iPad mini mini for reading - magazines

[unbdm]

I'm thinking of getting my wife a mini, but am a bit unsure if it is suited for how I expect her to use it. My wife is very practical and will only use it if it is usefull, she won't use it just because it's cool.

I expect it will fill the roll of Facebook and email that her iphone takes around the house, but she reads a lot of magazines, will the mini be well suited for this task?

I know the retina is nice, but I'm almost thinking she won't notice the diference as long as I don't buy an ipad 4 for myself for a side by side comparison.

Any idea how the pixel density / screen size will suit itself for reading magazines?

It would be easy to just jump up to the ipad4, but I almost think the purse size of the mini might be better for her; but really the cost is not a deciding factor, I want to get the right device (or no device at all).

Thanks for any opinions.

 

[d123]

I read magazines and other PDFs on my iPad 2 and find it a pleasant enough experience. I am hoping that the Mini does as good a job (and considering the slightly higher ppi, don't see why it shouldn't.

 

[unbdm]

I read magazines and other PDFs on my iPad 2 and find it a pleasant enough experience. I am hoping that the Mini does as good a job (and considering the slightly higher ppi, don't see why it shouldn't.

do you have any concern for the overall screen size requiring too much panning, or should it be identical to your ipad 2, only smaller (and higher ppi)? I had heard the nexus 7 wasn't suited well for magazines.

 

[zhenya]

The Mini will still show the same full-screen magazine view that you get on the regular iPad, but I'm betting that it will both be a little bit too small to read and that text will be fuzzy given that retina displays show the biggest improvement with small fonts. I would expect to have to do some zooming and panning to make it readable.

I'd be glad to hear otherwise as this is one of the reasons I'm sticking with the full sized iPad.

 

[Bokes]

IMO- if Magazines and comic book reading is a big concern- you have to stick with the full retina.
I don't play games.
Most apps seem useless as well
But for reading books, magazines and especially Comic books/graphic novels- the larger retina screen is very hard to give up. It's perfect.

 

[bogatyr]

The screen may be too small. I can tell you that on the 7" Nook Tablet it was too small and I have great vision. With that said, I still ordered a Mini to try in hopes that the extra inch was enough to make it work.

 

[MartyCan]

I'm not sure about magazines but I still zoom in reading MacLife on my iPad 3 anyway so that's no big deal to me.

I am hoping it's better for books from the standpoint that it's just plain lighter to hold up at eye level than the full size iPad. Less arm fatigue. For books you can pick the size you want the text anyway can't you? Just means flipping the page more often or now, scrolling the screen more.

 

[jabingla2810]

I found magazines awful on the iPad 2.

With the retina display they are a massive improvement, pages looks just as crisp as the actual page in a printed magazine.

The retina display should not be under estimated when it comes to text.

 

[kristoffer4]

I also wonder if the mini can be used for magazines and comics since this is what I primarily use my ipad 1st. gen for.

 

[Infinitewisdom]

I found magazines awful on the iPad 2.

With the retina display they are a massive improvement, pages looks just as crisp as the actual page in a printed magazine.

The retina display should not be under estimated when it comes to text.

Agreed. Once you've lived with a retina display, it's very difficult to go back. This fact alone rules out the mini for my house.

 

[THFourteen]

At this stage, it depends whats more important to you, convenience and portability or quality.

I have been using the mrs' ipad 2 for the last week or so to see if i could go back to non-retina, and actually i found after the initial "OMG this looks like *****" feeling, i got used to it and now it doesn't bother me.

Magazines etc read fine, i always zoom in on the text anyway.

 

[wx4olf]

I use zinio for reading several magazines a month and it works pretty good on both my tablet and phone. You can flip the pages and zoom in to read text or with most of the magazines I subscribe to hit a button to only see the article text just like when reading an ebook. That's a great way to focus on the article content and I have moved away from buying magazines that don't support this feature or are merely scans of the newsstand copy.