Apple's announcement of the iPad mini 2 with Retina is one that has shocked no one, after rafts of rumors over the past year.
Now we can see which were true, and compare Apple's latest small-screen tablet offering against its three biggest rivals, the Google Nexus 7 (2013), the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 and the LG G Pad 8.3.
How do they all stack up?
iPad mini 2 with Retina vs Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HDX 7 vs LG G Pad 8.3: OS
The iPad mini 2 with Retina unsurprisingly comes with Apple's latest, and possibly greatest, mobile OS. iOS 7's radical new look made waves when it launched with the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. Icons are flatter, and there are plentiful new features.
Google similarly launched its latest mobile OS, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, with the launch of the new Nexus 7 device. It comes packing a completely unskinned version of the OS, offering Android in its purest form.
Amazon, as always, has taken a completely different tack. Heavily subsidizing costs, Amazon aims to recoup a lot of money through the sale of its various media items, be it apps, movies or books. In order to maximize this, the Fire UI laid over the top of Android 4.2 is focused on the Amazon store, with no Google Play offerings in sight.
The LG offering also runs Android 4.2, with an LG skin over the top. Unlike the Kindle Fire HDX 7, though, there is a lot less customization. This means that Android shows through a lot more, and the Google Play store offerings are still available.
iPad mini 2 with Retina vs Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HDX 7 vs LG G Pad 8.3: Screen
The iPad mini 2 with Retina comes with an all new screen, although it is again measured at 7.9-inches. The update brings across Apple's Retina screen technology that was infamously omitted from the first iPad mini iteration. Packed into those 7.9-inches is a whopping 2,048 x 1,536 resolution.
The Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HDX come with 7 inch Full HD screens. They match each other pixel for pixel, meaning 1,920 x 1,200 displays with 323ppi.
The Korean offering is a little larger, with 8.3 inches of screen on offer. This may be the largest of the bunch, but it is also the smallest for pixel density as the 1,200 x 1,920 resolution is stretched out resulting in 273ppi.
iPad mini 2 with Retina vs Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HDX 7 vs LG G Pad 8.3: Dimensions and Weight
With measurements of 200 x 134.7 x 7.5mm (7.87 x 5.3 x 0.29 inches), the iPad Mini 2 with Retina fits neatly in the size gap between the Android based offerings. It weighs 331/341g (0.73/0.75lbs) depending on whether you pick the Wi-Fi or 4G model, once again placing it in the mini tablet middle ground.
Google's Nexus 7 measures 200 x 114 x 8.65mm (7.87 x 4.49 x 0.34 inches), making it (in landscape) shorter than the Kindle Fire HDX 7, but wider. The Kindle is also a little deeper, with dimensions of 186 x 128 x 9mm (7.32 x 5.04 x 0.35 inches).
The Nexus is the lighter of the two, with the Wi-Fi only weighing in at 290g (0.64lbs) compared to the 303g (0.67lbs) of the Kindle. The LTE Nexus is also lighter at 299g (0.66lbs) compared to the Amazon's 311g (0.69lbs).
The larger screen of the LG means that it measures in at the largest of the bunch, at 216.8 x 126.5 x 8.3 mm (8.54 x 4.98 x 0.33 inches). It also comes in at the heaviest, weighing 338g (0.74lbs).
iPad mini 2 with Retina vs Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HDX 7 vs LG G Pad 8.3: Processor
When it comes to sheer processing power, Apple hasn't left the iPad mini 2 with Retina wanting. It comes with the latest 64-bit processor - the same one powering the iPhone 5S and new iPad Air. This means that it is four times faster, with eight times faster graphics processing.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro powers the Google Nexus 7, meaning that it provides 1.4GHz of quad-core power with 2GB of RAM to support.
There is an equal level of RAM in both of the other Android tablets, although they also differ when it comes to what CPU is inside.
The Kindle Fire HDX 7 has the quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip, clocked at 2.2GHz, with the LG G Pad 8.3 running the older Snapdragon 600 chip clocked at 1.6GHz.
iPad mini 2 with Retina vs Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HDX 7 vs LG G Pad 8.3: Storage
Would you believe that the iPad mini 2 with Retina doesn't come with microSD support? We all knew that it wouldn't, so there were no surprises there today. The iPad Mini 2 with Retina comes in the same 16, 32 and 64GB sizes that the original iPad Mini came with.
