The iPad mini is more than just a scaled down iPad 2 – it is has had the typical "fresh-look" approach that Apple brings to all products. It is larger than a Kindle or Nexus 7 with a 7.9″ screen, and more expensive with a starting price of US$329. It will be interesting how the iPad Mini competes with these products, although arguably they are aimed at slightly different market segments.
The iPad Mini has a dual-core A5 processor, a Facetime HD camera on the front and a 5-megapixel camera on the rear, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity, and 4G LTE cellular connectivity in some models. And it still offers up to 10 hours of battery life.
If you lug your iPad around with you everywhere, or typically hold it for long periods of time, the lighter weight and smaller size of the iPad mini are going to make it well … more mobile, more versatile, without compromising usability. The only downside I can imagine is that it will not be so good for reading PDF files if you do that a lot. I also wish it had the retina display, but the reality is that the screen should be slightly crisper than the iPad 2 as it has the same number of pixels packed into a smaller physical screen size.
Check out the details on the Apple website now.