The iPad Mini 2 recently got compared to the Kindle Fire HDX and the Nexus 7 2 and came out right at the bottom of the pile! This is because it has no image retention and its colour gamut hasn’t been increased since 2012.
It has an indium-gallium-zinc oxide display, compared to the polysilicon display of the Nexus 7 2 and the Quantum Dot display on the Kindle Fire HDX. Dr Ray Soneria did (quite) a few tests – “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.” He found that while the iPad Mini 2 has the highest pi and resolution, its 63& colour gamut is just not good enough. This is the same as the original iPad Mini had.
The Kindle Fire HDX and the Nexus 7 2 achieved scores of 100% for colour, around the same as the iPads 3 and 4. 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 said it didn’t think the iPad Mini 2 was as good as the iPad Air, which offers the full SRGB, like the Macbook and iMac Pro. There are also blue, red and magenta deviations in the Mini 2, as well as a very reflective screen. The display kicks out 30% less light than the Nexus 2, so anyone wanting to watch films on a tablet is going to be best advised to buy a Nexus 7 2 or a Kindle Fire HDX.
