Apple iPad (4th generation)

Pros: Screen, processing power, apps

Cons: Heavier than the mini, expensive

Summary: I don't understand the reviews that say it came out early or that the ipad2 is a better deal. The ipad is a known quantity at this point, you either like Apple products and iOS or you don't. If you don't like these things, you won't like the ipad and won't find it a good buy.

However, if you like Apple and iOS, this is clearly the best iPad yet. Like with any computer, you want to get the best hardware available, because the software will eventually evolve to make the hardware obsolete. The problem with the iPad 3 was that it upgraded the graphics to a retina display (which was very nice!) but the processing power was essentially unchanged from the non-retina iPad. With this fourth gen iPad, the hardware capabilities are much better and it is setup to be able to handle several iOS updates and not fall behind. The ipad 2 is not going to be able to do that. I guarantee that the next version of iOS will run poorly on my wife's iPad 2 because the hardware will be that far behind.