Retina display is indeed powerful. After reading so much on my tired old iphone I could feel the strain on my eyes and after weighing the ipad mini versus ipad went with retina display ipad. Far too many form factors to juggle with in life, but I am glad I did go with the bigger screen and it is light enough (though not handy enough but I decided not to carry it anywhere out of the home). The screen quality is so good I am thinking I should be able to read all the books, magazines and news I want on it. After spending half hour on it the laptop screen seems blurry and fuzzy.