It depends. Hi res on mobile devices is about pixel density, not necessarily the high resolution. High DPI means everything looks more crisp, not bigger.

But yeah, I showed my photos on the original iPad for years. Didn't really miss the retina screen. Even when I bought my laptop, I said the retina display is unnecessary if you're just watching cat videos on Facebook.

If someone didn't offer to buy my iPad 1, I might still be using that instead. High DPI is nice but it hadn't enticed me to upgrade.

And I'm putting a skin on the back. Screen protectors aren't needed on this thing. You'll never scratch that glass under normal use.

has anyone noticed issues like the black slate version of iphone5 on their new black ipad mini out of the box with scratches or dings? I want to know so that when I purchase the retina mini 6 months from now that it wont have these issues like the black iphone5 did.

Didn't have any scratches or anything - mind you, some are constructed in Brazil, not China

lol really tempted to get one.
played with one yesterday and i can type with it while holding it unlike the regular ipad.
for those who have a macbook and iphone why did you guys get one? idk if ill use it enough but it seems like a good idea to have one beside your bed or while watching tv

A portable device for when its inconvenient to have my laptop with me, and the iphone isn't enough to show something.

the minis will sell like hot cakes but I'm disappointed in that they should have made the screen at least a retina display! Other then that its a lot more portable then the iPad and what not...but ill just wait for the next iteration of the mini when it becomes retina display.

You really shouldn't take advice from me. I just buy things I want. :D

Set up my an Eye-Fi card and tethered the mini to it. Any pics I take on my 5D3 are now Wi-Fi-ed to my iPad. Small 5.5MP images with the full sized RAW kept on the CF card.

sucks for not being retina display.

I can see the individial pixels

As a guy that owned an original iPad (same screen as the iPad 2?), I can say that yes, the screen isn't retina and yes, you can see the pixels but it isn't...bad. Pixel density is decent and I think I read that the pixels in a iPad 4 retina display are about 2/3rds the size of the ones on the iPad mini.

Retina display would be nice...but this isn't terrible. It looks quite nice although text, coming from a retina MBA and an iPhone 4, looks slightly muddy.

I don't know how they put a retina display in here and keep the price similar...and it has to be similar or else at $499, you might as well buy a 10" retina iPad.

after purchasing an iphone 4, I can't go back to anything that doesn't have a crisp screen

Checked out the mini at the Apple store today. I absolutely love the form factor. If I had not just bought an iPad 3 in the summer I would get this right away. I'll probably wait for the 2nd generation mini.
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My coworker bought one on launch and it made me start to want one. At first I wasn't sure but after seeing it and holding it in my hands it felt really good.

so what resolution do you think they would set the next ipad mini at?

would the same resolution as the ipad 3 be too high?

it seems that's the only other alternative if they are really keen on not wanting yet another resolution size for the the devs to deal with.



That said, how do android dev's deal with the diff resolutions on phones and tablets?

If it was the same res as the iPad 3, that would make the iPad mini a 324dpi device. The iPad 3 is 264dpi.

You can imagine how much a small, high density screen like that would cost so either Apple breaks with keeping the same resolution and makes a slightly lower res screen that matches the 264dpi of the iPad OR we aren't seeing retina in the iPad mini for at least another cycle.

resolution itself is irrelevant (the UI scales everything anyway), it's all about PPI now. If it's not around 300 on a phone, it's nowhere near "Retina" and if it's not at least 200, it is just outdated. Apple are the ones who pushed this, starting with the iPhone 4

Tablet PPI, Highest to Lowest:

Nexus 10: 300
Galaxy Note II: 267
iPad 3/4: 264
Nook HD+: 256
Kindle Fire HD: 254
Nexus 7: 216
Kindle Fire HD: 216
iPad Mini: 163
Surface: 148
iPad 2: 132

Phone PPI, Highest to Lowest:

Xperia S: 342
Lumia 920: 332
iPhone 4/5: 326
Nexus 4: 320
Galaxy Nexus:316
One X: 312
Galaxy S3: 306

Apple products are falling behind in PPI now on handhelds and tablets, but because they marketed "Retina :derp:" I doubt many will notice. They still kick ass in laptops though.

^actually the Xperia S is 342 ppi
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Thanks I'll add that. I just came up with a few popular phones off the top of my head.

Went to look it up out of curiousity...Blackberry 10 is supposedly 355ppi!

And are all Android tablet apps really just upscaled phone apps? They're not optimized for larger screens? Or is that just Mac-centric website speak?

not all but a lot are. I'm not sure since I haven't touched an Android tablet since August but there wasn't even a facebook tablet app for Android yet. you had to use the phone version which was already garbage and even more garbage on a tablet.


I can't wait to see this 355ppi blackberry. The 342 ppi on the Xperia is VERY noticeable compared to the iPhone. Crazy sharp!

The OS itself before 4.0, totally.

The main problem with Android tablets is lack of tablet specific apps. But you can say that about anything that isn't iOS right now. Once Apple gives up their market share (which they are doing at a faster pace every quarter) developers should start making more Android and Win RT versions of their apps.

Market share does not equal to profitability
iOS apps are still by for more profitable for developers to work on

Beside the nexus 7, I don't see any android tablet that can hold a market share comparable to iOS tablets or Apple giving up their market share anytime soon

"more profitable" doesn't mean "only one that is profitable"

Instagram went from 27 million users before the Android was released in April, to 100 million, the latest public number last September. I'm pretty sure developing an Android version led to some profit for the company.. oh yeah they sold it to Facebook for $1 billion.

I hear from some devs that they don't want to put too much time into doing Android apps because Android users just pirate their apps. Much harder to make money with Android.