14 DAY TRIAL // Calling it “the world’s most advanced 7” tablet,” Amazon has published a brief comparison spec sheet of its Kindle Fire HD alongside the iPad mini, citing tech-site Gizmodo to counter-attack Apple’s marketing pitch.
Apple advertises the iPad mini stating on its website that the display has the same 1024-by-768 resolution as the iPad 2 in a significantly smaller enclosure.
“So everything looks incredibly crisp and sharp. And since the iPad mini display has 35 percent more screen area than a 7-inch tablet, everything is easier to read and interact with,” it states.
“The iPad mini display is also designed to take greater advantage of every pixel. So apps, magazines, and documents fill the screen, from top to bottom and edge to edge. In portrait and in landscape,” Apple adds.
However, some people beg to differ, and Amazon now takes note of one specific observation made by the people at Gizmodo.
The American online retailer – which also sells hardware like the Kindle e-readers and, most recently, the Kindle Fire HD tablets – quotes Gizmodo as saying “… your [Apple’s] 7.9-inch tablet has far fewer pixels than the competing 7-inch tablets! You’re cramming a worse screen in there, charging more, and accusing others of compromise? Ballsy.”
The iPad mini has 163 pixels-per-inch (ppi), whereas the Kindle fire HD has 216, or 30% more pixels-per-inch than Apple’s diminutive tablet PC.
The fire can also run HD movies and TV, whereas the iPad mini cannot. And Amazon also touts ultra-fast MIMO Wi-Fi as a plus, all for just $199 / €153. The iPad mini retails for $329, or €254.
Needless to point out, when you really delve into the complete set of features each tablet offers, Apple’s higher asking price doesn’t seem so ridiculous anymore. Then again, Apple too is known to take some things out of context for the sake of marketing.