Where Does The iPad Mini Fit?

Struggling with the iPad Mini’s Place in My Setup

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I recently purchased a BaronFig notebook to use as a new journal after multiple months of attempting to make the iPad Mini my journaling device. It isn’t that the iPad Mini is bad for handwriting; I just realized how much I prefer to use pen and paper when I want to write down my thoughts.

This realization made me think about the iPad Mini and how I have actually been using it over the past few months. The iPad Mini, most of all, is a consumption device for me. It has TikTok installed, which I don’t have on my iPhone, but I have mostly been watching Netflix and AppleTV+ on it.

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I just finished Ripley and am halfway through Silo, and though I would prefer to watch these shows on my OLED TV (or now my MacBook Pro), I tend to end up using my iPad Mini in bed or on the couch. My son has taken over our TV, and by the time I am able to watch something myself, I like to curl up in bed and watch a show instead of being out in the living room.

The iPad Mini is a fantastic device for consuming content, but is it really the best? As I continue to use the iPad Mini, I have been wondering if another iPad or my iPhone could do what it is doing. I think many people who have iPads go through this same dilemma. I think the iPad Pros are great as a laptop replacement and modular computer, but using any iPad as just a tablet can be challenging sometimes.

It is such an in-between device that it sometimes can feel unnecessary, especially when you find yourself using it for one specific thing. I thought the iPad Mini would become my main device when I am home, putting my iPhone away somewhere, but it has instead become a reading or streaming device that I use occasionally.

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Having a device that I use occasionally isn’t a bad thing per se, but I am starting to wonder if another device could do the same thing and maybe better. Since I am not using the iPad…