As a broke college student majoring in enginnering, I would not buy an iPad mini unless I can buy it for the contents of my pocket: 23 cents.
I don't like the iThingToSpendMoneyOn because I can't justify spending that kind of money on anything but textbooks and prescription saftey glasses (my eyesight is so poor that I can't focus with the saftey glasses over my glasses, and I can't see without my glasses.)
I'm sticking to the laptop I found dumpster diveing for mobile posting:
Dell D630
2.4 ghz core 2 duo
32 GB ssd (I need to keep games off of it, so I used the smallest drive I could find, for 2 hours of labor in trade I got the 32 gb SSD)
4 GB ddr2 from another dumpster dive
13" WXGA display.
It may not be the nicest machine, but it sure beats the pentium M laptop that I got from another dumpster dive.
Sent from my computer.