Don't buy a iPad Mini right now, but also do because they're awesome
The current iPad Mini came out almost three years ago.
It doesn't have Face ID. Unlocking it requires sort-of touching but not pressing the power button.
It's still the same price it was when it was released. That price is still £499. You can get bigger, newer iPads for far less than that.
If you invoke the keyboard in landscape it takes up most of the screen and you can't see what you're typing anymore.
Every website is optimised for phones and computers. Most tablets see the computer version of the website and look great. The iPad Mini usually shows the phone version which looks weird at that size, or a badly rendered computer version.
It's such a questionable device in 2024 that when I went to pick one up the store assistant checked that I was sure I wanted it. Twice.
The iPad Mini is the best iPad and I refuse to be told otherwise. The ideal computing form factor since I was a kid is something about the size of a book that can call up any information and which you can maybe scribble on and the Mini is precisely that device.
The standard iPad - be that an Air or a Pro or an iPad1 - is too big for that. It's great for web browsing and watching video and probably good for drawing too but it's not the Penny-from-Inspector-Gadget quick reference device that I want in that sort of product.
It is perfect for notetaking. I use Goodnotes which can understand my poor handwriting with an Apple pencil and correct my mistakes in my handwritten style and send transcribed copies wherever I like. The Mini runs it flawlessly and is so unobtrusive that I can have it in any meeting in any location without it being thought of as 'a computer'. It's too small to multitask with distractions2 so you're focused on notetaking only.
It is ideal for Wikipedia. With the floating keyboard enabled I can be watching a movie on my TV, see an actor I want to know more about, pick up my iPad Mini, type with my thumb with the same hand I'm holding the device with, and get the information easily.
It is such a silly, unloved, forgotten computer with so many little oddities and quirks. It's too expensive for what it is and too out-of-date to feel like a safe purchase. But boy is it the most fun I've had with a computer in years.