The iPad Mini BLOWS the first generation Kindle Fire

The average human retina (20/20 vision) can no longer distinguish between two pixels when the field of view (FOV) angle is 0.000333 radians. Steve Jobs used this to say a 300 dpi screen held 10" from the eyes (retina) would not show pixels to the average human eye. We can apply that principle mathematically to determine at what distance various resolution screens need to be held in order to no longer distinguish between two pixels, that is, see individual pixels.

Here is a comparison list of commonly available devices:

• For 326 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 9.2" (iPhone5)
• For 268 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 11.2" (iPad3)
• For 216 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 13.9" (Fire HD, Nexus 7)
• For 170 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 17.6" (original Fire)
• For 162 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 18.5" (iPad Mini)
• For 132 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 22.7" (iPad1 and 2)

In all likelyhood most people will not routinely hold the iPad1, iPad2, iPad mini, and original Fire far enough away from their eyes in order to no longer see individual pixels. The Fire HD, Nexus 7, and many newer smartphones similar to the iPhone5 resolution are more likely to be held at an adequate distance to no longer see individual pixels.

That of course is with average vision, so everyone will experience something a bit different. Also this is just one aspect of a screen. The quality of the screen is very important, as are other factors like font rendering, etc. For some people, the pixelization might not matter at all. When I used to read on PDAs with low resolution screens (less than 100 ppi) I found it readable but not very good. Now that I've been spoiled by high resolution screens I cannot use the older devices anymore as I would be too aware of the pixelizaton and that would be too much of a distraction.

I personally find that 200+ ppi works best with my eyes. My first iPad was an iPad1 and it was okay for running apps and light web browsing, but any activity requiring a lot of reading was very problematic as text was too fuzzy and pixelated. On the other hand my iPad3 works well with any task as the screen and text are sharp and crisp. I find the text on my Fire HD is sharp and any pixelization is rarely noticeable. For my eyes, I think dropping down to the iPad mini resolution would be pushing the edge a bit too much and I would most likely have issues when reading for long durations. I wanted the mini just for reading, but after looking at the specs and price I went with the Fire HD instead. If the 2nd generation mini can increase the resolution to over 200 ppi I'll probably buy it.

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by afv011

Excuse me for pointing out information that is likely to be useful to a reading community.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Skydog

The Nexus 7 blows them both. And it's quad core too.

I'm not too fond of my Nexus 7 anymore.
Maybe I've got a "Monday unit", but others have confirmed my experience.
Sometimes, it's painfully slow and even crashes frequently.
For example all the time in my Kindle app.
Maybe it's my 700 books from Amazon?
But they work perfectly fine on Kindle Fire HD, all other Kindles, Sony Tablets P and S, Motorola Xoom 2 and so on.
On Nexus 7, Kindle app crashes all the time. Sometimes, after telling it to "wait", it actually works. Sometimes I simply have to kill it.
And it's always slow, when working with lots of files.
For example when scrolling through the installed apps. Or when choosing one for deinstallation.
No idea, whether that's JB 4.x or the Nexus itself.
Never have been a huge fan of Asus though. Hated my Eeepad Transfomer = worst of my Android tablets so far.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I'm not too fond of my Nexus 7 anymore.
Maybe I've got a "Monday unit", but others have confirmed my experience.
Sometimes, it's painfully slow and even crashes frequently.
For example all the time in my Kindle app.
Maybe it's my 700 books from Amazon?
But they work perfectly fine on Kindle Fire HD, all other Kindles, Sony Tablets P and S, Motorola Xoom 2 and so on.
On Nexus 7, Kindle app crashes all the time. Sometimes, after telling it to "wait", it actually works. Sometimes I simply have to kill it.
And it's always slow, when working with lots of files.
For example when scrolling through the installed apps. Or when choosing one for deinstallation.
No idea, whether that's JB 4.x or the Nexus itself.
Never have been a huge fan of Asus though. Hated my Eeepad Transfomer = worst of my Android tablets so far.

It's the Kindle app. They sent me a email telling me try the latest version which they added last night. I upgraded seems slightly better. I have a large Archive 3000+ books so it takes two minutes just to load. I can't even run it on my phone but it sluggish on the Samsung Galaxy 5 I just got. I have a feeling it's due to the how it's set up to check for recommends and best sellers and sync the entire library at the same time.

[cghipp]

I agree with those who say you can't just line up the specs and do the arithmetic to determine the best device. There are too many factors that are specific to the individual's needs and his or her purpose for buying the device.

For example, I bought a Nexus 7 to give to my husband as a birthday present. My primary reason for getting it was to share my e-books with him. However, I could not stand reading on it AT ALL. Not even for a couple of pages. I tinkered with all of the options and could not get to a comfortable view. Knowing my husband's eyes are even more sensitive than mine, I took it back (and got him a PlayStation, lol).

It would be easy to say, "Well, you just don't like reading on a backlit screen." And that's true - to a point. However, I did find a backlit screen that I can read quite comfortably - my Samsung Galaxy S II (Epic Touch 4G blah blah blah) phone. This leads me to believe that it's the area of the backlit screen that makes the difference for me - there's only so much I can take, but below that threshold, I enjoy using the device to read.

My point is, each person has his or her own little quirks that create an unknown variable when determining the "best" device.

Originally Posted by Blossom

It's the Kindle app. They sent me a email telling me try the latest version which they added last night. I upgraded seems slightly better. I have a large Archive 3000+ books so it takes two minutes just to load. I can't even run it on my phone but it sluggish on the Samsung Galaxy 5 I just got. I have a feeling it's due to the how it's set up to check for recommends and best sellers and sync the entire library at the same time.

I wonder if it indexes every time it opens the app? I rarely use it on my Android phone (Motorola Atrix), but whenever I do it runs fast. But I only keep a dozen or so books locally loaded, and all were loaded via the Cloud.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I wonder if it indexes every time it opens the app? I rarely use it on my Android phone (Motorola Atrix), but whenever I do it runs fast. But I only keep a dozen or so books locally loaded, and all were loaded via the Cloud.

It checks for internet every time to download those stupid recommendations and sync.
Do you have the latest version? Amazon has a link to downgrade to 3.6 on Google Play's website it's any over that version where the problems began. They are working on it though.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by cghipp

I agree with those who say you can't just line up the specs and do the arithmetic to determine the best device. There are too many factors that are specific to the individual's needs and his or her purpose for buying the device.

For example, I bought a Nexus 7 to give to my husband as a birthday present. My primary reason for getting it was to share my e-books with him. However, I could not stand reading on it AT ALL. Not even for a couple of pages. I tinkered with all of the options and could not get to a comfortable view. Knowing my husband's eyes are even more sensitive than mine, I took it back (and got him a PlayStation, lol).

It would be easy to say, "Well, you just don't like reading on a backlit screen." And that's true - to a point. However, I did find a backlit screen that I can read quite comfortably - my Samsung Galaxy S II (Epic Touch 4G blah blah blah) phone. This leads me to believe that it's the area of the backlit screen that makes the difference for me - there's only so much I can take, but below that threshold, I enjoy using the device to read.

My point is, each person has his or her own little quirks that create an unknown variable when determining the "best" device.

You need the Screen Dim app to read comfortably on a tablet. Especially in the dark. Tablets are always too bright. Screen Dim fixes that.

Originally Posted by Blossom

It checks for internet every time to download those stupid recommendations and sync.
Do you have the latest version? Amazon has a link to downgrade to 3.6 on Google Play's website it's any over that version where the problems began. They are working on it though.

Okay that explains it. I just checked and my phone is running version 3.6.0.87.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Okay that explains it. I just checked and my phone is running version 3.6.0.87.

I'm think of downgrading. Does it have the new font on it or the old one?

Originally Posted by Blossom

I'm think of downgrading. Does it have the new font on it or the old one?

To be honest I'm not sure since I rarely use it. There is only one font and it is a serif font. Beyond that I'm not sure if it is the old or new font. My phone has a high screen resolution very close to that of the new iPhone5 so the text is very sharp and looks good.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by jswinden

The average human retina (20/20 vision) can no longer distinguish between two pixels when the field of view (FOV) angle is 0.000333 radians. Steve Jobs used this to say a 300 dpi screen held 10" from the eyes (retina) would not show pixels to the average human eye. We can apply that principle mathematically to determine at what distance various resolution screens need to be held in order to no longer distinguish between two pixels, that is, see individual pixels.

Here is a comparison list of commonly available devices:

• For 326 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 9.2" (iPhone5)
• For 268 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 11.2" (iPad3)
• For 216 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 13.9" (Fire HD, Nexus 7)
• For 170 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 17.6" (original Fire)
• For 162 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 18.5" (iPad Mini)
• For 132 ppi, distance required for no pixelization = 22.7" (iPad1 and 2)

Interesting.

I had been somewhat curious about this recently when trying to explain why certain things one of my devices looked different than the same things on the fondleslab my mom owns. I probably wasn't explaining it right, but this is good to know. Never really thought about it this way. Kinda like finding the optimum viewing distance for various HDTVs and such. Thanks for sharing this.

Back on topic -
A co-worker of mine was given a miniPad by her lovey-person. It's an alright looking device. Certainly looks better for some things than the original Fire, but I wouldn't get one personally.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Blossom

It's the Kindle app. They sent me a email telling me try the latest version which they added last night. I upgraded seems slightly better. I have a large Archive 3000+ books so it takes two minutes just to load. I can't even run it on my phone but it sluggish on the Samsung Galaxy 5 I just got. I have a feeling it's due to the how it's set up to check for recommends and best sellers and sync the entire library at the same time.

Thanks.
That explains the Kindle app, which had the biggest problems on Nexus 7.
But Nexus 7 is extremely slow in other tasks as well.
Scrolling through the list of apps for example (in the settings, for example when wanting to manually move an app to SD).
Or when choosing an app (again, in the settings) for checking the details or uninstalling it.

Re. the Kindle app: Isn't that the same version as on other Android tablets? Kindle app works perfectly fine on Sony tablet P for example.
I only have this lag and crashing on Nexus 7.

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I'm not too fond of my Nexus 7 anymore.
Maybe I've got a "Monday unit", but others have confirmed my experience.
Sometimes, it's painfully slow and even crashes frequently.
For example all the time in my Kindle app.
Maybe it's my 700 books from Amazon?
But they work perfectly fine on Kindle Fire HD, all other Kindles, Sony Tablets P and S, Motorola Xoom 2 and so on.
On Nexus 7, Kindle app crashes all the time. Sometimes, after telling it to "wait", it actually works. Sometimes I simply have to kill it.
And it's always slow, when working with lots of files.
For example when scrolling through the installed apps. Or when choosing one for deinstallation.
No idea, whether that's JB 4.x or the Nexus itself.
Never have been a huge fan of Asus though. Hated my Eeepad Transfomer = worst of my Android tablets so far.

Are you running the latest version of Jelly Bean? I would check for updates, because there is a known bug that was fixed on the nexus 7 that when memory dropped below 1.5 gigs of storage, the n7 would lag like mad. The latest update fixed the bug. It works great for me now although I have a lot less amazon books loaded

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by volwrath

Are you running the latest version of Jelly Bean? I would check for updates, because there is a known bug that was fixed on the nexus 7 that when memory dropped below 1.5 gigs of storage, the n7 would lag like mad. The latest update fixed the bug. It works great for me now although I have a lot less amazon books loaded

Latest version of Jellybean and enough storage left.
And the lag is not just in the Kindle app.
It seems slow whenever processing lots of files.