Apple iPad Mini vs Google Pixel Fold

This is not a comparison that is usually made. The two are very different devices, but there is one thing common amongst both these devices, that being, both devices are tablets. The beauty of the Google Pixel Fold is that it unfolds into a mini tablet size.

I have been using the Pixel Fold daily since September 2023. My mum was having some issues with her iPad Mini 6 (latest generation released in September 2021), so she asked me to have a look. An opportunity to compare the two presented itself. To entertain my curiosity, I spent some time with both devices. It's one thing to read the specs or watch video comparisons. It's completely different when actually holding both devices and using it for different things.

Physical differences

Layered

iPad Mini in red and Pixel Fold in blue. Source

Relevant specs:

iPad Mini: 195.4 x 134.8 x 6.3 mm | 297 g

Pixel Fold: 139.7 x 158.7 x 5.8 mm | 283 g

The key differences:

iPad Mini has IPS display and the Pixel Fold has an OLED Display.
iPad Mini only has a 60Hz displayed while the Pixel Fold has and 120Hz display.
Price: iPad Mini 6 with cellular and 256gb storage cost AUD1329 and Pixel Fold AUD2500

From my perspective, the price difference is a significant deal breaker. However, let's say, you are carrying an iPhone 15 Pro and an iPad Mini 6. Depending on your use case, the Pixel Fold can replace both these devices and from that perspective, the Pixel Fold price is rather attractive. The added benefit other than cost savings is now you only have one device to manage, one device to charge, etc. The downside is the battery life. Pure physics, two batteries will always last longer than one..

Day to Day activities

The focus of this post is to compare the activities one can do on a tablet.

Home screens: Observe how different the two home screens are. This is thanks to the flexibility Android offers.

iPad Mini on top and Pixel Fold on the bottom

Browsing: Feedbin is one of my most used services and The Verge is a website that I visit often. As is obvious, there isn't much difference between the two. The Pixel Fold appears to provide a better presentation, especially on The Verge website. The other point in favour of the Pixel Fold is that, because of its aspect ratio, content feels closer and more immersive.

Feedbin on the left and The Verge on the right.

Apple Music: figured this will be an interesting comparison because the Apple Music app is a mainstream app that is available both on Android and iPadOS. It term of what we can see, there isn't any distinct benefit of the bigger iPad Mini display compared to the Pixel Fold. The placement of the "now playing" screen is interesting. On the Pixel Fold, it occupies half the display when one clicks on it to see the cover art or the lyrics. On the iPad Mini it opens in the middle. I prefer the Pixel Fold placement because I can still clearly see the songs on the playlist. It's not a vast difference. From a design perspective, they are both good and the android version does not feel any inferior.