I had a few minutes to play around with the new iPad mini after Apple’s event this morning and wanted to give you a few quick thoughts.

Clearly I wasn’t able to really put the device through its paces, but I was wondering if the mini would be too small. Many of the people I’ve talked to leading up to this introduction that wanted a mini commute to work or school and found the original iPad a bit too big.

After listening to those concerns and seeing the iPad mini, I can certainly see how this would alleviate those problems. The iPad mini can easily be held with one hand for reading. Menus and other onscreen items can be reached with that hand if they are close. Of course, you can’t expect to be able to navigate the mini’s screen with one hand, but you can touch and scroll.

With two hands you can actually lay the mini in the palm of one hand while navigating with the other. The app icons are a decent size so there is no worry of accidentally hitting the wrong app.

The mini isn’t a fit-in-your-pocket device, but it’s a tablet not a smartphone. It will comfortably fit in a bag and is light enough that you won’t even know you’re carrying it.

I like what I saw, but now I need to see how it will fit into my lifestyle.