Ipad Air (aka Ipad 5), Ipad Mini Retina Thread

[rcpratt]

Apple's continued stupid storage pricing is probably going to drive me away from Apple this time around. 16GB just isn't acceptable for a flagship 10" tablet, and I'm sure as hell not paying $100 for another 16GB to make it borderline acceptable (much less another $100 for 32GB more).

 

[Puddle Jumper]

3) Retina MacBook Pro 13 - They made the 13" Air obsolete by dropping the 13" Retina Pro down to $1299 while making it smaller/lighter/faster. It's only a half-pound heavier than the Air but has that unbeatable Retina display.

Aside from all of the 3200x1800 Windows Ultrabooks out there of course.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

That was kinda my point, the iPad Mini 2 is good compared to most offerings in its price range. I think it soundly beats the Note 8 and LG's new 8.3" tablet.

Exception may be the small slew of 8" Windows tablets coming out.

yeah, hopefully these bay trail windows tablets will be pretty fast. if they are theyll be the better alternative to ipads than the slow, junkier android tabs.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I am an owner of the nexus 7 fhd 32gb, and past owner of the original nexus 7 16 gb. I do not own any apple ipads or phones.

The ipad mini retina will be a different tier of device due to it being bigger screen in comparable weight/size as well as faster (a7 is comparable to s800 which has a 50% clock speed advantage over s4 pro in nexus fhd)

You can make an argument these improvements should make the tier only worth $50 or $100 more instead of $170 more. That is your arguement, whatever.

People are going to buy the ipad mini retina in droves, it will sell like hot cakes this is why apple prices the higher tier at $170 more.

IMO Apple will find moving 10 inchers really, really hard with the new Mini around. They will become "it's there but hardly anyone cares" category.

 

[Red Storm]

A 16GB tablet - at any price, nevermind the laughable $500 - is DOA to me. I can't even get by with 16GB on my phone, a tablet would have even more large size apps and media on it.

 

[jaydee]

I'd argue that there were only 3 bits of good news from today's event:

1) Free software - Kudos to Apple for making Mavericks free, while also giving away their productivity software to new device buyers.

2) iPad Air - Despite the poor choice for the name, it's a great incremental upgrade. It's an iPad 4, except smaller, lighter, and faster.

3) Retina MacBook Pro 13 - They made the 13" Air obsolete by dropping the 13" Retina Pro down to $1299 while making it smaller/lighter/faster. It's only a half-pound heavier than the Air but has that unbeatable Retina display.

The rest was pretty awful. $399 for a Retina Mini? Yikes. $1999 for a 15" Retina Pro? Double yikes. Keeping the existing non-Retina Mini and iPad 2 at $299/$399? Absolutely shameful.

There were no surprises (well, except free Mavericks), so today's event won't change the trajectory of the market.

Good list, but I'll add a 4th:

Mechanical drives are now eliminated from the Macbook Pro (beginning with Haswell).

Also, as a result of the announcement, there are some pretty darn good deals on refurbished 2012 13" Retina MBP's ($1059 for i5 IB, 8GB/128GB, retina).

 

[Eug]

Also, as a result of the announcement, there are some pretty darn good deals on refurbished 2012 13" Retina MBP's ($1059 for i5 IB, 8GB/128GB, retina).

The reported screen lag and jerkiness on the 2012 model would likely drive me nuts. Plus it has the optical drive, which means it's 1 lb heavier.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Amen to that about the lag. I posted on Facebook yesterday "I can finally recommend retina Macbook Pros."

 

[cronos]

The reported screen lag and jerkiness on the 2012 model would likely drive me nuts. Plus it has the optical drive, which means it's 1 lb heavier.

I don't care about optical drive, but I wish they'd keep the ethernet port on the MBP retina.

 

[Eug]

I don't care about optical drive, but I wish they'd keep the ethernet port on the MBP retina.

Hmmm... Good point. I had forgotten about that, but it's not surprising given that the edge is not thick enough to accommodate it. To accomodate it would have meant a big change in the edge design.

However, I'll gladly give that up to get rid of the optical drive and shave weight, in a machine with both 802.11ac and Thunderbolt 2, the latter of which can be converted to Gigabit Ethernet via a dongle.

Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter - $29

I actually have a USB Ethernet dongle, but that is only 100 Mbps Ethernet. Someone got me one as a gift for some strange reason, even though my MacBook Pro already had Gigabit Ethernet built-in.

 

[Commodus]

The 16GB of storage is limiting, to be sure. However, I'm intrigued by the new iPad mini -- it's a full-power iPad in a smaller screen size. It's not as much of a bargain as the Nexus 7, but it's a wiser purchase than either the Galaxy Note 8.0 or G Pad 8.3. They both trail in performance and display quality... and no, a stylus isn't an advantage for most people.

I suspect Apple was between a rock and a hard place when designing the mini. Many people here would be quick to attack the company for using last year's processor if it had picked the A6 (despite Google following a similar strategy with the Nexus 7), but going A7 meant a higher price.

 

[amyklai]

The 16GB of storage is limiting, to be sure. However, I'm intrigued by the new iPad mini -- it's a full-power iPad in a smaller screen size. It's not as much of a bargain as the Nexus 7, but it's a wiser purchase than either the Galaxy Note 8.0 or G Pad 8.3. They both trail in performance and display quality... and no, a stylus isn't an advantage for most people.

I suspect Apple was between a rock and a hard place when designing the mini. Many people here would be quick to attack the company for using last year's processor if it had picked the A6 (despite Google following a similar strategy with the Nexus 7), but going A7 meant a higher price.

#1 the Nexus 7 has an absolutely wonderful display, the only thing the retina iPad mini has over it is a few pixels more

#2 The A7 absoluteley does not explain the price difference between the N7 and the retina Mini. The N7 is quick. The A7 may have better benchmark results, but that doesn't matter in normal everyday use, because the N7 is already fast enough. It certainly doesn't warrant demanding almost double the price.

 

[Oyeve]

I don't care about optical drive, but I wish they'd keep the ethernet port on the MBP retina.

Wow. No Ethernet. Guess net admins cant use these laptops to set up routers and such. Not really a "pro" thing. They should just revert to macbook.

 

[StrangerGuy]

#1 the Nexus 7 has an absolutely wonderful display, the only thing the retina iPad mini has over it is a few pixels more

#2 The A7 absoluteley does not explain the price difference between the N7 and the retina Mini. The N7 is quick. The A7 may have better benchmark results, but that doesn't matter in normal everyday use, because the N7 is already fast enough. It certainly doesn't warrant demanding almost double the price.

You spec warriors will never get why Apple sells. It can very well have "only" a A6 and the warehouses will still empty themselves overnight because Apple has them in gold and silver.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Wow. No Ethernet. Guess net admins cant use these laptops to set up routers and such. Not really a "pro" thing. They should just revert to macbook.

I guess they could use USB to ethernet adapters. But yeah, kinda sucks they couldn't put an ethernet port on a "Pro" laptop. I guess it's not aesthetically pleasing and had to die.

 

[Ravynmagi]

You spec warriors will never get why Apple sells. It can very well have "only" a A6 and the warehouses will still empty themselves overnight because Apple has them in gold and silver.

Speaking of which, I was a tiny bit surprised there was no gold and white iPad mini. 🙂

 

[MrX8503]

You can't fit an ethernet port on a rMBP

 

[jaydee]

The reported screen lag and jerkiness on the 2012 model would likely drive me nuts. Plus it has the optical drive, which means it's 1 lb heavier.

Mavericks may fix the lag.

 

[Eug]

Wow. No Ethernet. Guess net admins cant use these laptops to set up routers and such. Not really a "pro" thing. They should just revert to macbook.

Like I said before, there are both USB and Thunderbolt adapters already available, for 100 Mbps and Gigabit support respectively. The Thunderbolt adapter is US$30.

You can't fit an ethernet port on a rMBP

Agreed, but that's because they designed it that way. The thickness of the base is actually tall enough, but not at the edges on the current design because it's tapered.

Mavericks may fix the lag.

Hopefully, but why do you say that? Can anyone out there confirm that?

 

[Oyeve]

You can't fit an ethernet port on a rMBP

Of course they could have. There's plenty of space. Right before it curves down, they could of added a port. But i guess they make more $$$ selling it back to you.

 

[SaurusX]

IMO Apple will find moving 10 inchers really, really hard with the new Mini around. They will become "it's there but hardly anyone cares" category.

From another perspective, I would only buy the 10 inch. I've got an iPad 3 and feel it's the perfect size for a tablet for what I use it for. That being web browsing and video viewing. Though for $100 less I can see the draw of the mini.

 

[MagickMan]

Why did the old 16 gig mini only get a $20 drop? Also, why is the ipad 2 still being sold at $399? Shouldnt the last year version be $399 and not a version two years older?

The iPad 2 is still around for educational and government institutions that have standardized to it.

 

[StrangerGuy]

From another perspective, I would only buy the 10 inch. I've got an iPad 3 and feel it's the perfect size for a tablet for what I use it for. That being web browsing and video viewing. Though for $100 less I can see the draw of the mini.

Each has their own needs of course, but then again all everybody cared about the 4 over the Mini was the retina display. With the Mini 2 having the retina, A7 and cheaper I just don't see how the 5 will move even half as well as the 4 which itself is already outsold handily by the Mini.

 

[cronos]

Wow. No Ethernet. Guess net admins cant use these laptops to set up routers and such. Not really a "pro" thing. They should just revert to macbook.

Yeah this happened a while ago when they started coming out with the rMBP. However prior to yesterday they were still selling the non retina MBPs, which do still have the ethernet port. They're no more.

Hmmm... Good point. I had forgotten about that, but it's not surprising given that the edge is not thick enough to accommodate it. To accomodate it would have meant a big change in the edge design.

I understand that it's mainly a design decision, but I can't help but thinking that it doesn't hurt Apple's TB-to-Ethernet adapter sale either.

I help support computing in a building with mostly scientists/researchers/professors with mac products, and as soon as we realized that the new rMBP comes without an ethernet port, we started including the recommendation for everyone who's buying the rMBP to also buy an ethernet adapter. It's way less headache that way.

 

[Eug]

^^^ Actually, the non-Retina MBP is still available new for purchase, but only in the 13" size.