I Hate That the iPad Mini is No Longer Every Inch an iPad
I have been an iPad fan for a very long time now. I purchased my first iPad, a second-hand first gen cellular model, back in late 2011 to make sure that I used it enough to justify the purchase of a new model. I wasn’t confident that it would click with me but straight away it became my primary Internet device. They iPad is the couch-surfing device as it the web so immediate and intimate. Ever since this purchase the iPad has not only been my primary web browsing device but also my primary computing device.
When the iPad Mini was first announced in 2012 I had no strong feelings about it. This changed when I tried one in an Apple Store. Perhaps it was because my first generation iPad was the heaviest available at the time, but it felt futuristic in my hands, impossibly thin and light, but still every inch an iPad, as Apple’s marketing so aptly put it. It had the wow factor that Apple are able to instil within their hardware.
The iPad Mini was not a compromised or feature reduced iPad. It was an iPad but smaller. The same power, the same resolution, the same screen ratio, the same apps, but in a more portable and comfortable form factor. It was inevitable that I purchased one even though I had been planning to wait for the first Retina iPad to release.
The second generation iPad Mini launched a year later and again, my purchase was inevitable, as it had a Retina screen. and fifth generation.. but notably.. not the sixth or seventh generation, despite feeling the need to upgrade.
My fifth generation is getting a bit long in the tooth now. It’s still fully functional, but heavier web pages make it chug and the battery life is just a couple of hours. I’ve been holding out for the seventh generation. I decided it would be an instant upgrade on announcement. So why haven’t I made the purchase yet?
I thought that in images of the new iPad Mini something seemed off but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It turns out that the aspect ratio of the Mini now differs to that of any other iPad – it’s narrower and longer. On paper this sounds like an upgrade as the diagonal screen size is larger, but I think this fundamentally damages the Mini’s identity.
I compared the new seventh generation to my fifth generation in a store, looking at the same website on both devices side by side, and it was apparent that even though the new Mini only loses 50 pixels horizontally the text wrapping on websites is impacted and some sites reformat their layout entirely. The iPad Mini is no longer every inch an iPad. It has become a compromised iPad, a diluted iPad. Too narrow in portrait, and too wide in landscape; it reminds me of a cheap Android tablet! Apple usually, in my opinion, make very good decisions with the form factors of their devices, but this feels like an oversight or a compromise. Someone didn’t ‘get’ what made the Mini special - no compromise.
I have an iPhone 13 Mini and I really don’t enjoy the screen size, so the iPad Mini is my ‘big’ Internet browsing device where the Internet feels uncompromised and websites have breathing room. It looks like the new iPad Mini’s screen ratio changes this. I don’t want two devices with a cramped browsing experience!
This leaves me with a predicament. My iPad Mini is getting long in the tooth, but I don’t want it’s direct successor. Other iPad models feel too big for comfortable couch browsing. And I'm not looking to replace my iPhone. I could go for an iPhone Pro Max to fill the Mini-shaped hole in my heart but I’m really not a fan of a big device in my front pockets, and I’m not sure I’d be getting the same web experience as a ‘real iPad’. A better phone experience sure, but not a 'real web' experience.
Perhaps I'm being fussy and the new iPad Mini is fine, but there is always going to be the niggling feeling of compromise. In a way, being discouraged from upgrading could be a good thing; do I really need to upgrade what is currently an adequately working device? I'd like to say no, but with Apple's Mini update schedule being so infrequent, there is a chance my device will either die or lose iOS support before the next update!
Apple giveth, Apple taketh away..