iPad mini or iPad mini with retina display

I personally have an iPad with out retina display, and edit photos and listen to music on it all of the time. The display is still amazing even without the upgrade.

If you want to drop the extra cash on the retina, which is 100 dollars more, I say go for it. After all, how many times in your life will you purchase an iPad?

Both are great models though.

best you can afford

Go for the Retina mini. The standard mini is basically the same as an iPad 2 and shares it's slower processor and 512mb of RAM (not to be confused with the storage memory for your music and apps).

I have both a standard mini and a Retina mini and sometimes, the 512 MB is not adequate for memory intensive apps, especially games. There can be infrequent crashes due to low memory instances.

That being said, the standard mini is fine in most cases. I wonder however about it's longevity in the future with apps and iOS becoming more demanding. Personally, I would spend the extra $100 and go for the Retina, simply because it's more capable and is more future-proof than the standard mini.

iPad mini with retina display has a lack on color

Personally, I would recommend the iPad mini with Retina display as it is a superior product with a better display, hardware and more storage options.

The iPad mini with Retina display has a far superior display with double the resolution compared to the standard iPad Mini.

The iPad mini with Retina display also has the A7 chip which has double the performance of the A5(iPad Mini chip) on benchmarks but will not be that noticeable in real life performance. The newer chip also means that the newer device will be more future proof. The iPad mini with Retina display also has double the RAM meaning theoretically there should be better performance when running more apps at the same time.

The iPad mini with Retina display has more storage options(16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB) compared to the one storage option for the iPad mini(16GB)

If you do not have the budget, then the regular iPad mini is fine however for the extra $100 I would recommend the iPad mini with Retina display. Another option, if you wait till around October or November, is the third generation of the iPad Mini rumored to have a better processor(A8 chip), Touch ID and an improved camera.