They are both very light. It's so light that could lessen students' physical burden. Notebooks are big and heavy, but mini notebook and I-pad are not. They have proper sizes. But mini notebook is bigger than I-Pad because mini notebook has keyboard. However, as most of you know, touch screen is annoying when we need to type quickly. It deserves to endure.
There is also a difference in interpace. Mini notebooks has their ground in Windows, but I-Pad has theirs on Mac. I-Pad can be turned on quickly, but when we want to print some documents, it would be complicated. Nevertheless, both of them are easy to wirte immediately. It makes us get ready to take what professors say.
In many common conveniences, I prefer mini notebook. Even though they are heavier and more difficult to write quickly, they are easy to print, to write correctly.