I admit it. I bought into all the un-hype about a lack of retina. Even felt the same when I saw it at an Apple store. But I finally brought one home today and I have to say, this is exactly what I've been looking for in a tablet. The lack of a retina is not an issue at all, even as an owner of every single retina iOS device that Apple's put out. Text is noticeably less crisp than a retina, but still absolutely fine for reading. I do have to zoom in in web pages, but I had to do that in my retina iPad anyway. No big deal.
All in all, an excellent device and at a much more palatable price than its big brother.
Very cool, thanks for the post! Before this device was launched I was determined that if it came out with the resolution which it has, I'd end up buying one of the higher resolution Android tablets. After seeing it at launch, I was impressed with the whole package, the beauty of the device, the thinness of it, the form factor, and when I saw the screen I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it is, so I bought one. Using it every day, it's even better, especially because all those iPad apps out there just work on this device, and that is a huge benefit to mini owners. All my old iPad apps just loaded up and worked beautifully.
While the screen isn't as good as it can be, and hopefully will be some day (did you read
Anandtech's review?), I think this device is more than just its screen and resolution, it's the whole package and I think it does 'the whole package' very well.