Lookalikes for the iPad Mini from Chuwi, Cube and Ployer Compared

Richard Fieldhouse (14 October 2013)

Looking for something that's similar to the Apple iPad Mini? Maybe you're liking the size of the original, but you're not so keen on the price.  Or you're getting one of The Apple original fondleslabs for yourself, and you'd like something to keep the kids quiet. Well, there's a surprisingly wide choice of tablets to think about, and most of them are reasonably specced. We've prepared a table below for you to compare things. You'll probably conclude the biggest difference between the iPad and the clones is the price.

As a bonus, quite a few of the lookalikes have pretty much the same dimensions with the slimmer bezels along the longer sides. This will give you a chance to use the cases designed for the Apple version.  Of course, the chances are that the little access cut-outs for the power and volume switches, and the camera lens and so on won't line up, but that's now quite the end of the world.

Also on the plus side, the are a couple of features that the clones have while the actual iPad does not, like the slot for a memory extension card...

And the biggest difference - that's probably the software. IOS which is the platform that runs on the iPad is quite different from the Android environment that all the clones will use. If you're keen to pretend that your clone actually is an iPad, there are special skins or launchers available for Android to make it look like iOS. To be honest I don't think I'd bother with this last step. It's likely to make things a bit confusing...