“Back in October, Apple introduced the iPad mini. We posted our iPad mini review, of course, and you told us how you felt about it in our iPad mini forums. But that was first blush,” Rene Ritchie writes for iMore. “That was the romance and judgement of something new. It’s been 4 months now. It’s been a third of a year with a smaller, lighter form factor, and a non-Retina display. So it’s time for a checkpoint.”
“How has the iPad mini held up? If we dismissed it before, has it grown on us?” Ritchie writes. “If we embraced it, have we fallen out of love? How are we using, or not using, the iPad mini now, some 4 months later?”
“When Apple announced the iPad mini, I thought the lack of Retina display would be a deal-breaker for me. I’m a design diva and I was sure 132ppi would be like sandpaper on my pupils,’ Ritchie writes. “During the course of my initial iPad mini review, however, I found out I was wrong. Most of the time, after a few moments, I didn’t even notice the lack of Retina. Aside from small text, I grew to barely notice it at all. I was too busy doing stuff.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
There are seven people in my household, each with an iPad, three of which are Minis.
Everyone is quite happy with their devices, so I think the Minis are doing just fine.
Being an IT professional I love the iPad mini as I have to constantly carry it will me and it is so much easeir than a full size iPad. To be honest I havent touched my iPad, iPad 2, or iPad 3, and am glad I didnt purchase the iPad 4. I have no problem connecting to remote servers or creating and editing Word and Excel documents.
4 months later I still don’t have one ….
Your inputs might be pertinent if it was accompanied by a reason. Do you currently own a full-sized iPad and unable to justify purchasing a mini? Are you insolvent? Are you a cheapskate? Or have you actually tried an iPad mini and decided that it was not right for you. The “why” matters.
sorry, i must have missed your review?
It is my go to iPad by default. I rarely touch my ipad3 anymore, the mini is just so versatile.
DPI is 163, not 132.
My iPad 4 with retina display has pretty much pushed my MacBook Pro to the corner. It’s a little chunky so I’m thinking my road warrior machine will be a next gen mini.
To my way of thinking, it’s not an either/or thing when it comes to choosing an iPad. Rather, it’s like choosing the right club from your golf bag depending on lie. That’s why I’ll have both.
The Mini sucks. Mine sits in my drawer. I simply cannot use non-Retina screens. The Mini screen is brutal.
Ship it to me then..
no, to me please!
How much do you want for it? It isn’t doing any good sitting in your drawer and, if you sell it, you don’t have to complain about it anymore.
Just look at the screen in the article’s first picture alone. What the hell does anyone have to complain about?
I absolutely love my mini. It tucks neatly into my purse, so that frees up a hand/arm when I am lugging all my gear. In fact, I found that I was always reaching for my mini, so I passed my iPad 2 on to my daughter and have never missed it. I love that my mini is so much lighter and that I can hold it in one hand. That makes it great for reading in bed or while taking your lunch break. LOVE IT!
When iPad2 came out, my boyfriend and I got one and since then we have been sharing it. After almost 2 years we are still very happy with it, but I must say that I use to complain mostly about its weight specially whe reading ebooks.
The first time i held an iPad mini and realized how light it is, i thought that it’s time to ge my own one… and it will be a mini. The size and weight i exactly what i now expect for reading ebooks!
Retina is so over rated.
Retina is not over-rated if your eyeballs have seen a lot of years. I find it invaluable on my iPhone. While other family members are more than pleased with the first generation iPad Mini, I’ll wait for the second.
I prefer the retina display and the larger surface area of the onscreen keyboard of the full-sized iPad. But I think the Mini is a great idea for folks with a purse or large enough coat pockets. Personally I find the onscreen targets too small regardless of pixel density.
I might pick one up when the specs improve because it would awesome for reading e-books and games that rely on the gyroscope.
Had one for 5 weeks now. Great for portability and the screen is fine for photos etc. but (as SJ suggested early on) I find it short on finger space / real estate when you want to type or interact with complex web pages.
My mini is great. I seldom use my new MBP.
iPad 3 is parked now. Tablet usage now is totally iPad mini. Most versatile go to machine is 11″ 2012 MB Air which is awesome and preferred to iPad 3. I travel light now; MB Air and iPad mini. Very very happy. However, I lust after the retina displays for both. Then I will be very very very happy
Derek Currie : Tell us how you like your iPad mini.
Mini adoption among my co-workers is through the roof. Showed up at a client meeting today, and 3 of 5 of us were toting minis
the iPad mini can’t do anything that the iPad 2 can’t. why downgrade?
the mini merely serves as cheap entry-level product to match what Amazon is pushing. Sure is a lot of people who can’t justify the real thing, or parents who don’t want to give their hand-me-down iPad to their kids and pick up the latest retina display. whatever. Enjoy squinting, kids.
My wife was blah about my ipad 1 and ipad 3, but LOVES her mini. The killer feature is the weight. It’s so incredibly light. For some reason that makes it so much more approachable and usable for her.
She doesn’t care about the non-retina screen. With my 50-year-old eyes, I’ll stick with the retina display on my ipad 3.
Dmitri,
Help me understand something. If your eyes are old and suck like mine, what difference does a retina display make? Sharper text doesn’t look any clearer to me. It could be as bad as an old iPaq and would be satisfactory without my glasses. I just watched the Avengers on an iPod touch from before the camera was added and it looked fine. I love the idea of retina, but I’m really not sold on the necessity.
My wife has a mini and I have a 3. Though I love the weight and thinness of the mini, I need retina and the screen real estate. A new lighter, thinner full sized iPad will be purchased day one.
I got the iPad mini on day one and upgraded my iPad 3 to an iPad 4 one day one as well.
I much prefer the iPad mini. It’s my favorite iPad so far. Retina would be nice when the technology is right for it. I don’t expect it any time soon on the mini.
More so, I’d like to see the next mini receive a RAM upgrade (at least double) and storage options up to 128GB.
To all the mini lovers, good for you. Personally, I’m sticking with my iPad2 and when it does get replaced it will be with a full sized 128 model. The Apple world is big enough for us all.
I was excited when the iPad mini came out, until I saw the specs and actually handled one. I had the iPad 3, and upgraded to the 4. When they upgrade the processor and screen on the mini, I will revise my thoughts about it. I am more than happy with my iPad 4. I love the extra screen real estate and retina resolution. If they make the iPad 5 in the new form factor that resembles the mini, I will most likely opt for that….no matter what they do to the mini.