Apple iPad mini 2 Review

Update: You can now read our iPad mini 3 review!

Introduction

When the iPad mini was introduced last year, consumers were excited to finally see a miniaturized version of Apple’s full-sized tablet. Like seriously, it was a logical offering, which also helped to compete almost on the same scale as some of those cheap tablets. The iPad mini just had one glaring omission – it lacked Apple’s fancy termed Retina Display.

Well folks, Apple made sure to remedy that with this year’s model, the aptly named Apple iPad mini with Retina Display. Armed with that higher resolution display that we desperately sought out last year, it’s also blessed with the usual assortment of upgrades. However, at $399 for the base model, it’s significantly higher in price point than its predecessor – making it less competitive against those cheap tablets it was initially sought out to compete against. Still, it’s an offering that consumers will no doubt ponder over this upcoming holiday season, so let’s get cracking on whether the pricing is justified.

The package contains:

• Lightning USB cable
• Wall charger
• Documentation
• Apple decals

Design

No surprised here people! This 2nd generation iPad mini recycles the design of its predecessor. It’s not a bad thing, nor a new tactic, so we’re not terribly disappointed. And why’s that? Well, it’s mainly because it continues to be one of the more premium constructed tablets in the space – more so when it’s compared to those plastic bodied tablets. Donning the same fantastic brushed aluminum casing from before, which gives the tablet its sturdiness and clean looks, we’re once again given the same space grey and silver color options.

With its streamlined profile (0.3-inches), lightweight feel (341 gr), and curved beveled edges, it feels pleasant to hold in the hand along one of its side. Meanwhile, when attempting to grasp it entirely with our hand, its wide length makes it rather difficult to firmly hold – causing those with smaller hands to do more stretching. Overall, the design isn’t new, but we’re humbled to know that its construction continues to be rarely matched by the competition.

As much as we would’ve like to see a biometric Touch ID finger print sensor on this, that’s not the case here, as it’s nothing more than that iconic home button below its display. On the opposite side above the display, we have its light sensor and front-facing 1.2-megapixel camera.

Seeing that its design is unchanged, everything we found around its trim from before makes the same appearance here – and in the same locations too. That includes its separated volume controls, mute switch, 3.5mm headset jack, mics, dual-speakers, and Lightning docking port. With the latter, in addition to providing data and power connectivity, the Lightning docking port also allows for video out functionality, but it requires an optional adapter.

Around the rear, it’s sporting a 5-megapixel iSight camera, which features an f2.4 aperture lens, backside illuminated sensor, digital image stabilization, and 1080p video recording. It seems like the camera gear is unchanged from last year’s model, but we’ll talk more about its quality later on.

Display

Naturally, the highlight of this 2nd generation model is the inclusion of a Retina Display – the one distinct feature that many people yearned for with the original model. Well, it’s finally here, and boy is it a refreshing thing to find. No longer must we agonize over pixelization, just because its 7.9-inch 2048 x 1536 IPS LCD Retina Display is glorious for its sharp visuals and strong details. Essentially, fine details exude plenty of clarity for our eyes to comfortably distinguish from a normal viewing distance.

Being the IPS LCD variety, there are several elements that help to make it an appealing display. For starters, its wide viewing angles and potent brightness output help to give it superior outdoor visibility – so there are no issues in regards to it washing out or softening visibility. However, we do notice that its color reproduction isn’t as vibrant and accurate when compared to the iPad Air’s display, so it comes off more as subdued, although still pretty correct.

When you’re a premium tablet, there’s this minimum expectation that it needs to uphold. Thankfully, this year’s iPad mini fits the bill more, as it’s now fitted with a high resolution Retina Display. We’re stoked that it’s finally here, but in the greater scheme of things, we wouldn’t say that it’s something ground breaking that makes it more prized over other offerings.

Interface and Functionality

Much like the rest of the company in Apple’s lineup, the iPad mini with Retina Display, along with other recent offerings like the Phone 5s and iPad Air, is running the updated iOS 7 experience. On one side, it’s a refreshing change of scenery for the platform, which brings forth revamped visual enhancements to the presentation, but there’s nothing really unique with it here. If you want to know the ins and outs of what’s new with iOS 7, you can read about it in our review.

One of the features specifically tied here is the various gestures in play with the experience. To be exact, they include the 5-finger pinch gesture to “close” or “minimize” apps, 5-finger swipe gesture for quick and easy switching between apps, and the 5-finger swipe gesture to go into the platform’s multi-tasking view. Naturally, they’re all great and prove quite useful to the overall experience, but it would’ve been beneficial to see some new ones to accompany the updated iOS 7 experience.

Now if you’ve been using iOS 7 on other iPads, even last year’s own original iPad mini or the just recently outed iPad Air, you’ll be quite at home here. At the end of the day, beyond the visual enhancements and new features, it’s just nice that the platform still lays claim to one of iOS’s foundational principles – having an easy, intuitive, and simplified experience. Best of all, the platform is rich with many tablet optimized apps.

Messaging

Between the portrait and landscape on-screen keyboards that are available with the iPad mini with Retina Display, we gravitate to using the portrait one more – mainly because our fingers easily encompass the layout. And it helps when the keyboard features a speedy response and killer auto-correct. With the landscape one, it’s just too cramped to use naturally like a regular keyboard.

Using the default email app, it’s yet again a familiar one that only sees a subtle change with its visual presentation. Indeed, it’s more than equipped to help us organize our various accounts, but it still doesn’t have the depth of functionality we see with the Gmail experience over on Android – albeit, the official Gmail app for the iPad is pretty darn good on its own.

Organizer

Checking out the usual array of core organizer apps, it’s again the visuals that are new here with the experience. Beyond that, though, there’s nothing out of the ordinary with any of them, since they pack along the usual features and functions we’ve come to expect to find. Still, it’s nice that they’re all optimized to make great use of the extra real estate with the tablet’s display. Interestingly enough, iOS 7 does adds this new feature called iCloud Keychain, which allows us to share various passwords and credit card information between approved iOS 7 devices.

Additionally, Siri is on board with the experience, and it just goes to show how Apple keeps on making it smarter and wiser. For all of its worth, though, it still doesn’t pack the same punch and all-encompassing experience we get out of Android’s Google Now experience.

Processor and Memory

Yes, it’s small and all, but don’t let its diminutive size fool you – that’s because it’s powered by a monster processor under the hood. Like the iPhone 5s and iPad Air, this tablet benefits by employing a new chipset that’s based on 64-bit architecture. Specifically, it’s a dual-core 1.3GHz Apple A7 processor with the PowerVR G6430 GPU. The combination allows the 2nd gen iPad mini to run various tasks with ease and finesse. It surely handles basic tasks with minimal fluff, but even processor intensive ones like 3D gaming, are all easily accomplished. Right now, it’s just a matter of getting more developers on board to take advantage and make use of all the optimizations found with this 64-bit based processor.

In standard fashion, there’s no expandable storage – not a shocker of course. Bearing that in mind, consumers will need to really think about what model to get. They include 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and a beefy 128GB version, which start at $400 for the base model and increase $100 for each model up.

Internet and Connectivity

No longer must we squint in trying to decipher miniscule text, thanks to the higher resolution Retina Display it’s now sporting. With that in tow, it really livens up the web browsing experience – even more when it continues to deliver an outstanding performance. From its speedy page loads, to its buttery smooth navigational controls, there’s nothing we don’t like about the experience, so it’s just dreamy.

Do you always want to be connected? Well, you’ll be pleased to know that the iPad mini with Retina Display is available with 4G LTE connectivity, in addition to only Wi-Fi models – the unseen benefit for being such a popular tablet. Beyond that, it’s outfitted with all the comforts of today’s modern connectivity features – like aGPS, Bluetooth 4.0, and dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi.

Camera

Needless to say, the visual changes and new features put forth with iOS 7 are all refreshing, but unfortunately, we don’t see a whole lot of it in the camera app. Running the app, it becomes apparent from the onset that it doesn’t have a whole lot of manual controls or shooting modes. The ones it boasts include the usual photo & videos modes, with a square shot one, and the ability to shoot HDR photos. We can lament about its slim offerings, but at the same time, it emphasizes on having a simple experience in snapping something.

Last year’s iPad mini proved that it was a capable snapper. So how does this one fare? Actually, it pretty much follows the same formula from before, since it’s armed with the same 5-megapixel snapper. Therefore, the results are pretty good for a tablet – albeit, it doesn’t rival the elites in the smartphone space. As long as there’s a sufficient amount of lighting, its camera composes photos that feature sharp details, natural colors, and proper exposure. Depending on the angle of our shot, we sometimes find a saturated tone with its color reproduction.



Under low lighting situations, images become super soft in tone due to the amount of noise that inundates the shot. Colors at the same time become blander too. All told, images captured in this particular situation have a diminished quality.

Its 1080p video recording quality is pretty good looking as well, seeing that it has a fine balance thanks to its rich details, minimal artifacting, gradual exposure adjustment, and clear audio recording. With the latter, however, our fingers can sometimes inadvertently cover up its mic, which causes voices to have a distorted tone. Unfortunately, its low lighting performance leave a sour taste, since it’s just so noisy looking from head-to-toe. Despite that, it’s a pretty good performer that should appease most people.

Multimedia

The Photo app of the iPad mini with Retina Display follows the same functionality and presentation found with its sibling in the iOS 7 Photo app for the iPhone, so it’s essentially optimized to make use of the larger real estate. Now, there’s better organization with the photos we snap, since it breaks it down by date and location. The location one is pretty neat because we can visualize on a map where the photos were taken! Even though there are no cool shooting modes with the camera app, the photo app boasts a handful of editing features that allow us to crop, enhance, remove red eye, and add different filters.

Even though the camera app lacks any cool shooting modes, the Photo Booth app gives us a little bit of comfort in having real-time filters to choose from. Somehow in the back of our minds, we just wish it were incorporated into the camera app itself.

The new visual changes seen throughout the platform extend into the music player as well. Checking it out, it’s obvious that the presentation has been updated to accompany iOS 7, but it still seems very much on the conventional side. However, we now have streaming functionality a la Pandora style with iTunes Radio. Sporting two speakers, it’s certainly potent and commanding with its output – plus, it maintains its clarity at the loudest setting, with a hint of bass with its quality.

Again aided by the introduction of the Retina Display, watching videos on the tablet is better than ever thanks to its high resolution display. Our eyes are affixed to the display, since it’s able to produce sharp looking visuals and plays videos smoothly. Still, most 1080p videos require some conversion before being able to properly play.

Battery

Even with the beefier internals it’s boasting with the combination of its higher resolution Retina Display, its battery doesn’t suffer. In fact, it delivers nearly the same results as its Retina Display-less older sibling. On top of providing power users with a long lasting battery that’s ample to get us through a work shift, we’re able to get through 1.5 days with normal usage from a full charge. It’s nothing extraordinary, but nonetheless, we’re content with the results.

Conclusion

Now that it’s packing a Retina Display, the 2nd generation iPad mini is more in line to being a premium tablet – whereas before, it felt a smidgen underwhelming. As much as we appreciate its arrival, in addition to the usual hardware upgrades, its new base $400 price point is tough to swallow. With a $70 price increase over its predecessor, it makes for a tougher time to compete with some of the other noise makers in the tablet space.

Don’t get us wrong, it’s a fantastic tablet that performs handsomely in the areas we need it to work in, but it’s just pricey. In comparison, the $230 Google Nexus 7 2013 is an astounding option that rivals this, even in the display department – albeit, its construction and design are more in line to its pricing, not to mention that its app catalog is considerably poorer. It's also worth mentioning that for just $100 more than what you'll be paying for the iPad mini 2, you can get the full-sized iPad Air, which is also nicely compact and light, for a slate with a sizable 9.7” display.

It’s a solid effort for this 2nd generation iPad mini model, but now that it’s attached with a higher price point, it’s just difficult to openly side with it.

Software version of the review unit: 7.0.3