Apple's rumored iPad mini with a 7.85-inch screen will look more like an iPhone than its larger-sized sibling iPad, according to various reports.
Among them, website 9to5 Mac says that of the "number of tips" it has received from sources over the last few weeks is that the iPad mini "will 'look like a big iPod touch' with smaller bezels along the sides in portrait mode and separate volume buttons and not a 'rocker' and a mic on the back."
The iPad has a 9.7-inch display, and it's 9.5 inches high by 7.31 inches wide. The iPhone 4S has a 3.5-inch screen, and is 4.5 inches high and 2.31 inches wide. It makes sense, on the face of it, that a smaller iPad would be somewhere inbetween the two popular Apple devices. 9to5 Mac also shares "various Pad mini images and mockups we have obtained to date."
The next-generation iPhone is expected to be announced Sept. 12 by Apple; many think that the mini iPad will also be unveiled that day as well.
John Gruber, whose Daring Fireball blog rarely misses the mark when it comes to all things Apple, writes that he's not so sure that the mini will be more like a big iPhone.
Apple product designs are true to themselves. Each thing has proportions suited to its own nature. Consider how the iPad doesn’t look like a blown up iPhone. They share a few similar design elements — a family resemblance, if you will — but the proportions are different. The iPad has a thick bezel surrounding all four sides of the display; the iPhone does not. Why? Because you need a place to rest your thumbs while holding an iPad.Now, I expect the iPad Mini will bear more resemblance to a full-size iPad than it will to an iPhone or iPod Touch. For one thing, it’s closer in size to the iPad-as-we-know it, and for another, all credible reports (along with several of my own little birdies) point to the smaller iPad keeping the 4:3 display aspect ratio.
Still, he writes, "But if you shrink the device enough, and reduce the weight enough, would such a device still need a bezel surrounding the display of the same proportions as the iPad-as-we-know-it? Maybe not."
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