Pricey, mighty Retina Mini is best small tablet yet
$399.00 — The good: The iPad Mini with Retina Display adds an excellent high-resolution display that rivals the iPad Air's, a far faster A7 processor, and tops it off with improved Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity, with battery life that's as good or better than in last year's Mini.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's second-generation Mini lands two days after teardown reporting detailed its 1.3 GHz A7 with roughly five times the original Mini's performance — the same chip architecture as the iPad Air, now in a smaller shell. CNET's verdict at $399 frames it as the best small tablet on the market, with a display the outlet says rivals the iPad Air's.
The story travelled unusually wide for a single review verdict — LAPTOP Magazine, Gigaom, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Wired, PC Magazine, iPhone Hacks and AppleInsider all carried it on or about November 14, 2013 — signaling that the Mini's move upmarket was being read as a statement about where the whole small-tablet segment sits.
First-order effects
- Buyers choosing between the $399 Mini and the larger iPad Air now face near-parity in display quality and A7 performance rather than a spec cut — the price gap buys size, not capability.
- Last year's original Mini becomes the value tier by default, its non-Retina screen and older silicon repositioned as the entry point rather than the flagship of the small form factor.
Second-order effects
- Android small-tablet rivals are forced to compete on price against a device carrying flagship-class internals at $399, squeezing the mid-tier positioning most of them occupied.
- With display and chip parity across Apple's two sizes, accessory makers and carriers pushing LTE plans can market one experience at two price points, simplifying — and intensifying — the upsell.
Third-order effects
- If small tablets converge on flagship specs each cycle, the 'budget' small-tablet category erodes toward two poles: cheap commodity slates and premium minis, pressuring hardware makers who lived in between.
- A pattern of annual A-series refreshes across every size — as this A7-based Mini shows — points toward tablet lineups structured like phone lineups, where the small model is a sibling of the flagship rather than a lesser derivative.
The trend: Small tablets are abandoning their role as stripped-down budget options and inheriting flagship chips and displays from their larger siblings each generation.