Which tablet is the better buy? The Apple iPad Mini 2 Retina or the Microsoft Surface Pro 2.
In terms of design and display, the iPad Mini 2 Retina has the dimensions of 200×134.7×7.5 mm and weighs 331 grams for the WiFi variant, or 341 grams for the 3G/LTE variant, and its display is LED-backlit IPS LCD sized at 7.9 inches, with a resolution of 1536×2048 pixels with 324ppi. The Surface 2’s chassis is made of magnesium alloy, but it’s bulkier and very thick at 13.5 mm, being used mostly as a hybrid laptop, because it hooks to the traditional keyboard, but it’s sold separately, as well as the cover. It is 275 mm tall, 173 mm width, and weighs 900 grams, but that’s because it features a 10.6 inches ClearType Full HD Display that supports 1920x1080pixels and 214ppi.
For the hardware and OS, the iPad Mini 2 Retina is powered by the Apple A7 Dual-core 1.3GHz Cyclone, paired with PowerVR G6430 graphics and 1GB of RAM DDR3. Since there is no microSD card slot available, users will have to choose between 16/32/64/128 GB variants of internal storage. It ran on the iOS7 and now it’s upgradeable to iOS 8.1.2.
The Surface Pro 2 is powered by the fourth generation Intel Core i5 4200U Processor and uses TPM Chip for enterprise security. It’s available in two variants of RAM capacities: 4 and 8GB, while the internal memories are 64, 128, 256 and 512GB and there’s a microSDXC card reader. It runs on the Windows 8.1 OS.
For the battery and camera specs, the iPad Mini 2 Retina has a Li-Po 6470 mAh battery which delivers 10 hours of multimedia usage, while the Surface Pro 2 has 151.2 kJ (42 Wh) battery which lasts around 7.5 hours.
The iPad Mini 2 has a more advanced primary camera whose resolution is 5MP, but lacks the desired LED flash, preventing the users from taking photos in low light conditions. The other camera is 1.2MP, just like both of Surface Pro 2’s cameras.
The Surface Pro 2 cost $700 (64GB), $1000 (128GB), $1200 (256GB), and $1400 (512GB). The iPad Mini 3 16GB WiFi costs $292, and the 32GB variant cost $456.
Which tablet device is the better buy? Sound off in the comment section below.
