IPad mini 6 won the Apple event – here’s why

The cute but well-designed iPad mini 6 probably wasn’t supposed to make headlines at Apple’s California Dreaming event on Tuesday. However, with much of Apple’s smaller tablet having been upgraded or traded in, this is arguably the most interesting of all the products the company has announced.

I have often overlooked the iPad mini in the past. The iPad mini (2019) wasn’t on my shortlist at all when looking for a new personal tablet, and it’s the only iPad not on Tom’s Guide’s list of best tablets. But the arrival of the new iPad mini seems to want to change everything.

First of all, the new design of the iPad mini brings it up to date. It now looks like Apple’s iPad Air and iPad Pro, ditching the ugly bezels that really should have gotten away from the new base iPad. As a result, the screen has also gotten bigger, from 7.9 inches to 8.3 inches on the 2019 iPad mini. This is a huge change in quality of life up front, giving users more time. space in roughly the same frame size.

You can also enjoy this modern looking screen with a modern stylus as the mini now also supports the second generation Apple Pencil, a big improvement over the original. It is more compact and can be stored and charged by a magnetic connector on the edge of the tablet. It is much more convenient than the first generation pencil which does not have a convenient storage function and has to be recharged through the Lightning connector of the regular iPad.

There will also be a big step forward in computing power, thanks to the new A15 Bionic chipset built into the iPad mini. The latest model used an A12 Bionic chip, which was already a year old when it appeared in this version. This iPad gets the A15 chip at the same time it debuts in the iPhone 13, so it’s as powerful an iPad as it gets without buying the M1 powered iPad Pro.

Another iPad Pro feature stolen by the iPad mini 6 (and iPad 9) is Center Stage for the front camera. It allows iPad to control the zoom level of your video feed while on a call or recording you, letting it follow you around the space and adjusting as people enter or exit the frame. From what I’ve seen of this feature on the iPad Pro, it’s very effective, so it’s good to see it roll out to more models.

While not the most exciting change, swapping out a USB-C port will prove to be quite useful. It will be much easier to charge the iPad mini with whatever cable you have around you, and as Apple showed in its presentation, it allows the mini to work with a lot of new accessories that it doesn’t have. had no possibility to use before. .

The only thing missing is a keyboard case, like other iPads, although this could be because the mini is too small to have functional and ergonomic keys. It would also be kind of Apple if it came up with a 128GB storage model, rather than leaving users struggling to choose between a pathetic 64GB base version or the 256GB version that adds 150. $ additional to the price. It’s frustrating, but we’ll just have to swallow it as room for improvement for future generations.

I’m excited about the changes to the iPhone 13 lineup, especially what Apple has done with the iPhone 13 cameras and the new 120Hz ProMotion display on the Pro models. The Apple Watch 7, although it has seen only moderate changes from last year, also looks attractive. The less said about the new base iPad the better, although it has received some interesting upgrades. Even with all of that in mind, I’m still convinced the iPad mini was the star of the show.