11/14/13 15:09
I just got my new iPad Mini with Retina Display (what a mouthful!). Here are my initial thoughts.
The box simply says “iPad Mini". When I was walking out of the store, I almost stopped and went back because I thought I had picked up the older model by mistake. I had to check the fine print on the back to confirm that it was the one with a retina display.
BTW, the box itself is about 40% larger than it needs to be. It's mostly empty space.
The initial setup wizard is getting longer and longer. I swear, there's an extra 2 screens every time I set up a new device. Apple will have to figure out a way to limit this.
Picking it up confirmed to me that I had made the right decision to
return the iPad Air in favor of the smaller Mini. It truly feels like a mobile device.
While waiting in the Apple store, I played around with the iPad Air for a few more minutes. It's true, the Mini is literally just a scaled down version of the Air. When I started using it, my mental model instantly resets to the smaller size. The “regular” sized iPad now feels large.
So how's the screen? Pretty much as you would expect by now. It’s awesome, but at the same time I'm grown so accustomed to retina screens that it just feels “right”. I imagine going back to the non-retina screen will be a big shock, yeah as if that's going to happen.
No question, it's great to read text on this screen. It's smaller, so you'll subconsciously hold the Mini closer to your eyes. If you look at the same page side-by-side with a larger iPad it's startling how much smaller the text is.
While it's a bit early to tell, my gut feeling is that you will very quickly forget that you are using a Mini. It's the same iPad experience.
This is even closer than say the difference between a 13" and 15" laptop. Since the pixel count is identical, and Apps behave exactly the same on both devices, there are extremely few places where you will be conscious of the difference.
One area might be typing. That's something I hope to get a better sense about. However, most people don't type much even on the larger iPad, so I don't think this is a real issue.
As reported by others, it actually feels
more natural to type with your thumbs in portrait mode on a Mini vs. the 10" iPad.
I also paired the new Mini with a Logitech Ultra-thin keyboard. The keyboard is designed for the original Mini, but works fine with the new one. The Mini sits at a fairly steep angle in the groove though, so it's not ideal. I’m not sure if this is a design issue, or caused by the slightly different dimensions. Still, the keyboard is functional. Notably, the combined weight of Mini + Keyboard feels
slightly less than my iPad 3 + Smart Cover.
I bought this keyboard to explore mobile scenarios more. How much can a Mini (with and without a keyboard accessory) serve as a laptop replacement? Right now I'm feeling pretty optimistic about its chances.
The other big upgrade for me (coming from an iPad 3), is the processor upgrade. The A7 is supposed to be 5x faster than the original Mini, so probably about 3-4x faster than the A5X in the iPad 3.
This sounds like it should be an astronomical difference, but in my limited use so far I was hard pressed to notice this. Sure, Apps load faster, but they didn't exactly load slowly before.
My take is that the software is the current bottleneck with the A7. E.g., the subtle transition effects which are meant to mask slower processors are actually what's holding things up now. Also, most Apps are bottlenecked by the network anyway. We'll only see what the A7 is truly capable of once we see a new generation of Apps emerge.
The new iPad Mini is the culmination of 3.5 years of relentless refinements since the original iPad. It has all of Apple's best technologies (ok, sans TouchID and the 5S camera) crammed into a tiny package.
So should you buy one?
It depends. If you don't already own an iPad, and would mainly use one at home, I would suggest getting an iPad Air first. If you already have an iPad 3 or newer, then the iPad Mini is a perfect second iPad. Also, if you are mainly on the go, then the iPad Mini would be a better choice overall.
In any case, I predict that both models will sell like hotcakes this holiday season. So if you want one, better get your order in soon.
Related: Tech.