5 features I’d like to see in an iPad mini Pro

Key Takeaways

An iPad mini Pro would give Apple’s smallest tablet the respect it deserves.
Some ideal upgrades could include a matte OLED display, an M-series processor, and Face ID.
It’s also about time that Apple made a mini-sized Apple Pencil.

Apple revealed a seventh-generation iPad mini in mid-October, and I’m already going on record as disappointed with it. It’s not that there’s anything fundamentally wrong — it’s just that it’s spectacularly unspectacular. Its only significant upgrades are an A17 Pro chip, more RAM, and support for the Apple Pencil Pro, which are the bare minimum we’d expect from any iPad shipping in 2024. Indeed, Apple cheaped out by not using the same A18 chip found in the base iPhone 16.

An idea that’s been bandied around for a while now is the idea of an “iPad mini Pro” — a tablet acknowledging how people might want quality specs in a small form factor, say if they’re a professional artist, or an engineer diagnosing machinery in the field. There are specs the average shopper might appreciate, too, and I’m going to cover all the bases in this list.

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1 A bright OLED display with HDR

Better battery life, better traveling

A person looks down at an iPad Pro with the Final Cut Live Multicam feature up.

Apple

If there’s an iPad that’s as deserving of OLED as the latest iPad Pros, it’s the mini. The big reason is battery life. By its nature, the mini doesn’t have room for a large battery, so any power efficiency improvements would have a huge impact on usability. Switching to OLED would not only eliminate the backlight needed in the seventh-gen LCD mini, but allow individual pixels to turn off whenever true blacks were onscreen. These factors are contributors to the enhanced battery life of the Steam Deck OLED versus the original LCD handheld.

Imagine watching movies in full-quality Dolby Vision.

Adopting OLED would also make the mini more appealing as a media consumption device, especially when traveling. I often bring my 2020 iPad Pro along on flights just to have something worth watching movies and TV shows on, but find that even an 11-inch screen can be cumbersome for packing and security screening, and that LCDs are sometimes blinded by daylight or even fluorescent bulbs. 8.3 inches would be a more practical size, and OLED is often brighter than LCD. We’d also get excellent HDR (high dynamic range) compatibility — imagine watching movies in full-quality Dolby Vision, for example.

Tapping on an Apple Watch Ultra 2 while wearing it.

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2 A matte screen finish

Boox and Kindle, eat your heart out

Braden Newell/Pocket-lint

Speaking of the iPad Pro, one of the options on more expensive configurations — those with 1 or 2TB of storage — is something Apple calls nano-texture glass. Really, this is a gimmicky way to describe a matte screen that kills reflections, which is intended for the likes of illustrators, photographers, videographers, or just anyone who wants to use their iPad outside. Good luck reading the current mini in midday Texas sun.

While it might be controversial, I think that some form of nano-texture glass should be the default on the iPad mini. While the tech can affect sharpness and contrast, and you need to be careful about how you clean it, the mini is arguably meant to be used in situations with less-than-perfect lighting — such as sketching outdoors or binging Masters of the Air on a flight into Austin. I’ll bet a mini with a matte OLED display would instantly attract a lot of artists, pilots, travelers, and maybe even hikers and campers wanting something better than their phone for navigation.

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3 An M-series processor

The technology shouldn’t even be up for debate

Apple

Did I say that Apple skimped out by not giving the new mini an A18 chip? Let me go a step further and say that it shouldn’t have had an A-series chip at all. It should’ve automatically had an M-series processor, most likely the M2 found in the 2024 iPad Airs. By the time an eighth-gen mini rolls around, an M4 or M5 may be in order.

People buying a tablet as expensive as an iPad expect it to replace their laptop for a lot of functions.

Why? Because people buying a tablet as expensive as an iPad expect it to replace their laptop for a lot of functions. Some apps don’t work well or at all on an A-series chip, like Final Cut, and Apple is even preventing A-series iPads from pushing Stage Manager windows to external monitors. That shouldn’t fly on any new iPad model, much less something marketed as “pro.” Perhaps I shouldn’t expect better when Apple refuses to give iPadOS as much flexibility as macOS.

Math Notes in the iPadOS 18 Calculator app.

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4 An Apple Pencil built for the mini

No need to go full-sized for a mini tablet

Apple

Take a look at that picture — it’s ridiculous that mini owners have to use a stylus about as long as the tablet itself. If you needed any more confirmation that Apple treats the mini as second-class, this is it. Yes, you can magnetically charge an Apple Pencil Pro on it, but only when an entire edge of the tablet is left exposed. That probably puts a kibosh on some case types.

Glancing at other tablet styluses out there, Apple could probably shave an inch or two off the Apple Pencil Pro (or the USB-C model) and still have something perfectly functional. More importantly, we’d get something cheaper that could retain magnetic charging and decent case compatibility.

I’ve long felt that the iPad Pro, at least, should ship with some sort of Apple Pencil in the box, but I’m not holding my breath on that front — much less for a mini.

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5 Face ID, at last

How is Touch ID still a thing?

A 2020 11-inch iPad Pro in a Logitech keyboard case.

Another ridiculous issue is that Apple continues to reserve Face ID for the most expensive iPads. Somehow, even new iPad Air buyers are forced to log in with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the sleep/wake button, despite Face ID having first been introduced with the iPhone X seven years ago. Surely, the production cost for Face ID can’t be that high anymore.

The only reason to continue using Touch ID on any iPad is maximizing profit margins while upselling some customers.

Touch ID is fine I suppose, but there’s no denying the convenience of Face ID when you’re trying to get something done — it can unlock your iPad before you’ve even thought about it. The only reason to continue using Touch ID on any iPad is maximizing profit margins while upselling some customers, and needless to say, that comes across as a little greedy for something as essential as logging in.