The Apple iPad Mini 2 was recently put up against the Kindle Fire HDX and the Nexus 7 2nd gen. The Apple iPad Mini 2 came out bottom in tests thanks to it not having image retention and no changes being made to the colour gamut since 2012.
There is a display of indium-gallium-zinc oxide on the Apple iPad Mini 2. This is a polysilicon display on the Nexus 7 2nd gen and a Quantum dot display on the Kindle Fire HDX. Dr Ray Soneria undertook tests which included “Objective Picture Quality, Absolute Color Accuracy, Screen Reflectance, High Ambient Light Display Performance, Peak Brightness, Contrast Ratio, Image Contrast Accuracy, Viewing Angle Performance, Display Power, and Battery Running Time.” While the Apple iPad Mini 2 offers the highest resolution and ppi, it comes with the lowest colour gamut, at 63%, which was the same as what the original iPad Mini offered.
In the tests the Kindle Fire HDX and the Nexus 7 2nd gen both came in with scores of 100% for the colour gamut. This was the same as found on the Apple iPad 3 and 4. The Doctor had the following to say:
“The new Google Nexus 7 has a very impressive display that uses the highest performance LCDs with Low Temperature Poly Silicon LTPS. The very high efficiency LTPS technology allows the new Nexus 7 display to provide a full 100 percent Color Gamut and at the same time produce the brightest Tablet display that we have measured so far in this Shoot-Out series.
Most impressive of all is the Kindle fire HDX 7 – the first Tablet display to use super high technology Quantum Dots, which produce highly saturated primary colors that are similar to those produced by OLED displays. They not only significantly increase the Color Gamut to 100 percent but also improve the power efficiency at the same time. Quantum Dots are going to revolutionize LCDs for the next 5+ years.
And finally… the iPad mini with Retina Display unfortunately comes in with a distant 3rd place finish behind the innovative displays on the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and new Nexus 7 because it still has the same small 63 percent Color Gamut as the original iPad mini and even older iPad 2. That is inexcusable for a current generation premium Tablet. The big differences in Color Gamut between the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and Nexus 7 and the much smaller 63 percent Gamut in the iPad mini Retina Display were quite obvious and easy to see in the side-by-side Viewing Tests.”
CNET also said that they thought the Apple iPad Mini 2 wasn’t as good in quality as the Apple iPad Air. This offers the full SRGB as the MacBook and iMac Pro. It was also noted that the Apple iPad Mini 2 has deviations for the blue, red and magenta along with the screen being very reflective. The display also has 30% less light than the Nexus 7 2. Anyone wanting to buy a tablet with the aim of watching films will be better off with the Nexus 7 2 or the Kindle Fire HDX.
