The competitors have higher resolution displays than the iPad mini, but probably not what Apple would call "retina" - the Nexus 7 has 216 ppi, which is less than the iPad's 264 ppi, and significantly less than the 326 ppi that a pixel-doubled iPad mini would end up with - which, considering the niceness of the iPhone at the same DPI, is probably worth it.
What's the point ? After about 300 PPI you're not going to tell any difference. Just puts a strain on the battery, GPU, and CPU. Looks great on the spec sheet, but then I guess that is the primary point rather than how it actually performs.
Always good to see you comex :D. I agree it's not really officially "retina", which going off of Linus Torvald's words, is really overused. But still, I've also become very accustomed to looking at a retina display and downgrading to a resolution even less than that of Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD is a bit disappointing. I do really love the weight of it and feel of it, but nowadays the screen is a huge factor.
