Apples iPad miniis kind of like the Mac mini.
Its neglected, often going years between updates, yet it remains a popular, almost cult item.
The latest mini is the best yet, by far.
Apple
The display got bigger, the body got smaller, and now it works with the second-gen Apple Pencil.
Maximal Mini
The new iPad mini is pretty much a shrunken iPad Air, only better.
It has the same flat-sided body, narrow screen border, and fingerprint-reading power button.
Apple
You also get 5G (great, for such a portable iPad) and cooler colors.
That was pre-Retina, but I used it for work, writing articles, reading, everything.
It was just so portable.
Small enough to slide into the back jeans pocket and to hold in one hand.
But is portability enough to get this over the minis disadvantages?
Downsides
That first iPad mini had the advantage of being cheap.
At the time, it was the most affordable iPad.
Thats not an impulse buy and is the same price as the entry-level 11-inch iPad Pro.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, miniaturization was everything.
Radios, early cellphones, Walkmans, we wanted them small, and we paid for it.
So paying extra isnt really a problem.
But there are drawbacks.
The screen is also too small for two people to watch a movie together or practical two-app multitasking.
And forget about a Magic Keyboard case.
It would be unusable.
But the iPad Pro, itself, is riddled with problems.
Text selection is also still tricky, and multitasking in iPadOS 15 is improved but still finicky.
This all benefits the mini.
Why bother with a giant 12.9-inch iPad if it doesnt work right?
Why not switch to the tiny iPad, and use a Mac for what it does best?
And I can do it all while actually saving money.
