I'm trying to decide which one would be best for graduate school to accompany my air. I have a MBA and would like to use the iPad to store my most of my textbooks to lighten the weight of my bag.
Thanks!
I think the mini is what I'm leaning towards. Even though the text may be a little smaller than the 4, it will be less weight to add to my MBA and other books.
The Mini is simply too small to read comfortably, ...The problem with the Mini is that you will probably end up reading in landscape
That's not true - I own a mini, and I read PDFs on it every single day for my studies, some I get from JSTOR, but many are scans (some from very old books). Like you, I hate carrying books, so even if I can't get the PDF from a variety of sources, I'll check out the book from the library, bring it home and scan it so I can turn it into a PDF which I then send to my mini, because I love reading on these types of devices, and it's the main reason I bought the mini over a full sized iPad.
While the iPad4 will be a better viewing (not reading) experience, I am someone that can tell you *from personal daily experience* that the mini is very usable with PDFs - as I said it was my number one criteria when choosing the mini. I don't have to read in landscape mode (unless I'm too lazy to clip a double page scan, and then I'm reading 2 pages without zooming). For me reading on this smaller device is so much easier than my previous full sized iPad (which I did read on, and it was not bad, but this smaller form factor is much more enjoyable an experience, despite the fact its resolution is less than other devices).
That's not true - I own a mini, and I read PDFs on it every single day for my studies, some I get from JSTOR, but many are scans (some from very old books). Like you, I hate carrying books, so even if I can't get the PDF from a variety of sources, I'll check out the book from the library, bring it home and scan it so I can turn it into a PDF which I then send to my mini, because I love reading on these types of devices, and it's the main reason I bought the mini over a full sized iPad.
While the iPad4 will be a better viewing (not reading) experience, I am someone that can tell you *from personal daily experience* that the mini is very usable with PDFs - as I said it was my number one criteria when choosing the mini. I don't have to read in landscape mode (unless I'm too lazy to clip a double page scan, and then I'm reading 2 pages without zooming). For me reading on this smaller device is so much easier than my previous full sized iPad (which I did read on, and it was not bad, but this smaller form factor is much more enjoyable an experience, despite the fact its resolution is less than other devices).
...Out of curiosity, why wouldn't the iPad 4 be a better reading experience
Out of curiosity, why wouldn't the iPad 4 be a better reading experience?