ipad Mini (retina) or regular iPad?

[Faterson]

Folks, there's no getting around it: this is Apple's "Gamut-Gate". Just some random user feedback, and it's typical for what I've been hearing over the last few days:

I got mine yesterday and loved it... until I placed it next to my iPad 3 and noticed the AWFUL color range on the mini. Pick one of the colorful wallpapers and you'll clearly see. Yikes!

Candy Chrush colors were SO pale and washy looking... at least 50% less color saturation, richness. Returned it to Apple store this morning. The kid said to test another on display - same thing. Does not matter who supplies the displays, specs are the specs. IGZO display tech is the problem. Oh well. Will look for a deal on an Air black friday. Pfffft. Disappointing.

Given the "Gamut-Gate", the question originally posed in this thread seems to have a clear answer now: go for iPad Air.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by afv011

I don't see what I have or don't have is relevant to offer my opinion - when you charge premium, people expect top notch quality, not subpar. But anyway, I had an ipad2 for a while, long story short, it fell on my lap - but even free, it was dreadful so I no longer have it, got rid of it.

Ok.

So you don't.

Then I do not understand why you are making comments and comparing devices just based on pure online reviews.

fyi
I own both. And the Retina's Mini screen is not horrible or poor like others here are saying.

[Faterson]

Anyone is free to discuss whatever they like -- especially if they don't own the devices yet, because discussing the devices' strong and weak points can help them make an informed purchase decision they will not need to regret later on. If discussing gadgets were only permitted for their owners, online IT forums would be instantly reduced to 0.000001% of their current content. What a perfectly ridiculous idea.

It will be extremely rare for anyone to be possessing both iPad Air and iPad mini Retina -- most people aren't millionaires, and the monthly income of most people on this planet is lower than the price of an iPad. However, lots and lots of people have been reporting over the last few days, just as quoted in the sample above, that they took a look at the same pictures/websites on iPad Air and iPad mini Retina, for example in an Apple store, and that the mini's screen struck them as distinctly inferior compared to the iPad Air screen.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Anyone is free to discuss whatever they like -- especially if they don't own the devices yet, because discussing the devices' strong and weak points can help them make an informed purchase decision they will not need to regret later on. If discussing gadgets were only permitted for their owners, online IT forums would be instantly reduced to 0.000001% of their current content. What a perfectly ridiculous idea.

It will be extremely rare for anyone to be possessing both iPad Air and iPad mini Retina -- most people aren't millionaires, and the monthly income of most people on this planet is lower than the price of an iPad. However, lots and lots of people have been reporting over the last few days, just as quoted in the sample above, that they took a look at the same pictures/websites on iPad Air and iPad mini Retina, for example in an Apple store, and that the mini's screen struck them as distinctly inferior compared to the iPad Air screen.

True.

But not making bold statements when the person does not own a device. People can get confuse or others without too many technical skills, may be misleading.

So it's good to give opinion but not put hands on fire or believe everything folks write on Internet. Common users won't even push tablets hard like some of those online reviewers do.

And I have both but I'm not millonarie, by the way.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by jocampo

But not making bold statements when the person does not own a device.

There's nothing "bold" about my statements, they're the truth: the screen on the ipad mini is subpar because it offers a narrow 63% gamut when the competition, at half the price, offers 100% gamut, increased brightness and lower power consumption.

And I do not need to own anything to express my opinion, and I stand by it: the mini's screen is a disappointment, even more so when apple charges twice what competing devices cost while offering a better screen.

We get it, no matter what the mini screen is, to you it is fantastic and that's all good, but let us have our opinions as well.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by jocampo

... believe everything folks write on Internet.

"Folks" like Anandtech and DisplayMate? Right, they really don't know what they're talking about...

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by afv011

"Folks" like Anandtech and DisplayMate? Right, they really don't know what they're talking about...

They committed the unpardonable sin - they criticized an iDevice

[JTravers]

Originally Posted by afv011

"Folks" like Anandtech and DisplayMate? Right, they really don't know what they're talking about...

Or they might just mean someone like who Faterson quotes above claiming that the IGZO display tech is the problem in the retina mini. That, of course, is patently false since the previous mini had the same reduced gamut without an IGZO display, while the iPad 3, 4, and Air all have ~100% sRGB even though the Air has an IGZO display and the 3 and 4 don't. Apple just chose to give their cheaper tablet a slightly lower quality display.

[Faterson]

JTravers, other than that one sentence about IGZO (I should have trimmed it), that user feedback is perfectly valid, and pretty devastating for iPad mini Retina, I'd say.

I'm no photographer, but to me, the "gamut gate" may be the tipping point. Whereas I had been leaning towards an iPad mini Retina purchase before discovering about this, I'd say I'm now pretty unlikely to purchase that device. It's really tough to justify for me to pay almost double the price of a Nexus 7 I purchased earlier this year, and still not get top-notch screen quality. I truly had been assuming, based on the earliest, overly fawning and superficial mini reviews, that the mini was simply "iPad Air shrunk". In such a case, the overblown price might perhaps be stomached. As it turns out, though, there are important differences in terms of hardware quality between Air and mini -- a slower processor speed, too.

Varying interpretations of colours can very much be relevant for reading of e-books, too. My favourite font colour in Marvin is "Metallic Gold" (on a black background). I was flummoxed to discover that the same font colour is unusable in Marvin on my iPad 1! It's washed out, too indistinct on iPad 1 -- I had to replace it with "Citrine" there. But if I activate "Citrine" on iPad 3, it's too strong -- it fairly burns my eyes to read texts in it, so "Citrine" on iPad 3 just won't work for me. I am, of course, comparing the colours at equivalent brightness levels on iPad 3 and iPad 1 (brightness is treated very differently on the two devices as well, iPad 3 generally permitting much higher brightness).

It can be reasonably feared that the iPad mini Retina screen would resemble the iPad 1 screen more than the iPad 3/4/Air screen. Sorry, it just does not seem feasible to pay upwards of $399 for a tablet in late 2013 whose screen properties might remind you of tablets from a couple of generations ago.

(By the way, I would instantly sell my current iPad 3 + 3G 16 GB for €299 and upgrade to iPad Air. Looking at eBay, though, it does not seem that people would be ready to pay €299. So, I'm just gonna stick to iPad 3, I guess; it's a fabulous device!)

[afv011]

Originally Posted by JTravers

Or they might just mean someone like who Faterson quotes above claiming that the IGZO display tech is the problem in the retina mini. That, of course, is patently false since the previous mini had the same reduced gamut without an IGZO display, while the iPad 3, 4, and Air all have ~100% sRGB even though the Air has an IGZO display and the 3 and 4 don't. Apple just chose to give their cheaper tablet a slightly lower quality display.

It doesn't appear Faterson is off the mark.

All of this reliance on IGZO is really bad planning… Right now there is a readily available display technology that has much higher performance than IGZO. It’s Low Temperature Poly Silicon LTPS, and it is used in all of the iPhones and in all of Samsung OLEDs (so it’s available in large quantities). Two innovative Tablet manufacturers, Amazon and Google, have significantly leapfrogged Apple by introducing Tablet displays using LTPS (in the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 and the new Nexus 7), and they are significantly outperforming the IGZO and a-Si displays in the current iPads. Apple is now lagging in displays, an area where it was once the leader…

Source

The fact that IGZO works well at 10" does not necessarily imply it also works well at 7.8", there could be scaling issues.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by afv011

The point I think is, how can it be justified to sell at a premium what is a substandard screen? When you charge twice what others charge, it is no longer irrelevant to offer a poorer experience.

For some, iOS itself is the selling point (in the same way OS X is one of the primary selling points for Macs). In these cases, it doesn't really matter if the Kindle Fire HDX or Nexus 7 have a much wider color gamut since neither run iOS.

[Faterson]

More like, the 3rd-party apps available for iOS. iOS 7 by itself is an even bigger purchase deterrent to me than the "gamut gate". I consider iOS 7 a letdown in every respect, from aesthetics to functionality across the board. Your mileage may vary, of course.

The same thing with MacBook Air for me -- I prefer Windows 7 over Mac OS (and I mostly run Win 7 software on the Air), but in terms of hardware and form factor, MacBook Air is a work of art similar to the iPad. I wouldn't swap them for any other tablet or notebook.

Same old story with Apple: fantastic hardware, poor software. iPad mini Retina is an anomaly -- given the narrow gamut, you just can't call the screen "fantastic", despite the Retina resolution. It's an acceptable screen, no more; the type one might expect from the likes of Acer, but at half the price.

[JTravers]

Originally Posted by afv011

It doesn't appear Faterson is off the mark.

Source

The fact that IGZO works well at 10" does not necessarily imply it also works well at 7.8", there could be scaling issues.

The original ipad mini had a reduced color gamut and so does the retina version. Any guess that it is due to IGZO is unfounded speculation unless there are facts backing up the claim. I haven't read of any technical reasons why IGZO would cause the iPad mini retina to have a reduced color gamut, so it seems more like a design decision to me.

Regardless, the retina mini is already supply constrained, so I doubt this is going to have any noticeable impact on sales. Personally, I never considered getting the mini, and the reduced color gamut allows me to continue not considering it . I am quite happy with the Air.

[JTravers]

The thing that some people are missing in all of this is that the retina mini has been improved in more ways than most people originally anticipated. For anyone that prefers the mini form factor, the retina mini is a MASSIVE upgrade over the original mini. (And, yet, people still find something to get upset about.)

And if you are torn between the two form factors and the narrower color gamut has you hesitant about buying the mini, I'm sure Apple will be more than happy to sell you an Air

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by JTravers

(And, yet, people still find something to get upset about.)

And they are justified. If iPad mini Retina cost $250, the narrow colour gamut might be more acceptable. But at $400, almost twice the price of a Nexus 7 whose screen does not have that deficiency?

Originally Posted by JTravers

And if you are torn between the two form factors and the narrower color gamut has you hesitant about buying the mini, I'm sure Apple will be more than happy to sell you an Air

In my case, I was considering only a mini tablet. Because of the narrow colour gamut, combined with other factors (such as overblown price, ugly and functionally limited iOS 7...), I'm now unlikely to buy the mini. Apple won't sell me an Air, either, because I'm perfectly happy with my iPad 3/3G/16 GB as my primary tablet. If I could sell that iPad 3 second-hand for, say, €300, I might buy the Air. But eBay seems to indicate that people aren't ready to pay those €300.

Bottom line, at least in my case: Apple could have had hundreds of dollars from me, but because of the narrow colour gamut, they will likely get nothing from me. There may be many potential buyers like myself. For now, I'll just settle for Nexus 7, instead of an iPad mini, as my secondary tablet. If Apple commits another gaffe of this sort in future, combined with overblown pricing, I might settle for an Android device as my primary tablet, too.