Apple iPad Air vs. iPad Mini With Retina Display: Which One Should You Get?

Like clockwork, Apple convened its annual fall event, leaving us with new Macbooks, the Mac Pro, and two new iPad models.

The full-sized iPad has been slimmed and trimmed, and now sports a new name—the iPad Air. And as many speculated, Apple upgraded the smaller iPad mini with a Retina display, which has the same 2,048-by-1,536-pixel resolution as its full-sized counterparts. Both of these devices are primed to continue Apple's tablet dominance, but if you're between the two iPads, which one should you get? Read on for our side by side comparison that will help you decide.

The iPad Air represents the first major redesign for Apple's full-sized tablet since the iPad 2. At 9.4 by 6.6 by 0.29 inches, the iPad Air is smaller in every dimension than the fourth-gen iPad, and it's slimmed down 1 pound weight is nearly a half-pound lighter than the previous generation. It's an impressive feat, as Apple kept the screen size the same and substantially trimmed some of the bezel surrounding the device. It now shares a very similar look to the iPad mini.

Speaking of which, the new iPad mini with Retina display stays physically identical to the original mini, clocking in at 7.87 by 5.3 by 0.29 inches and 0.73 pounds. The iPad mini's advantage has been its thin and light form factor, but with the new iPad Air coming in at the same thickness and far closer in weight than previous generations, the gap is narrowing between the two lines.

The big difference here is screen size: The iPad Air keeps the 9.7-inch display, while the iPad mini with Retina keeps its 7.9-inch display. But both displays use the same 2,048-by-1,536-pixel resolution. With the previous generation, the full-sized iPad had a bigger screen and more pixels, which meant more room to work. Now, both iPads have the same total pixels, so the real difference is going to be in sharpness and the size of on-screen elements. The mini's screen is sharper at 326ppi.

Inside, both the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina use Apple's 64-bit A7 processor. It's the same chip that was introduced with the iPhone 5s( at Amazon), which is a good thing as that phone was exceedingly fast in our tests. And since both the Air and mini are pushing the same amount of pixels, we expect performance to be pretty comparable between the two. In fact, pretty much every major feature is the same between these two: the same 5-megapixel iSight camera, 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD camera, dual-channel MIMO Wi-Fi, and broad LTE support.

Aside from the screen size difference, price will likely be the determining factor when choosing between these two iPads. The Air starts at the familiar $499 price point for the 16GB model, while the iPad mini with Retina will start at $399. The mini saw a price bump over the last generation, which Apple will still sell for $299, but considering you get basically the same iPad features just in a smaller package, it's a pretty competitive price point.

The iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display will hit retails stores starting Nov. 1. So which iPad will you choose this fall? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned for a full review when we get both of these tablets into our labs.  

For more, check out PCMag Live in the video below, which discusses today's Apple announcements.