An 8.3-inch tablet is the size you can hold in one hand on a crowded train or slip into a coat pocket, and Apple makes only one of them. It costs less than usual at the moment: the iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip goes from $599 to $499 on Amazon, 17% off, and the price is shown to all customers, with no Prime membership needed. This is the Wi-Fi version with 128GB of storage.
The Small iPad That Takes an Apple Pencil Pro
The iPad mini works with the Apple Pencil Pro and with the cheaper Apple Pencil (USB-C), both sold separately. At this size the pairing makes a particular kind of sense, because the tablet is close to a paper notebook in the hand: you can stand in a meeting or a lecture hall and write on it without a table. iPadOS adds Scribble, which converts handwriting into typed text in any text field. I’d say note-taking is the best argument for the mini over a larger iPad, more than video or games.
Inside is the A17 Pro chip, which Apple presents as fast enough for photo and video editing and which supports Apple Intelligence, the company’s set of writing and productivity tools. Apple promises all-day battery life without giving a figure in the listing. Storage starts at 128GB on this model, a comfortable amount for apps, books and notes, though anyone who downloads a lot of films for travel should look at the 256GB and 512GB versions.
The screen is a Liquid Retina panel with a resolution of 2266 by 1488 pixels, so text stays sharp at reading distance. It covers the P3 wide color range, adjusts its white balance to the room with True Tone, and has a coating Apple describes as ultralow reflectivity, which helps near a window or under office lights. For reading a novel, a comic or a recipe propped against the backsplash, this is the format I find easiest to live with.
Both cameras are 12MP. The front one is an Ultra Wide lens with Center Stage, which keeps you framed during video calls, and the rear one has a True Tone flash and records 4K video, though scanning documents is the job it will do most often. The tablet charges and connects over USB-C, unlocks with Touch ID and supports Wi-Fi 6E, which requires a compatible router to make a difference.
Connectivity sets the price: the 128GB Wi-Fi iPad mini (A17 Pro) is $499 instead of $599 on Amazon, and the Wi-Fi + Cellular version is $649 instead of $749. Amazon lists four colors, Space Gray, Blue, Purple and Starlight, with free returns and no Prime requirement.