[seajewel]

Alright. I was undecided and I've been a very vocal hater on the non-retina screen, but I change my vote to Yes, I'm keeping it. I kinda love it. I don't love the slightly blurry font and I *do* notice it whenever I read anything or even look at apps on the home screen, but it's so thin and light and I love that everything on my iPhone transitions so easily onto the iPad. and it's a great device for Facetime. I do think it's actually a bit bigger than I'd like--I like the screen estate, but it's not comfortable to hold one-handed for me very well as I have small hands BUT I like the way web pages show, etc. I think it's quite interesting that Apple went with a 7.9inch screen significantly larger than the competition.. it's definitely nice for screen real estate but it makes it less portable (yes, it's very thin and light and very portable, BUT if the whole point of a 7" device is portability, well, some could view the screen size as a negative--and I've noticed people on other forums who do think that it is a negative in a device meant to be portable) and in some ways I think it makes cannibalization of the full-sized iPad even more likely. In fact, I don't miss the screen size of the full iPad at all while using this. it's a great size for browsing the web, reading, playing games. and I certainly don't miss the weight.

I'm almost starting to think Apple won't put Retina in just to be contrary/save costs/and try to make the bigger iPad more special. Because honestly, the bigger iPad does not seem that special to me in comparison right now. Other than the retina. and the speed, yes--I've had one big game app crash on me, sadly, and web pages don't render very quickly, I bet iPad 4 and iPhone 5 do a lot better in that regard.. but again, there's a tradeoff here and the trade off is way better browsing device than iPhone and WAY lighter than iPad.

I know this is not the device for the "technologically savvy." but you know what.. just using it for a few hours I fell in love with it. It's what I wanted the bigger iPad to be. A perfect device for browsing and reading (okay, other than the poor resolution). Again I might've been happier with just a slightly smaller device but I certainly can't complain about the weight. And I just used it for a good 2.5 hours or so, using Facetime for at least an hour and a half of that time, downloading apps, writing, browsing, reading, and my battery life is at 80%. I've seen in reviews that people are getting close to 13 hours of battery life. THAT. is. amazing. and that's the tradeoff for the non-retina screen.. but for a first gen product I'm going to live with it and sell it next year when hopefully a retina mini 2 comes out with better specs. The nice thing about apple is that it holds value really well. I expect I can sell this for $250 on Craigslist next year with some good care.

Era: this was a post made by me not others.