PRICE 128GB/Wi-Fi, £416 (£499 inc VAT) apple.com/ukfrom
Our Labs this month (see p76) weighs up 15 tablets, but if you’re wedded to a compact design and Apple’s ecosystem then the seventh generation iPad mini might be exactly what you need (it landed too late to be included in the Labs). It’s not a revolutionary update over its 2021 predecessor, but a few under-the-hood improvements make it an all-round superior tablet.
The design still resembles a shrunken-down iPad Air, and since it comes with iPadOS 18 preinstalled, you get all the same software features found on the latest iPad Air and Pro models. Those include the upgraded Calculator app and the Smart Script feature, which cleans up your handwriting in real-time to make it more legible. It’s also in line to receive the full set of Apple Intelligence features, which the older sixth-generation model will miss out on.
While the iPad mini’s capabilities largely match those of the full-sized models, its reduced size gives it a quite different feel. It’s so small and light that you can throw it in a bag and easily forget it’s there, making it ideal for travel or anyone who finds other tablets clunky.