What is it?
Apple’s latest iPad is a smaller-screened model that’s powerful, slim and light.
What's great:
Stunning design, impressive light weight, thin bezel, Siri, fast processor
What's not:
The display is the same resolution as the iPad 2: this is no Retina Display. It’s not cheap, either.
The bottom line:
The new tablet from Apple is pretty irresistible, if you don’t mind the price. But the convenience and the gadget’s beauty beats all other small-screened tablets easily.
Main review:
If you have an iPad and use it for reading ebooks, you may find it gets heavy after a while. Sublime though it is for watching video, playing games and more, the 9.7in iPad is not light – especially the most recent version.
If you have an iPad and use it for reading ebooks, you may find it gets heavy after a while. Sublime though it is for watching video, playing games and more, the 9.7in iPad is not light – especially the most recent version.
If you want thinner, lighter and more portable, you may have turned to the Google Nexus 7 or Amazon Kindle Fire HD. These are very popular devices, and Apple decided that, despite the late Steve Jobs having said no to the idea of a smaller iPad, it wanted some of those Nexus and Kindle dollars.
iPad mini: Design
The result is one of the most beautifully designed, impressively executed gadgets you’ll come across, beating even the high standards set by the iPhone and iPad. Read the specs and you’ll see it’s light, slim and small. But it’s only when you touch it that it makes sense. This is lighter than the other colour screen rivals, and only beaten by the monochrome Kindle range like the Paperwhite.
So it’s ideal for extended one-handed use, like for ebooks. And the display size is impressive: at 7.9ins it manages to have around a third more display than the Nexus or Kindle Fire HD. But the gadget is no wider than Amazon’s thanks to a super thin bezel at the sides.
This could have been a problem – where do you hold it without touching the screen and accidentally turning the page, say? Apple has solved this with something called thumb rejection: the software knows that touch input on the edge is your thumb and can be ignored while you navigate the iPad with your other hand. Genius.
