Why buy an iPad Air when the Mini has A7/retina?

[Ravynmagi]

I bought the iPad Air today, mostly an impulse buy because it's available right now. Though I have been leaning more towards wanting the Mini, so might still exchange the Air for the Mini.

Reasons for wanting the Mini...

+ It's $100 cheaper.
Mini has the very same specs and a higher DPI screen and costs $100 less. And since I have an aversion to paying more than $500 for any tablet, I could get a 32GB model for the same price as a 16GB Air.

+ Smaller and lighter weight.
I read books and manga a lot (currently on my Nexus 7 2013) and find the Mini's size and weight would be much better an this. And the 8 inch screen would still be big enough for spacious web surfing (Nexus 7 feels a little cramped on the web).


Reasons for buying the iPad Air...

+ It's available now.
iPad Air went on sale today, November 1st. Mini still doesn't even have a release date other than "later in November".

+ Possible easier availability.
There are rumors the Mini will face a bigger shortage due to manufacturing issues with the new higher DPI screen (which I think is expected and believable). And since I'm not hardcore Apple fan that will stand in lines, it could be weeks or even months before I could get a Mini. It took me about 2 or 3 months before I could walk into a store and buy my iPad 3 due to the new Retina display shortage.

+ Larger screen.
Some text will probably be more comfortable to read on the larger screen, mostly for web surfing.

 

[cheez]

^ I think going from a 10" to 8" you will regret as you've got used to the larger screen size. You might end up exchanging it again for the 10". This habit of exchanging should be avoided. Not good practice as it hurts the economy....

Now if you got the iPad Mini first, then going for a 10" would have been alright.

cheez

 

[ponyo]

I plan on buying the retina Mini LTE for my daughter. She has 5th gen iPod Touch which she uses heavily. I think she's too young for a phone so LTE Mini is a good compromise. She can use the free 200mb T-mobile LTE tablet plan and use Google Hangout for VOIP phone calls and iMessage and FaceTime to family and friends. I tried to give her my old Nexus 7 tablet but she likes iOS better. Being able to iMessage and FaceTime with my daughter is one of the main reason why I'm using iPhone 5s and haven't switch back to Android phone. The sacrifices we make for our loved ones.

 

[Ravynmagi]

^ I think going from a 10" to 8" you will regret as you've got used to the larger screen size. You might end up exchanging it again for the 10". This habit of exchanging should be avoided. Not good practice as it hurts the economy....

Now if you got the iPad Mini first, then going for a 10" would have been alright.

cheez

Apple is building a spaceship campus and Google is building a modular showroom on a floating barge in the San Francisco bay. I don't think either company is really hurting from returns. 🙂

I've had three different iPads, and several 7 inch tablets like the Nook Color, Kindle Fire HD, Nexus 7 and new Nexus 7. So I'm pretty used to large and small screens. I even had an iPad mini 2012 (I returned because because of the screen).

I've barely touched my iPad 4 and use the heck out of my Nexus 7 tablets. So I'm not too worried about the iPad mini feeling too small. I think it's a nice balance between size and weight.

PS. Though I do plan to give the iPad Air a shot and see if maybe I'll like it enough to keep. So far I'm pretty impressed with the new feel. It is really nice. My only complaint is I paid $500 for only 16GB of storage.

 

[TreVader]

I don't think there's a shortage of minis. I think apple is selling the Air first, then the mini so the mini doesn't decrease the user base for the larger model, and so that all the people who bought the air and later realize they'd rather have the mini will buy both.

Everyone talks about shortages of apple products when 90% of the time if there even was a shortage it was no more than 2 weeks and even then, it was usually just a shortage of eclectic hard to find stuff like the "gold" iPhone 5s. The biggest shortage of apple products i ever saw was the iPhone 5 release where i pre-ordered it and after 6 weeks with no shipment of my phone i canceled the order.

 

[Ravynmagi]

It's a brand new screen on the iPad mini 2. Last time this happened was the iPad 3 and it had huge shortages. It takes time to mass produce these new screens.