It’s the new iPad mini ! The full-sized iPad is too big for my hand, and too heavy to hold with one hand (book reading mode) for a period of time. I’ve tried Sony Reader to take care of my book reading. But it’s mainly no fun reading comic in e-ink display, the refresh is too slow and many times the bubble text is not readable. iPad mini comes in perfect size, with less weight compared to the original iPad. Finally I get my ideal comic reading device.
The display of iPad mini is surprisingly crisp. I’ve read all the news about this iPad not having retina display and wondered if it’s going to ruin my experience in using it or not. After I played with iPad mini for about 2 weeks, I have no problem at all with the display resolution. Apps look good and my comic books look amazing and easy to read.
App compatibility… is not a problem at all. Since iPad mini has the same resolution as earlier iPad generations (1024×768), apps designed for iPad will automatically fits this iPad very well.
Response time is good. Everything is snappy and responsive.
Camera is decent, but I don’t really care about camera in my iPad. I have Sony Cybershot camera and my iPhone’s camera. They’re both produce good pictures and more mobile.
For book reading, Apple’s default iBooks app is doing a really god job to handle my EPUB e-book collection (not purchased from Apple’s iBookstore). If you still insist on a third-party reading app, I can suggest Bluefire app.
For comic reading, iPad is just the device I’m looking for. I currently use 3 comic reading apps: Bookman for my “western” comics, ComicGlass for completed manga collection (Japanese comic), and iComic for my ongoing reading. Why separate between completed and ongoing collection? Well, I’m a perfectionist, so I like to have front cover for all my comics. When a title is finished, I usually spend some time to organize the comic, adding front cover when necessary, then repackage the comic into a new file. ComicGlass has an excellent book-shelf display and a book will look bad on the shelf if there’s no color cover. Ongoing manga usually released by chapters. Naturally many of them won’t have front cover image.
Why these apps? I’m quite picky when it comes to comic reading apps (or apps in general). It has to be exceptionally well built and have the polished feeling. The response time must be good. It must display my comic library in some particular way that I expect. I have browsing through folders every time I need to find a comic. In reading mode, the app must support both touching area and swiping gesture to turn pages. And the swiping gesture must be responsive enough that I can see the page immediately turns as I swipe, not after I swipe. Some of my comics are larger than 300MB in a single file, a good comic reader must be able to open it without any lagging experience. These three apps survive my harsh selection and now here to stay in my iPad as my most frequently used apps.
These great comic reading apps are my main reason why I didn’t like Android tablet as my comic reading device (I used to own Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7). For Android tablet, the device itself is ok, but I have spent a lot of time trying every comic reader I can find in Google Play (both free and paid versions) and I couldn’t find any comic reader app that fits my personal taste.
My final conclusion, iPad mini is a very good product. I’m quite happy with this purchase. There are only 2 things I expect from Apple next year in the next generation of iPad mini: retina display, and 128GB storage (my 64GB iPad mini is full already, not enough capacity). If they offer both, I will simply upgrade. If not, then I will patiently wait.
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