I managed to install iOS 7 on my iPad mini over the course of last night. Some initial thoughts on the experience so far :
- It’s a pretty large download at around 750 MB OTA.
- Lot of greetings in different languages once the device reboots & the setup begins.
- It is evident that iOS 7 is designed for Retina displays from the setup screen itself with the jagged fonts & display elements, and definitely increases the chances of a Retina iPad mini release this year as some reviewers have noted.
- The notifications finally make use of the larger display of the iPads.
- Quite a lot of animations, and it really taxes the hardware resulting in some choppiness at times. Seems to happen the most on the revamped task manager. This is bound to be a lot worse in the iPhone 4, which has the most dated hardware of the devices getting this update, and it’s pretty clear why Apple left out many features on the iPhone 4. I doubt the iPhone 4S will fare much better than the iPad mini or iPad 2 for that matter, as it has a higher resolution screen than either coupled with slower hardware.
- Speaking of the task manager, it is totally revamped, and totally resembles the Windows Phone task manager including a card for the home screen (which in turn was inspired by WebOS). The multi-finger gesture (4 finger+ upward swipe) to launch the task manager is still the same, but feels odd as the feature is full screen now.
- Flickr & Vimeo are now first class citizens of iOS, just like Facebook & Twitter.
- iPhone apps look a lot better now as they use the Retina assets and run only in the 2x mode. Definitely a big improvement on the looks front.
- Folders seem to have no app limits anymore and open up full screen. However they show only 9 apps at a time, which results in a lot of wasted space. Should’ve been 16 IMO.
- Auto app updates are finally here, but haven’t seen it in action yet due to the App Store behaving wonky at times possibly due to the load from the iOS 7 release – app updates seem to show up and disappear periodically.
- The title bar clock now has am\pm in small letters, and can change its colour depending on the app. E.g. Facebook makes it blue
Below are a few screenshots of the iOS 7 on my iPad mini.
AB's Reflections 