What can the iPad mini be used for? iPad mini has been available since November 2nd 2012 in most parts of the world. In many aspects except from the size it resembles an iPad 2 in performance. However as we all know, size matters and when it comes to tablets like the iPad it means a great deal. With a screen size of 7.9 inches Apple plays with numbers (iPad 3 and iPad 4 are 9.7”). iPad mini is slightly bigger than most of the other tablets in this segment that usually settles for 7.0 inches display. iPad mini is almost too big and you need big pockets to bring it with you. That said it´s a lot more portable than the other iPads and you´ll get a much better surfing experience than on an iPhone or iPod.

So here we get to the first thing that iPad mini is really great at. Surfing the web and searching for information when you´re on the go. This is a delightful experience and really enjoyable compared to the smaller and bigger iOS devices. One can argue that the iPhone is great for taking photos, but if you want to view them right away the iPad mini is far better. You get a bigger picture and this is also a great advantage if you like to watch movies on your trip. The iPhone and iPod is just not big enough for comfortably movie watching. iPad mini comes with stereo speaker and you can hear it very well if you compare the sound to any other iPad. Playing and listening to music is just pure pleasure on the iPad mini and with approximately 13 hours of battery life it exceeds anything else on the market right now.

With smaller size comes some negative sides as well. Quite obviously typing is not as good on iPad mini as on the regular sized iPad. You can give a quick answer to e-mails, send an iMessage and to some correction on documents. However for productivity the iPad mini falls short, the screen is just not big enough to give the necessary comfort that you like to have in a work or productivity situation.

You may choose to read e-books or iBooks on your iPad mini and it´s really OK, but that´s it. Reading on an iPad mini is not great when you compare to what you can get on a Kindle Fire HD to a lower price. So if reading is your main concern don´t choose iPad mini. I would say that if you want an iPad with all it´s features and functionality and you would like to read on it as well then you should go for the iPad 4 with retina display and a pair of polarized sunglasses if you want to read outdoors. It will be interesting to see what Apple do with their iPad mini 2 coming later this year. A retina screen would be an important update for those who would like to read on their iPad mini.