The iPad mini is a fantastic tablet and our favourite iPad, though falls short in some key areas.

Premium look and feel Incredibly thin and light The iOS app selection is huge Great battery life

Sub-par screen sharpness Mediocre camera 4:3 aspect ration not suited to movies Too wide

The iPad Mini is a decent tablet that is almost affordable by Apple's standards, making it a good choice for anyone already comitted to the Apple ecosystem.

Decent build quality; good battery life; iOS 6

Screen isn't as good as other Apple devices; A5 processor doesn't offer top end performance

If you're spoiled like us and are already used to high-resolution screens on your new gadgets, the iPad mini may be a let down, initially. But if you disarm your screen snobbery and relax, you'll find an incredibly comfortable, well-sized, well-built tablet at a more affordable $330 price.

Great screen size; Comfortable and light; 300,000 apps; Good rear camera

No Retina screen; Lightning connector adapter is expensive; No microSD; More expensive than Android competitors

How much are apps worth to you? How about $120? If you want those iPad-exclusive apps and price is no object, then no other small-screen tablet will do. Beautifully made, slim, and light, the iPad mini ($329/16GB, $429/32GB, $529/64GB direct) packs precisely the power of an iPad 2 into a tablet...

Beautifully designed.Very good cameras; Largest library of tablet apps

Expensive; Wide; Slippery

The iPad mini lets you run the best library of apps in the biz on a tablet you'll actually want to carry, but it's not the best small-screen tablet you can buy.

As someone who was eagerly waiting the press release of this iPad Mini, I could hardly contain my excitement. That was short lived when I found out the specs. However, I thought I would give the iPad Mini the chance it deserves. How disappointed I was. The screen, is a huge letdown.

Large amount of optimsed apps; good build quality

Expensive; No retina display; speed of the CPU is inadequate as well as the GPU; Screen is sometimes unresponsive

Is it a small iPad or a big iPhone or is the iPad mini a device that forges a whole new market for Apple? They're legitimate questions, but the truth is, it's all of the above. We've been thinking about all this for a while now, it started with the first rumour of a smaller iPad and we're only now,...

More portable; still a big screen; light; great for gaming; less chunky

Screen resolution; 4G won't work on Vodafone or O2; old processor

When I was testing the iPad mini this weekend, I pitted it against my 11-inch MacBook Air and third-generation iPad to see what device I would use more around the house and would take out on the road to do some work on. The clear winner was the iPad mini.

Excellent Form Factor; design and build quality; Fantastic battery life; Very portable and practical

Lack of Retina display and lower resolution will be a deal breaker for some; Price higher than anticipated; First-generation device; lots to improve on

Apple's new iPad mini is likely to become its most popular iPad, due to a light, thin design that delivers tablet optimized apps in a more portable package at a reduced price.

Forget the headlines and exit the hype train at the next station. The iPad mini is here and it's not the shining beacon we all expected it to be, but it damn-well got close.