AppleInsider is supported by its audience and may earn commission as an Amazon Associate and affiliate partner on qualifying purchases. These affiliate partnerships do not influence our editorial content.

The iPad mini is an ideal companion for avid readers, but Amazon’s Paperwhite ebook reader is still a good proposition for bookworms. It all depends on how much you read.

Apple’s iPad range is effectively the standard that other tablet computing devices have to beat. For normal tablets, it’s a tall order to rival the iPad in most areas, but there are some tasks where a specialist device could fare well.

One such area is ebooks, as there are still a number of ebook readers on the market. While iPads could be used to read the same content via apps, dedicated hardware like Amazon’s Kindle range are built specifically with reading in mind, and as such, offer a different experience.

Given the highly pocketable nature of the iPad mini, here’s how Apple’s smallest iPad fares against Amazon’s main Kindle Paperwhite.

iPad mini vs Kindle Paperwhite – Physical Details

The latest iPad mini has received a considerable upgrade in its appearance and functionality, but still remains the smallest in Apple’s current catalog. Even with a new larger screen, the aluminum enclosure is still an extremely compact 7.69 inches by 5.3 inches, and just 0.25 inches thick.

As an ebook reader, you would expect the Kindle Paperwhite to have a fairly large screen on the front, and to a point, it does. With reasonably small bezels to the sides and top, there is a bit of a chin towards the base of the unit.

It has a smaller footprint than the iPad mini at 6.9 inches by 4.9 inches, making it the same size as a small book. Despite being simpler in terms of technology, Amazon still managed to make the Paperwhite thicker than the iPad at 0.32 inches.

The small size and the plastic housing certainly help the Kindle save weight, with its 0.45-pound mass considerably undercutting the iPad mini’s 0.65 pounds.

Video

Compared: iPad mini vs Kindle Paperwhite

Malcolm Owen | Nov 15, 2021

  22 CommentsFacebook Twitter Reddit

AppleInsider is supported by its audience and may earn commission as an Amazon Associate and affiliate partner on qualifying purchases. These affiliate partnerships do not influence our editorial content.

The iPad mini is an ideal companion for avid readers, but Amazon’s Paperwhite ebook reader is still a good proposition for bookworms. It all depends on how much you read.

Apple’s iPad range is effectively the standard that other tablet computing devices have to beat. For normal tablets, it’s a tall order to rival the iPad in most areas, but there are some tasks where a specialist device could fare well.

One such area is ebooks, as there are still a number of ebook readers on the market. While iPads could be used to read the same content via apps, dedicated hardware like Amazon’s Kindle range are built specifically with reading in mind, and as such, offer a different experience.

Given the highly pocketable nature of the iPad mini, here’s how Apple’s smallest iPad fares against Amazon’s main Kindle Paperwhite.https://www.youtube.com/embed/Grzn9hkkAok

Specifications

	iPad mini 6	Kindle Paperwhite
Price (starting)	$499	$139.99
Dimensions (inches)	7.69 x 5.3 x 0.25	6.9 x 4.9 x 0.32
Weight (pounds) Wi-Fi only	0.65	0.45
Storage	64GB, 256GB	8GB
Display Tyoe	8.3-inch Liquid Retina with True Tone, 500 nits brightness	6.8-inch Paperwhite glare-free with 16-level grayscale
Resolution	2266 x 1488 at 326ppi	300ppi
Connectivity	5G (sub-6 GHz), Gigabit LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Battery	Up to 10 hours	Up to 10 weeks (35 hours total usage)
Rear camera	12MP Wide, f/1.8 aperture, 5x digital zoom	–
Front camera	12MP Ultra Wide, f/2.4 aperture	–
Connector	USB-C	USB-C
Stylus Support	Apple Pencil (Gen 2)	–
Audio	Two speaker audio landscape mode	Bluetooth to headphones
Biometric Security	Touch ID	–
Water resistance	–	IPX8
Colors	Space Gray, Pink, Purple, Starlight	Black

iPad mini vs Kindle Paperwhite – Physical Details

The latest iPad mini has received a considerable upgrade in its appearance and functionality, but still remains the smallest in Apple’s current catalog. Even with a new larger screen, the aluminum enclosure is still an extremely compact 7.69 inches by 5.3 inches, and just 0.25 inches thick.

The new iPad mini 6

As an ebook reader, you would expect the Kindle Paperwhite to have a fairly large screen on the front, and to a point, it does. With reasonably small bezels to the sides and top, there is a bit of a chin towards the base of the unit.

It has a smaller footprint than the iPad mini at 6.9 inches by 4.9 inches, making it the same size as a small book. Despite being simpler in terms of technology, Amazon still managed to make the Paperwhite thicker than the iPad at 0.32 inches.

The small size and the plastic housing certainly help the Kindle save weight, with its 0.45-pound mass considerably undercutting the iPad mini’s 0.65 pounds.

iPad mini vs Kindle Paperwhite – Display

The iPad mini has an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display, with a resolution of 2,266 by 1,488 and a pixel density of 326ppi. The IPS panel also includes Wide color (P3) support, and a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating to go with its multi-touch support.

Of benefit to readers is the antireflective coating, boasting 1.8% reflectivity, as well as its 500 nits of brightness. There’s also TrueTone, where the colors of the display shift to match changes in environmental lighting, so an on-screen image looks the same under different lighting.

There’s also stylus support with the second-generation Apple Pencil.

Things are considerably different for the Kindle Paperwhite’s display, due to it being an ebook reader, not a tablet. We’re talking about a device that prioritizes readability and battery life, and the screen certainly reflects that.

The 6.8-inch Paperwhite e-ink (also referred to as e-paper) display is decently sized, if not as big as the iPad mini, but the Kindle also has a considerable chin towards the base. Amazon doesn’t say what its resolution is, but that it is a 300ppi display, which is a little below the iPad mini, but still perfectly readable.

Further drilling home the point is that the display doesn’t offer colors at all. Instead, it has 16 levels of greyscale at its disposal, which is good enough for text, less for images.

As an e-ink display used to display text, the refresh rate can be extremely low, primarily with it just showing a page from a book and only changing when the user turns the page, or interacts with the user interface in some way. It’s simply not capable of animations or playing back video with a sufficient framerate, but then again, the display’s not really intended for that.

Amazon’s aim to make it as readable as paper means it’s a glare-free display, and one that can be read clearly in sunlight. It does include a 17-LED lighting system for night-time reading, with its color temperature adjustable to make it warmer or cooler, though it’s not built to be exceedingly bright.

An up-scale model of the Paperwhite called the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition adds in an auto-adjusting light facility, which changes based on the lighting conditions in your local area.

The Paperwhite does use a touchscreen display, which is handy for navigating menus, buying content, and for changing pages when reading a book. There are also gestures like swipes and pinching to change the font size to go along with the tapping.

iPad mini vs Kindle Paperwhite – Capacity

Apple offers the iPad mini in 64GB and 256GB capacities, which is used to hold practically all of a user’s digital life. This includes apps, documents, images, videos, and ebooks, of course.

The Kindle Paperwhite is sold with 8GB of storage, which is enough to hold “thousands of books,” according to Amazon. This may seem insanely small compared to the iPad mini’s lowest-capacity model, but it makes sense.

The small file sizes of primarily-text ebooks certainly means you can load it up with tons of content without worrying too much about storage. Since you’re not going to use it to store photographs or videos, or even apps, the worst you’d be using the storage for would be an Audible book.

Those who demand more storage could opt for the Paperwhite Signature Edition, which gives you 32GB of capacity.

iPad mini vs Kindle Paperwhite – Battery Life

There’s a considerable difference in how Apple and Amazon define the battery capabilities of their respective devices.

Apple says the iPad mini’s battery can last for up to 10 hours of web-surfing over Wi-Fi or watching video, though that dips down to 9 hours when using cellular connectivity.

According to Amazon, the Paperwhite can last for up to ten weeks on a single charge, “based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off.” That works out to be 35 hours of total usage spread across a ten-week period, though it doesn’t account for power drain while on standby.

That’s even before you consider that the claimed battery life doesn’t include Wi-Fi. Obviously, this would be a massive drain on the Paperwhite if used in such a way, but you’re not going to realistically surf the web for hours on end on the thing.

Amazon also says it can be charged in 5 hours from a computer using USB, though it can also achieve maximum charge in 2.5 hours using a 9W USB power adapter.

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition also adds in wireless charging, a feature neither the standard Paperwhite nor the iPad mini possess.

I’ve been obsessed with Balmuda’s fancy toaster for years. As some readers might know, I used to live in Japan while working for Engadget, and I’d browse around electronics superstores like Yodobashi Camera and Yamada Denki, gawping at high-level cameras, weird 3DS games that would never make it to the West and touring floors upon floors of home appliances and gadgets. There are entire shop floors dedicated to rice cookers, water boilers and the rest. And it is amazing. 

Balmuda’s premium toaster oven was the apex, though. Fortunately, the company’s steam-based toaster has made it to the US in recent years and now, for $329, you can have the fluffiest slices of toasted bread you can imagine. But for those in Japan, Balmuda has now announced its first-ever smartphone. 

It’s a petite device with a full-HD 4.9-inch display. The company teamed up with Kyocera to manufacture the Android device, which has 5G and wireless charging. It comes with a 48-megapixel rear camera, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera and a fingerprint sensor. The Balmuda Phone is powered by a Snapdragon 765 processor and, as you might tell, the device packs relatively middleweight specs. The company may be banking on its premium status to convince smartphone shoppers.

At the moment, the company doesn’t have plans to release the phone outside Japan.

Fender’s acoustic-electric hybrid guitars are technical marvels — with a price to reflect that. Now, the instrument brand has unveiled its $1,200 Acoustic Player Telecaster with a simpler design with a three-way voice selector (versus five on other models) and one blend knob.

Having slowly rolled out its OS update to the most powerful (and up-to-date) PCs, Microsoft is accelerating the rollout of Windows 11, making it more broadly available. Provided your system is running version 2004 or later of Windows 10 and you recently installed the September 14th, 2021 servicing update Microsoft released, you can now upgrade directly to Windows 11. When Microsoft first released the new OS on October 4th, the company said it expected to offer the upgrade to all eligible devices by mid-2022.

SiriusXM-owned Pandora is partnering with SoundCloud to launch “The Lookout by SoundCloud,” a new station available on Pandora that aims to showcase music from the “hip hop superstars of tomorrow.” Today’s announcement comes as Pandora’s parent company, SiriusXM, recently partnered with SoundCloud to launch a show of the same name on its Hip-Hop Nation channel. It’s no surprise that SiriusXM is joining forces with SoundCloud across its properties, as the company invested $75 million in SoundCloud last year.

The Lookout by SoundCloud features new artists weekly, like Toosii, Sheff G, Metro Marrs, Young Devyn, $NOT, Dro Kenji, Cico P, Flo Milli, Nevi, SoFaygo, Isaiah Rashad, Sleepy Rose and more. The station features songs heard on the SiriusXM SoundCloud show.

“With a hit slot on SiriusXM’s Hip-Hop Nation and now a new home on Pandora, SoundCloud’s top playlist, ‘The Lookout’, is the go-to source with the largest digital audio reach for fans to discover the best in breaking hip hop,” said R. Caiaffa, the interim head of music at SoundCloud, in a statement. “Joining forces with Pandora to expand ‘The Lookout by SoundCloud’ amps up our shared commitment to help the emerging hip-hop artist community to get heard and discovered.”

The new station originates from one of SoundCloud’s most popular playlists, ‘The Lookout,’ which launched in 2019. The playlist has since become a popular destination for discovering the next generation of rising stars in hip hop.

SiriusXM notes that The Lookout has spotlighted some of today’s biggest artists in hip hop before they became household names, including Pop Smoke, Megan Thee Stallion, Roddy Ricch, Rod Wave and more.

It’s clear that SiriusXM is looking to attract more younger listeners across its offerings with its various partnerships with SoundCloud. Additionally, SiriusXM recently launched a TikTok Radio channel, which features TikTok creators as channel hosts, in another push to capture a younger audience. The station is designed to sound like a radio version of TikTok’s “For You” feed.

Over the last few years, SiriusXM and Pandora have also struck deals with Simplecast and Stitcher to become more competitive in both music and podcast streaming. Most recently, SiriusXM partnered with audio entertainment production studio Audio Up to develop new original scripted podcasts.

Apple’s decision to pare down the ports to a selection of Thunderbolt connections has also been partially reversed, with the inclusion of a full-sized HDMI port and an updated version of MagSafe. There’s even an SD card slot, saving users from needing to carry around a separate card reader.

The designers didn’t stop there, either. The new design is slightly thicker and heavier than in previous iterations. Those are two designs strategies that, in days gone by, would be seen as the antithesis of all for which Apple stands.

But we’re not dreaming. The new 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro have ushered in a new design language and a satisfying return to form for professional use.

So, why has Apple seemingly backtracked on pretty much everything?

Goodbye, Sir Jony

It’s hard to ignore the impact Jony Ive had on Apple’s return to fortune. Arguably, Steve Jobs couldn’t have brought his company back from the brink of bankruptcy without Ive’s influence.

He gave us the iPhone, iPad, and countless other industrial designs, all of which combine beauty with function and long-lasting durability.

But Ive didn’t always get it right with the numerous design decisions needed to produce each and every Apple product.

There was a relentless desire to make laptops and smartphones as thin as possible. This resulted in ports and headphone jacks being removed, forcing more users into adopting dongles and carrying adapters around that they previously didn’t need.

The pursuit of thinness also helped create some of the company’s most undesirable headlines when it comes to the infamous butterfly keyboard.

Ive’s influence on the 2016 MacBook Pro redesign will spark debate for many years to come, but the notebook still sold by the bucketload. It’s just a shame that so many professional users felt short-changed with the minimal port selection and the aesthetic.

The new M1 Pro and M1 Max-powered MacBooks Pro have been almost universally regarded as the redesign those users and hobbyists have been hoping for.

SADLY, IT SEEMS THE MINERS HAVE GONE MOBILE

The Gigabyte Aorus 17G seemed a great way to get your hands on an RTX 3080 but as with most other things this year this gaming laptop has disappeared from all but resellers that have significantly increased the price.  That is not to say you shouldn’t keep an eye out for it to come back on sale, for as Kitguru discovered this is a beast of a laptop.

There are those that will question a 1080p display on a 17″ laptop with an RTX 3080, but with a 300Hz refresh rate you might actually make use of the GPU’s power, not to mention what kinds of external screen you could power with the Aorus 17G.  The Intel Core i7-11800H is paired with 32GB DDR4-3200, which are cooled with Gigabyte’s WINDFORCE Infinity Cooling Technology; as is the GPU.

They also included a mechanical keyboard with OMRON switches for fans of the click, or if you prefer a different solution the three USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A or single Thunderbolt 4 Type-C plugs should accommodate the peripherals of your choice.  Storage is fast but limited, a 512GB Samsung PM9A1 M.2 NVMe drive might be a little cramped for some but will offer great performance.

THE LUCKY RAZER BOOK 13

CHECK OUT XE GRAPHICS

Intel’s Evo certification is a continuation of Project Athena, which is more or less their old Ultrabook standard risen from the dead via a necromantic ritual.  The standard requires having an 11th Gen Core processors with Intel Iris Xe, WiFi 6, Thunderbolt 4, at least nine hours of battery life on an HD screen and the ability to resume from sleep in less than a second.  For everyone but AMD shareholders, these are good goals to have.

The $1500 model of the Razer Book 13 fits these specifications, on paper at least, and so TechSpot set out to determine if it does in real world usage.  The 13.4″ touch screen is an attractive 1920 x 1200 and there is a full sized HDMI to connect to an external screen.  In total it weighs in at 3.1lbs (1.4kg) and measures 0.6 x 11.6 x .7.8″ (15 x 295 x 199mm) and it is held shut by a magnet which ensures it doesn’t partially open when in your bag, though that necessitates the use of two hands to open it.

The integrated Xe graphics will let you play most games at the native resolution as long as you lower the graphics settings, as you would expect.  Razer sells a Core X Thunderbolt 3 external GPU system which you can connect to the laptop if you need additional graphics horsepower, something TechSpot intends to test in the future. 

It has been a year since NVIDIA made a $40 billion offer to purchase ARM and some time since we have seen an update on the challenges NVIDIA’s purchase of ARM is facing.  Qualcomm certainly had objections, so did the FTC in the US and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, and now there is a second investigation being launched in the UK.  This second phase of the CMA’s investigation was launched by the Digital and Culture Secretary in the UK, Nadine Dorries.

As you might expect  the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have any comment at this time, and NVIDIA simply repeated it’s intent to “continue to work” with the UK government to address concerns, so the details are rather scarce.  As the first challenge from the UK focused solely on anti-trust concerns it is likely this investigation will expand the scope to include national security fears.  ARM processors have been a major part of some of the UK’s national infrastructure, including the National Health Service, so a non-UK based company gaining ownership of that silicon has upset some members of the UK government.

The investigation is slated to last for six months, so we can expect even more delays on a decision to allow the acquisition to continue or not.  There are also likely to be even more challenges from other countries and companies in the coming months, so we can’t expect a resolution any time soon.