iPad mini review roundup: Amazing build quality, impressive battery life, high price - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaHarder 

 the iOS UI is more than dated at this point, the display is not even close to the resolution/quality of other 7 to 8 inch tablet devices (or even most modern smartphones) and the price is 'a bit much' for anything but the base model, especially the US $130.00 additional just for GPS/Cellular radios.

Come talk to me when when iOS devices no longer rule Consumer Satisfaction figures with an iron fist year after year, troll. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowdog65 

 

I wouldn't count on it. Apple updates the bottom end products at a slower rate than flagship products. Look at the Touch, Mac Mini.  Since these are so low margin to start with, the wait longer to update them to extend the time they are selling with cost reduced components.

 

My plan is get a Mini soon, the give it to a relative when I upgrade.

yes but ... the mini internals are mainly iPad 2 components already. so ... they did what you say already. i think Apple just wanted to get a mini into the market for this holiday quarter, and this was do-able. the main new part that need not change for a V.2 next year is the new outer shell, and the A6 chip will be more cost efficient then too.

Apple just pumped out the surprise spec bump iPad 4 as well. they coulda waited til next year, but didn't. they might go slower on secondary products, yes, but i don't believe Apple thinks any iPad - including the mini - is of secondary importance. just the opposite in fact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

 

One.

 

 

Only to trolls. And why should Apple care what they think?

you know.. if you say lies enough times it stands a chance of becoming fact.   At least in the world of politics and trolls. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Napoleon_PhoneApart 

 

Two. A5-->A5X-->A6

I am disappointed that you forgot to mention A6X to go along with your crazy logic.  3 Generations.. lol.. whatever.

By the same logic the iPhone 5 is  already one generation behind, and the new iPod touch is 3 generations.   And the iPod nano is like 10 generations behind.    

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retrogusto 

Maybe with Ive we'll FINALLY get Boot Camp for iOS so we can run Windows Phone on our iPhones! I can't wait another day!

its comes faster if you hold your breath while waiting for that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfiejr 

yes but ... the mini internals are mainly iPad 2 components already. so ... they did what you say already. i think Apple just wanted to get a mini into the market for this holiday quarter, and this was do-able. the main new part that need not change for a V.2 next year is the new outer shell, and the A6 chip will be more cost efficient then too.

 

Apple just pumped out the surprise spec bump iPad 4 as well. they coulda waited til next year, but didn't. they might go slower on secondary products, yes, but i don't believe Apple thinks any iPad - including the mini - is of secondary importance. just the opposite in fact.

The iPad needed an update to the new dock, and it was a bit awkward with the phone having a much more powerful CPU than the flagship iPad, so bump that as well made sense.  It also gives them a chance to reset the iPad release schedule to fall instead of Spring.  You aren't one of those folks that think the iPad is going to get new models again in March?

Quote:

Originally Posted by waldobushman 

Over last weekend, I briefly played with the Samsung Galaxy S3 at the AT&T store, where I went to determine when they might be getting iPhone 5s in and play with the demo iPhone 5s they have. I also wanted to see what I would be missing if I continued with the iPhone series as compared to the top of the line Android phone. My answer was not much.

 

I was very surprised at the flimsy feel of the S3, unresponsive screen, confusing interface (chalk that up to inexperience). It is their top of the line, so I hear. It's a $100 less expensive up front for the S3, but that savings on the S3 over the iPhone 5 32GB is quite minor when you take into account the cost of the AT&T contract over 2 years. For the lowest AT&T plan ($40/month), over 24 months for the S3 the cost is about $960+200 = $1160, for the iPhone 5: $960 + 300 = $1260. So, it's less than a 10% premium to buy the iPhone 5 over the S3. 

 

The Samsung Galaxy II Note is $300 (same as iPhone 5), is on pre-order and does not support text or video messaging. Now why would anyone want to buy the Note, more expensive less functionality than the S3 and even less functionality for the same price for the iPhone 5 32Gb model. 

 

(Please somebody explain why the Note?). 

if you want some interesting math.. go look at what used Galaxy devices trade-ins are going for at Amazon.com.   Look up S3, S2 and Galaxy Nexus.   Then repeat for iPhone 5, 4S, and 4.   Factor in how old these phones are. I think you will be amazed. 

Ironic that the screen shot shows a map but the base wifi model has no GPS function, making it essentially useless for maps even when using applications like citymaps2go that provide downloadable maps.

I would have bought one if it had GPS but I don't want to pay a $150 premium for a wifi + cellular model.

Looks nice though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nht 

 

I'm guessing that the V.2 model will get the A6X chip assuming it'll be retina.

 

And V.3 is likely a 64 bit A7X from the 2013 iPad 5.  If you do a two year replacement cycle then its likely either skip a year of retina or skip a year of 64 bit...it's a wash at the end.

 

I dunno, I thought the same thing for the iPhone 3 and I think the iPhone 1 to 3GS to 4S was the better route.  Next year I expect the phones to be 64 bit which feels like a natural cutoff point for future iOS updates.  Meaning my iPhone 5 will be below that cutoff and a bit like the iPhone 3 getting left behind much earlier than the 3GS.

 

If you want to skip the initial models I think starting on V.3 is better but that's 2 full years of sitting on the sidelines.

ok... so remind me again what 64 bit buys you other than bloated code size?   Do you expect to see > 4GB of RAM in the iPad 5?  Seriously.   Having 64 bit does NOT make it go any faster.

Literally my only knock on this thing is that I was hoping against it hope it would have gps standard. I guess it was a longshot, since even the flagship iPad doesnt. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slurpy 

Literally my only knock on this thing is that I was hoping against it hope it would have gps standard. I guess it was a longshot, since even the flagship iPad doesnt. 

dont you just love Apple marketing..  they will squeeze out that dollar out of you by up selling you just to get GPS.  I'm sure it happens all the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by plankton 

I would have bought one if it had GPS but I don't want to pay a $150 premium for a wifi + cellular model.

 

For the sake of accuracy, it's $130 more for the LTE/cellular model, which shouldn't be surprising to anybody, as that's how it's always been since the first iPad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowdog65 

 

The iPad needed an update to the new dock, and it was a bit awkward with the phone having a much more powerful CPU than the flagship iPad, so bump that as well made sense.  It also gives them a chance to reset the iPad release schedule to fall instead of Spring.  You aren't one of those folks that think the iPad is going to get new models again in March?

i think we will see a newer iPad next Spring - IF Apple has something even better ready to offer. given all the competition now, i don't believe Apple will hold improved stuff back for the sake of annual cycles any more. as i said, i think a V.2 mini in the Spring is even more likely. we might see two incremental iPad udpates per year from now on ... iPhones are different, because almost everyone is locked into two year contract cycles anyway. so once a year fits their decision making.

but most of all, i expect an iOS 7 to be unveiled at WWDC that reflects Ive's new attitude. Forestall held back a lot of improvements, i think, because they were based on some of Android's good ideas. and Jobs probably agreed with that. pride + arrogance. but ultimately that's foolish. whereas Ive will possibly grasp their core essence, improve their UI, and make them beautiful too. and iOS 7 will run on all these several generations of devices.

Maybe, but not a fan of the of the mini tablets, iPad2 is just fine right now :), I can see this as a move to take the competition to doors of Android as they are the only player presently in the 7 inch space (I don't think Playbooks are still around ;)) and market share might amount to something in the long run when eventually others start matching the quality and design aesthetics of Apple. I think they have enough new products to satisfy consumers for the Holiday season they cant expect people to buy their whole line up :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nishanth 

Maybe, but not a fan of the of the mini tablets, iPad2 is just fine right now :), I can see this as a move to take the competition to doors of Android as they are the only player presently in the 7 inch space (I don't think Playbooks are still around ;)) and market share might amount to something in the long run when eventually others start matching the quality and design aesthetics of Apple.

don't forget the importance of the 100 million iPads sold to date. all those apps and content and info that people have added to them over time and can very easily transfer at no cost to a new mini (or iPad 4). that's the same kind of huge "inertia" market advantage that MS enjoyed with Windows all these years, and this time it works in Apple's favor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaHarder 

Nice tablet, but...
The A5 is now 3 generations behind other iPads, the iOS UI is more than dated at this point, the display is not even close to the resolution/quality of other 7 to 8 inch tablet devices (or even most modern smartphones) and the price is 'a bit much' for anything but the base model, especially the US $130.00 additional just for GPS/Cellular radios.
When it comes down to it, the iPad Mini is just another variation on the same 5 year-old iOS theme, which for many will be enough, but it does beg the question: Is Apple Just Running Out of New Ideas?

It begs the question, is DaHarder running out of troll comments to post?

I knew you'd be running your mouth here - you just can;t seem to stand the fact that Apple seems to "nail it" time and again.

BTW, do you use Windows on any PC's? Why aren't you whining that Windows has bee the same ole stale OS since Win 98? Icons in a grid, Start menu, task bar, menues with the usual "File > Open" commands....the list goes on. Until Windows 8 nothing really changed for 15 years. And now people are pissed about Windows 8 being so much different. Sometimes when something works you just don;t need to keep making changes for changes sake.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolipsismX 


Can you explain why maps are useless without GPS?

Seriously, are you expecting a response from these moro........ er..... maroons?

Quote:

Originally Posted by snova 

dont you just love Apple marketing..  they will squeeze out that dollar out of you by up selling you just to get GPS.  I'm sure it happens all the time.

For cheapos like you, it's 'up sell.'

For the rest of us, it's 'choice'.

A bit off topic, but can someone explain to me why Walt Mossberg, one of the most well known tech reviewers, writing for one of the most well known papers, does his damn video reviews with a shitty webcam, with shitty lighting, at a shitty angles, with shitty framerates and shitty sound, in a ghetto looking room? He can't avoid a decent video camera, like all the other billion people that do their crappy youtube reviews that look a billion times better? I don't get it. The guy is a professional that reviews stuff for a professional outlet. Why can't he get some hald-decent equipment for his video reviews so they dont look like a blurry, garbled, ghetto mess? Can't the WSJ cover it? Its so embarrassing, I almost feel like donating him a decent camera. 

Had to get that off my chest, after stopping a few seconds into the 3rd review Ive tried to watch this month because of the abysmal, unacceptably horrible quality. 

I love the "idea" of the iPad mini, but I won't be forking over any money for one until they make the display Retina. I simply can't go back to the "old" way of looking at things. I can remember when I got my iPhone 4 and my wife still had an iPhone 3GS. It pained me to have to back to that "seemingly" shitty display after experiencing Retina.

It would be the same for me with the iPad mini. I've had an iPad 3, so I've gotten used to the high quality retina display and crisp clear graphics and text -- I just can't go back a step with the iPad mini no matter how cheap it is in comparison.

When the iPad mini refresh comes out with a Retina display, I'll plunk my money down -- not before.

Newsflash!

Amazon lied in their ad!

Amazon claimed that the iPad Mini had a mono speaker, and used that lie in their misleading ad to try and bash the iPad Mini.

FALSE! 100% Untrue.

The iPad Mini has in fact stereo speakers. The iPad Mini is the first iPad to feature stereo speakers. 

Amazon's Ad Slamming The iPad Mini Has A Blatant Lie In It

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ipad-mini-speakers-2012-10#ixzz2ArP9mMHu

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfiejr 

yes but ... the mini internals are mainly iPad 2 components already.

Most of the mini's components are the same as the iPad 4, not iPad 2. The only component from the iPad 2 is the A5, however, even this may be slightly different (clocked higher) - a few tests have shown that it runs faster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaHarder 

Nice tablet, but...
The A5 is now 3 generations behind other iPads, the iOS UI is more than dated at this point, the display is not even close to the resolution/quality of other 7 to 8 inch tablet devices (or even most modern smartphones) and the price is 'a bit much' for anything but the base model, especially the US $130.00 additional just for GPS/Cellular radios.
When it comes down to it, the iPad Mini is just another variation on the same 5 year-old iOS theme, which for many will be enough, but it does beg the question: Is Apple Just Running Out of New Ideas?

Just stop it will you?  Grow up for once.  Do you whine this much in the physical world as you do your online presence??  To say that your bickering is getting really old is an insult to the word "old".

The mini is already sold out.  The reviews are raving about it and trashing the competition and rightfully so.  This will be another blockbuster product, but not for you eh?  That extra $50 will just be enough to break your bank since you can't buy one for you and your dog.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyW2001 

I don't understand people who claim that Apple shouldn't innovate anymore. iOS is OLD. Just because YOU can't imagine an improvement doesn't mean there isn't one.

Apple is innovating with iOS where they feel it needs it.  You sound like someone that doesn't even own an iOS device to know what it does.

Thank goodness Apple doesn't cater to folks like you that feel the need to have useless, resource-sucking nonsense like animated wallpapers.  You want junk like that, go ahead and move along to Android.  That way you can waste your time tweaking it to your heart's content and satisfy your need to have a 5-minute fix (every five minutes), and calm that ADHD personality.

Please let the door hit you on the way out.  Please...

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaHarder 

When it comes down to it, the iPad Mini is just another variation on the same 5 year-old iOS theme, which for many will be enough, but it does beg the question: Is Apple Just Running Out of New Ideas?

An Automobile Review, DaHarder Style:

When it comes to it, the Aston Martin DB9 2013 model is just another variation of the same 100 year-old automobile theme, which for many will be enough, but it does beg the question: Are automobile manufacturers out of new ideas?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaHarder 

......the iOS UI is more than dated at this point.....

So DaHarder, what in your opinion would make it "Not Dated"? iOS gets high consumer satisfaction scores year after year. So please inform all of us as to what would make it "Up To Speed".

What is the speed of the iPad mini's A5 compared to the iPad2's A5?  Are they the same?  Where are the geekbench scores?