Apple’s New iPad Mini Revives a Classic—and Was Worth the Wait
There is an unwritten rule that no one follows in product (and video game) reviewing. You don't look at what other people are putting out there. It's like cheating on your homework, I guess. In reality, though, the iPad Mini has been out for a few months at this point. I've seen the other reviews—mostly released before the Apple Intelligence update—and know there's a lot of disgruntled dissatisfaction at the lack of changes, innovations, and improvements over the 2021 iPad Mini. It's an important perspective but not the one at the center of my review.
Mine, for one, comes from someone who's never really loved an iPad but has been enmeshed in the ecosystem his whole life. I love my iPhone, I love my Macbook, and I've never really felt the in-between is necessary. So the iPad Mini missed me the last time around, and it's been a number of years since I've spent time with one. The other half of my perspective is my partner's. She has been hanging onto a crumbling, years-old Samsung tablet. To her, a dedicated Pixel user with an Apple Music account, the new iPad Mini was a much-needed upgrade. As for me, I've been able to finally appreciate an Apple tablet. Turns out size is what matters.
Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro): Apple Intelligence, 8.3-inch Liquid Retina Display, 128GB, Wi-Fi 6E, 12MP Front/12MP Back Camera, Touch ID, All-Day Battery Life — Starlight
First impressions: We're iPad kids now
Even for someone who hasn't used and reviewed a new iPad every generation, the basics are familiar. The iPad Mini continues Apple's grand tradition of an interface so intuitive and usable it's become closely associated with parenting toddlers. Setting up your account, downloading apps, these are the things Apple taught the everyman to do. Of course they've become second nature. So too does picking up the iPad and putting it in a bag. It's not that it's inherently more portable than a Pixel tablet or an iPad Pro, but the smallness makes it easier for short travel. The train ride to work, buses, airplanes, it's easier for that sort of stuff. Even as a more compact way for my girlfriend to watch The Good Wife on the plane, though, it's been tremendously convenient.
It felt paramount to try out gaming of some sort on the iPad Mini. In doing so, I discovered that the iPad version of Balatro is still one of the year's best games. Since I'm not going to pay for mobile versions of video games I own elsewhere, I find myself turning to Netflix's expanding selection of recent years' best indies and classic GTA. No, I didn't play the Squid Game game, but Rise of the Golden Idol, Into the Breach, and the lightning-paced Hades are all top-notch indie games it can handle. If you want to play anything more intensive than Fortnite on an iPad, I suppose you can go spend a grand on the iPad Pro.
I touched on Apple Intelligence in my iPhone 16 review, and all of that is now present to all iPad Mini users, too. In short, it makes many AI features previously found by going to "some website" easy to access with a gesture or voice command. As a writer, I don't often need AI grammar check and shy away from generative text and ChatGPT as a solution to my problems. Anecdotal evidence from the past two years tells me that's not the case with everyone.
In this rush of binge-watching, gaming, and experimenting with AI, I kept checking on the battery life in the corner. With its projected ten hours total, I expected it to tick down quickly, but instead it stayed the course, steadily declining when used and conserving battery during inactive periods of up to an hour. I think the iPad Mini has a better battery life than advertised. All things considered, it's at least a conservative estimate compared with the exaggerated numbers I often see marketed.
One last outdated quirk is one I actually sort of love. Unlike iPhones, most iPads (Pro notwithstanding) have not "upgraded" to Face ID over Touch ID. Listen, both are creepy, but to me having to scan my face every time I use my phone (and how casually I do it now) is way more dystopian than a fingerprint lock. Is that sound logic? No. But at least if I'm wearing sunglasses I can still unlock my iPad Mini, goddammit!
Apple Pencil Pro is the one stylus I like
In my time reviewing touch-screen laptops, monitors, e-readers, and the like, I've tried a number of styluses and pens. My response tends to waver between some form of "This is fine" and "Why would I ever use this?" I'm hard to please in this regard. In the time I've spent with the new iPad Mini, the Apple Pencil Pro has almost universally enhanced my experience. That's rare.
The Pencil Pro is a slick piece of work. It feels natural to use, just like a wooden pencil, and the "click" works by simply pressing anywhere on the pencil's flat side. You can use Bluetooth to connect it, or you can simply align it with the right side of the iPad and it will magnetize right to it and start the sync process the first time you do so. Attaching the pencil also charges it, without seeming to need to sap very much of the iPad's battery. These are impressive touches, but the fact that the Apple Pencil Pro is just great to use is the backbone of it all. The haptics feel good, consistent with the touch interface, so going between the two inputs feels more seamless than on other devices. Apple Pencil Hover is better than ever, and the ability to handwrite in a URL or website name into an address bar without needing to pull up a virtual keyboard is brilliant, though my bad handwriting normally makes a mess of it.
For me, the Pencil Pro shines when browsing and using the iPad's Split View and multi-window features. It's one of the few things I can do on the iPad Mini that I can't do on an iPhone, and using the pencil makes the device feel like a true middle ground between a touch screen and a keyboard/mouse. Apple's got it right this time.
Final verdict
I can't help but love my iPad Mini, but that's far from a full-throated recommendation for everyone to rush out and buy one. It starts at £469, but to get more than 128 gigabytes of storage and an Apple Pencil Pro, plus cell data if you want it, you'll need to start paying for add-ons. As a piece of tech, it's not doing anything new, and many of its component parts are surpassed by those in other tablets.
Still, I can't deny that this iPad will be my number-one travel buddy as long as it's in my possession. Smaller than the behemoths we've got used to, it's the perfect size for a tablet.
Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro)
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