Impressions of the iPad mini
Boy do I feel like a kid on Christmas right now. I just got my hands on a new iPad mini and I am impressed. I was never big on the iPad when I worked in retail. I could see why people liked the iPad, but it really just wasn’t for me. The iPad mini, on the other hand, let’s just say it is going to take a lot of willpower for me to not get one.
When holding the iPad mini, you notice right away how much lighter it is compared to its big brother. Where some might get some muscle fatigue holding the iPad Retina in one hand, the iPad mini seems light enough to be held indefinitely — that’s right, I don’t want to put it down.
Speaking of the iPad mini and your hand, I was in disbelief that this would fit so perfectly in one hand. I swore up and down that it was some giant holding the iPad mini in all the Apple pictures. To my surprise, the pictures were completely accurate. This thing fits nicely in one hand, making the browsing of websites, reading books and looking at anything in a vertical orientation a sublime user experience.
When it comes to performance, the lil’ guy worked just as expected. There wasn’t anything it couldn’t handle. Granted, I wasn’t pushing it to its limits, but rather getting a feel of how it would perform using my own commonly used apps — which range from games to watching movies.
As for the display, I know the numbers and its resolution is the same as the iPad 2 but I couldn’t shake this feeling that the iPad mini looked better. I watched the same Iron Man 3 trailer on an iPad mini and an iPad 2 at the same time and I preferred watching it on the iPad mini. I will say that I want to use one hand to hold the iPad mini horizontally but alas, my wrist just wouldn’t bend in the way I wanted it to.
The final ringer I put the iPad mini through was a typing test. I simply typed out my thoughts in Notes in a vertical orientation mainly using my thumbs and then tried it out in a horizontal orientation. I did prefer typing horizontally, and to my surprise, my fingers didn’t feel cramped like they usually do when I use a non-standard sized keyboard.
My final impression is one of surprise. Since I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original iPad, my first thoughts of an iPad mini were ones of loathing — why would Apple try to sell a shrunken version of something I already didn’t want? Now that I have put the iPad mini in my hands, I am a firm believer that if the iPad wasn’t for you that the iPad mini very well could be.
In any case, I highly recommend stopping by any of our retail locations so you can take a look at one in person. You might just become a believer like I did!