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Comment by megablast | Hacker News Reader

Since I got my ipad mini, I have not really used my nexus, only for debugging my apps. The battery, screen, speed and so were all worse, and I never got used to the os as much as I have for iOS.

If I didn't need an android tablet, I probably would not have one.

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Uh, the iPad Mini's screen is 1024-by-768/163 PPI. The first-gen N7's is 1280x800/216 ppi. The N7's screen is noticeably nicer.

I can't speak to battery or speed as I haven't had a lot of hands-on time with the Mini, but I will note that the N7's slimmer aspect ratio means it fits nicely in a pocket, while the iPad Mini just plain doesn't.

Resolution is not the only criteria to judge a display. Color accuracy, calibration, contrast, gamma, viewing angles are also important.

I have both devices and I can comfortably say Nexus 7's display is much worse. Images appear washed out, it's not as bright as the iPad mini, it has worse viewing angles etc.

Screen "niceness" constitutes far more factors than just DPI.

It could be contrast ratio, colour gamut, brightness, subpixel quality, viewing angles, reflectivity of coating, susceptibility to oils/fingerprints...

(I haven't used either, I'm just saying)

I've used both. I prefer the Mini's screen to the old N7: larger viewing angles, better color saturation/accuracy, less backlight bleed, smaller bezel.

The iPad Mini Retina will likely be the perfect small tablet for most users.

I just can't look past the poor resolution of the iPad mini - and on that basis alone, I would not recommend it to anyone, except people with very poor eyesight. I agree that DPI isn't everything. I think of it as like "stock" to a soup. Without stock (or with awful stock), you have no soup. The rest of the ingredients are important, but stock is king. iPad mini has foul tasting "stock" ;) Brightness is important, but not fundamental, viewing angles are less important when you're looking straight on or from a slight angle (ie. 99% of the time). I didn't notice a huge difference on contrast ratio (eg. differentiating dark colours readily). I would not recommend the current iPad mini to anyone with reasonable eyesight.

> viewing angles are less important when you're looking straight on or from a slight angle (ie. 99% of the time).

I find that with the ipad mini viewing angles actually do seem kind of important, because—unlike a phone—I very often use the ipad mini without holding it, whether sitting on a table, on my lap, or propped up against something while I watch a video. The result is that one doesn't have nearly the same easy control over viewing angle one has when hand-holding a device...

And what's the price difference? :P

Yeah, this is the thing I could never get my head around. I know that the iPad mini is superior in many ways, but I just can't see how people can justify spending the extra money! The iPad mini is £110 - £190 more expensive, depending on which size you get. That's just too much IMHO.

iOS is user-friendlier in the start, that's true.

Android indeed has a "bigger" learning curve which make people more efficient in a short time for doing things with their phone/tablet.

Easy example, Tasker, Gravity screen, NFC and Autovoice...

The original Nexus 7 is known to have extremely poor color calibration.[1][2] Both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 look terrible to me, everything is very blue-looking. I took a look at a Kindle Fire HD and a Nexus 7 at a store and the difference is immediately obvious.

I can't stand seeing pixels, so the iPad Mini is not an option, but I'm also not willing to spend money on a tablet with lousy color. Hopefully Google gets it right this time.

[1] http://www.displaymate.com/news.html#8 [2] http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57479059-94/expert-claims-g...

That's like saying that all 8MP sensors are better than all 5MP sensors just because they stuff more pixels on the sensor. Of course, that's not true.

Compare any two items in the same category that are 65% apart in price and it probably wouldn't make a lot of sense to choose the cheaper one.

16GB Nexus 7 is $269, 16GB iPad mini is $329, the difference is 20%.

The updated 16GB Nexus 7 is $229. That's a 30% difference.

You're also missing the fact that until this update, the Nexus 7 16GBs were only $199, which is a whopping 40% difference.

My mistake, I looked at the price in the Play Store and looked at the wrong one.

No worries! I completely understand.

Actually, the story says that the 16GB nexus 7 is $229, so the iPad mini is 44% more expensive.

The version of the Nexus 7 I was speaking of is $199 or less (Amazon even has the 32GB for $199 right now). The new version is a little more expensive at $229, but blows the specs of the iPad Mini out of the water.

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