Secure, boring and every little thing I would like in a small pill

What’s the identical?

As is usually the case with new iPads, nobody will know whether or not you’re utilizing the 2021 iPad mini or this one except they’re an astute research of Apple’s shade schemes. This yr, extraordinarily gentle shades of blue and purple substitute the richer pink and purple choices — my take a look at iPad mini is purple, however appears to be like like a fairly straight silver in quite a lot of mild. I actually want Apple would offer extra daring shade choices in additional of its merchandise, however right here we’re.

There isn’t so much to complain about on the subject of the iPad mini’s design. It feels completely according to the opposite iPads Apple sells, with modest bezels (which can be beginning to really feel a bit thick) surrounding its display and stereo audio system when held in panorama orientation. These audio system sound a lot better than you’d anticipate given the mini’s small dimension; Apple has been placing surprisingly nice audio system in all its merchandise for a number of years now and I’m glad this development continues right here.

The digicam remains to be portrait-oriented, not like all the opposite iPads you should buy. That doesn’t actually hassle me, since you’re not often, if ever, going to place this tiny iPad in a keyboard dock and take a video name. I think about most individuals making FaceTime calls will simply maintain it like they’d a cellphone.

As with the prior mini and non-Professional iPads, there’s no Face ID array right here. You’ll must make do with the Contact ID sensor on the ability button, which is quick and handy sufficient, however nonetheless not fairly as easy as Face ID. It additionally has the identical front- and back-facing cameras because the final iPad mini. The 12-megapixel digicam on the rear takes surprisingly first rate photographs in low mild and may work superb for scanning paperwork or QR codes. However as standard, simply use your cellphone to take pictures and movies — likelihood is it has a greater digicam than the iPad mini.

Similar goes for the front-facing shooter. It’s superb for FaceTime calls, however images are missing intimately. That’s as a result of it’s a 12-megapixel ultra-wide digicam that then crops them right into a extra normal subject of view. Lengthy story quick: this digicam is simply adequate for a pill digicam, however not a lot else. And that truthfully doesn’t hassle me.

The 8.3-inch display on the iPad mini is about on par with the one on the iPad Air. It helps the P3 broad shade gamut, has an antireflective coating and is totally laminated to the entrance glass, not like the display on the entry-level iPad. All these specs, together with its decision and 326 pixel-per-inch density, are unchanged from the final mannequin. It’s a really good display, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a typical LCD show with a now-pedestrian 60Hz refresh charge. I’m by no means shocked by this, as Apple has saved its finest display expertise for the iPad Professional. However very quickly it’s going to want to up the refresh charge on different iPads (and iPhones if we’re being trustworthy) in addition to the Professional fashions.

One bit of fine information concerning the display is that it appears Apple has fastened the “jelly-scrolling” downside that plagued the prior iPad mini. Jelly-scrolling happens when one facet of a display doesn’t refresh at precisely the identical charge as the opposite, and this impact was noticeable in portrait mode with the outdated iPad mini. It’s not one thing that I ever seen whereas utilizing the brand new iPad mini. I’m curious to see if the difficulty has been completely resolved or if my eyes simply didn’t catch it, however I’ll proceed utilizing the iPad mini within the coming weeks to see if I spot any show points.

What’s new?

The headlining new function right here is the A17 Professional chip, which Apple says is 30 p.c sooner than the A15 within the prior iPad mini. The 5-core GPU is 25 p.c sooner and helps hardware-accelerated ray tracing. One odd programming word: the A17 Professional within the iPad mini is barely totally different from the one within the iPhone 15 Professional sequence. The chip within the iPhone 15 Professional has six graphics cores, whereas the one within the iPad mini solely has 5. It’s a bizarre little bit of minor nerfing, however I additionally can’t think about that anybody shopping for this iPad will discover or care about this slight potential efficiency distinction.

Benchmarks from Geekbench 6 again this up. The A17 Professional within the iPad mini is ever so barely much less performant than the one within the iPhone 15 Professional, however not sufficient in order that it’ll make any actual distinction in how you utilize the pill. It nonetheless trails M-series chips and the brand-new A18 sequence, however gives greater than sufficient juice for an iPad mini.

Some might need hoped for an M2 processor right here, and even this yr’s A18, however I’m assured that the A17 Professional is greater than succesful for mainly something you would possibly do with the iPad mini. Given its small dimension, I by no means as soon as thought of utilizing it as a laptop computer alternative like I do with the iPad Professional. As an alternative, it made a cushty sofa companion for searching the web, messaging pals, triaging electronic mail, enjoying video games and infrequently enhancing some images. The A17 Professional was greater than able to all these duties, with no slowdowns or stutters to notice. Maybe extra importantly, it has the overhead to be succesful for years to come back.

The opposite huge change for the iPad mini is assist for the Apple Pencil Professional that was launched earlier this yr. I’m glad to see that Apple now helps the Apple Pencil Professional on each iPad it sells apart from the entry-level mannequin. The Pencil lineup was a little bit of a multitude for some time, however now there are simply two choices to think about: the $79 USB-C Apple Pencil and the extra succesful $129 Pencil Professional. Apple nonetheless sells the first- and second-generation Pencils for older iPads, however the lineup has fortunately been streamlined going ahead.

The Apple Pencil Professional is sort of a bit extra succesful than the usual one. It has strain sensitivity, haptic suggestions, a gyroscope so you possibly can roll the pencil in your arms to alter your brush width, a double-tab management to alter instruments, a “squeeze” function to deliver up the entire device palette, assist for the Discover My app and magnetic charging and pairing while you snap it to the facet of the iPad mini.

That’s quite a lot of bonuses for the additional $50, and the combo of the Apple Pencil Professional and iPad mini makes for a tiny however extraordinarily succesful digital pocket book and canvas. It’s additionally the identical value because the reMarkable Paper Professional pill and stylus, although the units have utterly totally different display sorts and the iPad does an entire lot extra. Relying on what you’re in search of, which may not be factor, as a giant a part of the reMarkable expertise is an absence of distractions that may pull you out of focus in addition to a greater writing expertise than you’ll get with a glass LCD display.

Lastly, the iPad mini has 128GB of storage on the $499 value, double what it had earlier than. This can be a long-overdue change and makes it potential to suggest somebody simply seize that base mannequin. There’s additionally a 512GB choice for the primary time. And, as standard, you possibly can add 5G connectivity for an additional $150. The mannequin I attempted was a top-of-the-line 512GB mannequin with 5G, which retails for a considerably loopy $949.

Oh, and the brand new iPad mini helps Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. Not a game-changer, however good to have the newest wi-fi specs for future-proofing.

What’s an iPad mini for?

I haven’t used an iPad mini for an prolonged time period in years, and as I settled in to testing it, Billie Eilish’s sultry voice drifted into my head, asking “what was I made for?” Sure, this can be a extremely ridiculous anecdote, however that was what I got down to discover: what’s an iPad mini best-used for? It’s undoubtedly not meant to be a laptop computer alternative, just like the a lot bigger and extra succesful 13-inch iPad Air and iPad Professional I reviewed earlier this yr. As an alternative, it’s an pleasurable secondary machine that I largely used after the workday was completed, instead of my MacBook Professional or iPhone.

Studying

It’s a superbly sized machine for studying, whether or not it’s articles on web sites, posts from Substack or novels utilizing the Kindle or Apple Books apps. I nonetheless choose a paper ebook or a Kindle machine, as they’re each far more snug than studying on an LCD display, however the iPad mini is general a much better studying machine than another iPad. Nonetheless, this was additionally one place the place I needed the iPad mini had a better refresh charge. Vertically scrolling by lengthy articles is noticeably jerkier than doing so on my iPhone 14 Professional or an iPad Professional, each of which have 120Hz refresh charges.

Messaging

Its dimension additionally makes it an amazing messaging machine, with the portrait-oriented keyboard completely snug for two-handed typing. If you happen to’re chatting away in a messaging app, having instant entry to your conversations makes leaping from one contact to a different so much simpler. I wouldn’t wish to write an article on this, nevertheless it was superb for firing off messages. And once more, it’s much better suited to this use than greater iPads.

Gaming

The iPad mini additionally grew to become my go-to Balatro machine. The sport simply hit iOS a number of weeks in the past and I’ve been utterly sucked in, like a lot of my co-workers. It’s a little bit cramped on my cellphone, however feels nice on the iPad mini. Different informal video games like these you’ll discover on Apple Arcade additionally really feel nice on the iPad mini, however I did have a harder time with extra fast-paced titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The on-screen controls felt a little bit too cramped, one thing that may in fact be alleviated by pairing a Bluetooth controller.

Due to the A17 Professional chip, the iPad mini can even play a handful of AAA video games that you simply’d sometimes anticipate to see on a console or PC like Loss of life Stranding and Murderer’s Creed Mirage, each of which had been introduced for the iPhone 15 Professional in September 2023. Solely the iPhone 15 Professional and 16 Professional can play these video games, together with iPads which have not less than an M1 processor. Now that the iPad mini has (basically) the identical chip because the iPhone 15 Professional, these video games can be found. I haven’t had an opportunity to check them but, however I’ll replace this evaluation as soon as I get an opportunity to see how they maintain up on this {hardware}.

Apple Pencil Professional

I’m no visible artist, however I can think about individuals who love to attract discovering the iPad mini to be an amazing moveable sketchbook. Generally, having the bigger canvas you will get on an iPad Air or Professional is preferable, however on the subject of one thing you possibly can throw in your bag and neglect about, the iPad mini is unmatched. I received within the behavior of utilizing it as a digital pocket book — simply pulling the Apple Pencil Professional off the facet and tapping the display opened up a clean word doc I might jot my ideas and to-do gadgets onto.

Watching video

Whereas the iPad mini makes for a superb moveable video participant, it’s one state of affairs the place I missed a much bigger display. If I used to be flying cross-country or over the Atlantic, I’d undoubtedly choose one thing bigger. The usual iPad or the 11-inch iPad Air and Professional are barely heavier, however they’re well-balanced sufficient that they aren’t a burden to carry and watch a film on. If that’s a main use case for you, think about stepping as much as an iPad with a much bigger display.

Battery life

As for battery life, I didn’t at all times hit the ten hours Apple guarantees. Utilizing quite a lot of the apps and workflows I’ve described, I’d get round eight hours earlier than needing a cost. In fact, these routines sometimes included a good bit of gaming, which undoubtedly takes a success on the battery (even when it’s simply informal issues like Balatro). I haven’t had time but to do a video playback battery take a look at, however my guess is that one will come out so much nearer to the usual 10 hours.

Wrap-up

This yr’s iPad mini is a type of typical Apple updates that focuses on software program and inside {hardware} relatively than a flashy redesign. However that’s OK. If you happen to purchased the prior iPad mini, you possibly can safely ignore this one except you’re actually all-in on Apple Intelligence. Anybody else who has a smaller iPad that also has a house button will get a ton of worth out of this replace. It has certainly one of Apple’s finest cellular chips and Apple Pencil Professional assist makes it simple to suggest for anybody who needs a conveyable sketchbook.

I wouldn’t hate an improved show with smaller bezels and a better refresh charge, and I wouldn’t have stated no to an M2 or A18 Professional chip inside, however these are the one issues I’d change right here. And each would certainly make the iPad mini dearer. As it’s, it’s a stable performer for $499. If you happen to simply need a little bit sofa computing companion, or a pill so small and lightweight you could take it in all places with you, the iPad mini stays your most suitable option.