I just got an iPad mini a couple of hours ago from the UPS guy. I took it to lunch and we’ve been playing around with it here in the office.
Couple of observations:
The screen is not great: John is absolutely right about the quality of the screen. It is manifestly lower resolution than newer Retina Displays.
The screen is fine: The other thing to note is that I don’t care. I don’t care that it’s not perfect. I don’t care that the mini’s screen is not Retina. I don’t care if text is a bit fuzzy. Yes, I can tell that the two screens are different in quality when I compare them side-by-side. But I’ve already forgotten that the mini is lower resolution. I simply don’t notice. When I’m using the iPad mini, I’m not aware of the screen’s shortcomings. I simply don’t see the fuzziness, the jaggies in text. I know that a lot of people *will* see the difference. And for a lot of people, it *will* ruin the experience. I’m not one of them.
A couple of other observations:
Performance: Performance is perfectly fine. Yes, it’s not as snappy as the new iPad, but it’s perfectly functional. Every app I loaded and played with performed fine. There are no significant performance lags or delays to report (so far).
Size: The form factor is amazing. It’s the little big iPad: significantly bigger than an iPhone but small enough to hold in one hand or stash in a pocket. It easily fits in the pocket of the sleeveless vest I usually wear. It even fits in the inside pocket of a suit jacket, although it makes a bulge from the outside. It’s as light as a feather and beautifully made. Like the iPhone 5, it’s almost too thin and light. Yeah, that’s a ridiculous thing to say, but I’m a bit nervous about it about clumsily knocking it out of my hands. I can see it ruined before the weekend is out.
Typing: The screen is just big enough to work on. You can’t touch-type on it, but I’m not a touch typist anyway. So far, it’s been fine for my two-finger hunt-and-peck typing style. I already do a lot of my work on the iPad. I ditched my MacBook for an iPad 3 several months ago. I’m curious to see if I can ditch the full-size iPad for the mini and use it as a fulltime device. I’ll report back in a few weeks, but so far, it looks like it might be possible.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
