iPad Mini Review

Say hello to my little friend. My wife bought me an iPad mini for Christmas and we have been inseparable ever since. Our house has had an original iPad since about a month after their initial release. That iPad has been my wife’s boon companion at bedtime to watch tv shows off Netflix for a while now, but I wasn’t really interested in it very much.

You see my main problem with the iPad (in all its various versions) has been the size and weight. In my opinion, the iPad is too big to easily carry everywhere without planning space to put it and too heavy to hold up for long periods of time while using it. However, I love my little iPod Touch for reading books and checking the web, etc. (though I thought it should be bigger for the web-surfing to not be so frustrating). Enter iPad Mini.

The mini is really nicely sized and feels like it weighs next to nothing when compared with even the iPad 4. While there have been lots of complaints that Apple didn’t give the mini a retina display, I can tell you it probably won’t matter to you unless you already are used to a retina display. Even the sound isn’t bad for a tablet. Another bonus is iPhone/iPod games don’t look as bad in 2X scale on the iPad mini as they do on older iPads.

I have loaded my iPad with several games including Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition, Plague Inc., Strikefleet Omega, Deepworld and Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer to name a few. Most of my time has been in Baldur’s Gate, but I have also watched Netflix on demand, read magazines and browsed websites. Everything works well on the iPad Mini and there is plenty of real estate on screen for games and websites. The only drawbacks I have found are more in the touch interface on games than with the mini itself.

The iPad Mini is the right blend of iPad versatility and usable size. It fits in one hand, allowing you to do everything else with the other hand. If you are considering a tablet, look at the mini before anything else. Especially if you already have a lot of iOS apps from your iPhone or iPod touch. Yes, it costs more, but it seems like a bargain over the other iPads. The iPad Mini gets 5 Mick Happies.