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iPad mini I'm very impressed!

bpd115

bpd115

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 4, 2003
823
87
Pennsylvania
I had no plans on getting a mini for myself. I was getting one for my daughter for Christmas. I have had an iPad & iPad 2 and have an iPad 3. I also have an iPhone 5. I noticed today Best Buy was doing double trade in credit on all video games. I also remembered they accepted trades on old iPhones and my 4 was put to pasture. Needless to say I walked out the door with a 16 gig black mini for $160.

I use my iPad 3 heavy. I work in IT and it goes with me everywhere. I take all my meeting notes in Evernote, I'm a huge fan of Procreate and Paper.

Opening the box I was very impressed with the fit and finish. Typical Apple and thankfully no scuffs and scratches. I also never realized how heavy my iPad 3 was until I picked this thing up.

I powered it on (while the wife drove the hour or so home) and enabled tethering on my iPhone 5.

Much has been said about the screen. I won't drone on about it. It's not something that in any way ruins the device. If the iPad Retina display is a 10 this is an 8.

Going from the 64 gig to a 16 gig was something I wondered about but honestly my iPad has a ton of games and apps that I don't use that often. I loaded up some essential games, social media apps, Hulu, Netflix, photoshop touch, procreate, iMovie, iPhoto, Pages, etc. I've only used a bit over 5 gig. And I don't think I'm missing any apps I use weekly.

Performance wise this thing is on par with the iPad 3. The only place I've noticed where the 512 meg of ram may have been choking was installing multiple items from the App Store.

Procreate performed really well. I had no intentions of using it on a screen this big but it is very doable. My have to zoom a bit more but it can work. I'm checking my mailbox daily for my Pogo connect.

This is the go anywhere iPad. Perfect for keeping up with Twitter while sitting down and watching football. FaceTime with family while sitting on the couch. Reading or web surfing in bed.

As far as protection I got the gray Smart Cover which is straight forward. My iPad 3 has a hard back shell and a Glass.t screen protector. Same for my iPhone. I find myself wanting to use the Mini naked so I don't add any thickness to it. Perhaps invisible shield for the back and a RadTech sleeve.

Love this thing so far.
 
Ladybug

Ladybug

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2006
1,874
1,013
Did you end up with 2 mini's or did you borrow the daughters? :D

I fell in love with my mini too.
 
bpd115

bpd115

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 4, 2003
823
87
Pennsylvania
We will end up with 2! She's insistent on a white one. My iPad 3 is white and I love it but I really liked the look of the all black mini. We may go for a 32 gig for her. She has a ton of games and movies she'll want on there.
 
OTACORB

OTACORB

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2009
1,543
1,030
Central, Louisiana
I totally love my iPad Mini. I started with a 16GB White, but then after using it in my car and it worked so well (I had just purchased an iPod Touch 5) for this purpose. Anyway.. I decided to take the iPod Touch 5 back, along with the iPod Mini 16 and upgraded to an iPad Mini 32. Now this will be a multi-purpose device. I'll use it for music in my car and then take it with me to use through-out the day for other things.

I know the display isn't as nearly as crisp as the retina on the iPad 3 or 4. Nonetheless for my purpose I think its just fine.

It so light and thin that taking it with is just so nice. I read for a couple of hours this afternoon using the Kindle App and it being so much smaller just made it feel more like a book. I enjoyed it!

This baby is a keeper no doubt about it!
 
Domino8282

Domino8282

macrumors 6502a
Apr 22, 2010
983
196
Southeast USA
bpd115 said:
I had no plans on getting a mini for myself. I was getting one for my daughter for Christmas. I have had an iPad & iPad 2 and have an iPad 3. I also have an iPhone 5. I noticed today Best Buy was doing double trade in credit on all video games. I also remembered they accepted trades on old iPhones and my 4 was put to pasture. Needless to say I walked out the door with a 16 gig black mini for $160.

I use my iPad 3 heavy. I work in IT and it goes with me everywhere. I take all my meeting notes in Evernote, I'm a huge fan of Procreate and Paper.

Opening the box I was very impressed with the fit and finish. Typical Apple and thankfully no scuffs and scratches. I also never realized how heavy my iPad 3 was until I picked this thing up.

I powered it on (while the wife drove the hour or so home) and enabled tethering on my iPhone 5.

Much has been said about the screen. I won't drone on about it. It's not something that in any way ruins the device. If the iPad Retina display is a 10 this is an 8.

Going from the 64 gig to a 16 gig was something I wondered about but honestly my iPad has a ton of games and apps that I don't use that often. I loaded up some essential games, social media apps, Hulu, Netflix, photoshop touch, procreate, iMovie, iPhoto, Pages, etc. I've only used a bit over 5 gig. And I don't think I'm missing any apps I use weekly.

Performance wise this thing is on par with the iPad 3. The only place I've noticed where the 512 meg of ram may have been choking was installing multiple items from the App Store.

Procreate performed really well. I had no intentions of using it on a screen this big but it is very doable. My have to zoom a bit more but it can work. I'm checking my mailbox daily for my Pogo connect.

This is the go anywhere iPad. Perfect for keeping up with Twitter while sitting down and watching football. FaceTime with family while sitting on the couch. Reading or web surfing in bed.

As far as protection I got the gray Smart Cover which is straight forward. My iPad 3 has a hard back shell and a Glass.t screen protector. Same for my iPhone. I find myself wanting to use the Mini naked so I don't add any thickness to it. Perhaps invisible shield for the back and a RadTech sleeve.

Love this thing so far.
Click to expand...

Cheers nice to see a thread like this. Been thoroughly enjoying my wife's while waiting for my LTE model to ship, and I agree, for my eyes the display is fine. Not sure how suddenly in the past 2 years everyone's eyes have become hypersensitive to pixelation to the point that it makes their eyes sore, but oh well. At least I'll enjoy mine and maybe all the whining at least serves the purpose of forcing manufacturers to continue pushing the limits of what's possible.

That Pogo Connect is really intriguing. I like the idea of a Bluetooth stylus so that apps can ignore your hand resting on the screen while you write or draw. The only thing that worried me looking at their website was the Connect looked a little large. I've never been fond of fat (or heavy) writing utensils so not sure if I'd like it. But maybe the pics are deceiving. Love the concept.
 
bpd115

bpd115

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 4, 2003
823
87
Pennsylvania
Yes I love the idea of the connect. But I too was a bit worried about the size. I guess in part it is because they use a standard battery in it. Right now I use a cheap Targus stylus and its a perfect size. There is also the Jot Touch but it functionality wise I don't think it has the same bells and whistles of the pogo connect due to Bluetooth 4 support. I'll be sure to post my thoughts once it comes in.
 
V

viperdriver5150

macrumors newbie
Oct 13, 2008
8
0
Loving the Mini

Just thought I would chime in also. The mini is just wonderful for me, the size and weight are just perfect. As for the screen, it doesn't bother me one bit.

The main reason I bought the mini was to have a functional remote for my home theater but I have not picked up my ipad 3 since getting the mini on Friday. Can't say enough good things about it. Looking forward to the next version.
 
S

sammjordan

macrumors regular
Sep 23, 2009
144
44
Thanks for your post bpd, I've been looking for a review like yours which talks about using the mini for work as well as play. Are you finding it easy to use for word processing? I bought a mini Friday to compare to my iPad 2. I'm leaning towards keeping the mini and selling the 2, but need to see how it fits in at work and whether or not typing a word doc is easily done.
 
L

Lampmeister

macrumors member
Mar 30, 2009
65
0
Fort Worth
What kind of crazy thread is this...no complaining? Good to hear from satisfied buyers. My wife is going to have one under the tree this Xmas!
 
bpd115

bpd115

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 4, 2003
823
87
Pennsylvania
It is a tad more cramped when typing in landscape but it is surprisingly efficient. I'm typing this on it now and where I would hover my fingers above the home row on the full size iPad, I find myself turning my hands more at a a natural angle and just trusting the keyboard. The portability of this thing as just a pickup and go device is fantastic.
 
J

james92se

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2010
818
27
Dallas, TX
I agree. I love my iPad Mini.

Actually, I find the comments like "the screen is okay", or "the screen is fine, doesn't bother me" etc to somewhat diminish the screen. I think the screen actually looks good. Truly, honestly it wouldn't even occur to me to critique the screen or even think twice about it for that matter if not for all the (incredibly overblown) hysteria on the interwebz.

The screen looks MARKEDLY better than my original iPad screen and even side by side with my iPhone 5 the 5 doesn't put it to shame or anything.

Even in iBooks text looks perfectly good. Truly the only scenario in which the non-retina is even noticeable or even remotely an issue is on non-mobile version forum main pages where there are a ton of subforums (for example on the Macrumors main forum page). Everything is still perfectly readable though.

Seriously most people are wayyyyy overexaggerating.
 
S

sammjordan

macrumors regular
Sep 23, 2009
144
44
Lampmeister said:
What kind of crazy thread is this...no complaining? Good to hear from satisfied buyers. My wife is going to have one under the tree this Xmas!
Click to expand...

Consumers happy and content with a product, what a concept! ;)

bpd115 said:
It is a tad more cramped when typing in landscape but it is surprisingly efficient. I'm typing this on it now and where I would hover my fingers above the home row on the full size iPad, I find myself turning my hands more at a a natural angle and just trusting the keyboard. The portability of this thing as just a pickup and go device is fantastic.
Click to expand...

That's good to hear. I've been trying to do more typing on the mini since Friday. The first day I struggled in landscape (portrait was obviously a breeze), but since then I've adjusted pretty well and I'm going about as fast as I was on the 2. We'll see how things go as the week progresses, but so far I'm leaning towards keeping the mini and selling the 2. I gotta say, I really love the form factor for using apps like flipboard and iBooks, feels absolutely natural!

james92se said:
I agree. I love my iPad Mini.

Actually, I find the comments like "the screen is okay", or "the screen is fine, doesn't bother me" etc to somewhat diminish the screen. I think the screen actually looks good. Truly, honestly it wouldn't even occur to me to critique the screen or even think twice about it for that matter if not for all the (incredibly overblown) hysteria on the interwebz.

The screen looks MARKEDLY better than my original iPad screen and even side by side with my iPhone 5 the 5 doesn't put it to shame or anything.

Even in iBooks text looks perfectly good. Truly the only scenario in which the non-retina is even noticeable or even remotely an issue is on non-mobile version forum main pages where there are a ton of subforums (for example on the Macrumors main forum page). Everything is still perfectly readable though.

Seriously most people are wayyyyy overexaggerating.
Click to expand...

^this. The screen is nice. Colors are good, it's bright, and in actual usage there's not a HUGE difference between the iPad retina and this screen. The reports of the screen causing people's eyes to hurt because the resolution is low are completely overblown..the one criticism that could be levied is that fonts can be a little small if your eyesight isn't great (there may be some settings you can mess with in Accessibility to combat this?)
 
C

CTHarrryH

macrumors 68030
Jul 4, 2012
2,935
1,431
I wasn't going to get one and then went out Friday am and bought one. So far I think it is great - not perfect but glad I got.
This is my first tablet I'm surprised at the missing standard apps like calculator and stocks. I'm sure I can get with $ or ads I've spent no time with retina so I don't miss it. Screen is ok with me but non mobile version of web sites are a little blurry unless enlarged a bit. Reading via iBooks seems fine to me.
I seem to have more issues with this keyboard than on my iPhone 4S I like size and weight. Battery life seems fine.

Biggest issue for me is that it won't charge off USB on my computers. I get not charging message

I'm glad I bought. I haven't taken laptop out today which as a test for me.
 
token787

token787

macrumors regular
Jun 30, 2012
239
5
I wasn't going to buy either until maybe months in but I had to go to Apple and take a look and I was very impressed with both the iPad mini and the Ipad 4. I really didn't want another 7 inch tablet but looking at the mini that thought went out the door fast. I think the mini is so cute but I gave in to the 4. I'm impressed with both stocks and I am glad I went and stopped in to sample both for myself.
 
Dick Whitman

Dick Whitman

macrumors 6502
Oct 16, 2012
467
145
sammjordan said:
Consumers happy and content with a product, what a concept! ;)



That's good to hear. I've been trying to do more typing on the mini since Friday. The first day I struggled in landscape (portrait was obviously a breeze), but since then I've adjusted pretty well and I'm going about as fast as I was on the 2. We'll see how things go as the week progresses, but so far I'm leaning towards keeping the mini and selling the 2. I gotta say, I really love the form factor for using apps like flipboard and iBooks, feels absolutely natural!



^this. The screen is nice. Colors are good, it's bright, and in actual usage there's not a HUGE difference between the iPad retina and this screen. The reports of the screen causing people's eyes to hurt because the resolution is low are completely overblown..the one criticism that could be levied is that fonts can be a little small if your eyesight isn't great (there may be some settings you can mess with in Accessibility to combat this?)
Click to expand...

Could not agree more. I was pleasantly surprised, upon seeing one in person, to see that the negative claims about the screen were completely overblown!
 
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