Apple iPad Mini: First Impressions

A couple of years ago, I bought an Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet to use as an ereader. It's a good size for that, with a size that's in between my aging Samsung Tab A tablet and my Pixel 8 Pro. (Due to my vision issues, I find reading on my Kindle Paperwhite harder on my eyes than reading on a device with dark mode). But it hasn't been a happy experience as Amazon's forked version of Android and the tablet's slow processor make it frustrating to use. 

There aren't a lot of good, small Android tablets. Samsung has one but they have a bad track record with updates and I don't like their One UI interface. I've read good things about Lenovo's new tablet but it seems to be aimed at gamers, which I am not. So I figured it was finally time to embrace the Dark Side and get an iPad Mini.

The Good

It's a quality machine, almost luxurious, Solid, good looking, and with a beautiful screen (even if it isn't OLED). It's fairly fast, though maybe not quite as quick as my Pixel 8 Pro, but certainly fast enough. 

Apple's IOS is functional and pretty, though as a long-time Android user, it is taking more than a little getting used to. I have the basics figured out. YouTube has been my friend here. 

Since I have a Windows PC and a Pixel phone, I am continuing to use Google's apps like Calendar, Messages, and Keep instead of the equivalent Apple apps. 

I am using Apple News+ since the iPad came with a three month free trial and so far, I love it. I've been using the Libby app to read magazines on my Fire tablet, but News+ is superior in almost every respect though it doesn't have all the magazines  that I like to read. But I like it enough that I will probably pay for the subscription when the trial runs out.  

Apple's Folio cases are very expensive. I bought this Oduio case instead. It's 1/3 of the cost, looks good, and lets me stand the iPad up in both portrait or landscape mode for viewing videos. The feature I really like is the strap on the back so I can hold it securely with one hand while reading.

The Bad

Control Center is a dog's breakfast and the customization process is annoying. I much prefer Android's Quick Settings. I had to watch a video to figure it out and ven then customizing it is fussy. The method used in IOS before version 18 (which I saw in a video) looks like it's much easier. A switch to revert to the old method would be nice.

Battery life is OK but not great. I am may be keeping the screen brightness up higher than need be and will fiddle with that. I enabled the 80 percent charging limit to preserve long-term battery life (I do the same on my phone). Also, I don't know what apps and processes are running in the background. I will have to look at this

As noted above, the screen looks good. I do wish they had enabled a higher refresh rate than 60 Hz. as I can see a bit of jitter in some apps. 

I was disappointed that the iPad Mini doesn't support FaceID. I'm used to opening my phone just by looking at it and miss this on the iPad.

As much as I like Apple News+, it's annoying that I can't set a default font. I much prefer sans serif fonts for reading. Some articles come up in sans serif, others in a serif font. Sizing of fonts is hit or miss between stories. I am going to try to load the Atkinson Hyperlegible font onto the iPad. I doubt that will help with Apple News+ but would be good for my ebooks. 

I really miss not having Google's Reading Mode app, which takes the current screen, strips out all of the extraneous stuff (including ads) and reformats it as plain text. Some searching has revealed that Safari has a reading mode and I may have to start using that, which will mean importing my bookmarks and passwords from Chrome. Google's Reading Mode app works on almost anything, not just web pages.

The Ugly

The inability to resize icon text and things like the system's date, time, and battery percentage at the top of the screen is more than just an annoyance. Come on Apple: you can give us more accessibility options here. 

Apps that don't support Apple's system font size setting are a problem (Google Keep, for example). I've had to set up the Magnifier to deal with that. In fairness to Apple, this may be Google's fault. 

Since I have an Apple Care subscription, I may book an appointment at the Apple Store's Genius Bar to get some help with this.

As has been commented on in almost every review I've read, the bezels are ridiculously large for a current device.