Just a week ago, Tim Cook stepped out on the Apple Park virtual stage and said it was “the biggest day for iPad since it was introduced”. The world sat up, ready for what was to come.
And there it was: iPad Air certainly GOT the biggest it ever had, with a new 13” size. iPad Pro got impossibly thin and forgot one of it’s cameras, presumably left in it’s other, roomier trousers. The basic, non-pro, air- free iPad 10th generation got a near 30% price cut. We even got a new Apple Pencil, because how could three pencils possibly be enough? But there was one absence that filled the room. The perfect iPad. Mini.
Sidebar, I didn’t expect us to be getting a new iPad mini, there were no rumours of an update at this one, despite which some online predicted it because, well its been a while. 972 days kind of a while. That’s almost 33 Months. You don’t even measure kids in Months at that point, that’s a 2½ year old. Too old, for a little, perfect iPad.
Anyway back to the topic - All the new iPads were announced except the perfect sized one, and yet, it seems, the internet is still not happy. Because, as they’d been saying all along, their problem with iPad isn’t the hardware, but the software. Even though they were all PRETTY HAPPY when the FaceTime camera got moved to the landscape side on the Pro and the Air, which sure SOUNDS like a hardware change. Almost centered and everything. Jony Ive would be so proud. No, what EVERYONE wanted was to make the iPad more useable, being able to truly multitask and take advantage of the power of the chips. No I would argue that Apps like Final Cut Pro on iPad does do that, especially when it’s collating video feeds from up to 4 iPads or iPhones in real time, but what do I know. Apple doesn’t make ALL the apps though, so maybe point at the other devs for a minute.
WWDC may fix some of the issues - the second most common of which is File Management - and now basically everyone is okay with split screen apps on the iPad, can we just get Finder? Seems to me that if FILES was replaced, along with the biggest challenge Apple has faced to date, a calculator App for iPad, most people would be happy. Errrr.
But the biggest issue with iPad for me is the sprawling and confusing lineup. iPad Pro is now lighter than Air, by which I mean the iPad Air, which is now the chunky boy, so the name makes zero sense. With all the iPads and sizes, there are currently 6 major lines, four Apple Pencils, five very expensive keyboards, you get my drift. The key? The perfect iPad. Mini.
Don’t you move on, I can justify this. And I know, with the iPad mini having an 8.3” display vs the largest iPhones getting 6.7”, soon to be 6.9 with iPhone 16 Pro Max later this year, is it bigger enough to be worth it? It doesn’t get a proper keyboard from Apple so is it a proper work machine? It runs just an A15 chip, not an M like the higher end sister products.
Well, it actually has a way bigger display than it sounds like, because iPads have a different aspect ratio than phones. iPhone 15 Pro Max has the biggest iPhone display so far, at just over 16 square inches, while iPad mini is way ahead with one 40 square inches… that’s a MASSIVE difference. Also, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs in at 221g, the iPad mini is only about 70g more at 293. That’s way more screen for not much more weight.
But one change to the iPad mini will kind of allow Apple to eliminate two of the Apple Pencils, or at least move them to a legacy accessories segment maybe? Apple? This might be a good time to just make a little note. You can have that idea for free. If they do the same with the 10th Gen’s update to the 11th generation, both can have the same edge charging that would be compatible with Apple Pencil Pro, or the lower priced Apple Pencil USB-C. The other two can go hang out in the legacy segment for people adding to their older models.
What should we expect in September though, other than the camera move? Well a more recent A-chip, most likely the A17 is what I would have said, but I believe A17 was built on the same node as M3, which has been quickly moved on from as the yields were so low… so maybe actually the A18, just like the new iPhone 16. That would be great, and give iPad mini a big boost in the graphics side, as well as AI from the Neural cores that we’ve been hearing so much about. And as the iPad mini seems more closely related to the iPad Air line than the base iPad, it may also get bumped up to a base storage of 128gb like the Air did last week.
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