Anyone looking for a tablet in the small range category could be taking a look at the Apple iPad Mini 2, the Nexus 7 2nd gen and Kindle Fire HDX. All of these tablets were recently put against each other and it was the Apple iPad Mini that was at the bottom. This was due to it not having image retention and the colour gamut not having changed since Apple first launched the iPad Mini.
There is a display of indium-gallium-zinc oxide on the Apple iPad Mini, while on the Nexus 7 this is a poly silicon display. There is a Quantum dot display on the Kindle Fire HDX. Dr Ray Soneria did tests for “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.” Of the three it is the Apple iPad Mini 2 that has the biggest resolution and ppi, but it just has 63% of the colour gamut that was seen with the Apple iPad Mini from last year.
The Kindle Fire HDX and Nexus 7 2 nd gen both got scores of 100%, which was the same as the Apple iPad 3 and 4. Dr Soneria said “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 the Apple iPad Mini 2 didn’t come with the same quality as what was seen with the Apple iPad Air. The Apple iPad Air offers full SRGB cover; this is the same as that on the MacBook Pro and Apple iMac. The Apple iPad Mini 2 comes with some red, blue and magenta deviations along with a reflective display. The brightness is 30% lower than that of the Nexus 7, so anyone who wants a tablet for watching films on may be better off going for the Kindle Fire HDX or the Nexus 7 2nd gen, as both are better than the Apple iPad Mini 2.
