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All iPads Upgrading my original mini: Air 2 vs Mini 3!
- Thread starter JerTheGeek
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I have an Air and a Mini retina (Mini 2). I should probably get rid of one of the other but they do slightly different things for me.
The Mini is small enough that i can stick it in the back pocket of my MacBook case and that gives me cell access to email, web, etc. when I may not be able to connect my rMBP to a decent wifi connection. The Mini is also just big enough that in a pinch, I can touch type on the software keyboard, although it's not ideal. It's a pretty narrow niche but it addresses a situation I'm in quite often.
The full size Air is almost a notebook replacement, even without a physical keyboard - not really but close enough in a pinch. And movies, etc. are just plain better because (1) they're bigger and (2) the color gamut on the Air is (to me) noticeably better. It's just a little too big for me to schlep around every day, though - it lives mostly at home.
If I had to choose...I'm not sure which I'd keep.
I had an original mini 1 cellular (and at the same time had an iPad 4). I went travelling around South America and took the mini and absolutely loved it, the form factor was perfect. I only used the iPad 4 when I was at home as a very basic laptop replacement (large screen internet browser!)
Last year I sold both and went for the Air thinking it would be the best of both worlds.....it wasn't. It still felt too large to carry around and feel truly portable, and holding it with one hand and tapping with the other always felt uncomfortable and too heavy - the only way I was happy using it was laid on a table.
So this year I've sold the Air and bought a cellular mini 3 64GB, which I love. It's got (almost) as good a screen as the Air had, and is so portable I can take it anywhere. For me the only advantage to the larger iPad Air is screen size, which isn't that much bigger and (I feel) you give up too much in portability to make it worthwhile. (However I am tempted in having an Air 2 as well purely for basic web browsing at home with it's 2GB of RAM!)
So for which one to choose..., if you value portability over screen size, plan on still using it standing up or walking round - go for the mini 3. If you're mainly going to be using it sat down at home or in an office, go for the Air 2.
This is all purely my opinion by the way!
Last year I sold both and went for the Air thinking it would be the best of both worlds.....it wasn't. It still felt too large to carry around and feel truly portable, and holding it with one hand and tapping with the other always felt uncomfortable and too heavy - the only way I was happy using it was laid on a table.
So this year I've sold the Air and bought a cellular mini 3 64GB, which I love. It's got (almost) as good a screen as the Air had, and is so portable I can take it anywhere. For me the only advantage to the larger iPad Air is screen size, which isn't that much bigger and (I feel) you give up too much in portability to make it worthwhile. (However I am tempted in having an Air 2 as well purely for basic web browsing at home with it's 2GB of RAM!)
So for which one to choose..., if you value portability over screen size, plan on still using it standing up or walking round - go for the mini 3. If you're mainly going to be using it sat down at home or in an office, go for the Air 2.
This is all purely my opinion by the way!