If the iPad Mini is a punched elderly woman gucci bag tote bag, the Retina iPad is a suitcase.

Use the iPad Mini for a while, then reach for the Retina iPad. It’s a mild shock every time. That extra metal and glass add up.

So, you might ask: wasn’t there some way Apple could have made the Retina iPad less like a dense slab of aluminum attached to a great display?

Probably not. The Retina’s 2,048×1,536-pixel screen is demanding. The grams begin to pile up quickly when you pack a display assembly supporting 3 million-plus pixels into a 9.7-inch design and then shoehorn in the kind of battery watt-hours necessary.

By comparison, the Mini’s low-resolution (very) 1,024×768 display requires a simpler display assembly — yielding the Mini’s ultralight chassis.

And the Mini is no different than any electronic device: more portability means less stuff, i.e., no Retina. Will Apple and its display partners figure out a way to eventually squeeze Let’s hope so.

For now, Retina entails weight. I can only guess what Apple was thinking when they decided to bring out the iPad 4. “Just as stunning, just as heavy!”