"Small is Beautiful," a concept made popular in the earl 1970s is still relevant today. Users feel that a big and bulky tablet is not convenient to carry everywhere. Many of the manufacturers have launched tablets with 7 to 8 inch screens to cater to this need of the consumers. Both the iPad mini and the Nexus 7 fall in this category. It is a difficult choice for many consumers to choose between the two.

The iPad mini comes with a slightly larger 7.9 inch screen where as Nexus 7 comes with a 7 inch screen. The nexus compensates for this by providing a 1920 x 1200 resolution and the mini on the other hand comes with 1027 x 768 resolution.

In terms of memory and storage the Nexus comes in 8GB or 16GB storage where as the mini comes in 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage. The mini however comes with less RAM compared to the Nexus. The mini packs a 512 MB RAM and nexus packs a 1GB RAM.

Both the devices work on different operating systems. The iPad mini works on iOS 6 where as the Nexus 7 works on Android 4.1 Jelly bean.

In terms of computing power the nexus comes with a powerful Quad core 1.2 GHz Cortex - A9 processor where as the iPad mini comes with a Dual core 1 GHz Cortex A9 processor.

Both the devices have a "voice typing" feature however the user has to be online in order make use of the feature in the mini. The feature can be used even when offline in the Nexus, thus making it arguably faster.

Both the devices have voice control. The mini has the smart assistant "Siri" and the Nexus has the "Google now." Both the features have their respective strengths and weaknesses with some users preferring one over the other based on their experience and needs.

In terms of camera the Nexus packs a 1.2 MP camera with no secondary camera. The mini on the other hand packs a 5 MP primary camera and a 1.2 MP secondary camera.

Over all it still depends on the needs of the user while selecting a mini tab. Both the iPad mini and the Nexus 7 are among the best in the category. Both the devices come with a wide array of apps for the benefit of the users. A recently launched app for the iOS devices lets the users control their PC or MAC from miles away.