The first iPad mini debuted in 2012, only two years after the first iPad.
Since then, four subsequent little iPad minis looked exactly the same as that original model while Apple made its other tablets bigger and faster, slapping tags like ‘Air’ and ‘Pro’ on the end of their names.
The company kept making the iPad mini but as our phones got bigger, it became a little harder to see quite why the small screen tablet was sticking around.
Eight years on, the new sixth version of the iPad mini is the most interesting Apple’s diminutive slab has ever been, with a brand-new design and beefy internals. I’ve been using it for about a month and it has been delightful.
While the larger iPad Pro, Air, and regular iPad models all have optional keyboard accessories that encourage you to think of them as laptops, the iPad mini is different.
Its size made me use it as a magazine, book, e-reader, and YouTube viewer far closer to the original vision of the tablet Steve Jobs had: a tablet in my hand on the sofa, rather than connected to a keyboard at a desk.
In a hand is accurate, too. The mini is the only iPad that is comfortable to hold with one hand for any length of time.
It certainly helped that while reviewing it I decided not to put any work apps on it. But this is the beauty of the iPad mini; for most people, this is not an appropriate work device, and there lies its broad appeal as a purchase made solely for enjoyment, not hard graft.
Professional apps for email and messaging creep onto our personal smartphones eventually, but I found it easy to make the iPad mini a safe haven from anything nine to five related. Bliss.
Small but dear
Despite being the smallest iPad, it is not the cheapest. The entry-level Wi-Fi model is $849 (a cellular 5G version costs more), considerably more than the also-new $569 ninth-generation iPad, which has a 10.2-inch screen compared to the mini’s 8.3-inch. I tested both.
The larger iPad is cheaper because it uses Apple’s two-year-old A13 processor, an older bezel-heavy design with a home button, works with the first-generation Apple Pencil, and has an un-laminated screen with a tiny gap between the surface you touch and the display underneath.
In contrast, the iPad mini uses the same new A15 found in the iPhone 13. It's powerful enough to edit photos from a DSLR or mix a song in GarageBand without the whole thing grinding to a halt.
It has the same rounded corner design that hides the Touch ID fingerprint reader in the power button like the iPad Air and has a superior laminated display akin to most phones where it feels like you are directly touching icons and text.
The fingerprint sensor is in the iPad mini's power button. (Image: Apple)All that tech in a 6.3mm body with optional 5G connectivity makes the mini a compelling do-it-all media device.
It charges and transfers data via USB-C, which is faster than the Lightning port found on the cheaper iPad and all iPhones. I found myself charging it every couple of days when using it daily, and it does run down while on standby enough to be a little disappointing.
Its screen is larger than that of all smartphones, and I found myself preferring to read news and current affairs publications on it rather than on my phone.
In practice, the regular, larger, cheaper iPad can technologically do everything the iPad mini can, but the mini has a more attractive and premium build quality.
Somehow, reading on a tablet also makes you more readily available to interact with others and looks less antisocial, such is society’s literal and figurative fixation with the smartphone form factor.
Thanks to compatibility with the second-generation Apple Pencil that magnetically sticks to the side of the iPad to charge, the mini is great at note-taking. It’s not quite Moleskine-sized, but it makes far more sense to carry it around as a digital notebook compared to any of the larger, heavier iPads.
Using the newer Pencil, sold separately for $239, you can swipe up from the bottom corner of the screen whichever way you’re holding it to launch the Quick Note function of Apple’s Notes app and scribble down the contents of your brain. It’s a neat feature that’s now on all iPads running the latest iPadOS 15 software.
I also found I much prefer catching up with friends and family on video calls with the iPad mini’s larger-than-phone screen.
Apple has added in clever new tech it calls ‘centre stage’ with the front-facing camera of both new iPads that tracks if you move around while on video calls, keeping you in the frame as though the camera were moving. It’s very clever and works in FaceTime but app developers can add the feature to other video calling apps.
Viewing apps in split-screen mode is not possible on an iPhone. (Image: Apple)Chameleon
Though NZ is relatively (and to be honest, blissfully) free of the clutches of Amazon, the iPad mini is quite similar to Amazon’s Fire tablets in how its Apple hardware encourages the user to pay for Apple’s software services (the difference being Apple’s $849 tablet is not as cheap as Amazon’s are).
If you’ve got a subscription to Apple Music and Apple TV+, the iPad mini is an excellent music and TV playback machine that fits easily in any bag.
In addition, games from the Apple Arcade subscription gaming service can be played with two hands and thumbs more comfortably akin to a Game Boy than on larger tablets.
But unlike Amazon’s restrictive tablet operating system that doesn’t let you download Google apps and other third-party software, the iPad mini is also a chameleon device with full access to the Apple App store meaning any video streaming service is a-go-go.
Unlike any iPhone, the iPad software lets you run apps side by side in split-screen mode. This is great for having two apps open at once such as email and a browser, or for quickly dragging and dropping text or files between two apps (but don't go doing too much work, now).
The tablet’s playful, useful size combined with the wealth of apps at its disposal makes it just as customisable as a smartphone can be. It becomes a book or a magazine via apps thanks to its size far better than larger tablets do.
If you can be disciplined in keeping attention-sapping work and social media apps off it, like me, you might find the iPad mini the best piece of tech to let you read and relax away from the noise and relentless pinging of the distracting apps on your phones.
