Please Help: deciding on getting iPad mini 7

[Veronica Mars]

I have been ill a lot this year and now that I’ve gotten the new iPhone 16 pro, I have been watching more YouTube and tv on it than I should.

It’s not only small but I don’t want to beat up this phone with that much use for watching lots of videos.

My thought has been to get the new iPad mini to help a little bit with some additional screen real estate and also give me another handheld device to share time with my new iPhone.

But I’m reading that the iPad is 4:3 and if I’m, say, watching one of my movies from Vudu I will get black bars when if I was watching on my iPhone I wouldn’t.

So would I really be getting any help from the slightly larger screen or would the black bars basically take any advantage away because I’m seeing a “shrunken” image on the iPad?

Thanks for any help!

[An4h0ny]

Hey! I just saw this... and I'm definitely not the world's authority on anything Apple but I did try to research this a little and it seems like there's no good workaround for this, aside from buying a device with a larger screen so that the aspect ratio is acceptably viewable. Or, you could try a Galaxy Tab.

If you want a tablet specifically for watching movies, you might be happier with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ or Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, which have 16:9 and 16:10 widescreen display aspect ratios respectively. [+]

Don't give up though. There may be some Apple Tech person around who knows some secret way to accomplish this...

Here are my sources:

• Why are there black bars when I'm watching movies on iPad? Explained
• Does the aspect ratio bother you?
• iPad Screen Ratio - Movies

[ctujackbauer]

Originally Posted by Veronica Mars

I have been ill a lot this year and now that I’ve gotten the new iPhone 16 pro, I have been watching more YouTube and tv on it than I should.

It’s not only small but I don’t want to beat up this phone with that much use for watching lots of videos.

My thought has been to get the new iPad mini to help a little bit with some additional screen real estate and also give me another handheld device to share time with my new iPhone.

But I’m reading that the iPad is 4:3 and if I’m, say, watching one of my movies from Vudu I will get black bars when if I was watching on my iPhone I wouldn’t.

So would I really be getting any help from the slightly larger screen or would the black bars basically take any advantage away because I’m seeing a “shrunken” image on the iPad?

Thanks for any help!

The larger iPad screen wouldn't help if you're viewing it in its original format because it is 4:3. You can watch it in full screen on an iPad but you won't be able to see all of the image on the sides.

Original format looks spectacular on an iPad: no screen tearing, judder, or motion blur, no luminance issues or black crush that can cause problems on even the best non-OLED televisions.

To watch it in full screen on an iPad: Do a quick unpinch to expand (opposite of pinch to zoom in) when playing the movie on the iPad to maximize it. The movie will then take up all of the viewable space.

There will still be a border/bezel, but nothing is viewable in that area. You will lose part of the sides of movie when doing this, at least on mine (10th generation iPad)