The iPad mini was a runaway success for Apple, pleasing many but having one major drawback - its display. It's no wonder, then, that most of the speculation around its successor revolves around the screen. The latest rumor out of the mill suggests that panel maker AU Optronics is readying up some new displays for the iPad mini 2.
According to a report from Patently Apple (based on a DigiTimes report), "The company is now reportedly working on panels for the next-generation of iPad mini which should be introducing a Retina display later this year."
Most reports so far point to the iPad mini 2's Retina display sporting a 2048X1536 resolution, which is the same as the 9.7-inch Retina iPad. A little bit of math shows that the 7.9-inch iPad mini 2 would then have around 324 pixels per inch (ppi), meaning 80 ppi more than its bigger cousin. If anything, that should certainly help squelch complaints about the iPad mini's display - at least from a superficial specs point of view.
While the idea of a Retina iPad mini 2 will certainly have consumers more excited, there could be a downside - it could bump up the price of the iPad mini 2.
"According to iSuppli, the price of the 7.9-inch panel is around US$32/unit and the total material cost of entry-level iPad mini is around US$188/unit," another DigiTimes report reads. "If iPad mini adopts the Retina display, the dots per inch (DPI) will be higher and the brightness of the backlight modules will have to improve. This also means the number of LEDs used will increase, and therefore market observers believe the total cost for iPad mini will increase by more than 30 percent if it is equipped with the 7.9-inch Retina panel."
Don't worry though, if Apple is stay aggressively competitive against rival tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.0, it won't be able to afford a huge price increase, especially when cheaper budget tablets are constantly improving themselves and proving themselves worthy of consumer attention.
The iPad mini 2 is expected to debut around mid-2013.