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If you’ve been paying attention to Apple’s recent product launches, then you’ve probably seen the new iPad Mini, which is Apple’s seventh iteration of its compact tablet line. While it does pack a newer chipset and upgrades to internals, Apple kept a lot of things the same – there’s the same old LCD display with a 60Hz refresh rate, same battery capacity, camera resolution, well – you get the picture.
With that in mind, one could reason that Apple is just being Apple with its decision to provide iterative upgrades with its devices, without changing too much of the current formula. On the other hand, you could argue that Apple is comfortable doing this because there’s barely any competition when it comes to compact tablets on the market.
Let’s wind the clocks back to around a decade ago – this was a point in time when the compact Android tablet scene was absolutely flooded with devices within the 7-8 inch display category, with countless devices from Samsung, ASUS, and even manufacturers like Acer and HP. Tablets like the early iPad Mini and Samsung Galaxy Tab models helped set the precedent for the market, resulting in some rather impressive devices like the Google Nexus tablets and more niche (but powerful) offerings from brands such as Nvidia, for example.
Unfortunately though, this crowded market wouldn’t last too long – a lot of compact Android tablets failed to live up to expectations especially when it came to hardware capabilities and prolonged support, as most manufacturers opted to go the cheap route and offer paltry performance and product quality. With a few exceptions, going for a compact Android tablet back then usually meant weaker chipsets, limited memory and storage configurations, subpar display quality, and such.
With a few exceptions, going for a compact Android tablet back then usually meant weaker chipsets, limited memory and storage configurations, subpar display quality, and such.
Compare this to Apple’s more polished (albeit more expensive) user experience with the iPad Mini line, and it’s not too hard to see why only a few Android brands offer smaller tablets today. And even then, power users after a capable – and small – Android tablet have barely any choices these days. While devices like Samsung’s current A-series tablets and Amazon’s Fire HD tablets are popular enough, they aren’t near the level of performance that you’d get on an iPad Mini, which now features the same chipset used on Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro models.
That’s not to say that there are no good Android tablets – there are a lot in fact, but they’re not exactly compact, with screen sizes hovering from around 10 inches and above. Again, it’s a market segment that Apple has pretty much dominated. As an Android user myself, I’ve long yearned for a proper successor to the Nexus 7 line. Yes, we have the Pixel Tablet, but its not exactly the most portable Android slate around, and it doesn’t seem like Google hasn’t been doing too much to promote it or even tease us with a successor.
READ: Google “Relaunches” the Pixel tablet at a More Affordable Price
Given how optimized recent versions of Android have been for larger-screened devices, it’s still a head-scratcher as to why we haven’t seen a proper premium compact tablet from mainstream Android OEMs. Perhaps they don’t see much profit from smaller devices, or maybe consumers after small tablets just want whatever Apple is selling. Personally though, I strongly believe that a small and capable Android tablet from the likes of Google or Samsung is long overdue – until then, I’ll begrudgingly stick with my iPad Mini.
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