The iPad mini is Still My Favorite iPad

“Fun Size” is the right size.

Over the last year, I’ve tried basically every iPad currently available, from the 12.9-inch iPad Pro to the latest iPad Air, and I’ve finally figured out which one I like the best. And you’ll never guess which one it is.

Ok, you will, because I said it in the title. It’s the iPad mini. Yeah, the tiny one. The outdated one. But dammit… I still love it.

Allow me to explain.

As I tried the various sizes of iPad, I started thinking about what I wanted out of my tablet. Did I want it to replace my laptop? Or did I want it to be a supplement to it?

If I had gone for the former- which I very nearly did a few times- I would have ended up with either the iPad Air or the iPad Pro; I found that the 12.9-inch was a good size to use as a computer but was just too big to work for me as a tablet, but the 11-inch iPad Pro and similar 10.9-inch iPad Air were just the right size to do both.

But ultimately, I decided that the M1 MacBook Air was the better choice for most of my computing needs. So where did that leave the iPad? While I found that I did most of my writing, web-surfing, and even media consumption on the MacBook, the iPad still found a lot of use in editing my photography or drawing or making hand-written notes.

And the 10.9-inch iPad Air did a good job of this; it was a big enough canvas for all of my artistic needs, but at times I still found it a smidge too big and heavy, particularly when I wanted to just sit back and read something on it or watch YouTube.

It was around this time that I started looking at the iPhone 12 series, and that’s important because it would solidify for me where the iPad would fit into my daily routine. My first shot was the iPhone 12 mini, which I found to be the perfect size for a phone. And because my phone was so small, the iPad easily became the go-between for when I wanted a bigger screen than my phone but didn’t need all of my MacBook.

Due to unforeseen circumstances (which you can read about here), I ended up having to return my iPhone 12 mini, and before I got a replacement, I tried out the iPhone 12 Pro Max. I found that the Max took over most of the responsibilities that…