The more I use it, I love the iPad mini over the regular size for everything but on-screen typing, which is my main, very-close-second use for it (primary is reading). As I begin to write more again, I’m beginning to miss the iPad 3 I gave to my wife.
I increasingly feel that my initial sentiment of the iPad mini as a writing machine was right: the keyboard cases and setups are nice, but for me, they end up defeating the purpose of writing on an iPad in the first place. With all that extra equipment and weight, I’m basically carrying an 11-inch MacBook Air. But if I got an Air again I lose the portability, battery life, and delightful LTE data of an iPad.
The regular iPad is a 1.5 pound, incredibly mobile slab of glass that makes a great 8-10 hour writing machine. It also fits in a small satchel or “man purse,” if you must, instead of a big backpack or messenger bag. If you can spend some time to get good at touch typing in landscape, which I did, it’s quite liberating to travel, write, and publish using nothing more than an iPad with Smart Cover.
I’m not positive yet, but I’m leaning back towards a regular iPad because of my desire for keyboard-less mobile writing. If I do it, I’ll probably wait for the iPad 5, especially since rumors claim it might adopt the iPad mini’s lighter construction.
