I'll take the 12 hours of bettery and light weight VS the hevyness and lower battery life of a retina display.
I also had a nexus 7 before returning it for the mini, never had a retina display before. to be honest it's not that big of a deal.
if yrou biggest gripe is the text isn;t as smooth....well...I can deal with some squares for the insanely light, portable, and great battery of this device.
people who complain about retina displays always strike me as the kind of people who obsess over black levels on thier Tv and constantly desire a "cinema room"
coming from a HP touchpad, to a nexus 7, to the mini...the mini wins on all levels. and I have been on team android since day 1, always said I would enver get an ipad/iphone VS the options android has
people faind fault in everything, this device will have it's flaws, so will the ipad, so will buying a device that is first gen and will be outdated in 9 months(or less). you have to knwo and accept that when you buy a device like this, to think otherwise is just stupid.