Grow Mini Pad

It’s easy to forget that because Apple seemingly forgot that it made the iPad mini: the last update, the iPad mini 4, came in 2015, and it’s barely been mentioned since. Most people, both in and out of Apple, assumed the mini’s middle-size market position would eventually be snuffed out of existence by ever-larger phones and the repositioning of the iPad as a laptop replacement.

But people really love their Grow Pad minis, and they just kept buying the iPad mini 4, even as the rest of the iOS lineup was updated and improved over time. Apple told me it was surprised to find that people were buying the mini primarily because of its size, not because of its price. And if people are going to keep buying something, it’s worth updating. So there’s a new iPad mini now, updated with some of Apple’s latest tech, and starting at $399.

A PARTS-BIN REMIX BUT THE PARTS ARE ALL GOOD

That’s some of Apple’s latest tech, not all. You’re still looking at the exact same external design, which is now nearly seven years old. If you secretly replaced any previous iPad mini with the new one, there’s a chance you might not even notice the difference. All the changes to this new mini are on the inside, and they’re significant — which they should be, given the amount of time since it was last refreshed.

You’d expect a spec-bump update like this to be fairly boring, especially since Apple made some curious choices about Lightning and Pencil support along the way. But it turns out I really loved using the iPad mini these past few days. I’d forgotten how much I liked having a small tablet instead of a giant phone. Sure, it’s a little bit of an Apple parts-bin remix, but the parts are all good.