Secure, boring and all the things I would like in a small pill

To the shock of few, the new iPad mini that Apple introduced final week is a small replace fairly than a serious reinvention. It could have been three years between iPad mini updates, however the 2021 mannequin was the primary to ditch the previously ubiquitous house button in favor of smaller bezels. Apple actually wouldn’t redesign the iPad mini solely to take action once more after a single technology, so that is one other instance of a brand new Apple product that appears the identical on the surface however has some notable upgrades on the within.

What’s new right here may be summed up shortly: extra storage, assist for the Apple Pencil Professional and, most crucially, a extra highly effective chip. The A17 Professional permits the iPad mini to make use of Apple Intelligence options after they launch later this month, which might be why this pill exists in any respect. Apple clearly desires to get as many individuals as doable utilizing these options, and now each iPad the corporate sells (aside from the entry-level mannequin) will work with Apple Intelligence. In fact, that makes totally evaluating the iPad mini robust, as a result of Apple Intelligence isn’t right here but. However there’s nonetheless lots to know if you happen to’re fascinated about Apple’s latest tiny pill.

What’s the identical?

As is commonly 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 examine of Apple’s shade schemes. This yr, extraordinarily delicate shades of blue and purple substitute the richer pink and purple choices — my take a look at iPad mini is purple, however seems to be like a reasonably straight silver in a variety of gentle. I actually want Apple would supply extra daring shade choices in additional of its merchandise, however right here we’re.

There isn’t rather a lot to complain about in terms of the iPad mini’s design. It feels completely in keeping with the opposite iPads Apple sells, with modest bezels (which might be beginning to really feel a bit thick) surrounding its display screen and stereo audio system when held in panorama orientation. These audio system sound significantly better than you’d count on given the mini’s small measurement; Apple has been placing surprisingly nice audio system in all its merchandise for just a few years now and I’m glad this pattern continues right here.

The digital camera remains to be portrait-oriented, in contrast to all the opposite iPads you should buy. That doesn’t actually hassle me, since you’re hardly ever, 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 need to 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 digital camera on the rear takes surprisingly first rate pictures in low gentle and may work wonderful for scanning paperwork or QR codes. However as traditional, simply use your cellphone to take pictures and movies — chances are high it has a greater digital camera than the iPad mini.

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

The 8.3-inch display screen on the iPad mini is about on par with the one on the iPad Air. It helps the P3 huge shade gamut, has an antireflective coating and is totally laminated to the entrance glass, in contrast to the display screen 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 screen, however it’s nonetheless an ordinary LCD show with a now-pedestrian 60Hz refresh fee. I’m under no circumstances shocked by this, as Apple has stored its greatest display screen know-how for the iPad Professional. However very quickly it’s going to want to up the refresh fee on different iPads (and iPhones if we’re being sincere) in addition to the Professional fashions.

One bit of fine information concerning the display screen is that it appears Apple has fastened the “jelly-scrolling” downside that plagued the prior iPad mini. Jelly-scrolling happens when one aspect of a display screen doesn’t refresh at precisely the identical fee 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 problem 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 quicker than the A15 within the prior iPad mini. The 5-core GPU is 25 p.c quicker 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 not 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 measurement, I by no means as soon as thought of utilizing it as a laptop computer substitute like I do with the iPad Professional. As a substitute, it made a cushty sofa companion for looking the web, messaging buddies, triaging e-mail, enjoying video games and sometimes modifying 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 return.

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 except for the entry-level mannequin. The Pencil lineup was a little bit of a large number for some time, however now there are simply two choices to contemplate: 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’ll be able to roll the pencil in your fingers to vary your brush width, a double-tab management to vary instruments, a “squeeze” function to convey up the entire software palette, assist for the Discover My app and magnetic charging and pairing while you snap it to the aspect of the iPad mini.

That’s a variety 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 worth as the reMarkable Paper Professional pill and stylus, although the units have utterly totally different display screen sorts and the iPad does a complete lot extra. Relying on what you’re on the lookout for, that may not be an excellent factor, as a giant a part of the reMarkable expertise is a scarcity 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 screen.

Lastly, the iPad mini has 128GB of storage on the $499 worth, double what it had earlier than. It is a long-overdue change and makes it doable to suggest somebody simply seize that base mannequin. There’s additionally a 512GB choice for the primary time. And, as traditional, you’ll be able to 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 substitute, just like the a lot bigger and extra succesful 13-inch iPad Air and iPad Professional I reviewed earlier this yr. As a substitute, it’s an pleasant secondary system that I largely used after the workday was executed, instead of my MacBook Professional or iPhone.

Studying

It’s a wonderfully sized system 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 desire a paper e book or a Kindle system, as they’re each way more comfy than studying on an LCD display screen, however the iPad mini is general a much better studying system than another iPad. Nevertheless, this was additionally one place the place I wanted the iPad mini had a better refresh fee. Vertically scrolling by way of 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 measurement additionally makes it a fantastic messaging system, with the portrait-oriented keyboard completely comfy for two-handed typing. In case you’re chatting away in a messaging app, having instant entry to your conversations makes leaping from one contact to a different rather a lot simpler. I wouldn’t need to write an article on this, however it was wonderful 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 system. The sport simply hit iOS just a few weeks in the past and I’ve been utterly sucked in, like lots of my co-workers. It’s just a little 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 more durable time with extra fast-paced titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The on-screen controls felt just a little too cramped, one thing that may in fact be alleviated by pairing a Bluetooth controller.

Because of the A17 Professional chip, the iPad mini may play a handful of AAA video games that you just’d usually count on to see on a console or PC like Loss of life Stranding and Murderer’s Creed Mirage, each of which have 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 at the very least an M1 processor. Now that the iPad mini has (primarily) 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 overview 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 a fantastic transportable sketchbook. Generally, having the bigger canvas you may get on an iPad Air or Professional is preferable, however in terms of one thing you’ll be able to throw in your bag and overlook about, the iPad mini is unequalled. I obtained within the behavior of utilizing it as a digital pocket book — simply pulling the Apple Pencil Professional off the aspect and tapping the display screen opened up a clean word doc I might jot my ideas and to-do objects onto.

Watching video

Whereas the iPad mini makes for a wonderful transportable video participant, it’s one state of affairs the place I missed a much bigger display screen. If I used to be flying cross-country or over the Atlantic, I’d undoubtedly desire 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 major use case for you, think about stepping as much as an iPad with a much bigger display screen.

Battery life

As for battery life, I didn’t all the time hit the ten hours Apple guarantees. Utilizing a wide range of the apps and workflows I’ve described, I’d get round eight hours earlier than needing a cost. In fact, these routines usually 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 rather a lot 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} fairly than a flashy redesign. However that’s OK. In case you purchased the prior iPad mini, you’ll be able to 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 greatest cell chips and Apple Pencil Professional assist makes it simple to suggest for anybody who desires a conveyable sketchbook.

I wouldn’t hate an improved show with smaller bezels and a better refresh fee, 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. In case you simply need just a little sofa computing companion, or a pill so small and light-weight you can take it in every single place with you, the iPad mini stays your most suitable option.