There are a lot of tablets out in the market to choose from, and the Apple iPad Mini is one of the top ones with other huge rivals on its heels.
According to KnowYourMobile, DigiTimes reported that Apple is now in the "final stages of appointing a third manufacturing partner that will help offset the difficulties currently besieging production of its iPad Mini devices."
This is good news for those consumers who want to get their hands on the iPad Mini but can't because of supply issues.
On top of that, the Mini tablet will be available in China on Friday, Dec. 7, along with the iPad 4 and iPhone 5 (Dec. 14). The iPad Mini is already currently available in 42 countries. It is expected to do well in the Chinese market where Apple is dominating tablet sales, according to USA Stock Report.
Rival tablets such as Google's Nexus 7 may have something to cringe about with Apple being the biggest tech giant right now. IndiaToday said that the iPad Mini "has better apps and is easier to use than competitors such as Google's Nexus. The new device also sports two cameras, on the front and on the back, which the competitors don't."
In a spec comparison by Autoomobile, both the Nexus 7 and iPad Mini "are pretty well matched and what this may mean is that the best one for you would be decided by whether you prefer iOS 6 or Android, how much you want to pay and whether LTE is needed." The Nexus 7 is cheaper at $199 while the Mini is $329 while the Mini is lighter and thinner. When it comes to software and operating system, it seems to be more of a personal decision.
What about the Samsung Galaxy Note 2? Although the Note 2 could be categorized as a smartphone, the device could also be a tablet, which is why it is nicknamed "phablet."
Autoomobile also did a spec comparison iPad Mini vs Galaxy Note 2 and declared the Samsung device the overall winner, saying it "won more points than the iPad Mini. Nevertheless there are some things that the phablet can't match the iPad Mini with - a lower price tag and lots of tablet apps. However the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has its advantages too, like the fact it is a phone and can make calls, and has GPS and NFC."
You could compare specs for yourself:
The Nexus 7 has a 7-inch HD display with a Back-lit IPS display and scratch-resistant Coming(R) glass with 1,280 x 800 pixels resolution. It runs on Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It has 8/16GB onboard storage and 1GB of RAM. It has a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera and features NFC and GPS. It has a 4325 mAh battery that runs up to 8 hours of active use. 16GB sells for $199, the 32GB Wi-Fi version sells $249, and the 32GB with Wi-Fi, HSPA+ and AT&T service sells for $299.99.
Samsung's "phablet" will feature a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen and a rear 8-megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash and front 1.9 megapixel CT camera. It has a 1.6 Ghz quad-core processor and 4G LTE data speeds. It is also expected to have Android 4.1 Jelly Bean pre-installed and come with the S Pen experience and comes with up to 64GB of memory with 2GB RAM and a microSD slow up to 64GB.
The iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch IPS LCD screen and run on Apple's new iOS 6 software. It is 23 percent thinner than the fourth-generation iPad. It has a display screen resolution of 1,024 x 768 and has a 35 percent larger display area than the Google Nexus 7, and is 67 percent larger to surf the Web. It has a A5 dual-core chip, 5 megapixel iSight camera on the rear of the tablet which can shoot 1080p HD video, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi support as well as the new Lightning connector available on the iPhone 5. It comes with a FaceTime HD camera and 10 hours of battery life. It has Wi-Fi that is twice as fast as previous generation iPads. It sells for $329 for the 16GB model.