if miniaturized

The iKIT, officially dubbed a "Pocket Mobile Companion," is a familiar, if miniaturized, clamshell device with a QWERTY keyboard, Linux OS, Wi-Fi, 0.3-megapixel webcam, and a mini-USB port.


This is a sentence from the article, Tiny iKIT notebook features 2.8-inch screen. I just wonder what is 'if miniaturized' doing there in the middle of the sentence. I know 'if' and I know 'miniaturized', but I never understand 'if miniaturized' here.

Substitute "albeit" or "but" or "although" for the "if", and you should get the idea.

This phrase is a way of adding something contradictory to the original description, and is very common. The iKit is familiar, but it has been miniaturized -- this implies that the familiar form is larger.

Get used to this phrasing, because you will see it a lot:

It's a sturdily built house, if not exactly as cozy as we would like it.

She's very intelligent, if not particularly imaginative.

We had a small, if happy home on the waterfront.

It's a weird phenomenon in English, people using the word "if" to introduce claims that they have no doubt about.
"That pumpkin weighs 100 pounds if it weighs an ounce!"
"If Einstein revolutionized physics, then Warhol did the same to popular culture."

In the example you gave, I don't think that the "if" really is being applied to "minituarized", but to an elliptical "some might notice". That is, the writer is saying "even if someone complains about how small it is, I can respond that it is familiar.

Those are entirely different uses of "if". They don't have th same meanings as the original example.