Apple said to be eyeing Samsung for Retina iPad Mini screens

High-resolution screens for next-gen tablet may come from Apple's chief competitor and legal foe, sources tell The Wall Street Journal.

            Samsung on the front of Apple's next-gen iPad Mini?
Apple will likely tap Samsung for high-resolution screens for its next-generation iPad Mini, unidentified sources tell The Wall Street Journal.
The much-rumored Retina tablet, which is expected to go into mass production by the end of this year, will also feature screens produced by Japan Display and LG Display, the sources said. The new model will likely retain the current form factor with a 7.9-inch screen size, while a selection of colors for the back cover is being considered, the sources said.

The report suggests that Apple is further along in the production process than previously thought. Analysts and their supply chain sources have been saying for a while that they expected the Retina Mini to be delayed, possibly until 2014.
While Digitimes reported in June that Apple hadn't even decided whether to go Retina for the Mini because of display supply issues, market analysts Citi Research and NPD DisplaySearch have both said they anticipate a Mini Retina release in 2014. Both analysts also expect an updated non-Retina version of the Mini to appear this year.
Such a deal would also seem to suggest that Apple has not succeeded at a much-rumored effort to distance itself from the South Korean Electronics giant, which is Apple's chief competitor and legal foe. Apple has also reportedly been pushing more chip orders to other Asian hardware manufacturers for its next-generation iPhone as it tries to diversify supply lines and reduce its dependence on Samsung.

The good: The iPad Mini's ultrathin and light design is far more intimate and booklike than the larger iPad, and its cameras, storage capacities, optional LTE antenna, and general functionality offer a full iPad experience. The screen's dimensions elegantly display larger-format magazines and apps.

The bad: The iPad Mini costs too much, especially considering the lower resolution of its 7.9-inch non-Retina Display. The A5 processor isn't as robust as the one in the fourth-gen iPad and iPhone 5. Typing on the smaller screen is not quite as comfy.

The bottom line: If you want the full, polished Apple tablet experience in a smaller package, the iPad Mini is worth the premium price. Otherwise, good alternatives are available for less money.

The tablet landscape, at the smaller-screened end, has become about pricing. Or so it seems. Don't tell that to the iPad Mini. Apple's long-awaited, and finally real, tinier tablet is remarkably thinner and lighter than its big-boned, newly arrived fourth-gen iPad sibling, but it also starts at $329, a price that's well above the bargain-basement $199 target floated by devices like the Nexus 7, Amazon Kindle Fire HD, and Nook HD.
Certainly, the tablet playing field -- especially when it comes to media -- is leveling. The Kindle's book, video, and app ecosystem is impressive in its own right. The Nook has made gains with its apps and services. Android has Google Play. Regardless, none of these can truly compare to the breadth of content from Apple's App Store and iTunes. The App Store is Apple's great gold mine, and the iPad Mini's price seems to be banking on you knowing that. And, in that sense, the iPad Mini may be worth its price.
But, the original iPad hit a sweet-spot $499 price that few competitors could match. The Mini's price is about $130 higher than many similar 7-inch tablets that undercut it. It's even more expensive than some newly arriving 8.9-inch tablets from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The iPad Mini is really a shrunken-down iPad 2. Or, a larger iPod Touch. The original iPad was a larger iPod Touch, too, in a lot of ways. That didn't make it any less appealing. Here, the tablet is not intended to be a laptop alternative -- it's a Kindle alternative. This is a compact reader/viewer. Of documents, magazines, movies, games. Maybe even for editing or creating. And it's spectacular at being portable.

 What's unique about the Mini? Without a doubt, it's the design. It's cute, it's discreet, and it's very, very light. It feels like a whole new device for Apple. It's light enough to hold in one hand, something that wasn't really true of the iPad if held for extended periods of time. It's bedroom-cozy. Other full-fledged 7-inch tablets feel heavier and bulging by comparison.

 This is a new standard for little-tablet design. It makes the iPad feel fresh. After a week of using the iPad Mini, it seems to find a way to follow me everywhere. It's extremely addictive, and fun to use.

But oh, that screen. It's not bad, not at all, but it's not a Retina Display. It's not even as high-res as screens on other 7-inch tablets. If you're obsessive about crisp text, you'll notice the fuzziness. If you're comparing the Mini with a laptop, you won't. I wanted that display to be as good as the one on the iPhone 5, iPod Touch, and Retina iPad. It isn't, not now. It mars the product for me, because otherwise, the screen size and its aspect ratio are perfect for handling comics, magazines, and reading apps. 

Is the iPad Mini worth its premium, at nearly $130 more than some of the competition? If you're looking to get an iPad for the least amount of money, the answer is yes. If you're investing in iOS-land for the first time, this is a very good starting point.
A Retina Display and a lower price would have made the iPad Mini perfect. The fourth-gen iPad, in contrast, is a superior device under the hood, with much faster performance and a better-quality screen. Still, for many people, the Mini will be preferable because it's less expensive and perfectly portable. For others, it'll be the second iPad -- the kid iPad, the beach iPad. I love this iPad; I'm just not sure I need to own it.
Design
Regardless of your feelings about the Mini's price, or its A5 processor and non-Retina 7.9-inch display, here's what you'll notice when you pick it up: it's really shockingly nice to hold. 

The iPad Mini is a design shift from the iPad, and perhaps the biggest one in the iPad's entire history. Despite how popular the iPad's been, it's not really a device that's very comfortable to use when you're not sitting down or at a desk. It's a use-when-you-get-there device, or use-when-comfortably-seated. An iPhone or iPod Touch is truly mobile, and the iPad is only halfway there.

 That's not the case for the Mini. The iPad Mini is an extremely easy-to-hold tablet that, despite its wider form, feels as light as a Kindle. Not a Kindle Fire, but a Kindle. At 0.28 inch thin and 0.68 pound (0.69 for the LTE versions), it's the slimmest and lightest 7-inch-range tablet around, although it has a larger footprint (7.87 inches by 5.3 inches). It's thinner than an iPhone 5, and seems proportionally as razor-thin as the new iPod Touch.

 In fact, the iPad Mini feels very much like the new Touch, even down to the curved wraparound aluminum shell and flat back. It lies down far more flatly than the fourth-gen iPad, more like a wafer. The headphone jack at the top and Lightning connector and speakers at the bottom are carved into less tapered, more curved side edges. Around the front glass is an angled aluminum bezel like on the iPhone 5.

 The white model, which I reviewed, has a standard aluminum back. The black model has a slate-colored anodized aluminum, giving it that same "stealth" look as the iPod Touch.

                                   Fourth-gen iPad, iPad Mini, iPod Touch.
The iPad Mini's extremely whittled-down side bezels are much less conspicuous than the larger iPad's bezels, which always made it resemble a MacBook screen that had floated away from its keyboard. The Mini truly feels like a large iPod Touch, which is exactly what we used to call the iPad back in 2010. It's far more apt now.

You probably won't think that, though, because the iPad Mini won't easily fit in your pocket, or even your jacket pocket. It's more of a purse, small bag, or large-coat-pocket device. It'll fit wherever you'd fit a softcover book.
The construction feels solid, stellar, fun to hold. The home button clicks crisply. It doesn't feel like a lower-priced product in your hands. It might be, in terms of form, the most addictive iOS product in existence. And it's perfectly sized for kid hands. It's far more suited for use in cars and traveling.