Last year I had inherited a Kindle Fire from my wife when she bought herself an iPad 2. At first the Kindle was great (I had just upgraded from the standard eReader Kindle), and after a while the novelty of the tablet wore off very quickly and it basically turned into a eReader. I rooted the kindle and tried it with JellyBean on it and once again I was happy with it, at least for a month or so.

I’m working on a new project and having to carry my laptop around (even though it’s an UltraBook) is a pain and trying to show notes or mockups to clients is a bit awkward, especially if you’re sitting across from each other.

After much consideration and a bit of arm twisting from my wife I decided to get myself tablet.

First up was the Microsoft Surface. The hardware was nice and I really liked the keyboard, but having to stick with apps from the Windows store really turned me off. Although, having a full-blown version of Office is really nice, but without a decent alternative to IE I really didn’t feel like we would get along.

Next up came the Android tablets. I tried several models, but none seemed to click with me. This is probably a good thing since every time I’ve owned an Android device I spend most of my time hacking at it than actually being productive with it.

The final decision was between a the iPad 4th Gen. or the iPad mini. After playing around with both for a few minutes I pretty much had made up my mind and was ready to take an iPad mini home with me. I also needed a case with a keyboard (really liked the Surface for this), but the size of the mini really made much of the keyboards cases hard to use (at least for me). After not being able to find a comfortable keyboard the mini didn’t seem like the right choice.

After taking a second look at the iPad the Retina display won me over. Plus, having a beefier processor doesn’t really hurt and I know had more options for keyboard cases.

The first keyboard I looked at was the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover which attaches like the Apple cover with the magnetic swivel. The idea of having a cover and not a case worried me a bit since I dropping $500 on the iPad I wanted a little more protection. I ended up picking the Logitech Solar Keyboard Folio which is a full case and charges the keyboard from any type of light (most keyboards require to be charged).

The last few days the iPad and it hasn’t replaced my iMac but it has pretty much replaced my UltraBook. Apps like Zite, The Next Web and Flipboard allow me to scan though a lot of news in a very short time. And I can use it most of the day and still have around 30% battery left.

WIthin the next few weeks I’ll be posting about iPad apps and accessories I get for my new iPad.

Featured Image screen captured from Logitech Site.