A lot of people are wondering if the iPad mini whether the iPad mini is worth $130 more than budget Android tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7. Well, if Apple's big app advantage doesn't impress you, perhaps it's superior battery life will. In our testing, the iPad mini lasted three hours longer on a charge than its closest competitors, and a good two hours longer than the Nook HD.
In the LAPTOP Battery test, which involves surfing popular websites every 60 seconds on 40 percent brightness, the iPad mini lasted an epic 10 hours and 33 minutes. Among 7-inch tablets, the Nook HD came closest, with a runtime of 8:30, while the Kindle Fire HD (7:30) and Nexus 7 (7:26) were both way behind.
Granted, the larger 7.9-inch size of the iPad mini allowed Apple to cram in a pretty hefty 16.3-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery. But the mini is actually lighter and thinner than the Fire HD, Nexus 7 and Nook HD.
Bottom line: If you care about endurance, the iPad mini is the small tablet to get.
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