Snippet: A Month with the iPad mini ☇

Andrew Kim at Minimally Minimal reviews the iPad mini and includes some excellent photos comparing it with its predecessors. It’s especially jarring to see the iPad mini of today with the original iPad of about three years ago:

To really appreciate what the iPad is doing, it’s worth remembering what the iPad used to be. The mini gives me the same feeling that I get when I hold a beautifully engineered Japanese pen with a tiny diameter. It’s a product that has been reduced to its essence and concentrated to an extract. The iPad mini won’t be the right choice for everyone. It’s like a Moleskine or a paperback novel, where the larger iPad is like a magazine. If you watch movies or do a lot of photo work on the iPad, the 9.7” display will be better for you. When the mini first came out, I was skeptical. But after a month of use, I haven’t felt the need to pick up my Retina iPad once. In fact, I’ve given it to my mother.

I’m going to continue using my third-generation iPad for the foreseeable future, but when the time comes to upgrade, I’ll be seriously considering its smaller sibling. The biggest qualifier, like many other tech folks is when it will have a Retina Display.