows the apps to run exactly as they would on the larger iPad 2 which is a good thing. Developers (the people who make the apps and games) will not have to do anything to their existing apps which means that all 275,000+ apps will work right out of the box on the iPad mini. You can expect about 10 hours of use before the battery needs to be recharged. One new thing to the iPad family (besides the change in size) is the substitution of the 8 pin Lightning dock connector for the older 30 pin Apple dock connector. Even with the new connector the iPad mini is only capable of USB 2.0 standards instead of the newer USB 3.0. So now that we have an understanding of what the specs are, let's see if we can translate them into practical application for your everyday use.
First I want to start off with the size. The smaller size makes it easier to take with you, but it also makes things harder to read. By keeping the same resolution of the larger iPad 2 this shouldn't be a problem unless you have poor eye sight. It is also going to be more comfortable to hold for extended periods of time because it is considerably lighter. I believe the biggest benefit of the smaller size is with gaming. The larger 9.7" touchscreen is just not ideal. The buttons are hard to reach and you need to remove one of your hands to reach certain areas of the screen. The 7.9" display will almost eliminate this issue. Games will become much more enjoyable on the iPad mini for this reason.
Second, the iPad mini is just as capable as the new iPad for $170 less. The cheaper price is a huge value for Apple customers. Apple will be able to reach a new demographic now with this price point and we will see even more people carrying iPads. One major drawback about this price is that this upcoming Christmas season is going to be a nightmare trying to find one without a pre-order. If you decide that the iPad mini is for you then I highly recommend making a pre-order for the iPad mini. I usually don't suggest pre-ordering anything that doesn't give you some added benefit like free accessories or downloads, but I have experience working for a cellular carrier and I've experienced several Apple releases including all previous versions of the iPad. Let me tell you, it will be absolutely crazy on iPad mini day.
Third, the new connectivity options are a decent improvement over the previous iPads. The new Lightning connector is used for charging and syncing your device to the computer. Although you don't get faster transfer speeds or quicker charging times, the connector is reversible which means you won't need to figure out which way to connect it. Apple also added a new wifi chipset to include a technology called MIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out). This is basically a faster wifi chipset for quicker transfer speeds wirelessly. These improvements are marginal but welcomed nonetheless.
Finally, the OS is still the same old iOS. Nothing new here which can be a good thing or a bad thing. There is no doubt that the interface is showing it's age. Not to say that it looks bad, in fact it is one of the best looking mobile OSes out there. It just feels kind of stale after 5 years of virtually no changes to how you interact with the device. It is very fast opening apps and switching between them and there are very few bugs. The lack of customization is sometimes frustrating. And I don't mean customization like Android necessarily. I just mean that you can't change your default apps like Safari and that irritates me. I would like to be able to change which app is opened by default when it is associated with a specific type of file or action. That being said I believe that this will be the best 7"-8" tablet on the market. It's not perfect, but how can you screw up the iPad by adding all the benefits of a smaller package? The answer is, you can't, unless you're the Detroit Lions. In that case you can.
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