I went to the flagship Apple store in town to buy a connector for the iPhone. There'd been a line and iPad minis had sold out at opening. They said they might get more this afternoon but weren't sure. Good thing they sold out or I'd have been walking out with one with no intention of having bought one going in.
My review:
This is one BEAUTIFUL device. Only thing that keeps it from being absolutely perfect to me is lack of retina display which would have made for better reading. Price and battery life made that a non-starter. It will be tough to impossible for me to wait for the second or third generation mini that will likely gain retina. The display on the mini doesn't hold up side by side with the retina but, that said, the iPad is perfectly adequate. The processor makes it a snappy device for everything I did, scrolling around, web surfing. I'm not into games though and didn't play any so I don't know if gamers might wish for more processing power.
Having seen and played with the Nexus 7, the iPad 4:3 form factor is much more versatile than the Android 16:9 ratio. I checked several websites I use like SI and they scaled extremely well. Checked a site where I have some image heavy professional texts and they displayed great. For my average sized man's hands it was an absolutely perfect fit, fingers curled around the bezel in portrait without touching the screen, securely holding the device.
This device completely wraps up the medical market for Apple. Youll be hard pressed to find a physician who isn't carrying one of these in their lab coat. Microsoft is a non-starter in the medical field. Too little, too late, that ship has sailed and Surface doesn't cut it as a walk around device. That thing is made for sitting and working, guess that's why they call it Surface. 16:9 ratio of Android's is suboptimal and security issues make it another non-starter. If Apple comes in with some reasonably aggressive educational discounts they should dominate that market as well I think.
The downside, IMO, is that this device is going to cannabilize the big iPad big time. Jobs got it wrong, this form factor is a much more versatile device for the majority of uses of a mobile device. The big iPad is great but as a leisure, on the sofa , in the bed tool. The other downside is no matter how many of these Apple can make before Xmas there will be a severe supply constraint. If you intend to get this as a Xmas present for someone you better not wait. A lot of controversy about pricing but with supply constraint they will likely actually leave money on the table. They pobably could have gone to $349 and still sold every unit they can make before Xmas. |
