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Comment by jbigelow76 | Hacker News Reader

It looks good. The 7.9" screen size may hit the sweet spot for smaller form factor tablets, my rooted Nook Tablet feels just a wee bit small at 7". I'm not an Apple fan but I'll be surprised if Apple doesn't sell these things by the truck load.

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I'm really disappointed by the screen's resolution though. I don't even think I'm the only one. Cuz the (current) iPad has a 264 dpi screen, whereas the Mini has a 162 dpi screen.

Few years ago Apple decided that it will be easier to create pixel perfect apps with simple, fixed layouts. With all screen elements positions hard coded. Yes, GPU accelerated animations are still the best. However fixed layout apps mean that they can only double resolution, divide by 2, etc.

The result is iPhone 5 with additional row of icons. And iPad Mini with disappointing ppi. This is classic technical debt.

It is odd with the iPad maxi and the iPhone both having retina displays that Apple didn't go with that out of the box for the mini. But maybe hamstringing the resolution is one of the ways Apple hopes they can nudge buyers over to the full size.

Can we agree to not say "iPad maxi" again? Thanks.

I'm not aware of anything you need my permission or inclusion as a precondition to agreeing to.

I'll bet on battery life + more powerful GPU required to power a retina display would make the price of a mini way too high to do that out of the gate.

Or sell it as an upgrade for next year's version.

Or maybe the happened to have factories that make the lower resolution screens very efficiently, which can now be used again.

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