Launched almost three weeks ago, the tablet iPad Mini with Retina Display was launched by the mobile phone operator Orange Romania, and you can find it in their store here, a week and a half ago at prices equal to those of Apple Storefrom Europe. Thanks to the mobile phone operator, I also had the opportunity to play for a few days with the new product from Orange Romania, and today I will tell you about my experience with the tablet. I had the opportunity to test the 16 GB version, WiFi + 4G a iPad Mini with Retina Display, the model marketed in Romania being compatible with all 4G LTE networks in our country, internet browsing speeds being similar to those obtained by accessing a WiFi network.
Any way you look at it, the iPad mini is simply incredible. And the brilliant Retina display is just the beginning. With the new A7 chip, advanced wireless and outstanding apps—all seamlessly integrated into iOS 7—iPad mini with Retina display lets you do more than you imagined. It is identical down to the smallest features to the iPad Air. The difference is that the size is super portable, super one-handed, and still super fitting.
Most of those who tested the tablet were extremely impressed by the quality of the screen, but also by the performance of the product, the same being true in the case of the tablet iPad Air, both products having identical hardware and similar screens. Both tablets have the same great battery autonomy and the main differences are found in terms of design and dimensions, which can generate the motivation to choose one model or another.
Design
Compared to iPad Mini, iPad Mini with Retina Display it does not bring new elements in terms of design, Apple preferring to keep the external appearance of its tablets intact. This decision is similar to the one taken in the case of the tablet iPad Air, the new product having the same type of buttons, the same Lightning port, the same placement of the stereo speakers, but there are some differences regarding the thickness and weight of the units. More precisely, the iPad Mini with Retina Screen is only 0.3mm thicker than the tablet iPad Mini launched exactly one year ago, and with regard to the weight of the units, we are talking about a difference of 23 grams compared to the iPad Mini with Retina Screen when it comes to the WiFi Only model and about a difference of 29 grams in the case of the units Wi-Fi + 4G.
We have included a huge number of new and amazing features in iPad mini. It has the exceptional Retina display, the incredibly powerful A7 chip, advanced wireless connections and more. But it remains thin and light (and mini). It is only 7,5 mm thick and weighs just over a quarter of a kilogram. So you can do more without keeping too much.
The increase in thickness is normal and it occurred due to the fact that Apple implemented a Retina Display in iPad Mini with Retina Display, but we are not talking about a colossal difference. In the case of the iPad 3, Apple made an equally important change, and now the modified thickness of the new tablet is based on the inclusion of a larger battery that supports the Retina screen that needs more energy to be illuminated, but during normal use you will not feel any difference. Practically, even from a visual point of view, you will not notice any difference between the iPad Mini with Retina Screen and the iPad Mini tablet, so they will be quite difficult to distinguish if you fail to distinguish between the quality of the images.
Retina Display
The main novelty a iPad Mini with Retina Display this Retina Display- the 7.9 inch with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, 3.1 million pixels and 324 pixels per inch, this being the highest pixel density implemented in an iPad tablet screen. If you owned an iPad 2 tablet and made the switch to iPad 3, then you surely know what kind of impact you will feel in the case of switching from iPad Mini to iPad Mini with Retina Screen, the difference between the two screens being enormous. Images will be more vibrant, texts will be clearer, HD content will look absolutely great, you will be able to see high resolution images in their natural size, you will be able to view websites in full format without problems and this is the "magic" of a screen of high resolution that you will surely love.
Now your hand fits even better with an iPad mini. The Retina display has 3,1 million pixels—a million more pixels than an HDTV. That's a resolution of 2048 x 1536, four times the resolution of a previous generation iPad mini. In fact, the pixels are so close that they cannot be distinguished by your eyes. As a result, photos and videos have incredible detail and text outstanding clarity. That's because the best pixels are the ones you can't see.
The implementation of a Retina Display in the iPad Mini with Retina Screen represents a natural evolution for this product, a change that should not have been made now, the component had to be implemented since last year, but at the insistence of users and market pressure, Apple implemented it only last year this. Rushed by the need to bring to the market an iPad Mini tablet with a high resolution screen, Apple unfortunately made some mistakes that were discovered shortly after the product was launched. According to some experts in the field of screens for mobile terminals, those from Apple have implemented in the iPad Mini with Retina Screen a lower quality screen than those used in the iPad Air or iPad 4, it displays fewer colors than the components available in its predecessors.
Moreover, the Retina Display from iPad Mini with Retina Display is inferior to the main competing tablets, Google Nexus 7 si Amazon Kindle Fire HDX, in tests done by experts, and this is unusual for a company like Apple. If you look at the table from this article, you will quickly notice that the new product from Cupertino does not win in any chapter of the comparison, a sign that Apple would have rushed the launch of the device even if it had not been prepared to reach the market. Despite the differences of this kind revealed by the tests done so far, in real life you will not notice any difference between the iPad Mini with Retina Screen and competing tablets.
Going by the series of problems, you probably heard that iPad Mini with Retina Screen has problems with image retention, or ghosting, and I can confirm that this error is real, but it has no impact on use. Doing a simple test, I noticed that the new tablet really has problems with the retention of images, but they disappear in a few minutes of use and are not disturbing at all, the images "retained" by the screen being visible only on very dark background images. From my point of view this is a non-problem and there are small chances that new units will have it, but it is a reason for replacement under warranty, so if you are not satisfied you can change the tablet without problems.
Having said that, the Retina Display in the iPad Mini with Retina Screen is a great and necessary innovation since the launch of the first model of the tablet, and you will definitely be satisfied with it.
Hardware
As I told you from the beginning of the article, iPad Mini with Retina Display has exactly the same hardware as iPhone 5S si iPad Air, i.e. a face A7 de 64 bit, motion coprocessor M7, 1 GB RAM and quad-core graphics chip PowerVR G6430. Unlike the iPad Air, the new tablet has a dual-core processor clocked at 1.3 GHz, 100 MHz less, and this seriously differentiates the two products, their performances being different. Practically iPhone 5S si iPad Mini with Retina Display they will have exactly the same performance, as you can already see in this article, they are currently the fastest and most powerful mobile terminals on the market, being surpassed only in some graphics chip tests by some Android tablets.
The A7 chip takes iPad to new heights of power and speed. Thanks to the A7 chip, applications run faster. Games are more responsive. And everything you do with the iPad mini feels faster, because it's faster. More precisely, four times faster. And it's just the beginning. It supports OpenGL ES version 3.0 for detailed graphics and visual effects previously only possible on desktop computers and game consoles. And the A7 chip offers 64-bit architecture, opening horizons to even more robust and efficient applications. That means even more possibilities for what you can do with iPad mini.
Even if the new face A7 it has very high processing power, 64-bit technology and extremely efficient battery management are its other two important features. The 64-bit technology allows applications that support it to benefit from a much more efficient allocation of processor resources and RAM memory, this contributing to improving performance even in situations where developers have not updated their applications to make it 100% compatible with the new chip. Apart from this, the new A7 chip manages the energy available in the battery much more efficiently, this being extremely important in the case of the iPad Mini with Retina Screen because the new Retina Display consumes more energy than usual, and based on the A7 chip Apple managed to keep the dimensions of the tablet at normal values without implementing an extremely large battery.
iPad mini was designed to be always on the go. That's why the M7 coprocessor is the logical choice. It measures the movement of the iPad mini by extracting data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. Thus, the applications give you an even better user experience based on the movements of the iPad mini. This task would normally fall to the A7 chip. But the M7 does it more efficiently and saves energy.
In this whole equation, we must not forget the movement coprocessor M7, taking data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to provide accurate measurements and information regarding the movements made by the users holding the tablet. In order for all this information to be usable, the applications for iOS 7 must have support implemented for this chip, taking over part of the tasks that should normally have been performed by the chip A7, allowing an increase in the performance of iDevices.
Practically, the new A7 chip makes the iPad Mini with Retina Screen one of the fastest iDevices ever released by the Apple company, in the review for the iPhone 5S I explained all the technical details, but it is important to remember that by purchasing this tablet you will be holding one of the fastest Apple mobile terminals. At the moment, no smartphone or tablet Android it does not have better overall results than the iPad Mini tablet with Retina Screen from Apple, and this in the conditions that in it we find a dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM and in some Android terminals we have quad/octo-core processors and up to 3 GB of RAM.
iOS 7
Every new iDevice must come with an important function of iOS, and in case iPad Mini with Retina Display we can't talk about something special implemented in iOS 7 by Apple, as happened in the case iPhone 5S. iPad Mini with Retina Screen it has powerful hardware specially designed to run it iOS 7 without any problems and in front of iPad Air there are no differences in terms of functionality, both tablets benefit from exactly the same options. Even so, iOS 7 represents a major change compared to iOS 6 and if you are making the transition from an iPad Mini tablet to which you have not yet installed the new version of the operating system, then you will experience a radical and welcome change.
Since iOS 7 was designed for the iPad mini, everything not only looks beautiful, but also runs beautifully. In addition, iOS 7 introduces new exceptional features such as smarter multitasking, AirDrop and Control Center. So that everything you do daily is even simpler, faster and more pleasant. You have everything that made you fall in love with iOS. And the attraction is even stronger.
In the same vein, if you switch from an iPad Mini, or another old iPad tablet, to an iPad Mini with Retina Screen, then you will notice a major improvement in the performance of iOS 7, this version of the operating system working very well only on devices that have chip A7. However, drawing a parallel with the old devices, I must tell you that the only special function available only in iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Screen is AirDrop, the old tablets not having it active.
iPad mini is to take with you every day. Because it has apps for the things you like to do every day, like checking your email or talking to your mom on FaceTime. And now, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are free on iPad mini.3 So you can write the novel of the decade, finish your presentation, and compose the soundtrack for your family movie—all from iPad mini. And these applications are optimized for 64-bit architecture. So it runs smoothly and efficiently, and iPad mini — and you with it — can do more than ever. Since you turn it on.
In conclusion, I recommend you to read this article to find out all the news implemented by Apple in iOS 7.
Camera
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If you are expecting major changes regarding the camera of the iPad Mini tablet with Retina Screen, well I inform you that Apple has considered that both its small tablet and the iPad Air must have exactly the same cameras iSight, with exactly the same characteristics. Although it was rumored that both iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display will contain 8 megapixel cameras capable of taking great photos, unfortunately Apple decided to use the same cameras iSight of 5 megapixels which he improved in an insignificant way.
We think about the ingredients of an excellent picture, and all you have to do is create it. The 5-megapixel iSight camera on iPad mini helps you capture all the important moments in an instant. Use the Retina display as a viewfinder to frame your subject perfectly. With a simple slide of your fingers you choose between photography or HD recording at 1080p. Every time, the A7 chip's image signal processor teams up with the camera and makes a series of adjustments for great photos and videos — all automatically. You just have to think about who you want to share the moment with.
The main iSight camera of the iPad Mini with Retina Screen has 5 megapixels and compared to the one implemented in the iPad Mini, it has a larger focal angle, with the same f/2.4 aperture and the same 2592 x 1936 resolution for recording photos. The video clips are still recorded in Full HD format and in terms of quality you will not notice any difference compared to iPad Mini, iPad Air, iPad 4 or iPad 3, the same is true for photos, regardless of the conditions registered them. In practice, iPad tablets have useless cameras in low light conditions, because without an LED flash they cannot record decent images, but this is an inconvenience that you will have to overcome yourself.
Sometimes you want to see who you're talking to. And on iPad mini, conversations have never looked better thanks to FaceTime video calling. Make video calls over Wi‑Fi or the mobile network and see (or show) every expression on the gorgeous screen. 4 Now the FaceTime HD camera has a new generation BSI sensor with larger pixels. So all your FaceTime conversations, all your selfies and all your Photo Booth group shots are brighter, even in low light.
From the main camera we move to the front camera, which still has the same HD resolution for making video calls, but a slightly better focal angle. The front camera allows the recording of photos in 1280 x 960 pixel format and HD video clips, but they will not have a better quality than those recorded using the front cameras of the iPad Mini, iPad Air or iPad 4, and if we discuss the situations in which the light is not enough, then we have the same problem as in the case of the main room.
iPad mini hears you wherever you are. That's because it has two microphones. And they don't just capture more sound, they complement each other and capture better sound by suppressing audio from sources you don't care about. Thus, the audio signal in FaceTime calls is better because the background noise is reduced. And your video recordings sound clearer.
The good part of iPad Mini with Retina Display is that Apple has implemented two microphones in the tablet, they have the role of improving the audio quality of video clips, but also of FaceTime calls. Having a microphone to cancel background noises, the tablet can play sounds much clearer than the iPad Mini and your interlocutors will feel this in the case of video calls. Having said that, there is little news when it comes to cameras and you shouldn't expect anything else.
Autonomy
We mention in the section dedicated to design that Apple has slightly increased the thickness of the iPad Mini with Retina Screen to implement the new Retina Display and a larger capacity battery, and this change ensures the possibility of offering the same minimum 10 hours of autonomy for users. Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything personally about the battery autonomy, but all those who have tested it so far claim that you will get at least 10 hours of use in almost any conditions, which is exactly what Apple promises.
iPad mini is powerful, but without needing too much power. While it's up to four times faster than the previous generation iPad mini, it still gives you the same incredible 10 hours of battery life.1 That's because the A7 chip isn't just more powerful, it's also more efficient. So wherever you go with iPad mini, you'll have enough energy to go even further.
In order to continue offering the same great battery autonomy, Apple implemented in the iPad Mini with Retina Display a 6471 mAh battery that offers approximately 24 Whr, with almost 8 Whr more than the 16.3 Whr offered by the iPad Mini battery. Implemented a larger battery, it was normal for the charging time to increase, the iPad Mini with Retina Screen needing almost 4 hours to charge, fully when connected to an outlet with a charger provided by Apple.
In conclusion, using the iPad Mini with Retina Screen you will not feel any difference compared to any other Apple tablet, all offering approximately the same battery autonomy under normal conditions of use.
Conectivitate
Benefiting from the same hardware as iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina Screen has implemented MIMO technology for WiFi connections and of course it is compatible with an extremely large number of 4G LTE bands around the globe. Let's start with the GSM chip and tell you that the iPad Mini with Retina Screen is still able to access the 3G+ and 4G LTE networks in Romania, being able to reach speeds of up to 100 Mbps, if the network offers them. I was still saying that we have a surprise, and it is related to the support for 4G LTE networks, the new tablet being compatible with 14 4G LTE bands around the world (1/2/3/4/5/7/8/13/17 /18/19/20/25/26), Apple manufacturing the mobile terminal with support for most 4G LTE networks worldwide.
iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular lets you connect to the Internet even if you're far from a Wi-Fi signal. iPad mini supports even more bands to connect to even more cellular data networks around the world.2 Now, you can get online at really fast speeds — faster than broadband, in some cases — in more places. And internet subscriptions are flexible, so you don't need to sign a contract. Your new favorite app, book and movie. Next call on FaceTime or iMessage. Thanks to ultra-fast wireless connections, you can access the things you love directly from iPad mini. And more than ever, stay connected and up to date.
Regarding the speeds obtained in Romania, the tablet can reach over 57 Mbps without any problem on the Orange Romania network, but of course the speed can be lower or higher depending on the area where you test the network. In this article I have presented you with detailed information about 4G LTE coverage in Bucharest and the areas where you have the best speeds, Orange Romania being in the process of expanding the network, currently unavailable in other large cities in the country, with the exception of Brasov .
iPad mini gives you up to twice the Wi-Fi performance thanks to two antennas and MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology. With dual-band (2,4 GHz and 5 GHz) 802.11n Wi-Fi and MIMO, download speeds can reach up to 300 Mbps — twice as fast as the previous generation iPad mini. So now, when you want to download a movie, share photos or documents via AirDrop or simply hang out online, the connection is faster than ever.
From the GSM side we move to the Wi-Fi side, here Apple implementing the same MIMO technology available in the iPhone 5S terminal. By introducing two Wi-Fi antennas in the iPad Mini with Retina Screen, both compatible with the 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi standard, Apple was also able to use MIMO technology, or multiple-input multiple-output, allowing doubling the speeds can be reached using wireless networks. Practically this means that a capable router, such as AirPort Extreme, allows connecting to 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks in the 802.11n standard, users being able to reach theoretical speeds of up to 300 Mbps for internet browsing/downloading, iPad tablets launched in the past years being able to reach only a maximum of half of this speed.
The implementation of support for Wi-Fi MIMO technology is a pleasant surprise, but unfortunately you will have to have a router capable of supporting 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections on the 802.11n standard, otherwise you will not be able to benefit from all this speed. In conclusion, the iPad Mini with Retina Screen significantly improves connectivity in any conditions, so you will have access to the Internet at high speeds if the access points offer them.
Accessories
Considering that the iPad Mini with Retina Screen is slightly thicker than the iPad Mini, the Apple company thought of launching new models of its covers, the entire range being replaced. The new products are available in new colors, but unfortunately with a very big inconvenience. If in the past Apple offers leather Smart Covers with magnets, starting with the iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Screen, it has given up on this, selling only Smart Cases with a leather cover, the Smart Covers being available only with plastic covers.
iPad mini protection has never been more brilliant. When closed, the Smart Cover puts iPad mini to sleep and protects the screen. When you open the Smart Cover, iPad mini wakes up immediately. If you fold it, you have a stand. It is created from a single piece of polyurethane and comes in six intense colors.
I have owned a leather Smart Cover for over 2 and a half years and I am extremely satisfied with it, the quality being clearly superior to the one used in leather cases for iPhone 5S. Considering the quality of this product and the ease of using it with iPad tablets, I think that Apple made a bad decision by abandoning it, but those from Cupertino know better how to organize their business and keep making money from users.
For protection from all angles, the new iPad mini Smart Case covers you from all angles — front and back. The Smart Case has been endowed with a slim silhouette that molds perfectly to the iPad mini. Premium quality leather makes you experience luxury at every touch. And it's available in six gorgeous shades for a pop of color. Like the Smart Cover, the Smart Case wakes and sleeps iPad mini when opened and closed, and forms a comfortable stand by folding.
conclusions
I have presented this product in detail and now I will answer a question that I have received quite a few times in the last few days. What to choose between iPad air and iPad Mini with Retina Screen? The answer to this question is simple in my case and depends on each of you. I prefer tablets with large screens, tablets on which I can view information in a large format and I have a comfortable keyboard for my hand, so iPad Air is the choice I will make soon. Basically, the choice of one product or another lies only in preferences vis-à-vis size, because from the point of view of functionality there are no differences and everything boils down to what fits you better in your hand and you like it more.
iPad Mini with Retina Display is available in the Orange Romania offer, the only operator that sells it in our country, together with its accessories, at prices starting from 249€ in the case of purchasing the WiFi + 4G model together with a subscription, the standard prices being 5€ - 10€ higher than in the case of the Apple Store European stores and the best among trustworthy stores. Having said that, I thank the people from Orange Romania for the opportunity to test the iPad Mini with Retina Screen and I recommend you to go to an operator's store to test it.
