Hands-On With Apple's Petite New iPad Mini - Wired

Photo: John Bradley /Wired

Apple finally announced the iPad’s little brother today, the much-rumored iPad mini. Despite the “cute” connotation associated with things dubbed mini, I wouldn’t call it cute: The iPad mini makes for a decidedly polished and attractive 8-inch tablet.

The iPad mini measures in with a 7.9-inch, 1064 x 768 resolution display and is only 7.2 mm thick. The display, although not Retina quality, still looks bright and crisp, but those accustomed to a Retina display iPad or MacBook Pro may find fault here.

Apple said that you can operate the iPad mini using just one hand, but I found it to be a bit too big for that. Even though it’s definitely light enough to comfortably hold in one hand, I couldn’t do that and comfortably operate things without using both hands. Weighing a mere 0.68 pounds, it puts other 7-inch tablets to shame and makes the fourth-generation iPad, also light for its size, feel hefty in comparison.

Despite that one-handed stretch, typing on it in portrait using my thumbs proved as effortless as doing so on an iPhone, requiring a marginally larger thumb stretch to reach the center keys, but not uncomfortably so. This doesn’t carry over to landscape mode. For that, it was difficult to type thumbs only. Sitting it down on a surface and typing more normally would be preferable in that orientation.

Stylistically, the iPad mini makes a dashing companion for the iPhone 5. It shares the same aluminum back side and diamond-cut chamfer (the name for the diagonal edge along its front face). The white version, when held in the light, shimmers a bit because of this. The white version has a silver rear and chamfer; the black is all black.

There’s enough bezel along the top and bottom of the device when held in portrait that you don’t accidentally press the screen, but not so much that it unnecessarily intrudes on screen space â€" a fact pointed out in Apple’s presentation by comparing it to a leading Android tablet. The decision to make the side bezels thinner, rather than equal sized with the top and bottom ones, also contributes to this maximized screen real estate.

The front- and rear-facing cameras on the iPad mini have been upgraded from the similarly spec’d iPad 2, but I wouldn’t call them good. You’re better off whipping out your iPhone if you need to take a quality photo, but the iPad mini’s shooter could do for a snapshot in a pinch. I’m perfectly fine with this: Your tablet really should not be your primary photography device. Ever.

The only noticeable drawback I perceived in my short time using the iPad mini was processor power. It runs iOS 6 and has enough power to get the 3-D maps capability, but pinching and zooming was choppier and more stuttery than I’ve experienced on any other iOS device. App loading also took a few moments longer than on newer full-sized iPads. This certainly isn’t a deal breaker, particularly if you plan on using this smaller iPad primarily for reading, web browsing, or watching videos. Avid gamers may be better off turning toward the more powerful fourth-generation iPad, though.

The iPad mini seems to be a quality addition to the iPad lineup. The smaller size should appease tablet hopefuls who feel the 9.7-inch iPad is too large. It provides a very good, though not top-of-the-line, experience and looks sharp to boot. We look forward to giving the iPad mini a thorough rundown in the coming weeks. It will be available for pre-order this Friday.