After 2 weeks reviewing the new iPad Mini (2024), I just want a Pixel Tablet Mini

I’m no stranger to iPads. I gained the iPad Mini 2 in a contest in 2014, purchased the Air 4 in 2020, and used each extensively over a number of years. However my favourite tablets have and can at all times be Android tablets. From my Acer Iconia A100 to my Nexus Pill 7, HUAWEI MediaPad M5 Professional 10.8, and at last, the Google Pixel Tablet, I’ve seen first-hand Android’s development on bigger screens, and I recognize the place we at the moment are.

So when the newest iPad Mini — a.ok.a. iPad Mini 7, iPad Mini A17 Professional, or iPad Mini (2024) — landed in my fingers, I virtually had my thoughts made up. Prejudice is humorous like that. I knew I’d just like the {hardware} and I predicted the A17 Professional processor can be a bit a lot for my day by day wants, however a welcome bonus when enhancing batches of pictures in Lightroom. I’d’ve additionally signed and notarized a doc telling you that none of that mattered for my private use as a result of I nonetheless choose Android over iPadOS. Sure, the iPad has extra high-quality apps, extra polish, extra gestures — simply extra of every thing — however I really feel at residence with Android, and you may’t simply manufacture or purchase that.

However I digress. What shocked me throughout my two weeks with the iPad Mini wasn’t any of that. It was how a lot I loved and missed this smaller pill type issue. The primary and most outstanding thought on my thoughts each time I picked up this iPad Mini is, “Oh, I want this was a Pixel Pill Mini!” Principally, simply take the Pixel Pill and shrink it to the dimensions of the smaller Nest Hub, and I’d be a contented camper. Permit me to clarify.

From the second I unboxed the brand new iPad Mini and each time I picked it up and used it, I used to be struck by what Apple has achieved with this pill. Sure, it’s small, with its 8.3-inch show and measly 6.3mm thickness, nevertheless it feels good. There’s a fragile steadiness between show utility and single-handed use, and the brand new iPad Mini slots proper in.

Once I made my husband pose to snap the picture above, he rapidly complained about having to carry the Pixel Pill up with one hand. At 493g versus 297g for the Mini, the distinction is well felt, even for somebody who doesn’t have to make use of them each day. So, think about what it could be like for an hour or two of day by day use. Even with my wrist’s Carpal Tunnel irritation rearing its ugly head these previous weeks, I didn’t discover that holding the iPad Mini irritated me any greater than holding my Pixel 9 Pro XL. By comparability, I’ve to relaxation the Pixel Pill on my lap or on a desk to make use of it for greater than 5 minutes.

After all, this smaller dimension means a smaller show, nevertheless it’s a compromise I’m prepared to make. You might even see the 8.3-inch show determine and suppose that’s barely bigger than a modern-day flagship cellphone, however don’t let the diagonal measure idiot you! My serviette math says the iPad Mini has a show floor of 204cm², which is sort of double that of my 6.3-inch Pixel 9 Professional XL’s 109cm². That’s much more show and it’s very noticeable whereas watching movies or studying books.

It’s extra than simply the dimensions and dimensions, although; it’s the facility inside. Apple didn’t low cost out on the processor right here, dotting the Mini with the identical chip as final 12 months’s iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max. The A17 Pro goes toe-to-toe with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which implies additional headroom to run all my apps, rapidly swap between them, use them in multi-window, join the iPad to my iMac, and extra. I didn’t discover a single hiccup, whether or not I used to be streaming a soccer recreation, watching our Android Authority YouTube channel, studying books within the Kindle app, wanting up Black Friday offers, or just searching. Even once I opened Lightroom and began enhancing a bunch of pictures, every thing was easy as butter.

It’s been stated one million occasions already, nevertheless it bears repeating: Apple is aware of what it’s doing with its processors. Google, not a lot. Positive, in my common use, I couldn’t inform you the distinction between my Pixel Pill’s Tensor G2 and the iPad Mini’s A17 Professional, however once I pushed these only a bit, it turned clear that one in every of them can hold chugging alongside properly, whereas the opposite begins displaying indicators of slowing down.

Oh, and the Mini now helps the Apple Pencil, too, which makes note-taking, screenshot scribbling, and detailed edits in Lightroom potential. If a Pixel Pill Mini had been to ever exist, I’d need it to observe in Apple’s footsteps and cram in a strong processor and high-end options that don’t make me really feel like I’m utilizing second-tier silicon or {hardware}.

The very first thing that irritated me concerning the iPad Mini was the truth that I needed to plug it in to cost it. I do know that’s the norm, however the Pixel Pill received me accustomed to this concept of never-but-always charging. Each time I choose it up, it’s full, and each time I put it again on the dock, it begins charging. I don’t have to consider it, nor do I’ve to fiddle with an errant USB-C cable. I hold discovering myself with the iPad Mini warning me a couple of low battery as a result of I at all times overlook to cost it. The Pixel Pill does that proper.

In addition to that, there’s the massive matter of usefulness whereas idle. Once I’m not utilizing the iPad Mini, its show turns off. A black sq. stares again at me from my bedside desk or my desk, ineffective and disappointing. As soon as once more, that is the norm with different tablets, however the Pixel Pill spoiled me with its rotating picture album. I really like that function. I really like that the show isn’t lifeless and that I don’t have one other pointless black display screen in entrance of me once I’m not utilizing it. As a substitute, I get a rotation of all of my pictures and get to recollect random moments from journeys, occasions, and get-togethers.

I can’t inform you what number of occasions during the last 12 months I’ve seen a photograph of a buddy or relative pop up on the Pixel Pill and smiled, then snapped it and despatched it to them in a message. “It’s only a foolish picture body!” I hear you say. Why, sure, nevertheless it’s additionally made me attain out to individuals out of the blue, meet up with them, and reminisce about that shared reminiscence. Some options transcend their utility and change into important and priceless like that. The Pixel Pill faucets into my humanity and my life’s story in a means that the iPad Mini simply can’t. For that purpose alone, I’ve a connection to the Pixel Pill that I simply can’t construct with the empty black display screen of the iPad Mini.

Sufficient sentimentality — let’s deal with the details. And the actual fact is that whereas some apps are higher designed for iPadOS, there’s nonetheless an enormous variety of apps that look horrendous on it as a result of the builders by no means optimized them for the bigger display screen. Google eschewed that with Android 15, the place you possibly can merely toggle a fullscreen aspect ratio option in settings to indicate the app on the whole lot of the show, and since Android apps scale nicely throughout a number of display screen sizes by design, they nonetheless look improbable on a 10-inch show. That is true for apps like Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Roborock, AllTrails, and extra, which present up as a pixelated mess on the iPad however not on the Pixel Pill.

Add to that the superior Gboard expertise on Android (versus the default iPad keyboard and even Gboard on iPadOS), Android’s constant again gesture to navigate out of menus and submenus, the helpful Pixel At A Look widget, a greater Gemini expertise than Apple Intelligence (which is sort of restricted within the EU), and it’s clear why I nonetheless choose the Pixel Pill general.

Two weeks in, my first response remains to be the identical. I need this iPad Mini to run Android and dock into a sensible display-like type issue when not in use. Or, extra succinctly, I desire a Pixel Pill Mini.

If Google may bottle up the magic of the iPad Mini’s type issue, its portability, and its highly effective efficiency after which combine that with the always-charged, idle picture body, and sensible speaker facet of the Pixel Pill, I’d have my perfect digital companion round the home and out of doors of it. Principally, take the present Nest Hub, make it an inch bigger, and cut up the speaker from the show. Add the identical versatile case of the original Pixel Tablet with its easy hook design, and that’d be good.

I do know I’m asking for the unattainable now, although. Rumor has it that Google’s Pixel Pill plans are up within the air, with a canceled Pixel Tablet 2 and a potential Tablet 3 in 2027. That doesn’t bode nicely for your complete line-up, and, in fact, it doesn’t bode nicely for my fever dream of a smaller Pill Mini. However I’ll hold dreaming every time I choose up this iPad Mini; perhaps I can will this into existence.

As for the iPad Mini (2024) itself, it’s an superior lil’ factor for individuals used to Apple and prepared to spend as much as $500 to get one of the best small iPad thus far.