The 7.9-inch display on the Apple iPad mini fails to match up to the quality offered by rivals like the Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7, new tests claim to show.
Following detailed benchmarking, DisplayMate said that Apple had made "compromises" and "poor choices" and thus the iPad mini didn't follow the company's tradition of making the best displays.
In a recent TechRadar review, the iPad mini's screen resolution of 1024 x 768 was determined to be "light years behind the Retina display on the bigger brother new iPad."
It also pointed out that the iPad mini's display was the "least impressive" when compared to the big-two Android slates, which both boast 1200 x 800 displays with greater pixel density.
Considerably sharper
Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMat and the person who ran the comprehensive tests, has underlined that verdict by claiming that the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 had "considerably sharper" displays than the iPad mini.
He also said the iPad mini's 62 per cent colour gamut was both "disappointing" and "antiquated," compared with the 100 per cent rating of the iPhone 5 and the newer full-size iPad models.
The Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD both have more impressive 82 per cent colour gamut.
Big difference
Soneira also found that the iPad mini reflected much more ambient light than both of its chief rivals.
He wrote in his findings: "Screen reflectance on the iPad mini is a surprisingly high 9.0 percent. On the Nexus 7, the reflectance is a much lower 5.9 percent, while on the Kindle Fire HD it is 6.4 percent.
"As a result, the iPad mini reflects 53 percent more ambient light than the Nexus 7 and 41 percent more than the Kindle Fire HD. That's quite a big difference."
Soniera concluded that the iPad mini has "just a very capable display" due to the lower screen resolution, higher screen reflectance and lower colour gamut.
The test seem to confirm what most folks already suspected. Amazon and Google have packed better screens into smaller tablets at a lower price, yet it's Apple that is continually talking about other companies making "compromise."
Via DisplayMate, AppleInsider
