Although initial reviews of Apple’s new Retina iPad mini bemoaned its cost but praised its display, a slew of more hands-on reviews have realized a notably narrower color gamut (same as the non-Retina iPad mini) compared to other popular tablets including the iPad Air and Nexus 7.
While it may not be immediately noticeable to many consumers, it’s certainly a fine, in-depth critique when investing in what you expect to be the best tablet on the market.
Is the Retina iPad mini sharper? Obviously. But don’t expect to see its colors pop in the same way that the iPhone 5 display delivered after the iPhone 4S. Check out the detailed comments below:
iLounge was first to note the color gamut critique in its review on Thursday:
Gizmodo relates its display color gamut to the iPad 2:
We had suspected this might be an issue based on similar differences in color gamut between prior 264 PPI Retina iPads and 326 PPI iPhones, but hoped that Apple would opt to keep its iPads consistent by boosting color accuracy for the iPad mini. For the moment, the iPad Air has enough of an edge over the Retina mini that we’d prefer the bigger model for color-correcting images, but like the iPhone 5 family, the new mini does a way better job than pre-Retina screens found on the original iPad mini and even current-generation MacBook Airs. Blacks and whites are more pure on the Retina mini, and the detail differences are again gigantic.
This graph from the same author supplied by DisplayMate explains the comparison with… science:
Obviously the color gamut won’t sway your buying decision if you’re invested in the Apple ecosystem as I am, but it’s interesting to see competitors (and the full sized iPad Air) exceed the Retina iPad mini display.
It’s also notable that the new 7.9″ and 9.7″ tablets aren’t as on par with one another as initially expected. Luckily, if having the best display around is on your checklist when shopping around the tablet market, there’s still the iPad Air (which, yes, has a better color gamut).
