Apple's New iPad Mini

You know about “tl;dr,” don’t you? It’s Internet shorthand for “too long; didn’t read.”

In the old days, you’d say that about a comment you found too wordy. These days, you might add it to the end of your own comment to preface a one-line summary. Example: “tl;dr: Three architecturally challenged pigs have a run-in with an aggressive wolf.”

So here’s my tl;dr summary of the new iPad Mini: It’s fantastic. It’s the tablet I’d buy right now.

(If I could, that is. It’s sold out everywhere.)

Now, the new iPad Mini isn’t the same concept as the original Mini at all. When the first iPad Mini debuted alongside the fourth-generation iPad, the Mini felt cheaper, ran slower, and was cursed with a duller display than the full-size iPad.

Apple’s second Mini, however, is almost identical to the new iPad Air. Same processor, same guts, same jacks, same front and back cameras. Same features, same battery life (10 hours, truly), same improved WiFi range and signal strength. Same gorgeous glass-and-metal construction, same caressable curved back edges, same color choice (white front/silver back, or black front/gray back).

And then the big story: Same screen.

Oh, it’s smaller, all right: 7.9 inches diagonal instead of the iPad Air’s 9.7. But it’s exactly the same number of pixels, smaller and packed in closer together. Same image, slightly smaller and crisper. As you’d guess, as a result, the new Mini screen is incredibly sharp: text, graphics, apps, photos. Everything looks so sharp, you could cut Ginsu knives with it.

What’s ingenious about that Apple move (adopting a compact version of the same exact screen) is what it does for apps—which, you could argue, is the reason you buy a tablet in the first place. All 475,000 iPad apps run identically on the full-size iPad and the Mini. No software company has to come up with different versions. No layout changes, as you’d see on other tablet types (cough *Android* cough).

In any gadget, you want a bigger screen when you’re using it, but a smaller one when you have to carry it—and the Mini’s smaller size makes it a candidate for a purse or coat pocket.

The only times you’ll wish for the magnified image of a full-size tablet: when you’re watching a video, and occasionally when an app’s controls seem a little smaller than usual.

To me, the Mini’s carryability advantage easily outweighs those circumstances. (Besides: When the tablet is 16 inches from your face, the movie you’re watching fills enough of your field of view. When you’re home, $95 buys you an Apple TV that puts the iPad’s audio and video on a big-screen TV, wirelessly.)

Apple says that itty-bitty pixels require greater brightness to look good, and that drains the battery faster. To keep the Mini at 10 hours of juice, Apple had to give it a bigger battery, which makes it 7 percent heavier and slightly thicker than the original Mini (by three tenths of a millimeter, for you caliper-wielding types). You’d notice it, but only if you were holding the original Mini in your other hand for comparison.

That’s not the only Mini drawback. The new Mini, like the iPad Air, has mediocre cameras and no flash. The stereo speakers are so close to each other (at the bottom of the iPad), you don’t get any stereo separation at all. It’s basically very clear mono.

And of course, we have to talk about the elephant in the checking account: The new Mini is actually more expensive than the original one—it’s now $400 instead of $330. That’s a weird step in electronics, where things usually get less expensive over time. It’s even weird for Apple, which traditionally keeps the price the same from model to model but improves the features.

The Mini costs at least $100 more if you want more storage, and another $130 if you want the version that can get online anywhere using the cellphone network. (Tip: If that’s the one you want, for heaven’s sake get it from T-Mobile. You’ll get 200 megabytes a month of free Internet service forever, which might be enough for chats, email, and occasional Web checks when you’re out of WiFi range. With Verizon, for example, the least expensive cellular plan is $30 a month.)

Those prices are risky in an age when other tablets’ prices keep falling. Google’s Nexus 7, for example, has a similarly amazing screen and great battery life—and it costs only $230.

Then again, the Nexus’s body is made of plastic, and its screen is about one-third smaller than the Mini’s. The screen is wider and shorter than the Mini’s—a better fit for movies (the Mini shows black letterbox bars), but a slightly goofy shape when upright (in portrait orientation).

Above all, the apps for Android tablets aren’t anywhere near as good, or as plentiful, as iPad apps. In phones, the Android app selection has caught up—but not in tablets.

So there you have it. The new iPad Mini is gorgeous. It’s super fast, it makes available the world’s best library of tablet apps and accessories, and its screen is the sharpest any iPad has ever had.

And it’s pricey.

tl;dr: Apple is still Apple, pursuing polish and perfection, no matter the cost.