All iPads iPad Mini or iPad 3 refurbished?

What would you be using it for? I suggest you go to the store and try out the mini and the 4th gen and see which size you like better.

By the way, there's nothing wrong with refurbished products. Apple tests them and makes sure they function and perform properly before sending them out to stores/people. I do t know why people are so hung up on this notion that refurb are so bad.

There are quite a few threads on the ipad mini vs ipad 3 debate, you should check them out. from what i've seen on the forums and other tech websites there isnt a clear consensus about which is better, 50% prefer one and 50% the other. Its really down to your own personal choice.

I'm a current 3 owner and my mini just arrived the other day, currently in the process of deciding which one to keep.

The 3 has better display for sure, but is much bigger and heavier. The Mini is sort of the opposite, its much easier to hold in one hand but the screen isn't as good and if your eyesight isn't great some things may be too small. These things aside their performance is pretty much identical.

What did you intend to use if for? Personally i've found them to both be better at different things. The Minis smaller weight/size seems to make gaming easier but if you read a lot of larger websites with complex formatting and tiny text a bigger screen does help significantly.

Strictly for price, I would get the 3. Walmart was selling 16gb for $399 for the holidays so you would be getting 32gb at a very good price. What is the policy for returning a refurbished device?

As the previous post suggests go to an Apple Store, or any other store that sells both the iPad and iPad mini and try them put. A lot of it depends on what you plan to use it for and how.

Personally, I have both an iPad 3 (16GB) and an iPad mini (64GB) and I find that I am using the iPad mini 10 times more than I did the iPad 3. It's not the newness factor anymore in that I have had my iPad mini now almost 2 full months. What is the major facto for me is the weight. The iPad 3 is a lot heavier than the iPad mini and weighs down my backpack a lot more than the iPad mini. The iPad mini is a lot lighter and easier to hold. Because of this I do find that I am taking the iPad mini with me to more places than I did with just the iPad 3. I also find that in many things the iPad mini is faster than the iPad 3 and has a better battery life as well.

On the other side, the iPad 3 does have a retina display and depending what you will use it for might help in your decision. Although the iPad mini display is not a retina display, the difference in size and weight trump the fact that it is not retina. The mini's display is the same as that as the iPad 2, but the pixels are compacted more and thus provides an even better looking screen than the iPad 1 or 2. For my uses, the iPad mini's screen resolution is absolutely fine and I do not miss the retina at all.

If size and weight are factors that are important then go with the mini.
If the retina display is important, then go with the iPad 3.

AppleRobert said:

Strictly for price, I would get the 3. Walmart was selling 16gb for $399 for the holidays so you would be getting 32gb at a very good price. What is the policy for returning a refurbished device?

Click to expand...

30 days. A year of Apple Care.

Personally, I've found it depends on how you use an ipad. Most of time, combined with smartcover, it's (ipad 3)propped in my lap or a table. I don't actually hold the device like an iphone 90% of the time. So the extra weight isn't really noticeable. Plus you have use of both hands to interact with screen.

The Mini, you sort of want to hold as you would an iphone. It needs to be closer and it's thin and light enough to do so. This means tying up one hand (or both) holding the device with just thumbs available. It's a different way of using an ipad altogether IMO. Even then, I found i was propping the device using my lap after a time if reading.

So after trying the Mini and ignoring retina arguments, I just found I tend to use an ipad the way I use an ipad 3. I noticed my 6 yr old getting tired of holding the Mini and just laying it in her lap. May as well get the bigger one is what we decided.

Gave my wife the same choice for the Holidays. Was not sure which she would want, so I purchased both. She wound up going with the 3...

giraffeboy27 said:

Hi, thanks for all the responses.

I'd be using it mainly for pages, iphoto and web browsing, as well as ibooks. I might take it to college sometimes. I've tried out both iPads in stores, and whilst the ipad mini resolution doesn't bother me, the colour saturation does. I'm leaning towards the iPad 3 because, for £20 extra, i get a retina display and more ram. However the weight problem worries me a bit, what's your experience with it?

Click to expand...

Yeah the colour is good thing to bring up. Most who try the Mini out and dont like it simply point out "its not Retina" without being able to articulate their issue with it. In reality it doesn't show anywhere near as much of full RGB as the retina iPads do. If you have a look at Anandtechs in depth reviews they really go into the screens specs for each they are defiantly worth a look.

It sounds like you're mainly going to be using it at home and only sometimes at college? If so, do you really need the lightened weight/size of a Mini? I'd hardly say the iPad 3 was unusably heavy, 99% of people (including yours truly) didn't appear to have an issue with that until they tried out a Mini.

The way i look at it you have 3 choices:
1: Prioritise portability = go Mini
2: Prioritise the screen = go iPad 3
3: Hold out for the current iPad 5 rumours (Q1 2013 release, thinner, lighter, iPad Mini like form factor)

If you're using the 3's RAM as a factor i did hear somewhere the extra RAM is mainly used to power the massive screen resolution, so makes little difference when running multiple/large apps. worth looking into further

I have both the Ipad 3 and Ipad Mini. Purchased the Ipad 3 in May 2012 and Ipad Mini in Nov 2012. I would have to say that I prefer the Ipad 3 over the Mini simply because of the bigger screen size making reading much easier. Like the Mini for its portability but if I read for an extended period of time, it gets a bit uncomfortable.