Tiny tablet face-off: iPad mini vs Google Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HD

Apple unveiled its much awaited iPad mini on Tuesday. The 7.9-inch screen tablet which is priced at $329 is seen as a competitor to Amazon’s 7-inch Kindle Fire HD and Google’s Nexus 7, except of course that it is much more expensive.

But how do three tablets match up in term of features and tech specifications?

Here’s a quick comparison of the three tablets as far as some key features are concerned.

Price:  This is regarded as the biggest let-down as far as the iPad mini is concerned. The 16GB version with just Wi-Fi starts at a whopping $329. The 16GB version with Wi-Fi plus cellular connectivity starts at $429.

Now lets put this in perspective.

The 16 GB version of the Google Nexus 7 sells for $249. The Verge reports that Google has already launched the 32 GB version of the Nexus 7 which will officially hits the stores on 29 October for $249 while the 16GB version will sell at $199.

The Kindle Fire 7-inch starts at $199 for an HD version with 16GB hard disk space while the 32GB starts at $249. This pricing is for the Wi-Fi only version.

But the iPad mini does have one extra feature: cellular connectivity, that neither the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD 7-inch version have. Is this adequate bang for the buck though?

In terms of pricing, the iPad mini is undeniably super expensive. But one thing Indian fans may want to consider is that the iPad mini might actually be launched in the country, unlike the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire which are not yet officially available here.

Processor and memory :In terms of processing speed, the Nexus 7 is still ahead of the iPad mini and the Kindle Fire HD.

The iPad mini has a dual-core A5 processor clocked at 1 GHZ. The Nexus 7 has a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU, which includes a 12-core Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Kindle Fire HD has a dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz.

Screen Resolution: The iPad mini has a 7.9 inch screen (diagonally) with a screen resolution of 1024×768 pixels making it around 163 pixels per inch. So it’s not Retina Display quality like the iPad 3 and 4.

The Nexus 7 has a 7 inch screen with 1280x800 HD display that comes to 216 pixels per inch. In terms of screen resolution this makes it better than the iPad mini, and don’t forget the dedicated core for graphics.

The Kindle Fire HD has the same screen resolution as the Nexus 7 but again a slow processor.

Camera: The iPad mini comes with a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 1.2 megapixel front FaceTime Camera. This is one area where the iPad mini has a distinct advantage over the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD, as neither have a rear camera. The Nexus 7 has a 1.2-megapixel front camera and the Kindle Fire HD has a 1.3 megapixel front camera.

The iPad mini is thus still a great multimedia tablet unlike the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. But hey Google’s event is coming up on 29 October and the Nexus could get some serious upgrades.

OS: The iPad mini ships with Apple’s iOS 6. The Google Nexus 7 runs Jelly Bean aka Android 4.1 and unlike other altered versions of the OS this one is pure Google.

Kindle Fire HD runs a heavily altered version of Android 4.0 and has no access to the Google Play Store.

In terms of OS therefore, the battle is between Google’s Nexus 7 and Apple’s iPad mini.