Now that the iPad mini has found its way to early adopters, it's imd to start the comparisons with the rest of the 7-inch tablet market. According to display expert Dr. Ray Soneira, the iPad mini display is more than capable, but fails to best the Kindle Fire HD or Nexus 7 on more than a few levels.

Writing on DisplayMate, Soneira decided to take a deeper look at the iPad mini in comparison to the Amazon's Kindle Fire HD, Google's Nexus 7, and the full-size iPad. While the iPad mini still features a gorgeous display, it appears Apple's smaller tablet screen may not be best-in-class.

"The iPad mini is certainly a very capable small Tablet, but it does not follow in Apple’s tradition of providing the best display, or at least a great display--it has just a very capable display," writs Soneira. "Some of this results from constraints within the iPad product line, and some to realistic constraints on display technology and costs, but much of it is due to a number of poor choices and compromises."

Ouch. Of the features DisplayMate chose to compare, the iPad mini had trouble keeping up with some of the mini tablet competition. Screen resolution is understandably lower on the iPad mini--the device lacks the Retina display--but at only 163ppi, it falls short of the 216ppi offered by both the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD.

And if you're planning to take that new iPad mini outside for leisurely browsing, you may want to stay out of the sunlight. The iPad mini reflects 53-percent more ambient light than the Nexus 7, and 41-percent more light than the Kindle Fire HD.

DisplayMate also found the iPad mini lagging behind in the color gamut department, and Soneira wondered why Apple chose to stay with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Be sure to check out DisplayMate's full shoot-out on the company's blog.

Image source: DisplayMate

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