iPad Mini, 4-months later
First, my initial thoughts. Let's rewind a bit to just months before the iPad mini was announced by Apple. The rumor mills were quite busy, and so were my eyes as I would instinctively roll them at every iPad Mini rumor. "What's the point? There's no need for it. And besides, not enough people want one for Apple to actually put it into production." I think Steve Jobs would have said something along the lines of:
"How do people know what they want if they've never even seen it?"
(Spoiler: turns out he was right)
Now, let's skip the part where I warm up to the idea of a "mini-market", and fast-forward to Apple's iPad Mini announcement, last October. First off, my mind was made up before the keynote was over: "I've got to have it. I 'need' it". I was filled with excitement and confusion, and my brain started to over-heat like a MacBook running Adobe Flash. "I'm not sure if the trade-off of my iPad 3 for a non-retina iPad mini is a downgrade, or the trade-off for a thinner, lighter, more portable, more comfortable iPad is worth the upgrade." (You know the drill, all the usual doubts and questions on every tech blog here on the inter-webs). Anyway, after using my brother's iPad mini more than my own (iPad 3) he began to ask why.
Well, when I first picked up the iPad mini my iPad 3 instantly became too (everything), too heavy, too big, too laptopy, much too heavy, and too much to carry around in hand (without my bag). Granted, I've always had this issue with my iPad 3 before, but now that there's an alternative, I began to almost resent my own iPad for it. The iPad mini cute. It's small enough, light enough, and has a big enough screen for me to use anywhere in place of my iPhone and 3rd generation iPad. Its size and portability places it smack dab in the middle, and to be corny, yes, it's the best of both worlds. All my iMessaging, web browsing, gaming, everything became perfect to do on my (brother's) iPad mini. It never got too tiresome to hold, never felt too big (or small), always my go-to device for everything except phone calls (of course) and camera functions. Perfect, right? But then there's the screen.
Owning all retina-equipped devices (iPhone 5, iPad 3) my eyes became accustomed to perfection, and anything less "felt like sand-paper on my pupils" in Rene's words. I would constantly notice the duller, less-dense display differences from my other retina devices (as if the mini were mine to begin with). I'm a lot like Rene, I'm a design diva and the retina display (or lack thereof) was a deal breaker and I had to wait for iPad mini 2 with retina display. But I had to have it, anyway. No, I'll wait ... - my decision to sell my iPad 3 to buy the mini constantly shifted from 'yes' to 'no' to 'I don't know'. But somehow, 4-months later, I type this message from the best iPad ever!
-Sent from my iPad... Mini.