By Alexandra Burlacu | Nov 08, 2012 11:54 AM EST
A detailed test performed by DisplayMate Technologies has rubbished the iPad Mini's display, placing it behind the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD.
The display expert's report on Tuesday, Nov. 6, merely confirmed what most reviews had already stated: the iPad Mini's display is definitely not Apple's best display effort.
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The iPad Mini's display is "capable," but not great, said DisplayMate's Raymond Soneira in the display shoot-out published on Tuesday. Overall, the display on Apple's latest gadget falls behind its main rivals on the 7-inch tablet market, offering a lower resolution than Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HD.
"The displays of existing mini Tablets from Amazon and Google outperform the iPad mini in most of our lab tests," reported Soneira. Moreover, not only does the iPad Mini fall behind rivals, but it also falls short of Apple's own standards. Apple has set high standards with its stunning Retina displays found on its last two generation of iPads, iPhone 4/ 4S, iPhone 5, and retina MacBooks.
"So Apple, the inventor of Retina Display marketing, now has a significant competitive shortfall on this," added Soneira.
The iPad Mini has a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels with a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch (ppi). Both the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD pack a pixel density of 216 ppi. The Mini seems to do no better at screen reflectance. While the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD have a 5.9 percent and 6.4 percent reflectance, respectively, the iPad Mini's screen reflectance stands at nine percent. This means the iPad Mini reflects 53 percent more ambient light than the Nexus 7 and 41 more than the Kindle Fire HD, noted Soneira.
When it comes to color gamut, the iPad Mini has a small 62 percent, while the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7 both deliver a greater 86 percent color gamut. The iPad Mini falls even shorter when compared to Apple's third-generation iPad and iPhone 5, both of which have full 100 percent color gamuts.
While outperformed by rivals, however, the iPad Mini's display is not all that bad. DisplayMate gave it "good" or "very good" ratings in some of the key categories in its chart. In the "Viewing Tests" category, for instance, the iPad Mini and the Kindle Fire HD rank "very good," while Google's Nexus 7 is rated only as "good," with notes of "washed out colors and contrast" on photos and videos.
Step it up, Apple, competition is out to get you!
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