The most berated aspect of the iPad Mini, hands down, has to be its display. Everyone expected Apple to mimic the full-size iPad and offer a sharp resolution Retina display, but that wasn’t the case.
Since the Mini’s inception we’ve heard plenty of rumour-mongering surrounding the possibility of a second gen model featuring this highly desired display technology. Some have said it will happen, others have suggested the contrary. Now, The Wall Street Journal believes that Apple’s suppliers have begun manufacturing 7.9-inch Retina display panels, ready to slot nicely into the iPad Mini 2.
WSJ’s sources are of course “familiar with the matter” and claim that Apple has employed Sharp, LG and Samsung to provide such high-def displays. As you might expect, the iPad Mini’s screen size will remain at 7.9-inches but the pixel count will rise, allowing Apple to stick its ‘Retina’ branding on it.
The exact resolution of the screen is currently unknown and although the Retina display on Apple’s current iPad sports a whopping 2,048 x 1,536 resolution, the iPad Mini is more likely to offer around 1,920 x 1,080.
A non-Retina display may have disappointed some, but at the time Apple’s main rivals – Google and Amazon – offered displays with similar resolutions. Now that Google has launched the Full HD Nexus 7 and Amazon is getting ready with a Full HD Kindle Fire HD, Apple looks set to match them.
Interestingly, the report from WSJ suggests that Apple initially wanted to use only Sharp and LG but has decided to also bring in its rival Samsung to help meet the expected demand for the product.
A Retina iPad Mini would certainly prove popular, but with Google’s new Nexus 7 already on the market and wowing punters for the price, will it be able to make a big enough impact?