Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

Why is the bezel so thick? A 1-2cm bezel around the entire "mini" device seems a bit odd, given that the iPad Mini is a relatively tiny device and phones these days come with a 1-2mm bezel (10x less useless border).

Is it a cost saving measure / sneaky margin increaser, or what might be the motivation?

Edit:

Touch interference is a good idea. Still, from the picture, it looks like the bezel could be half as thick and work well. Sorry to be such a stickler, I am genuinely curious if Apple is chasing better margins, the best feasible UX, or something else.

Could it be that since this device is only $650 USD, it isn't expensive enough to warrant a premium display? (Like the iPhone SE https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/)

If so, I wish there was a fancier "Pro" model with premium components. IIRC, I paid $1000 for my first iPad, it was the first super high-resolution one back in 2012. Perhaps there aren't enough customers who are sensitive to wasted screen real estate on an 8-inch device.. and FWIW I have noticed a constant stream of toddlers pacified by iPad Minis whenever I'm at Costco.

I think it's so that the fingers holding the device don't obstruct the view/ don't get counted as touch event.

somewhere to grab it without putting your fingers on the screen?

I’d be surprised if thumb rejection/palm rejection isn’t close to perfect by iPadOS 18.

> Why is the bezel so thick?

How else were they supposed to make room for the extra 4GB of RAM required to support Apple Intelligence?

Doesn't work well for me. Thumb gets too close to bottom, and now scrolling becomes zooming. All the time.

I’m forever triggering the camera app, while locking the device, on my iPhone 15 pro max. Every day, regularly.

So that they can release a successor model with thinner bezels.

In reality this may be to (1) to keep costs down and (2) to distance the iPad mini from the more premium iPhone Pro Max.

All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for? iPads are mostly used for media consumption, no matter how Apple wants to position them. Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware, but perhaps people really start using iPads for productivity/creativity workloads that can make use of “Apple Intelligence” (the silliest moniker since “Spatial Computing” and “Retina Display”).

The comparatively small difference in screen real estate between an iPhone Pro Max and the iPad mini makes the latter rather pointless. Perhaps they are targeting people with a smaller iPhone who want another device to watch YouTube. What could have made a difference is a folding display. I think the iPad mini would have been the ideal candidate for that.

>Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware

New Siri and iOS notification summaries seem like it should be enough of a reason for apple to want to ship an iPad with ai hardware.

Screens come in standard sizes. It might simply be that they can't fit all the parts inside, including the battery, without making the device bigger than the standard screen size and so you get bezels. Bigger devices have more room in them and many of the parts are just the same size.

Lots of aircraft pilots love the iPad mini. Ideal sized tool for having strapped to a yoke, or to one's knee.

Are "standard" screen sizes really something you have to care about at Apple-scale?

> All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for?

You know, you could just read all the other comments on this post talking about why they like the mini.

Ipad Mini is such a good size. My friend lent me his Mini2 when he borrowed money from me and used it for a good 6 months i think and it was marvelous. I didn't use it all that much but later got an Air 2 and used it maybe slightly less. Then I got an iPad Pro 11" but only used it for a while and don't really touch it too much anymore. I feel maybe an ipad mini I would use more. But the jelly scroll really has me urked and I kinda want OLED on it, so there is definitely room for a Pro version if they wish, but the iPads are overwhelming with 5 sizes already.

Same.

>Why is the bezel so thick?

So you have somewhere to actually hold the bloody thing.

Bezelless gadgets look great in photos but are impractical as fuck to handle.

How small are your hands?

I plan on buying one for exactly that use-case. I have a mini 5 that's showing its age and doesn't have enough storage (downloading flying charts takes up a surprising amount of space) and I didn't want to upgrade to the mini 6 considering how long in the tooth it was getting. The mini 7 isn't some massive improvement, but it's improvement enough in a very good niche for flying.

Edit: For the non-pilots reading this, it's also worth noting that the most popular flying app by far for general aviation at least, ForeFlight, is iOS only. So your choices are generally small iPad or big iPad, and a lot of people don't like big iPad in a small airplane cockpit.

because the target audience of mini ipads are babies.

It's likely they're repurposing slightly older display inventory to preserve margins, recoup R&D costs and to bring overall component costs lower since this is meant to be a cheaper device.

People like to spend 1 minute looking at a product and pretend they've done a market analysis by only looking at their own consumption patterns or those of their very close group of people around them combined with some stereotypes like "people use tablets for media consumption" (and never do anything else on them in between).

> overwhelming with 5 sizes already.

without jobs it's just a matter of time they go back to being "just an expensive dell" like before

> All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for?

I know children who study with their iPad minis and prefer them over notebooks. This isn’t necessarily a pro-Apple statement, but rather a reflection on how different user groups may engage with devices in ways that are cognitively distinct from what we discuss here on HN.

There are also comments here about specific use cases, like pilots using tools such as ForeFlight. While this kind of usage may not drive overall demand, it highlights how certain groups find unique value in the iPad mini for their specialized needs.

It's about 9mm which is not that thick. It really does make a difference in how you can hold it one-handed and without accidentally touching the screen. Most phones and thin-bezel tablets need to be held very carefully.

> The comparatively small difference in screen real estate between an iPhone Pro Max and the iPad mini

Due to the aspect ratios, there are significant differences in viewable area. It is not a "small" difference at all. Once you add in the ability to deal with specific aspect ratio content, the difference becomes even larger.

https://displaywars.com/6,9-inch-d%7B19,5x9%7D-vs-8,3-inch-d...

> All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for?

Not for everyone I would suggest. But I have people in my circle who will be very pleased. As they use a Mini as their phone/portable machine out of the house. They have little keyboard cases and use VOIP services for communication.

> but perhaps people really start using iPads for productivity/creativity workloads

Part of the appeal for most people is the seamless usage of features and functionalities across their sweet of products. People expect to be able to pick up where they left of, and have access to the same functionality as they largely do on the rest of the devices.

It's nice even if something is not your primary productivity device, to be able to execute or perform things on them if that's what happens to be in front of you at the time.

Maybe I'm weird, but I don't mind having a bit of bezel around the screen. It makes the device easier to grab without extra touches or fingerprints on the screen. It's also a good place for cameras and front-facing speakers. (Although I don't think any iPad has front facing speakers.)

Well its not that they couldn't do it but the iPad has always had bezels and the apps are expecting bezels not thumb rejection. They could be but they're not built with an on screen safe area.

What makes you say that?

Yes, LCDs are made as giant sheets that are cut into panels. They will want to cut those sheets in a way to ensure the least amount of waste as possible. They are not making them completely arbitrary sizes.

No. Screen sizes come in whatever size Apple orders them in.

I hate that ForeFlight does not run on Android. It is is keeping me from getting rid of my last overpriced, closed, proprietary Apple device. Not that Jeppesen (Boeing) has a good record on any of that either.

> All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for?

Who is any iPad for? They’re nice screens attached to good processors.

I bring mine to work to either read or watch videos over my lunch break. Don’t want the full size of a regular iPad. Don’t want to use my work laptop with my personal service accounts like YouTube, Netflix, kindle, etc.

And while the Mini is small, it’s still a substantial screen size increase over using my regular sized iPhone for that purpose.

> Perhaps they are targeting people with a smaller iPhone who want another device to watch YouTube.

Hi, it me.

I have an iPhone 13 Mini that will have to be pried from my cold dead hands because it's about as big a phone as I'm willing to carry (I'd still rather have the 5s form factor.)

I also have an iPad Mini that supplements it perfectly.

Really don't want anything larger, because I like to handle it with one hand while walking or I'm propping it up in a tight space like when I'm watching a how-to video while doing a home-improvement project or working on my car.

There is absolutely no way I'd buy a phone as gigantic as a Max.

Honestly not sure how people walk around with those things.

Three size options now, the mini at 8.3"; regular, Air, and Pro at 11"; Air and Pro at 13"

I click on ads by mistake on my iPhone 15 pro max. Even the iPhone SE was better, with its bottom bezel. Thumb detection on iOS is very bad.

> who this is for?

I dunno, every Boomer guy I know with disposable income seems to have settled into Big iPad, iPad mini and iPhone as their compute stack.

I think for them it's like desk/table computer (Big iPad), sofa computer (iPad mini), out&about computer (iPhone).

I know guys like this who haven't even really owned a computer-computer (MacBook or otherwise) for 5+ years.

How is that possible? The camera icon is in the bottom left corner of the screen and you use the physical lock button on the side to lock the iPhone.

Not OP, but...

That very behavior was troublesome for Apple in the past, twice.

Two times Steve Jobs swooped in and saved Apple from Dell-ifying themselves. Twice.

Since Job's demise, Apple has relentlessly marched toward Dellification once more. The immediate revenue is tantalizing, it's the dilution of ones own market that ends up killing the golden goose, and the eggs they lay.

Honestly with a tablet I prefer some bezel so I can hold it without touching the screen. I have both a 9th Gen iPad and an M2 iPad Pro, I use the “inferior” one almost exclusively.

> There is absolutely no way I'd buy a phone as gigantic as a Max.

It's not gigantic for everyone to be fair. I'm 6′1″ with largish hands I suppose and the Max is a single hand device for me. Small devices look comical in my hands. I was one of those very well served by Apple starting to make larger devices, and it's when I shifted over from Android full time to iOS devices. (I was very fond of the early generation Galaxy Note devices prior to that.)

> Honestly not sure how people walk around with those things.

The same way as I do anything of that size. It goes in my pocket or i'm holding it?

I get where you are coming from those because my partner has a much smaller 13 line device and we've done some basic testing and like you, shifting to a Max sized device...well, its just not very likely. My phone looks absolutely jumbo once you put it in her teeny hands.

If I didn't have to spend the $, I'd totally have a small phone for when I leave the house, and a bigger device like this for when I'm at home.

I mean yeah, of course I know how people hold and walk around with these devices. I was being silly.

Everything you said about large hands rings true for small hands and the mini form factor, but instead of just looking silly it's a hinderance.

We need both form factors. What I don't think we need is the weird middle size (current regular iPhone size), but I'm sure that's probably the one most people actually want if they could only pick one.

Don’t worry, locking you into their services will make it impossible to leave!

The one overarching success of the Tim Cook era is ruthlessly pursuing consumer lock in at all costs.

That giant sheet of mother glass is 2940mm x 3370mm. Cutting efficiency dictates the size of TVs, but it's basically irrelevant for phone or tablet displays.

My thoughts exactly, when I first saw it I thought I had landed on a launch article from 2014

I dunno, I'm 6'2" with corresponding hand size and I'm in the "won't go larger than a 13 mini" camp.

I think preference probably plays a bigger role than size. I see a lot of tiny people manhandling pros and maxes too.

You can also trigger the camera by swiping right-to-left on the lock screen or from the notification pull-down.

Each block or piece of mother glass can be used for dozens or even hundreds of LCDs but it seems obvious that there are only so many ways you can effectively slice it.

While manufacturers can theoretically produce custom-sized LCD panels, it's more economical and efficient to stick to standard sizes that align with their production lines. Producing custom-sized panels can involve retooling. Choosing a standard size also ensures greater availability.

For a low cost product, I don't see why Apple would mess around with LCD sizes.

Still, this is just a guess. Only Apple knows for sure.

Bezels are useful for devices that you can’t just hold in the flat of your hand. Provides a place to hold on to.

Also, this is an LCD screen. The substrate is rigid. An OLED, like on the iPhone is on a flexible substrate and can be bent at the edges to connect to the circuit board. That lets you put the screen closer to the edge.

“ The comparatively small difference in screen real estate between an iPhone Pro Max and the iPad mini makes the latter rather pointless.”

While the linear diagonal size of the screens are not so much different, the area of the iPad Mini is significantly larger. I ran the numbers a month or so on it when someone was making the same claim of equivalence. I don’t recall the specifics now but I think the iPad screen had at least 60% more area. That is significant.

“ Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware”

It would be hard for Apple to put in a chipset now that didn’t support AI. All of their SOCs for the past 10 years have had neural processors. This A17 Pro has 8GB of RAM. All of their recent SOCs have the 8GB of RAM needed to run AI. Why not?

For most people, preference likely plays a bigger role, but for me, it’s all about the size of my hands and fingers. I find smaller devices uncomfortable for anything beyond basic phone use. As a computing device where touch is the primary interaction, I prefer something larger, which is why I stuck with Android when Apple wasn’t making bigger phones. It’s also about being able to have it further from my face.

At the time, many Apple users claimed no one wanted larger phones and that Apple’s size was perfect. I disagreed and voted with my wallet. For me, there are no downsides to a larger device—I can still use it one-handed, it fits in my pockets, and going smaller wouldn’t make it any more portable or usable.

For others, it’s the opposite. A smaller phone may be easier to handle or fit better in pockets or everyday carry. So I agree there should be different sizes to meet different needs, including smaller options if the market supports them. Among my circle, smaller phones tend to be the preference for those who primarily use their device for calls and texts. Anything beyond that, like browsing, moves to a tablet. These people are generally in their mid-30s to mid-40s.

Interestingly, the ‘non-techy’ people I know with larger phones say it’s because they use a popsocket or view their phone more as a computer than a phone. They’re willing to trade off size for a bigger screen. Many of them don’t own another personal computing device, aside from maybe a tablet. They’re typically in their 20s to 30s.

I feel like I’m part of a shrinking group that still uses both a laptop and a desktop as my primary computing environments.

Consider the possibility that the person here is not an adult Western man.

The iPad mini is a second-class product in Apple's lineup. It rarely gets updated, and if you use one you will see how poorly UI is scaled. I was really hyped up and really wanted one, but after using one I gave up on the idea. The 60 Hz LCD screen is also among the worst screen of all the products Apple currently sells.

for me, my desktop and laptop are the main go-to. the mobile is an extra device with different, more specific use cases

and so I've been a little disappointed with how these devices keep getting bigger and bigger. I was pretty happy with the size of the Pixel 3

I think I like to be able to access the whole screen comfortably with one hand, not fumbling it about. easy to manipulate, easy to pocket. the Pixel 8 shrunk a bit over its predecessors so I nabbed that, and it's probably at or just over the limit for me, size wise

> for apple to want to ship an iPad with ai hardware.

You mean the dedicated neural chip they've been gushing over for half a decade saying how it's an amazing dedicated chip for exactly this kind of work?

On top of that, just consider that there may be someone with a different body shape.

There is a really weird vibe that some folks put out trying to body shame over the internet.

Wow, so negative! I use mine heavily, including right now. Mostly with Chrome and Google apps, though, along with Kindle. Also, Genshin Impact to play games with the kid.

Best tablet I’ve owned. Genshin Impact uses a huge amount of space, though.

"The phone is fine, it's your genetics that are the problem here"

There are dozens of us big humans whose ideal form factor is the 12/13 mini. Dozens!

Why do I need to carry around a huge screen to text, make phone calls and take pictures?

Why don’t you want to use a bigger iPad? I play, read graphic novels and watch videos on the larger iPad as more screen estate is better.

I'm 6'7" (with corresponding hand size) and prefer the mini too

I have an iPad mini and it's pretty much perfect as it is for my use case. I use it as a device I can pick up and watch videos while on the go or doing an activity (cooking etc.), show videos to my kid and as a device I can travel with.

The only complaint I have with it is that it only supports one profile but I think that applies to all ipads

Why don’t you want to use a bigger screen? I play and watch videos on a 75” TV as more screen estate is better.

Bigger is not always better, but it’s almost always costlier and less convenient.

I could have phrased it better but I was trying to be succinct.

Smaller hands are likely to struggle to one hand control the Pro Max.

that's a pity. I had a regular iPad, I used it for document browsing and regular reading. I eventually gave up on it because it was just too big and too heavy and required two hands to hold it.

I really wanted something that'more Kindle-sized, which the iPad mini seems to be, which is the perfect form factor for one handed usability.

Honestly I'm not sure you could have phrased it worse!

> Smaller hands are likely to struggle to one hand control the Pro Max.

Couldn't agree more.

I'm at my second iPad mini, and finally bought a new Apple Pencil. I'm still angry about the pencil battery not being replaceable, and the iPad is the device I use the least among laptop and phone, but there's something really nice about the mini form factor.

My single use case is reading research papers. I also do that on pc but the ipad mini is great to take a paper and read it entirely without distractions and with the ability to take handwritten notes. That was a nice combo with the lab couch when I was in PhD. Also the fact it can be held in one hand, especially nice when presenting or walking.

My wife has one and it seems too big and heavy for most things I do. Good for sheet music, though.

Steve Jobs has been dead for 13 years. Whatever was going to happen without him already has.

The device can have a bigger battery with a thick bezel.

Not sure. But is it possible that the reason could be for such a statement - just open eyes, ears, and more importantly an open mind and immunity from iFandom?

I mean please just look at their product pages on apple.com.

Can have or does have?

There are a lot of customers locked in the ecosystem, sure. The question is whether the ecosystem is still able to attract new customers, as it once was.

Don’t shame the man with the extra digit projecting from his thenar eminence.

I have had phones and tablets with IPS displays with way thinner bezels so that argument is void.

It can take a long time for corporate culture to rot. It took Google about 15-20 years to fully reach their villain arc.

Currently they have Tim Cook at the helm whi is good at continuing Job's vision as the two worked very close for a long time, so the big question is what happens after Cook leaves.