Tablets - what to look and for how much data?

[Ron Ron Ron]

iPad Minis are nice little things but they are poorly specified compared to what else you could get for your money.

That's the original iPad mini, which was under specified at the time of its launch 2 years ago.

The iPad mini 2 not only corrected that, but being exactly a mini version of its powerful big brother, the iPad Air (mk1), leapt right out in front of the following pack on performance and quality, if not on price (its only drawback).

 

The good news for anyone contemplating a mini, is that with the recent launch of the mini 3, which doesn't really bring much in the way of improvement to the table, the price of the mini 2 has been reduced to very competitive levels (£239 - 16Gb & £279 - 32Gb).

Between £200 and £280 this has to be the "go to" tablet.

(n.b. the cheapest Google Nexus tablet is now £319) 

 

Quite why the original mini remains on sale is a bit of a mystery, except that they can advertise the single (WiFi) model at £199.

A far better option is the excellent mini 2, starting at £239 (16Gb).

 

 

The Nexus 9 16Gb is £319 and the 32Gb is £399.

At 8.9", it sits between the iPad Air (9.7") and iPad mini (7.9") in size.

It's more expensive that the larger iPad Air 1 and the iPad mini 3 and far more expensive than the better value mini 2.

However, it is still a cheaper alternative to the latest top of the range iPad Air 2.

 

 

 

1024*768 display? Dual core?

You don't need more than dual core for tablets and the only reason that many Android phones and tablets have been using quad core has been the need for pure horse power to keep pace and get the performance out of the more bloated than needed OS.

The other reason for quad core, is to play the spec's game, as there is a certain market demographic that reveres spec's above any logic.

The big down side is that quad core gobbles battery life.

 

Note that the latest Google Nexus 9 is dual core, as was its predecessor, the poor selling and now discontinued Nexus 10.

 

Samsung plod on using quad core, presumably to help lug along the awful stodgy and bloat laden TouchWiz version of the OS.

The latest versions of plain vanilla Android don't need it.

 

The 1024 x 768 display is the outdated original iPad mini (1). The only iPad model that's behind the competition.

The mini 2 and latest mini 3 both have a resolution of 2048 x 1536, the same as the slightly larger Nexus 9.

 

 

It's interesting that Google have also dropped the 16:9 screen aspect ratio for the new Nexus 9 and switched to the more appropriate (for tablets) 4:3 ratio.

16:9 is only good for movies and widescreen video; but rubbish for anything else, such as web browsing, magazine and book content, documents etc, etc.

It seems Google have recognised that, having dropped the Nexus 7 model and poor selling Nexus 10, which were blighted with 16:9 displays.

 

 

  

[Ian J.]

I find it a bit odd going for 1.333:1 (4:3), though it's obviously a known ratio. LCD screens can be any ratio really, and I thought it would have been a good time to switch to the 1.4142:1 that's common in the international paper sizes like A4, or perhaps the golden ratio of 1.618:1, bearing in mind these have been used for paper-based reading materials for years (or even centuries).