Of all of the products that Apple makes, the iPad mini is often the one that I have the most difficulty discussing when I talk to lawyers and other professionals. Should they consider getting a product that is so small that you have to squint to read legal briefs on it? Indeed, the height of the iPad mini, 7.69", is only about an inch taller than an iPhone 16 Pro Max at 6.42". And yet at the same time, I've owned an iPad mini in the past and I still remember how lovable that device is. It's so small and light that you feel like you can take it anywhere. It's like your little buddy. And while the height may be only slightly more than the biggest iPhone, the width is 5.3"—much more than the approximately 3" of an iPhone. So the device feels like an iPad, not an iPhone. Just a much smaller, much more portable, iPad.
For me, as much as I loved the iPad mini when I owned it, I didn't use it enough to justify upgrading it over the years. And as my iPhone models got larger, the iPad mini felt less necessary. But I know that many people still love the size and weight of the iPad mini, and for them, yesterday was a great day because Apple announced the first upgrade to the iPad mini in three years.
Apple is currently calling this new device the iPad mini (A17 Pro), but considering that the prior model was called the iPad mini (6th generation), I wonder if at some point Apple will start calling this the seventh generation of the iPad mini. Whatever you call it, the new iPad mini is everything that you loved about the prior model, except that it now has a better processor—no, not the latest and greatest, but fast enough that this device will be able to handle Apple Intelligence when it debuts later this month. Here are more details.
The size
There is no real dispute about the best feature of the iPad mini: the size. This newest iPad mini is the same size as the prior model: 7.69" x 5.3" x 0.25" and weighs the same (about 0.65 pounds). But perhaps the more important thing to note is that the new iPad mini is essentially the same size and weight as every iPad mini that has ever been released, all the way back to the first generation introduced in 2012. If you think of the size of a 5x8 photograph, this is about the same dimensions—albeit thicker and heavier.
When I reviewed the original iPad mini in 2012, I noted that this small size makes a "drastic impact on how you use the device" because it is so small and light that you find yourself wanting to carry it around much more frequently. You can hold it in your hand forever without your hand getting tired. And not only is it easy to carry in a briefcase or purse, but you might be able to get away with carrying it in a larger pocket.
As someone who loves the larger screen of an iPad Pro, it won't surprise you that I consider the small size to be a serious disadvantage for reading legal briefs, reviewing exhibits, and working on documents that have fixed dimensions. Obviously, you need to shrink the size of the document to see it on a smaller screen. You may need to squint to read some text. But for other types of documents and apps for which there is no pre-set right margin, where the text is dynamic and will fill whatever size screen you have—things like a webpage or an e-book—you can make the text size whatever works best for your eyes. You simply see fewer words on the screen because of the smaller screen. And for this type of reading, the iPad mini is fine.
The screen
The screen on the new iPad mini is very similar to the model that was introduced three years ago. The screen size is the same at 8.3" The screen is not as nice as the one that you get on the iPad Pro, but it is very similar to what you get with the latest iPad Air. In fact, if you think of the iPad mini as an "iPad Air mini," that's pretty close to the mark.
Power
Apple currently sells a single low-end iPad model called the iPad (10th generation). It is aimed at the education market and I don't recommend it for any lawyers or other professionals, so let's ignore it for now. Every other iPad model currently being sold (two models of the iPad Air and two models of the iPad Pro) uses an M2 or an M4 processor. This new iPad mini instead uses the somewhat slower A17 Pro. That's the same processor that was used in the high-end iPhones introduced in 2023: the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. But of course, the A17 Pro is slower than the A18 that is found in the 2024 models of the iPhone.
What does all of this mean? It means that the new iPad mini is much faster than the model introduced three years ago, and it is close to but not quite as fast as the other iPads being sold. But for most people who purchase the new iPad mini, I doubt that they will notice that it isn't quite as powerful as an iPad Air or an iPad Pro. I suppose it would have been nicer for this iPad mini to use the same M2 as the current iPad Air, but in the real world, few people are likely to notice much of a difference.
Other improvements
The faster processor—fast enough to support Apple Intelligence—is the main difference between the new iPad mini and the one introduced three years ago. But there are a few other smaller improvements.
First, this new iPad mini supports the latest and greatest version of the Apple Pencil: the Apple Pencil Pro.
Second, the cheapest model of this new iPad mini has 128GB of storage space, up from the 64GB of the prior model. That's a noticeable improvement, and if you don't plan to keep tons of videos and documents on this device, 128GB is probably enough. You can also pay more for 256GB or 512GB if you plan to store lots of media and large documents.
Third, the new iPad mini works supports Find My. Thus, you can locate it if you misplace it.
Fourth, there are minor improvements to the connectivity. You get Wi-Fi 6E instead of the prior model's Wi-Fi 6. You get Bluetooth 5.3 instead of the prior model's Bluetooth 5.0. And the new iPad mini supports USB-C with USB 3.1 Gen 2, which means that the speed when transferring data over a USB-C cord is up to 10 Gbps, twice as fast as the USB 3.1 Gen 1 on the prior iPad mini model.
Price
The price is essentially the same as before. The starting price remains $499, although as noted above that comes with 128GB instead of the prior 64GB. For an additional $100 you get 256GB, or for an additional $300 you can get the 512GB model for $799. For all of these models, if you want built-in cellular, you need to add another $150 (plus the cost of a cellular data plan, which varies depending on your carrier).
This makes the iPad mini only slightly cheaper than the iPad Air. The 128GB iPad mini is $499 and the 128GB iPad Air is $599. But I suspect that people who love the iPad mini would get it even if it was the same price or even more expensive than the larger iPad Air because they prefer the more compact size.
Conclusion
For most attorneys and other professionals looking to get serious work done, the iPad Air is the best choice. If you want a premium product with a better screen and other extra features, the iPad Pro is fantastic (I love mine), but the iPad Air is the sweet spot for getting work done. But if portability is really important to you, and if the things you will primarily read on your iPad use dynamic text like a website as opposed to text of a fixed size as compared to the total document size like a PDF document—or if your eyesight is better than mine and you are OK with reading those documents on a smaller screen—then the new iPad mini is worth considering. The compact size makes the iPad mini the friendliest of all the iPads. I'm glad that Apple is continuing to make the iPad mini and now offers a model with a beefed-up (albeit not top-of-the-line) processor. The iPad mini has always been a niche product, but the people who love it really love it.