How iPad mini grew into itself Charlotte Henry
Sometimes overshadowed, explores how the iPad mini has matured into a very powerful little device
WHILE PLENTY OF users love it, the iPad mini has arguably always been a bit of an odd–one–out in Apple’s product line–up.
Originally announced on October 23, 2012, and available in November that same year, the first–generation iPad mini only contained Apple’s A5 chip and 512MB RAM. Subsequently, it was deemed by some to be a bit underpowered. It also did not come with a Retina display. Many were annoyed by the use of a Lightning port for charging instead of a traditional 30 pin connector too.
Furthermore, at $329 for a 16GB model, the iPad mini was too expensive to challenge Amazon’s range of Kindle e– readers, which had already been available since 2007 and, as CEO Jeff Bezos put it, reached the “magical two–digit price point,” by 2011. The display, 7.9–inch on the original, was too small to watch content on for a long time or to be an on–the–go workstation. This was no laptop replacement, and Apple was determined for consumers to see the iPad mini as standing in a separate product category to its larger siblings.
However, that is not to say it was dismissed. Far from it. Reviewing the new device for The Verge, Josh Topolsky said that “there isn’t a single product in the 7–inch tablet market that comes close to the look, feel, or build quality of the new iPad,” comparing it to “a solidly made watch.” He did, though, note the very significant price gap between Apple’s offering and its rivals.
By the second generation, the iPad mini was available with up to 128 GB of memory and a Retina display. By the fifth, it could support the Apple Pencil.
Despite these incremental improvements, the iPad mini has felt a bit forgotten at times. It was something of a surprise when in September 2021 Apple unveiled the sixth generation of the device. It did however show how far the smaller tablet has come. The latest models contain the A15 bionic chip, support Apple Pencil 2, and have an 8.3– inch Liquid Retina display, making it a powerful offering for those interested in gaming, sketching, consuming content on the go, and many other activities.
Phil Schiller’s statement upon the release of the first iPad mini perhaps feels truer now than it did back then: “iPad mini is every inch an iPad.”