One of the most valuable brands in the world is Apple. The American company has built a unique reputation for itself, and its devices are sold in large quantities immediately after entering the market. Apple has succeeded in selling personal computers, tablets and smartphones. On October 22, 2013, the American company presented its two new revolutionary devices to the world - Apple iPad 5 Air and iPad mini 2 with Retina display. Both devices are completely similar in their characteristics. The main difference between the two is the size of the display. Apple iPad Air has a 10-inch screen, while iPad mini 2 has a 7-inch screen. While the iPad Air has received an updated design compared to the previous version of the tablet (iPad 4), the appearance of the iPad mini 2 has remained practically unchanged compared to its predecessor. The iPad mini 2 will be discussed further.
Contents of delivery
The Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display comes standard: the tablet itself, charger, manual, interface cable and a special "clip" for removing the SIM card tray (in the version of the device with support for 4G).
Design
As mentioned above, the design of the Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display remains the same as the previous generation of tablets. The tablet has an all-metal body. Brushed aluminum is pleasant to the touch, does not get dirty and does not slip in your hands. In addition, it has an attractive appearance. It should be added that all the main competitors of the device, and first of all the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and Asus Google Nexus 7 (2013), have plastic cases.
Minor changes in the appearance of the device include the displacement of the location of the SIM card slot and the appearance of another microphone hole.
The previous version of the tablet was produced in two body colors: white (White Silver) and black (Black Slate). The new iPad mini is also available in two colors: white (Silver) and asphalt gray (Space Gray). Gray is much more practical than black. It has fewer fingerprints and a clearer metal texture.
In the upper part of the "back" of the device you can see a matte plastic insert, which is made in white in the Silver version of the device and in black in the Space Gray version. The bezels surrounding the display have similar colors.
The front panel of the tablet is covered with tempered glass, which protects the screen from scratches. It has an oleophobic coating that prevents greasy fingerprints from getting dirty quickly.
The dimensions of the first iPad mini were 200x134.7x7.2 millimeters and weighed 308 grams (in the Wi-Fi + Cellular version - 312 grams). The dimensions of iPad mini 2 are 200x134.7x7.5 millimeters and weighs 331 grams (modification with 4G support - 341 grams). The length and width of both devices are completely the same. But the thickness of the novelty "overtook" its predecessor by 0.3 millimeters, which, if you do not apply a ruler to the device, are absolutely not felt. Apple iPad mini 2 is 23 grams heavier than the first generation tablet. Despite the slight difference in size, not every iPad mini case will fit the second generation iPad mini.
Apple iPad mini 2 is one of the thinnest tablet computers in the world. The compact dimensions of the device are one of its main advantages.
Location of buttons and connectors
All controls on the Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display have the same layout as on the previous tablet model.
The bottom end is occupied by the holes of two stereo speakers and a proprietary lightning connector. The speakers are loud.
At the top you can find a tablet lock button and a headphone hole.
On the right side of the device there are two separate volume control buttons and a lever for activating the silent mode. In the modification of the device with support for 4G, on the same side there is a tray for a nanoSIM card.
The main camera lens is located in the upper left corner of the rear panel of the tablet. Almost in the middle of the upper part of the back panel, on a plastic insert, there is a small microphone hole. In the center of the "back" of the tablet, the developers placed a large company logo (a bitten apple).At the very bottom of the rear panel, you can read the name of the device and a brief technical specification.
On the front panel of the device body above the screen there is a light sensor and a front-facing camera FaceTime, and under the screen there is a round hardware key "Home", which is already familiar to many users.
Display
Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display has a 7.9-inch touchscreen display. The screen resolution is 2048x1536 pixels with a density of 324 dpi. The display of the previous iPad mini had a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels with a density of 163 dpi. The difference in image quality between these two devices is quite noticeable. At this high resolution, the individual pixels on the iPad mini 2 display cannot be seen with the naked eye.
For comparison, the pixel density of the 7-inch screen of the tablet Asus Google Nexus 7 (2013) is 323 dpi.
The viewing angles of the screen are very high. The image on the display of the device looks "smooth", clear and bright. The maximum screen brightness is 407 cd / m2. For comparison, the maximum display brightness of the first iPad mini is 350 cd / m2, and the screen of the Asus Google Nexus 7 (2013) is 475 cd / m2.
The color gamut of the display does not reach the sRGB standard. The colors are lacking in "depth".
The device screen has a high contrast ratio of 900: 1. The previous Apple model has a 687: 1 ratio, while the Asus Google Nexus 7 (2013) has 875: 1.
The display is equipped with an anti-reflective filter that prevents the screen from fading and discoloration in bright sunlight.
In general, the developers did a good job on the screen of the device. Compared to its predecessor, iPad mini 2 has a higher resolution and better picture contrast. The only weak point of the tablet display is the discrepancy between the color gamut of the sRGB standard. The brightness and contrast indicators of the tablet screen are quite high, but do not exceed those of the Asus Google Nexus 7 (2013).
Camera
The rear camera of the Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display has a resolution of 5 megapixels. It is equipped with flash and AF point. The front camera has a resolution of 1.2 megapixels. With its help, you can take self-portraits and carry out video communication.
The camera of the device demonstrates the same quality of photos as that of its predecessor.
The front camera of the tablet is capable of recording videos in HD format (1280x720 pixels). The main camera can record video in a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (Full HD) at 30 frames per second. The minimum focusing distance is about 10 centimeters.
The finished photos are distinguished by good color reproduction. Of course, a compact camera "Apple" tablet will not replace, but for shooting documents or photos for Instagram, the main camera of the device is quite suitable.
In the camera settings, the user can activate the face recognition function, high dynamic range (HDR) mode.
Hardware platform
Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display has the same hardware as the 10-inch iPad Air. The device has a 64-bit Apple A7 processor, which consists of two cores built on the ARM v8 architecture. Its clock frequency is 1.3 gigahertz. The entire chipset is manufactured by the Korean company Samsung using a new 28nm HKMG (High-K Metal Gate) process. The new kernels are called Cyclone.
The tablet is equipped with a PowerVR (Series 6) G6430 quad-core graphics processor, which has support for OpenGL 3.0, DirectX 10 and OpenCL 1.x. This chip is the most powerful on the market today.
The device also has the Apple M7 social processor, which was equipped with the iPhone 5S and iPad 5 Air. The social processor is responsible for working with sensors and sensors. It helps to reduce the power consumption of the device.
The tablet has 1 gigabyte of RAM, which is twice the RAM of the first iPad mini.
The introduction of the new platform made it possible to unify the process of developing applications for all devices of the Apple company. Macbook, iPhone, and iPad now work on 64-bit architecture. In addition, the Apple A7 chipset beats all its competitors in terms of performance and consumes little power. The performance of the tablet has almost doubled compared to its predecessor.
Thanks to the powerful new platform, the device is faster than the first generation iPad mini.The launch of applications and the process of switching between them occurs at a high speed.
When running power-hungry applications such as the Infinity Blade, the back of the tablet gets noticeably warm.
The volume of the device's internal storage can be 16, 32, 64 or 128 gigabytes, depending on the modification.
Thus, Apple iPad mini 2 has a powerful hardware "filling", which bypasses all competitors on Android in terms of performance.
Autonomy
The built-in lithium polymer battery in the Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display has a 23.8 watt-hour capacity. The predecessor had a 16.3 watt-hour battery.
According to the manufacturer, the device can work offline for up to 10 hours.
In the mode of continuous playback of Full HD video, the device can work on a single battery charge for almost 8 hours. Approximately the same indicators of autonomy were demonstrated by the predecessor of the device.
The battery of the device can also be charged via an interface cable from a personal computer, but, of course, the charging process takes less time from the power supply. From the included charger (10 watts), the tablet is charged in 4 hours.
Communication capabilities
Apple iPad mini 2 has a 802.11 a / b / g / n Wi-Fi module. It operates in two bands - 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.
The device also has a Bluetooth 4.0 module, which is enabled by default.
On sale there is a modification of the tablet with support for fourth generation networks (4G). On the body of such a device, you can see the SIM card slot. The same modification of the tablet is equipped with a GPS module.
The tablet is connected to a personal computer via the proprietary Lightning connector using the supplied interface cable. The device's battery can be charged from a computer via a USB cable. To synchronize the tablet with a computer, you must install the proprietary iTunes program.
Software
Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display runs iOS 7.0.3. The device interface works flawlessly. Swiping desktop windows, opening / closing folders, switching between applications - everything happens quickly and smoothly. In the tablet settings, it is possible to disable all animations, which further increases the operating system's performance.
All important information is displayed on the lock screen of the device. At the very top of the screen, you can see the status bar. It displays the battery charge level, the inscription "iPad", icons of active wireless modules. A little below the status bar, you can see the large numbers of the hours, under which the day of the week and date are indicated in a smaller font. In the lower right corner of the display there is a camera icon, by clicking on which you can quickly launch it.
To unlock the screen, you just need to swipe your finger across it from left to right.
You can get quick access to basic tablet settings using two slide-out panels. The notification bar slides out from the top of the display to fill the entire screen. It is translucent. At the top of the panel, you can see three tabs - Today, All, and Missed. On the "Today" tab, you can see today's date, find out the weather and view calendar events.
From the bottom of the tablet screen, a control center panel is pulled out, on which there are sliders for adjusting the sound and screen brightness, icons for activating / deactivating wireless modules (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth), airplane and do not disturb modes, and auto-rotate display orientation. There are also AirDrop and AirPlay icons, as well as icons for 4 applications (calculator, camera, flashlight and alarm clock).
Thanks to AirDrop technology, it became possible to exchange files between various devices running iOS 7. AirPlay technology allows you to transfer media data (audio and video) from a tablet to any compatible device.
The control center does not occupy the entire screen, but only its lower part.The control center panel is opaque. In addition to various settings, this panel displays virtual buttons for controlling music playback. Here you can switch tracks, stop or rewind the music being played.
With these two panels, the tablet user does not have to go to the settings menu every time to change some settings and enable the most important functions.
The tablet owner cannot customize these panels himself. You cannot replace shortcuts in either the notification panel or Control Center. The user can only choose whether this or that panel will be called in an open application or on the locked screen of the device.
The list of running applications is not just a list of names of open programs and games with icons, but thumbnails of open windows, information in which is updated in real time. In order to close a running application, you need to drag the corresponding thumbnail up.
The iOS 7 interface is made in a bright minimalistic design. Some users who have previously worked with devices on iOS 6 are dissatisfied with the acid colors, monochromatic fills and flat icons of the new version of the operating system. In the previous version of iOS, the icons were three-dimensional, and the background used "heavy" images, reminiscent of various materials (leather, glass, wood). The iOS 7 interface looks more "lightweight".
The desktops contain application shortcuts and folders where you can add an unlimited number of icons. In the upper right part of the icons of programs and games in a red circle, the number of notifications, if any, is displayed. For example, the mail client icon displays the number of received unread emails.
At the bottom of the screen are four shortcuts to the most popular applications - messages, browser, email client and music player.
Your device comes with Find My iPhone, which lets you find your iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, or Mac if it's lost or stolen. With the help of this program, you can not only determine the location of the lost device, but also remotely show a message on its display, play a sound signal on it, erase data from it and block it. To work with this application, authorization via Apple ID is required.
The branded Safari browser demonstrates high speed. A large number of tabs can be opened in it. The tab menu looks like a filing cabinet with documents. To close the tab, you need to move it to the left, or click on the cross. The tabs show the content of the sites, which makes it easier to navigate between them. At the top of the web browser is the address bar, which acts as a search bar at the same time.
The user can control the tablet using voice commands. Siri can speak in a female or male voice. With Siri, you can change settings, search Google, Wikipedia, and Bing, open apps, show the weather, get directions, switch tracks in the player, and more.
With the built-in email client, the owner of the Apple iPad mini 2 can comfortably work with emails. The application has the same tabs as in mail services on personal computers: "Inbox", "Drafts", "Sent Items", "Trash", "Spam", "Archive".
In the gallery, the user of the device can view all the pictures and photos stored in the device's memory. Images in the gallery are sorted by time and location.
Output
Apple iPad mini 2 with Retina display is one of the highest quality tablets in the world.
The device turned out to be definitely better than the first generation iPad mini. Compared to its predecessor, Apple iPad mini 2 has a more powerful hardware "filling" and a screen with a higher resolution. In addition, the first generation tablet did not have a modification with 128 gigabytes of internal memory.
The increase in performance of the Apple iPad mini 2 compared to its predecessor is hard to miss. The novelty demonstrates a very fast interface. It's also hard not to notice the differences between a regular display and a Retina display. The picture on the screen of the Apple iPad mini 2 looks sharp and detailed, especially against the background of the image on the screen of its predecessor.
The advantages of the Apple iPad mini 2 over its Android competitors are also obvious. The "Apple" tablet compares favorably with plastic Android devices with its compact aluminum body.
Separately, it is worth noting the high level of autonomy of the device.
The next generation of Apple iPad mini tablets would like to see a higher-resolution rear camera and TouchID fingerprint sensor, just like the iPhone 5S.
