Everyone seems to be talking about how sleek, but also how expensive, Apple's new iPad mini is relative to other 7-inch tablets. I didn't attend the eventâ€"I was at Gartner Symposium insteadâ€"but it's a bit pricier than I would have expected. Still, that isn't going to stop people from wanting one.
At $329 for the 16GB model, it is a notably higher than the $199 price point for recent 7-inch tablets from Google and Amazon. (Here's a quick overview of the specs of those tablets.)Â Note there are multiple models of iPad minis: Wi-Fi-only units with 16GB ($329), 32GB ($429) and 64GB ($529); and 4G+Wi-Fi models for $130 more.
The iPad mini has a 7.9-inch, 1024-by-768 display, which makes it larger but lower resolution than the 7-inch, 1280-by-800 displays in the Nexus tablet and 7-inch Kindle Fire HD. It also has a 4:3 ratio, which I've found is better for reading newspapers and magazines than the longer, thinner displays of most Android-based tablets.
It's as thin as a pencil and as light as a pad of paper, a significant difference when compared with the Nexus 7 or Fire HD. On the other hand, the aspect ratio makes it is 5.3 inches wide, which may be a bit too large for some jacket pockets, one of the things I've really liked about carrying the original Fire or the Nexus tablet.
But the real advantage is that because the screen resolution is identical to the previous generations of the full-size iPad, it should run all the iPad applications and to date, I've seen particularly better applications for iPad than for Android. People who just want Web browsing and most phone apps will likely find a better deal with a smaller Android tablet, but those who value Apple's iPad apps but want a more portable package will spring for the mini.Â
Meanwhile, there is a new fourth-generation iPad with Retina display, which updates the processor from the A5X to a newer A6X and has the new Apple standard Lightning connector.Â
The new processor should make it twice as fast in both CPU and GPU performance with the same battery life and provide better performance in some applications. As someone who bought the last generation, I suppose I should be upset that it was replaced in just seven months, but in practice, this is unlikely to do anything the older model can't anytime soon. I haven't heard speed complaints from anyone, though faster processors should eventually enable new applications. I'm just looking at this as a minor update for holiday purchasers. It still has a 9.7-inch, 2048-by-1536 Retina display and the pricing, starting at $499, is unchanged. It's still the full-sized tablet to beat.
There has been some speculation lately that Samsung is out as a supplier of displays, but the company has denied that. However, some of the companies that really cover the display industry, especially DisplaySearch, have reported that Apple is mainly relying on LG Display and, to a lesser extent, AUO, to provide iPad mini panels, saying this might cause supply constraints over the next few months. Maybe that's why Apple isn't being particularly aggressive on the price.
Apple also introduced updated versions of the iMac, which use new processors and are very thin but lose the optical drive. (Read PCMag's hands-on.)
Also introduced was the Mac Mini (still quite small) and, most importantly, a new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. That new notebook is impressive because of its 2,560-by-1,600 resolution, which I think will be particularly attractive for engineering and video editing on a smaller laptop. Personally, I'd go with the Air, but that's me.
Within the iMac and Mac mini, Apple also announced its new Fusion Drive, which combines 128GB of NAND flash storage as a solid-state drive (SSD) with 1TB or 3TB of hard drives. The OS and preloaded applications run on the SSD and in addition, part of the flash storage can act as a cache for files written to the hard drive. We've seen performance desktops on the Windows side combined both SSDs and hard drives for a while now, as well as hybrid drives and systems where flash memory works as a cache (notably in Ultrabooks), but this is good step forward for Apple desktops.
The iPad mini is certainly getting most of the attention, but the new Macs will probably make a lot of Apple fans even happier.
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