The iPad has had a thin couple of years. This last tablet to fall out of favor for Apple is one whose focus has shifted to mobile, content, wearables, and mixed reality. Of course, one could say the same thing about the Mac just a few years earlier, but the laptop/desktop group has had something of a renaissance in Cupertino-thanks largely to the arrival of Apple Silicon.

One could say that the iPad is having its moment. Apple certainly made an impact in May, when the M4 debuted on the new iPad Pros. It marked the first time that the M-series of desktop processors premiered on a non-Mac device.

Through different eras of its existence, the iPad has, at one point or another, more closely resembled either the iPhone or the Mac. The May news spelled out the fact that, at the very least, Apple is coming to see the high end of its tablet product line land closer to the laptop side of things. At that same event, Apple brought M2 to the iPad Air. It was 2 years old, sure, but still offered a lot of firepower for that little tablet.

Last week, the company released an updated iPad Mini, the first one since 2021. Contrary to how the Pro and Air models preceding it were set up, however, the smallest member of the iPad family was not treated to an M-series chip. Apparently, Apple made a different call for this one and instead opted to equips the 8.3-inch tablet with an A17 Pro - the same piece of silicon giving new life to new iPhone 16 Pro models.

That is enough to leapfrog the base iPad in compute power—but that is a consequence of the slate not getting an update since the 10th generation arrived in 2022. Because of that difference, the standard iPad is now several generations behind the Mini, boasting an A14 Bionic under its bonnet.

The Mini consequently also hopped over the iPad in price. The Wi-Fi versions of the tablets now retail for $499 and $349, respectively; the cellular/5G versions are $649 and $499. A $150 difference is not insubstantial, considering the important differences between screen sizes: 8.3 inches for the Mini versus 10.1 inches.

Nonetheless, the Mini is a far more premium device than the 10th-gen iPad despite its relatively diminutive dimensions. The first is how it manages to cram almost as many pixels into a 2,266 x 1,488 resolution as the iPad can fit into its 2,360 x 1,640. This, of course, owes itself to an aggressively higher pixel density at 326 ppi to the iPad's 264.

As things stand, the new Mini will boast a pixel density greater than any iPad. The smaller the screen, the more important higher pixel densities are- because they cram in twice the number of sharp details in a smaller space. And so it is hardly surprising that even the iPad Mini leaves the iPhone 16's rate of 460 ppi badly behind.

So the seemingly spotty iPad release cadence has left the product line in flux. But as it stands now, the Mini outdoes the base iPad by pretty much every metric except for screen size. And of course that is not an irrelevant detail. Indeed, the iPad Mini's 8.3-inch screen size is almost exactly the halfway point between the iPad (10.1) and iPhone 16 Pro Max (6.3).

It occupies that liminal space as a device, too, in that it's better suited for viewing television shows and movies than on the iPhone, for example, due to its larger screen. But if entertainment is your driver, it's hard to make a case for the Mini over the Air, Pro, or even the base iPad.

To its credit, Apple is leaning into some key customer use cases with the welcome addition of Apple Pencil and Pencil Pro compatibility. At 7.69 x 5.3 inches, the tablet is a great size for taking notes and drawing. That's certainly enhanced with the fully revamped version of Calculator, which is now a far more powerful math class companion.

Indeed, the tablet is very well suitable for the educational market in general. Its small size makes it a heck of a lot easier to toss into a backpack and pull out during a lecture. It's also a great size to read on, although if reading is your reason for buying a device of this type it might make the most sense in the long run to spend your money on a dedicated e-reader, such as one of the new Kindles, since those devices are easier on the eyes and have far better battery life than tablets.

What really makes the Mini an interesting proposition in education for that one more key reason is the addition of the A17 Pro chip: Apple Intelligence. The small base model iPads, aside from the current writing, will be able to run Apple's little model generative AI platform and brings with that ability to let iPadOS rewrite letters and other documents for you.

Having that sort of functionality baked into the operating system will only further serve to blur the lines when it comes to writing term papers. That said, there's nothing in terms of text generation that Apple Intelligence can accomplish for which students don't already have access to through platforms like ChatGPT.

The role of an iPad Mini is much less apparent for the non-students of the world. I've certainly found applications for the form factor that slot into my own life. For instance, I plan to keep my notes for my Disrupt panels on the little tablet at next week's event. Personally speaking, however, I don't feel there are enough use cases in my own life to warrant the purchase of a small tablet rather than a big iPhone or standard iPad.

If you do upgrade, the advanced silicon, Apple Intelligence compatibility and the use of Pencil provide enough reasons to justify the upgrade.