The Apple Pencil Pro is yet another reminder that you can’t draw to save your life.
Until recently, I was using an older version of the iPad mini. This is the 6th generation model that was redesigned in 2021 and features an A15 Bionic chip and 256GB storage with 5G cellular support. This was a birthday present from my partner a few years ago. It’s a nice device thanks to its small stature and, in my opinion, the “purest” iPad in the lineup.
I’ve been using various iPads in place of travel laptops for years, but the pandemic took me away from the idea of using iPadOS for productivity. The mini was appealing because it was, after all, the iPad that was closest to Steve Jobs’ original vision for the tablet. It was a device that sat between a smartphone and a laptop and could be used casually from the same plush leather chair that Jobs sat in when the original iPad was introduced in 2010. Specifically, the iPad mini was appealing to me precisely because I lost it. My preference was the power-hungry iPadOS, but I was still fascinated by the product overall. The iPad mini has served my needs well over the past few years. I was satisfied.
And a few weeks ago, my partner and I spent a few days in Las Vegas celebrating my belated birthday. While there, she bought me a brand new M4 13-inch iPad Pro. Because it comes with a compatible Magic Keyboard. And I was shocked. Because (a) we haven’t yet seen a device with an OLED screen since it debuted earlier this year; (b) I forgot about the glory of the iPad with its giant screen. Without getting too into the nitty-gritty, I quickly recognized the opportunity in front of me. Although the iPad can easily be used as a tablet due to its very thin profile and aforementioned OLED display. Also Use it as a laptop when you go out. The M2 MacBook Air in my office was originally conceived as a travel Mac, but once I somehow got the external display of my dreams, it could be reborn as my new desktop. Until then, my trusty but tired five-year-old Intel iMac will do.
Well,iPad mini?
While I was in Seattle on a reporting trip last week, Apple announced the refreshed iPad mini. It has an A17 Pro chip that can run Apple Intelligence and support for Apple Pencil Pro. A few days later, Apple sent me a new iPad mini, a purple 512GB model with cellular capabilities, and an Apple Pencil Pro for testing. My general opinion is that, with the exception of Apple Intelligence, the new version is not significantly better than the previous version. When I say the new iPad isn’t “significantly better,” I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. It’s simply that for my typical use cases of reading and watching videos, not to mention communicating and triaging the occasional email, the refreshed Mini feels slightly better in my experience. It means only. What’s even more remarkable to me is that my time with the new mini, albeit brief, taught me important lessons about the like-new iPad Pro as well. Ultimately, it gave me a whole new perspective on what I want from an iPad. Recently. It’s also worth mentioning that my enthusiasm for the Pro Display XDR was born out of pragmatism. The screen is larger than the Studio Display and has improved brightness thanks to mini-LED backlight technology. Yes, accessibility!
For Jordyn Zimmerman, the iPad mini is the best iPad.
“The iPad mini is very portable and very durable,” she told me in a new interview conducted via email earlier this week. “This is huge for me in terms of accessibility and on-the-go communication, especially since so many people have never had the experience of someone communicating on an iPad. Because I carry my iPad mini with me, its subtle size and weight give me a sense of belonging and social relevance.”
Zimmerman, who I interviewed in May, is a 29-year-old nonverbal autistic person who is known as an advocate for the disability community. She explained that she primarily uses the iPad mini as a communication tool, leveraging both a custom-built augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app and an accessibility feature in iPadOS called Live Speech. Zimmerman described his iPad mini as an “access point” to how he interacts with the world, saying he finds himself constantly juggling multiple apps and software to share his thoughts. This can occur anywhere from dining in a restaurant to presentation scenarios elsewhere.
“[The iPad mini is] I think about how I connect to the world,” she said.
As for my usage, I echo Zimmerman’s assessment of the iPad mini’s slim size. This is why I believe the mini is the purest expression of Jobs’ original conceit about tablets. It’s very easy to pick up and hold your device while relaxing on your couch. Additionally, the 8.3-inch display is large enough to immerse yourself in tasks such as reading, watching videos, and occasional typing. As someone who makes serious efforts to read more on Apple Books, but with frustratingly fruitless results, the iPad mini’s shape is perfectly suited to such tasks. The same goes for things like social media and browsing websites in Safari. That may sound like an exaggeration, but the iPad mini is actually a near-perfect device for doing what Jobs said tablets were great at doing.
Ah, but the screen. If you look at the iPad mini screen alone, Not bad at all. On the contrary it’s pretty good. Apple knows how to make great-looking displays. The thing is, I’m not testing the iPad in the middle of nowhere. I do Access your M4 iPad Pro. For fun (and journalism), I literally put two tablets side by side in portrait orientation. Even as someone with low vision, I noticed a huge difference between the two screens, not only in size but also in quality. The iPad Pro’s OLED panel is of The reason I was so excited to get this device is because I don’t I’m disappointed. I’ve been used to OLED screens on iPhones and Apple Watches for years, but the iPad Pro, especially the 13-inch screen, literally shines on a different scale. It’s big and bright, making it infinitely easier to see all kinds of content. The iPad Pro dwarfs the iPad mini, literally and figuratively.
By comparison, the iPad mini’s screen is not only smaller, but also feels darker and less sharp. It’s still great usability, but it shows that the premium display technology is exclusive to the top-of-the-line iPad. From an accessibility perspective, the moral of the story is simple. No matter how sleek the iPad mini’s form factor is, the display is its most important attribute for people with visual impairments. The point is that (a) similar to my affinity for the iPhone Pro Max, the big screen is the best; (b) The fact that the iPad Pro lets you enjoy a huge screen in an incredibly thin and light body speaks to Apple’s hardware engineering prowess.
I admit that my platonic ideal iPad is an iPad mini with an OLED display. Devices like this are bound to appear sooner rather than later. But we can’t review the iPad mini based on that promise. What I can do and should—Reviews are of products being shipped to customers this week. It’s definitely a great little tablet. Whether it works well from an accessibility perspective depends on the user’s needs and tolerance. For Zimmerman, the iPad mini is portable and powerful enough to serve as a conduit for effective communication. Things changed for me as well, while I was engrossed in all the things I could do. As it happens, my birthday made me re-evaluate what I really need and want in a tablet. This testing period taught me to always challenge myself when considering the tools to use. As a regular reviewer, I use many tools. So there is no excuse to be complacent or arbitrary in your choices.
For Zimmerman’s applications, the new iPad mini is an exciting development.
“I’m really happy and really relieved that iPad mini is here to stay,” she said of the introduction of the refreshed iPad mini. “There were definitely some items on my wish list in terms of volume, sound quality, battery life, etc. But the fact that it lives on is the biggest thing for me. A17 on iPad mini I’m looking forward to experiencing how the Pro chip makes my system run faster, and generally looking forward to seeing how Apple Intelligence can help me live, learn, and communicate on iPad mini. .”
What Zimmerman and I have in common when it comes to the iPad mini is the Apple Pencil Pro. Like me, she said she doesn’t use any peripherals with her iPad mini. As for me, I deeply respect the technology packed into the Pencil Pro and the creativity it brings out of artists and designers, so I’ve always been jealous of people who have more artistic bones in their bodies than I do. I am. As it stands, I’m tempted to reassign the Pencil Pro included in the reviewer kit and try it out on the iPad Pro. I wish I could create more than just a stick figure, but I’m sure it would still be a fun experiment to try.
Is the new iPad mini good? yes. Is it an iterative update compared to previous versions? And yes, it is. But as we argued in our iPhone 16 Pro review, minor is relative. My friends and colleagues who are banned from reviewing today would argue otherwise, but whether the iPad mini is useful to you from an accessibility standpoint depends on your perspective. Maybe you’re like Zimmerman, carrying your device with you everywhere and using it as a “power tool” for communication. Similarly, perhaps your fitness status means that the iPad mini is the only iPad you can easily access and use, and you might need a larger screen to try out Apple Intelligence. Either way, both are perfectly valid reasons for an upgrade, and go beyond the mainstream tech consensus that “minor” updates are yawn-inducing.
Or maybe you’re like me and realize that the iPad Pro is better for you.
Are you okay! For someone like Zimmerman, the iPad mini may still be a good fit.
