- This thing is impressively small and light coming from an iPad 3 - it's thinner and lighter than my Kindle 4 in its case.
- This is the kind of resolution that the iPad Air needs - it's the first Retina display where the pixels are not obvious to me at a normal viewing distance. (the iPhone has a similar density, but is held closer) Slightly higher would probably be perfect, but this is mostly good enough now.
- Color looks washed out and ugly on this display. I'm not doing side-by-side comparisons with other devices here, just taken on its own and doing things like browsing my music library, it really doesn't look very good at all. People should not be trying to defend this when cheaper devices have much better displays.
- Coming from an iPad 3, the new profile of the device and the extremely thin bezel at the sides is very uncomfortable for me to hold. The mini is too wide to hold with one hand across the back, and with the bezels this small, my thumb is always covering up something on the screen. When trying to hold it one-handed at the side, rather than across the back, the edges dig into my hand. So despite being this small and light, it's still a two-handed device for me - due to the shape rather than the weight.
- Typing is uncomfortable on this device in most positions. In portrait mode, my thumbs are too close together for the split keyboard, and the "large" keyboard is too small. Landscape typing is better, but I don't find the landscape keyboards comfortable on either iPad when I'm holding it. With the keys being the size they are when the iPad is vertical, it's difficult to see which ones you have pressed - it should display the key above your thumb like the iPhone does.
- While most of Apple's apps are fine, text/UI is often too small on the mini in others. I know it seems obvious, but things which were a good size on the larger iPads can be too small here. I have found myself using this iPad horizontally most of the time, when my iPad 3 was almost always a vertical device. It's not that I have difficulty reading on it, it's just not a comfortable experience like it was on the larger iPad. I feel like apps running on the mini should have a separate UI rather than the iPad UI shrunk down.
- I'm not particularly fond of the "space gray" back. The silver back of the old iPads was better looking and won't show off scratches as easily.
I think it would have been much better if Apple had treated them as separate devices much like the iPhone has its own separate apps/UI from the iPad.
After having the Retina mini though, I'm not sure whether I want to return it for an Air now, as it's going to have the same problems with the tiny bezel and steep edges.
It's shame they didn't just make the iPad 4 lighter and faster...
