I have a normal sized ipad, the ipad 4, and the reason I recommend the ipad 4 is the hardware is much better, the screen has got 4 x the number of pixels, it has double the memory, the processor is more than twice as fast, and so on.
The ipad Mini is effectively a miniaturized ipad 2, which means that you are paying relatively top dollar for old tech.
There is of course a trade-off for reducing size, in computing terms, but when you realise that the iphone in some respects is faster than the ipad 2, you realise that the mini is what is known in the trade as a 'parts bin special', i.e. some of these technological compromises are there to get the product out the door, and they will release a significantly improved one in six months time.
The first iPad had 256MB of RAM, the second 512MB, and the third and fourth 1GB (i.e. 1024MB), and the mini, like the ipad2 has 512MB. What this means is that early iPad software was designed for 256MB, but now and increasingly iPad users will have four times that amount, and new software, that perhaps does not exist yet, will be designed with that in mind. Which of course is bad news if you own a 512MB iPad mini.
The iPad mini will be obsolete much sooner than the iPad 4, or iPad 3 (available at a reduced cost, and often little more than the ipad mini), and for that reason a false economy IMO.
The iPad mini has been praised for its size, and for people who specifically are looking for a lighter more portable iPad as a concept it will make sense, but even for them, not IMO, until v2, unless they've got significant $$$ to burn.