Review – iPad Mini

I am taking a break from App reviews for the day and instead going to bring you my review of the new iPad mini.

I have been using iOS devices since the iPhone 3g and have since had an iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPad 1st gen and iPad 3rd gen. When the iPad mini came out I wasn’t very interested but as friends started getting them I began to really like them. My main concern was the fact that just a few months previously I had invested in 3rd gen iPad and would I really need two iPads. I didn’t want my iPad sitting there neglected gathering dust and so I thought back to when I had an iPhone and thought an iPad was only a big iPhone.

Fast forward to December 19th and I took the plunge and put in an order for an iPad mini. I was very excited and tracked it’s progress all the way from Pudong. When people kept saying why do you need two iPads I found myself having to find a reason. The reason I gave was that I would use my iPad for personal use and iPad mini for work. This made sense as I always found it difficult keeping work and personal information separate on my iPad.

My iPad mini finally arrived last week and for the first few days I really didn’t like it and thought OMG what have I done. The display size seemed small and I just didn’t like it and for no apparently reason I just didn’t. I went ahead and set it up with all my work stuff. Starting back to work this week I brought it with me and the first day felt a little lost using it but 3 days on and I absolutely love it! The size is perfect, it is light to use, easy to use with not being cluttered with my games and also so much easier to hold in class. I used to find my 3rd gen iPad got a bit heavy holding after a while.

There were a couple of days where I got to travel light just iPad mini and me it was weird having a small handbag and getting to work and thinking oh yeah I have all my work with me here.

So to conclude if you already have an iPad this isn’t a massive improvement or new thing it is just the same but smaller. If you are in a situation where you are using it for presentations it is great so much smaller and lighter. If you don’t have an iPad already consider if you really need the bigger size. I am thinking now that whenever I next upgrade (hopefully not for a couple of years) I will probably go for the mini size over regular size.
I decided not to go for 3g model this time and it seems to be working out fairly wifi only, one thing I was anxious about but it’s working. I have loaded it with my favorite Apps and discovered Dropbox App now allows you to view documents offline which really helps for presentations.

So for something I was unsure of doing I am now very happy with my decision to invest in a mini and I am now spoilt with my iPhone, iPad mini, iPad trio and all ready for whatever the tech world throws me!