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Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

(www.apple.com)
264 points diwank | 5 comments | 15 Oct 24 14:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.949s | source
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metadat ◴[15 Oct 24 22:07 UTC] No.41853604[source]▶
Why is the bezel so thick? A 1-2cm bezel around the entire "mini" device seems a bit odd, given that the iPad Mini is a relatively tiny device and phones these days come with a 1-2mm bezel (10x less useless border).

Is it a cost saving measure / sneaky margin increaser, or what might be the motivation?

Edit:

Touch interference is a good idea. Still, from the picture, it looks like the bezel could be half as thick and work well. Sorry to be such a stickler, I am genuinely curious if Apple is chasing better margins, the best feasible UX, or something else.

Could it be that since this device is only $650 USD, it isn't expensive enough to warrant a premium display? (Like the iPhone SE https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/)

If so, I wish there was a fancier "Pro" model with premium components. IIRC, I paid $1000 for my first iPad, it was the first super high-resolution one back in 2012. Perhaps there aren't enough customers who are sensitive to wasted screen real estate on an 8-inch device.. and FWIW I have noticed a constant stream of toddlers pacified by iPad Minis whenever I'm at Costco.

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1. Tagbert ◴[16 Oct 24 02:23 UTC] No.41855025[source]▶
Bezels are useful for devices that you can’t just hold in the flat of your hand. Provides a place to hold on to.

Also, this is an LCD screen. The substrate is rigid. An OLED, like on the iPhone is on a flexible substrate and can be bent at the edges to connect to the circuit board. That lets you put the screen closer to the edge.

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2. FirmwareBurner ◴[16 Oct 24 08:36 UTC] No.41856878[source]▶
I have had phones and tablets with IPS displays with way thinner bezels so that argument is void.
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3. CraigJPerry ◴[16 Oct 24 09:17 UTC] No.41857097[source]▶
Only on 3 sides I think though? You still need an edge connector on one side (i think)
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4. FirmwareBurner ◴[16 Oct 24 09:18 UTC] No.41857110{3}[source]▶
Yeah, but even on the "thicker" side they're stil way thinner than the current iPad Minis.
5. maven29 ◴[16 Oct 24 10:38 UTC] No.41857562[source]▶
The technique you mention is very outdated and not used anymore. Current thin-bezel OLED panels (even on flexible substrate OLED) use a packaging technique which can be used in the exactly same way on rigid LCD panels. Folding the substrate with driver bonded is expensive, affects yields, and doesn't even get you the thinnest bezels

There are no LCD panels in recent phones that use COG packaging (chip-on-glass) for the display driver and run into the limitation you mentioned. Almost all current LCD phones will utitlize COF (chip-on-film) where the TFT array is attached to a flex-pcb which also contains the display driver.

You can achieve bezels just as thin or thinner using this technique, and Apple has used the technique you mention only once, COF is used even on flexible OLED panels.