Apple's 2026 iPad Mini Could Be Water Resistant Like the iPhone

Pro Motion please

I have bought the iPad mini a few times, always feeling perhaps I am missing something for not enjoying the experience. But fundamentally I think the size and aspect ratio is not right. The UI does not scale right in my opinion.

With the 11" feeling like the sweet spot for most everything, specially with a Magic Keyboard. I think It's time to completely rethink the mini. I always tend to give up on it and just go back to using the iPhone Pro Max for anything I thought I would use the mini for.

I do not think it's ergonomic, and the UI doesn't work for that size and aspect ratio. Perhaps slightly taller and narrower as the phones have proved the correct ratio for handheld devices. I would rather see a modified iPhone UI than an iPad UI for the mini. I can definitely see why it doesn't sell well. The use case for such a device is fantastic, but the execution of It is fundamentally flawed.

how? its the perfect size to read books, bring around conferences to take notes and check out recipes in the kitchen (thats where mine lives)

Theres other sizes for other needs, i think everything over a mini is way too ackward to use and if youre gonna use a keyboard, might as well get a macbook

People joke about this, but I often use my iPad to read on in the summer...my summer is mostly surrounded by water. I'm not gonna swim with it, but there a chance I could float in the pool with it or it gets knocked into the lake on accident. My mom lost a kindle last year when it got knocked off the pier into the water. I'd like a water resistant mini.

Finally! Now I can use my iPhone, Apple Watch, and my iPad in the shower!

I can definitely see why it doesn't sell well.

Does it not sell well? It’s about to hit its 8th generation. If we use iPhone mini as a comparison, Apple isn’t afraid to kill off devices that supposedly don’t sell well, so I suspect the mini sells just fine.

I have an iPad Mini 6 and I absolutely love it. I’ve had a bunch of iPad’s and the big ones are just too cumbersome to use, especially one handed. I really think the mini is the perfect size.

Stick a moft stand on the back and it’s the ideal consumption device!

I have the same feeling—while it performs limited tasks decently enough and is oddly adorable, the UI is just a tad too small for comfort and the sizes practically demand two hands. (Then again, I also grouse continually that the iPhones have long been far too large.) Jobs opposed a smaller iPad ('https://reneritchie.net/why-steve-jobs-hated-the-ipad-mini/') and the 7.9" shipped after his death; we may never know how much significant input he had time to give, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was another point on which he was right all along.

On the other hand…
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/08/03/eddy-cue-worked-to-convince-steve-jobs-of-need-for-7-inch-ipad-in-early-2011/
The first iPad mini literally only came out 12 months after his death and had prototypes going all the way back to 2010.
Also signs of the 7.85 inch screen that the first generation iPad mini used started appearing as early as the iOS 5 Beta cycle, when Steve was very much alive.
It’s very likely that, outside of final decisions, he approved everything related to the first generation, and the second generation, iPad mini.
Also he frequently contradicted himself a lot, saying that there would be no video on an iPod because it’s stupid… a year before announcing the video iPod, saying that e-readers would fail while actively in talks with book publishers for the iBooks Store, trashing flash storage literally months before introducing the iPod Nano.