
Why everyone loves the iPad mini (even though the screen sucks) - thejad
http://thetechblock.com/why-everyone-loves-ipad-mini/
======
mtgx
Wow. Look at every Apple user come out and say how much like they a smaller
screen now, after downplaying all the 7" Android devices for being too small
before the iPad Mini. And please don't tell me it makes such a big difference
between a 7" and a 7.9", because in my mind the bigger display size is
actually a disadvantage, as it's not a very comfortable one-handed device
anymore. You can't use it like you would a smartphone anymore. You're still
using it the same way you'd use a bigger iPad. It's just that it's lighter,
while a Nexus 7 is both lighter and more comfortable to hold with one hand.
Next you're going to tell me that a phone with a bigger display than the
"perfect" 3.5" size is better, too. Oh wait.

I'm sorry for being so sarcastic, but after all the articles about how Apple
"brilliantly" picked all those perfect sizes and screen ratios (iPhone 5 now
switching to 16:9, anyone?), that have also topped HN, it's hard not to pick
on this and call out the hypocrisy. In fact, I feel it's my _duty_ to point
this out. If even one person comes to the realization that Apple is not as
perfect as the media makes them out to be, then I'll be happy.

~~~
mun2mun
Also there is a popular thinking among Apple apologists that Samsung is
copying Apple and taking Apple's lunch. In reality Samsung single-handedly
proved Apple wrong on various things. They created a market for "phablets",
proved that stylus is still relevant in normal operation, content creation. If
Apple have implemented half of the feature presented in this video
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L930NbUKgJY> Apple will be hailed for
"revolutionary innovation". Until then Apple knows that users do not use these
"features".

~~~
r00fus
Phablet, yes. Definitely a strong niche.

Stylus No. I have 3 co workers who have Galaxy Notes (or Note II) and none of
them use the stylus while I've seen them. They all say it's nice, but none
admit to it being key or even useful.

There is no killer app for the stylus, when an onscreen-keyboard or finger
would do just as well. Even finger-based signatures are pretty easy with
modern smartphones' capacative touchscreens.

The only thing a stylus allows is for UI elements and hit areas to be smaller
- and not many folks (other than Win8 geeks it seems) are clamoring for that
on their smartphone or tablet. In fact, I know folks who run iPhone apps on
their iPad because the hit area is 4x larger and much more easy to operate.

~~~
bryanlarsen
I assumed that the killer app for the stylus would be Chinese and Korean
character entry. Any actual Asians want to validate or dispel my assumption?

~~~
jarek
Korean at least is an alphabet fairly easily entered via a standard qwerty
keyboard: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_South_Korea.svg>

The letters are composed into blocks describing syllables, rather than strings
describing words as in Latin alphabets, but entering letters on the keyboard
is the same.

Might help with Japanese but I can't really speak about that.

------
steele
On every single flight I take, the main reason why everyone loves my iPad Mini
is because it is a Nexus 7.

Edit: People ask: "is that the mini?". I avoid being a jerk about it and just
say "It's the google one. One of the Nexus products. The mini wasn't out when
I bought this but I really like it. etc etc"

~~~
Simucal
I could see how the average consumer would get confused between the two. It is
kind of hard for a tablet devices to differentiate themselves in their looks
when the entire face of the device is a glass display.

I now own the iPad Mini and up until a week ago I also owned the Nexus 7. The
build quality, weight, and battery life of the iPad Mini beats the Nexus 7
hands down. The frame of my Nexus 7 would "creak" along the edge if you put
pressure on it.

The Nexus 7 was my first Android device and despite claims that Jelly Bean had
finally fixed the platform's major performance issues, I still felt noticeable
lag in certain situations when scrolling or paging to different home screens.
It wasn't a major issue but I still feel like Android could make some
improvements in this regard.

I also felt that the quality and polish of the major apps that I use was
better on the iOS platform (with a couple exceptions such as the HTPC remote
app on Android that was amazing).

The main thing that I miss from my Nexus 7 is the combination of Voice Actions
and the Android Intents system. It felt like a magical moment when I would
tell my Nexus 7 to "play some music by Nine Inch Nails" and it would launch
Spotify automatically and play the requested music. It kind of blew my mind
that I could simply ask this device to play music by almost any artist in the
world and it would start playing immediately.

~~~
steele
I'm a fan of sending myself chrome links I find on my phone to my tablet over
NFC. There are other ways to do it... but that is by far the most gratifying.

------
GiraffeNecktie
The iPad mini is "disruptive" only if you live in an alternative and
exclusively Apple universe. The smaller Android tablets and large phones (like
the Galaxy Tab), which have been out for a long time, disrupted the iPad and
forced the introduction of the mini.

~~~
Shivetya
It would be nice if I could actually lay my hands on a 16g Nexus 7, no local
retailer carries it. Well I should not say none do, one does at the old price.

I can find 32g Nexus 7 tablets at most office supply stores and the like, the
few that don't carry Nexus usually carry Kindle.

So where are they at? I can go to Best Buy, Target, Wal Mart, or even an Apple
store, for all things iPad but finding the Android tablets is...

In other words, smaller Android tablets forced nothing, unless your counting
Kindle Fire's as androids. You can barely find them; I live in Atlanta and
looked; but I can certainly find Apple products.

------
MattRogish
Technology is all about tradeoffs, film at 11.

But seriously, I held a Mini yesterday. As an iPad3 owner I can say I'd trade
my retina and larger screen for the weight of the Mini any day. The weight of
the 3 is really difficult to hold for long periods of time.

Of course, I'd highly prefer a full-sized iPad that was as light as the Mini
(or "proportionally light", like the iPhone5 vs 4). I'm not sure if battery
technology will improve quickly enough to make that happen in the near term.

~~~
thoughtsimple
>The weight of the 3 is really difficult to hold for long periods of time.

I have to say I've never really understood this complaint. Do people use iPads
standing up or something? I have the iPad in my lap or on my chest if reading
in bed. The amount of time I spend using it while I have to hold it
unsupported is minimal.

The iPad 3&4 weigh about the same as a large hardcover book. Do people find
the weight of hardcover books difficult to hold for long periods of time? The
Hobbit is about 1.2 pounds, the iPad 4 is about 1.44 pounds. Neal Stephenson's
Cryptonomicon is about twice the weight of The Hobbit.

~~~
potatolicious
> _"Do people use iPads standing up or something?"_

Not much, because it's too heavy to use standing up. Or rather, in the usual
stand-up use cases (e.g., on a bus, boat, or train) you usually want to one-
hand the device, and its weight prevents you from doing so.

> _"The amount of time I spend using it while I have to hold it unsupported is
> minimal."_

Is that because tablets naturally don't have "unsupported" use cases, or
because the current implementation fulfills said use cases poorly, and
therefore you don't use them that way?

> _"Do people find the weight of hardcover books difficult to hold for long
> periods of time?"_

While standing or one-handing it? Yes.

> _"Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is about twice the weight of The Hobbit."_

And how many times have you seen someone reading a book that size on the
subway/bus/ferry? ;)

~~~
thoughtsimple
>> "Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is about twice the weight of The Hobbit."

>And how many times have you seen someone reading a book that size on the
subway/bus/ferry? ;)

Good point. You may have convinced me.

------
nicholassmith
I know a couple of people who've said, hands down, they'd take a Mini over an
iPad 3. I would, in a heartbeat (and probably will next year, for 'testing')
and I love the Retina displays, I just don't think you miss it that much with
the iPad Mini unless you're reading, you have excellent eyesight and you hold
it really close.

I know some people will inevitable go "you can SEE the pixels, right there,
there's a pixel", and that's fine for them. But it's a bit like audiophile
headphones, one person can pick up an extra set of dulcet tones but for that
guy over there? He doesn't care too much, he likes the other one that's
technically not as good but suits him more.

~~~
aw3c2
I looked at a friend's iPhone with high resolution display the other day. I
was really impressed how I could not see any pixels.

Then I pulled out my old nexus one to compare how crappy it would look now. As
it turned out I could not tell a difference. the 800x480 screen already is
dense enough for me to not see any pixels.

Confirmation bias is a bitch.

Edit: Typo fixing and capitalisation.

~~~
untog
The Android community is _terrible_ with this (and I say this as a very happy
Android user). People complain about PenTile, SLCD vs AMOLED, etc. etc., but I
swear- if you did a blind test, 90% of users wouldn't even be able to guess
the screen resolution, let alone the technology used to make it.

If you stare at a phone/tablet in the store for long enough you can find any
number of flaws in it. When you actually use the thing day to day to read
e-mail and navigate your way around a city it doesn't matter one jot.

------
scott_meade
"even though the screen sucks" reminds me of Lewis C.K.'s "Everything is
amazing and nobody is happy". How soon we feel anything less than retina
sucks. Really? We're spoiled people when we look at a piece of technology like
the iPad mini and our response is "this screen sucks!". Sheesh.

~~~
Kylekramer
People jump to the "everything is amazing and nobody is happy" thing way too
quickly. It is a funny bit for sure. But if we take it as a life philosophy,
a: we would never function cause we just being standing around gawking in
amazement at almost everything b: things would never improve. Apple makes high
quality displays for all of its iOS products besides the Mini. So, yeah, the
Mini's screen sucks. Especially when competitor's products are already more
"amazing" in screen resolution for less price.

~~~
AlexandrB
I think it's less about gawking in amazement and more about perspective.
Getting wound up about small technical drawbacks is very "first-world
problem".

------
afterburner
The weight of the iPad was always it's biggest problem. Glad to see that
demonstrated so clearly.

------
rdl
I don't have a mini (yet...), but I can't imagine any situation where I can
carry the mini but not the full-sized iPad. Neither will fit in my pocket
comfortably (like a phone), and either fits fine in any bag I own.

Since I reach for my MBA13 as frequently (more like 4x as often) as iPad when
both are sitting in front of me, I don't think I'd be that likely to go for
the mini vs. iPad at home or where I had both devices.

It seems like it makes sense for females with purses, maybe people wearing
coats with big and not huge pockets, and very small people (kids, etc.) for
whom the weight of an iPad is too much.

~~~
jws
I'm liking the mini precisely because I have it with me. It fits in my coat
pockets. When spring comes around I'll probably have to start wearing clown
pants.

~~~
thedufer
This is one of the biggest advantage the Nexus 7 has over the mini. It fits,
if a bit snugly, into the back pockets of my jeans.

~~~
rdl
Can you sit on it, though? I usually carry an iphone 5 in my back pocket, and
it's small/durable enough that sitting on it isn't a big deal.

I actually have cargo pants which will fit an iPad 1 in the cargo pocket
(barely). I used that a lot on military bases where you weren't allowed to
take a bag into the cafeteria (for fear of bombs).

------
CletusTSJY
My iPad Mini arrived last weekend and I love it. He's absolutely right about
the size and weight being the killer feature. Since I haven't used a retina
display for long periods of time, I don't even notice the lower quality of the
screen. I'll probably get a larger one at some point but I'm satisfied with my
choice to start with the Mini.

------
abdophoto
Some good points. I wouldn't call Retina displays disruptive. I wonder if
we'll even see a Retina mini next year.

~~~
taude
For some reason, I'm not as enamored or impressed with the whole Retina-thing
as everyone else. Even when I bought a new 15" MBPro a couple months ago, I
went with the standard screen (though I do use my laptop plugged into external
monitor 75% of the time). Sure, the Retina is nice, and I'll appreciate it
when it's the default standard in a few years, but I don't look at it and
think "WOAH, THIS IS AMAZING, I NEED THIS NOW."

~~~
rahoulb
I find it more like HDTV.

I wasn't unhappy with standard definition, but I ended up watching more and
more HD over time.

Now, when I watch SD, I notice it - not enough to put me off, but enough that
it's ever-so slightly annoying.

------
mcantelon
TLDR: pixel density doesn't matter that much... the mini is good because it's
small and looks good.

------
topbanana
Uh-oh, my bullshit buzzer went off at "Retina displays aren’t disruptive".
Didn't read the rest of the article.

~~~
snuze
Agreed. I will never go back to a non-retina screen. I bought the Nexus 7 to
see what the Android ecosystem is all about and I always reach for the iPad
instead. The screen is the deciding factor.

The 7" screen is too small. The text is not crisp. The colors are bland.

My devices: iPad (3rd gen) iPhone 4S Nexus 7

~~~
steele
So you're only buying Apple products using the "Retina" branding from here on
out? That is a pretty bizarre claim when you think about it for a number of
reasons.

------
stcredzero
_> screen volume_

------
rogerchucker
I own an iPad 3 and played with the mini at an Apple Store. The screen really
felt unimpressive. Also dimension-wise, Nexus 7 felt more "natural" on my palm
compared to the iPad mini, although iPad mini more than compensates with its
tablet-specific app selection and what not. So I guess the perfect tablet for
me would be the one with the Nexus 7's dimensions, came with Google Now (and
other Google-integration), was equipped with Retina Display, and finally ran
iOS and the iPad-specific apps. Am I asking for too much? :)

------
drivebyacct2
Or the cheaper, ~lighter,~ faster, higher-res Nexus 7?

~~~
BryantD
The Nexus 7 isn't lighter. Check the specs.

~~~
bryanlarsen
It isn't even as much smaller as you'd expect. The two are so close in
size/weight that the difference is not significant for most use cases.

But the Nexus 7 wins one use case: fitting in pant packets. They both fit in
some pant pockets, they both don't fit in others. The difference is the Nexus
7 fits in a lot more pant pockets than the iPad mini does.

That use case probably doesn't outweigh the "does it have the games I want"
question, though...

~~~
hollerith
>But the Nexus 7 wins one use case: fitting in pant packets

People with big hands can hold the Nexus 7 in what I will call the "beer-can
grip". The mini's extra half inch or so of width makes the beer-can grip a lot
less comfortable or a lot less reliable (secure).

