iPad mini...?

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Alex1975

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Hi all,

I am looking at getting an iPad mini and am interested in people who own them or those that have played with thems opinion please. Pros? Cons?

Thanks

Alex
 
Spent a while sat at a poker table last night and borrowed one of these off my mate for a bit. Screen on it is very impressive but actually preferred the Google Nexus one of the other guys had and plan to buy one of these instead (arguably has a better spec and is cheaper), problem for fanboys is the nexus isnt made by Apple
 
Spent a while sat at a poker table last night and borrowed one of these off my mate for a bit. Screen on it is very impressive but actually preferred the Google Nexus one of the other guys had and plan to buy one of these instead (arguably has a better spec and is cheaper), problem for fanboys is the nexus isnt made by Apple

The nexus is a decent piece of hardware but the mini feels better made.

iOS is IMO a better operating system than android and that would be one of the deal breakers for me.

I'm not a fanboy by any means but it's apple for me by a mile, would have their laptop too if they weren't so expensive.
 
I have the full sized version but on reflection wish I'd gone for the smaller size. I wanted it for filming my swing amongst other things and watching TV on the go and so the size of the screen was a factor. I think the IPad is a great bit of kit and whether you get the standard or the mini version I think you will be pleased
 
There are loads of options but the ones I feel qualified to mention are:
Ipad mini 16gb £300
Google Nexus 16gb £185 ish.
Galaxy Tab 7.0 8gb £150+
Ainol novo7 Fire 16gb (pronounced inall, no laughing at the back please) £125 in uk, £30 cheaper if bought direct from china, which i did)


Ipad is a good all rounder but requires itunes to properly backup files to a pc, it is quite easy to use and usually attracts the typical apple fans who just cant bring themselves to use an android device because it is different.

Google nexus and Galaxy tab 7.0 are very similar really, very good tablets with great specs and trunning the latest versions of Android.

The Ainol novo 7 Fire is a lesser known brand but contains a fantastic spec more than equal to the above devices, it carries the LG IPS screen which is similar to the others in that it can be viewed at all angles without image colour distortion occurring. It also has an SD slot for further memory expansion, the likes of the apple does not have this. Being android, the Galaxy Tab, Nexus and Fire do not need any 3rd party software to run seamlessly with windows (you can add and remove files using windows where Apple devices, you cannot push files onto the device without using itunes)though Kies software enhances the functionality.

I have one of last years models, the ainol Novo 7 Aurora, it came with the same ips screen and my daughter absolutely loves it.
At the end of the day, you pays your money and takes your chance, my, I would take the Galaxy tab or the ainol, which, btw also now make 10" hero II tablets which have an outstanding spec.
 
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There are loads of options but the ones I feel qualified to mention are:
Ipad mini 16gb £300
Google Nexus 16gb £185 ish.
Galaxy Tab 7.0 8gb £150+
Ainol novo7 Fire 16gb (pronounced inall, no laughing at the back please) £125 in uk, £30 cheaper if bought direct from china, which i did)

Ipad is a good all rounder but requires itunes to properly backup files to a pc, it is quite easy to use and usually attracts the typical apple fans who just cant bring themselves to use an android device because it is different.
Google nexus and Galaxy tab 7.0 are very similar really, very good tablets with great specs and trunning the latest versions of Android.
The ainol novo 7 Fire is a lesser known brand but contains a fantastic spec more than equal to the above devices, it carries the LG IPS screen which is similar to the others in that it can be viewed at all angles without image colour distortion occurring. It also has an SD slot for further memory expansion, the likes of the apple does not have this.

I have one of last years models, the ainol Novo 7 Aurora, it came with the same ips screen and my daughter absolutely loves it.
At the end of the day, you pays your money and takes your chance, my, I would take the Galaxy tab or the ainol, which btw also now make 10" hero II tablets which have an outstanding spec.

You no longer need iTunes to back your ipad up, you back it up in iCloud.
 
Part of the sell to my wife is that I can get apps to help my little girl with numbers, letters, colours and so on. I have seen other young ones who are advanced using them.

My requirements for a device are:

Web
Tetris
Pro Pool 2012
Apps for my girl
And down the list photos and music, I have an iPhone for that.

This being the case, does android have the selection of apps I want and am going to want in the future?
 
What I am saying though is that when you want to transfer files from the camera app for example to any medium, apple isnt just as flexible. Android allows you to either dump them onto an sd card or transfer them via wire or wireless to the destination machine.

Is the apple kit really worth twice the asking price of genuine marketable and usable alternatives?
Its not like the old windows vs unix type argument anymore, android software is a fine piece of work and yes I have to support both in my line of work day and daily.

I give apple phones to those who I think have problems with their devices as they are very easy to use, android only goes to the more savvy bods who want more from their devices.
I myself have come from 3 iphone generations to a galaxy note and now this month, a galaxy Note 2 which is head and shoulders better than the apple offerings, especially from a business perspective, ideas like the S-Pen and screen size, ability to carry multiple batteries for trips etc make it a brilliantly usable bit of kit. Dont get me wrong, the iphone/ipad is a decent effort but price and a few limiting factors push them into second in a 3 horse race, windows 8 mobile being a far, far behind third.
 
Part of the sell to my wife is that I can get apps to help my little girl with numbers, letters, colours and so on. I have seen other young ones who are advanced using them.

My requirements for a device are:

Web
Tetris
Pro Pool 2012
Apps for my girl
And down the list photos and music, I have an iPhone for that.

This being the case, does android have the selection of apps I want and am going to want in the future?

Yes, they pretty much have what the apple App Store has however remember lots of iPhone apps are ipad apps too, if you've paid for ones you really like then you may need to pay again if you go to android.
 
Part of the sell to my wife is that I can get apps to help my little girl with numbers, letters, colours and so on. I have seen other young ones who are advanced using them.

My requirements for a device are:

Web
Tetris
Pro Pool 2012
Apps for my girl
And down the list photos and music, I have an iPhone for that.

This being the case, does android have the selection of apps I want and am going to want in the future?


Hundreds of thousands of apps, I have poolmania, ebay, photobucket etc and all work great.
My advice is to sign up for a gmail account and log into the google play market to have a look before you decide, it is vast.
 
Yes, they pretty much have what the apple App Store has however remember lots of iPhone apps are ipad apps too, if you've paid for ones you really like then you may need to pay again if you go to android.

Definitely not,like apple, android allows this. if you use the same account on both devices (as you would on the ipad etc) then it shows as purchased.
 
What I am saying though is that when you want to transfer files from the camera app for example to any medium, apple isnt just as flexible. Android allows you to either dump them onto an sd card or transfer them via wire or wireless to the destination machine.

Is the apple kit really worth twice the asking price of genuine marketable and usable alternatives?
Its not like the old windows vs unix type argument anymore, android software is a fine piece of work and yes I have to support both in my line of work day and daily.

I give apple phones to those who I think have problems with their devices as they are very easy to use, android only goes to the more savvy bods who want more from their devices.
I myself have come from 3 iphone generations to a galaxy note and now this month, a galaxy Note 2 which is head and shoulders better than the apple offerings, especially from a business perspective, ideas like the S-Pen and screen size, ability to carry multiple batteries for trips etc make it a brilliantly usable bit of kit. Dont get me wrong, the iphone/ipad is a decent effort but price and a few limiting factors push them into second in a 3 horse race, windows 8 mobile being a far, far behind third.

Brendy you make fair points buddy to be fair, I use android for work and although its ok its certainly not as good as iOS I reckon. The biggest criticism apple always gets is third party mediums, apple run a tight ship which is why their products are so good, do they need a compromise? Maybe but there are apps out there now more flexible for sharing info, like Dropbox for example and also sticking stuff in the cloud.

You could ask 10 people and get a split vote, sometimes people just need to try for themselves and make their own minds up.

That said most will go apple ;)
 
Definitely not,like apple, android allows this. if you use the same account on both devices (as you would on the ipad etc) then it shows as purchased.

So are you saying if you buy an app on the apple App Store you don't need to pay for the same app to have it on android device?
 
So are you saying if you buy an app on the apple App Store you don't need to pay for the same app to have it on android device?

I think he meant buy for phone and works on tablet.

I got kids iPads fir Xmas.
Older girl got 32Gb retina for £399
Younger girl got ipad2 16Gb for £275. Turned out it was also 3G a mistake made in the Apple shop obviously.

Battery life seems really good. All apps on my iPhone and music and videos now all on their iPads.

One good thing is you can insert any CD into a PC and add it to your iTunes in minutes and if you use Vuze you can download movies and add them into iTunes too.

If I was going for 1 for myself I would get Retina Display. The difference is well worth it. The normal screen looks terrible after using Retina.
 
Brendy you make fair points buddy to be fair, I use android for work and although its ok its certainly not as good as iOS I reckon. The biggest criticism apple always gets is third party mediums, apple run a tight ship which is why their products are so good, do they need a compromise? Maybe but there are apps out there now more flexible for sharing info, like Dropbox for example and also sticking stuff in the cloud.

You could ask 10 people and get a split vote, sometimes people just need to try for themselves and make their own minds up.

That said most will go apple ;)


lol, maybe in days gone by, the Samsung gear at the moment is chewing up the market.
Stats have been published that show the Galaxy s3 is the biggest seller in the uk at the moment, iphone 4s second, iphone 5 third and galaxy s2 in fourth.
Regardless, I wont knock anyone for buying either as they are still getting one of the top phones/tablets out there, I find it funny on other forums that some guys seem to have some pent up rage that theirs is better than the "enemy". as I said, you pays your money....
 
Apologies if it came across that way, no obviously google and apple are seperate entities so wouldnt trasfer operating systems.
I think some people do dislike android as there is a little more transparency with its settings and operating system, like being able to clear memory etc, to me more options are better, to others its an unnecessary waste of screen time.
So are you saying if you buy an app on the apple App Store you don't need to pay for the same app to have it on android device?
 
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