Apple Tablet

[The Monkey]

I will take 1 Retina Mini for the win, please.

[grawk]

I can say I love my mini.  I'd actually be more interested in an A7 powered mini without the retina display than I am in either of the current ones.  Tho with potentially buying an ipad 2 in the near future (christmas present for one of my kids), we're rapidly approaching the "too many devices on one itunes account" limit.  

[TMoney]

I'm really excited about the mini-retina, as well, just need to see if it's big enough for me to read comics on.

 

FWIW I find it somewhat difficult to read comics on my 7" Nexus 7 (which will be sold when the new mini comes). If you view panel by panel it looks great, but at times when viewing entire pages of panels the smaller text can be a pain to read. I like to play board games on iOS and I'm hoping the mini wont be too small for that. We shall see.

 

Still, in using a similarly sized Nexus 7 for the past few months I will say the smaller size is very nice, especially if you already have a suitable laptop. Once I got the Nexus 7 I sold my full sized retina-pad. It won't be the case for everyone, but for me the 7-8" size is just right.

[Cankin]

Getting an easy to use and maintenence free tablet for mom, Air it is.

[Hopstretch]

So, given the naming scheme now falling into line with the Mac range, I wonder what an iPad Pro would look like? 

 

Also trying to decide between a new Mini or Air.

[grawk]

So, given the naming scheme now falling into line with the Mac range, I wonder what an iPad Pro would look like? 

 

Also trying to decide between a new Mini or Air.

a sphere

[robm321]

The mini's PPI seems more appealing to me than the air's. As appealing as it is, I'll probably stick to my Nexus 7. Laptop+phone seem to cover everything but book reading for me. Aiming for the new MBP, however. 

Edited October 23, 2013 by robm321

[Salt Peanuts]

Jacob, my step-father has Nexus 7 and I found the screen too small to read comics comfotably - I expect it would be similar on iPad Mini. Like you, I don't like viewing comics panel by panel.

[Nebby]

I like my Nexus 10 for comics and also found the Nexus 7 to be too small to comfortably read comics with.

[blessingx]

I wonder if ratio differences would play a part here? 

[jp11801]

I really want the iPad Air, I have two iPad now I have to see what versions but the Air is too good to pass up. I do wish they had implemented high res audio on this version but it looks like that could be a few iterations out

[TMoney]

I went to the Apple store today to compare the size of the new Air to the mini. I was thinking there was no way in hell I'd walk out of there prefering the Air. I was wrong. Coming from the retina-pad (3rd gen aka the heavy one) the reduction of weight is nothing short of stunning. The 3rd gen ipad just had to have so much battery to power that retina screen. The weight of it didnt seem that bad at the time but one-handing the thing got old fast. The Anandtech review talked about the reduction in weight being similar to the feeling you got going from the iphone 4 to the iphone 5. I totally agree with that assessment.

 

I didn't really like how wide the mini was for one handed use. I can easily get my hand around the Nexus 7, but the mini just seemed a little too wide for holding that way. I figured as long as I couldn't really get a hand around the thing why not just go for the big one? After all, at arms length the Air is considerably easier to read.

 

After playing around with the Air a little more I decided to go with it rather than wait for the retina-mini and I'm now the proud owner of a black 32gb wifi. I'm really happy with it. The Nexus 7 will be going up for sale this weekend.

Edited November 7, 2013 by TMoney

[robm321]

^ I came to the same conclusion. Originally, the mini was on my radar. My job gave me the option to order a retina mini or air. I ended up getting the air with a keyboard case. I'll probably be selling my Nexus 7 also. I felt that the N7 is a better fit one handed. The mini is too wide to be a one hander and too small to completely satisfy. I'm looking forward to getting the air. 

 

edit: i'll probably keep the Nexus 7 for reading books. 

Edited November 8, 2013 by robm321

[en480c4]

I use my smart cover with the mini to hold it one-handed.  If you fold completely, so all three sections are stacked and it's three layers thick along the left edge, it creates a perfect "handle" for the fingers to catch on while the thumb wraps around the front.  I don't use it this way all of the time, but typically if I'm reading a book, this is the best setup for me.

[n_maher]

For those that used to bitch about Android's icons being ugly and simplistic - you must feel sick about iOS 7.  Maybe it's the non-retina version on my 2nd Gen iPad but yikes, this is quite the visual departure from prior versions of the OS.  I don't think I like it.

[shellylh]

Yep, it is ugly and I really don't like it.

[Cankin]

I didn't like it at first but the more I look at iOS 7 the better it looks, now iOS 6 looks really dated to me. Even Mavericks looks not as great as iOS 7 to me.

[grawk]

It's a pretty superficial difference, and it makes things less cluttered looking.  I'm ok with the interface changes. 

[morphsci]

IOS 7 is aesthetically so much better. IOS 6 was approaching MS in look and feel which is not a good thing.

[n_maher]

The built in apps remind me an awful lot of an android tablet I had 3 years ago, which is just...weird. Safari in particular.

[robm321]

There's no question that it has a more Android-like style to it. 

[morphsci]

The built in apps remind me an awful lot of an android tablet I had 3 years ago, which is just...weird. Safari in particular.

In looks, I agree. The difference for me is that the apps in IOS 7 actually work. The apps on my Android phone three years ago only sometimes worked.

[TMoney]

Having owned both, I think the iOS7 redesign is generally a good thing, though there are some notable sore spots, especially the calendar app on the phone. I hate that thing. Also the safari icon is quite the eye sore. That being said, I couldn't imagine downgrading back to iOS6 at this point.

 

The biggest different in the platforms, to me, is the developer/app support. Both sides are great for checking email, watching netflix and youtube, and surfing the web. But I draw the line there. The (non-google) apps on the apple side are just plain better. Maybe it is the fact that they only have to design apps for a few specific display resolutions/hardware skus that leads to a much more polished and coherent design interface on the apple side? Whatever it is, the difference is startling.

[HeadphoneAddict]

I'm pretty happy with the 128GB Air for AT&T. The drop in weight is noticeable and does make it easier to read while holding it one handed, and that was the big draw for me. The main draw for the iPad mini for me is the ability to put it in my pants pocket or my jacket, but I don't like the smaller non-retina screen very much since it's harder to read. I haven't really noticed much of the speed increase.

My wife has to carry a full size iPad 2 with keyboard case that was issued to her by her job with their apps installed, and she would carry around her personal iPad 2 as well because it has 3G and all of her own apps and media. That was over 4 lbs in her purse that was a real pain, literally. So this weekend I gave her my iPad mini LTE, and then we gave her iPad 2 3G to our daughter to use at college.

I will still consider a iPad mini retina when released, but don't know if I'll trade-in my old iPad 4 LTE towards the mini, or just sell it outright. Amazingly my iPad 4 has not received one dent or scratch in the 11 months that I've had it. Every iPad prior to that got dented in the first two weeks, so that I would joke about needing to buy them pre-dented to save the misery.

As for iOS 7, some things are better but I think they went much too far in the other direction to get away from the skeuomorphism of old. I hated the fake leather and felt just as much as anyone else, but was hoping they'd keep some contrast. Now there isn't enough contrast between info and buttons for sure.

And the iOS 7 calendar for iPhone is clearly worse with less info on one screen, and it's now harder to get to the day view you want when selecting it from the month view. I had to switch to Fantastical2 calendar for my iPhone 5s, but will never use Sunrise calendar after they were hacked and calendar data was exposed. In five years of owing an iPhone I've rarely had to use a third party app to do what was already built-in, until now (except for using atomic browser to spoof sites into using the full desktop version occasionally.)

[TMoney]

^

 

Wait, you bought the fully decked out iPad Air when you already had an iPad 4 with LTE? Why not just get a macbook pro at that point?