iPad mini 11” iPad Pro user, could I replace it with a mini?

[sparksd]

Apple gives you 15 days to decide for yourself.

Best answer. It's a subjective question and what works or doesn't work for others doesn't matter much. Best to try for yourself.

 

[ThailandToo]

I have owned every sized iPad. I believe it depends on the person, for me the 11” iPad Pro would be the sweet zone for size but I don’t like that it has a far inferior display to the 12.9” iPad Pro. So I have rocked quite a few and the 12.9” is just too big for anything except watching videos. The 11” is just perfect for reading, taking notes, typing a document, easier without keyboard handheld typing, and still great at content viewing.

When Apple makes the 11” iPad Pro have the same display tech as the 12.9”, I will happily buy it. Just don’t want jelly scrolling of the iPad mini. Don’t want LCD. Want all the advantages of iPad Pro with mini LED so OLED will do.

 

[Rafterman]

I have owned every sized iPad. I believe it depends on the person, for me the 11” iPad Pro would be the sweet zone for size but I don’t like that it has a far inferior display to the 12.9” iPad Pro. So I have rocked quite a few and the 12.9” is just too big for anything except watching videos. The 11” is just perfect for reading, taking notes, typing a document, easier without keyboard handheld typing, and still great at content viewing.

When Apple makes the 11” iPad Pro have the same display tech as the 12.9”, I will happily buy it. Just don’t want jelly scrolling of the iPad mini. Don’t want LCD. Want all the advantages of iPad Pro with mini LED so OLED will do.

I also owned every size. While I agree that the 11 is the sweet spot between size and performance, I discovered one thing. The larger and heavier the iPad was, the less likely I was to grab it and use it. The 11 isn't bad, but even the 11 isn't a true handhld size.

The only iPad I would take and use regularly was the Mini, because it felt like grabbing an iPhone - one-handed. The 11 or bigger usually stayed docked on their keyboards and I would just use my iPhone Pro Max.

 

[subjonas]

I don’t know if someone has made this transition, but I sometimes think about replacing my 11” M2 iPad Pro for a mini. A next gen iPad mini 7 anyway.

Sometimes I feel this iPad a bit too big and clunky, and I still think the 10” would be the ideal size. However, Apple only offers 11” devices, and the only one that is smaller, is the 8.3” iPad mini.

Sure, the mini is much more portable, that’s what I like about it. And lighter, I’m all about light devices. The lack of keyboard doesn’t bother me anymore because I no longer use an external keyboard on my 11”, I always use the on-screen keyboard (right now I’m writi from it). But… at the same time, I don’t think I could be typing comfortably on an iPad mini on my lap, resting on the thigh of my crossed leg. Because the mini would be too small to type in this position.

I don’t know, sometimes I appreciate the crispness and sharpness and smoothness of this 120Hz display, and I can use the extra space. But I know that, when it comes to holding it on my hand, it would be much more comfortable the mini. Also to surf the web on the coach, etc.

I bought this M2 iPad Pro with the intention of doing uni stuff, but NOT for taking handwritten notes with the pencil, but rather working with textbooks in PDF, studying, and having a laptop-like device, but I’m not fully using it for that. Also, when I replace my 2014 Mac mini for a new M3 or M4 Mac, I expect the iPad to be my secondary display with sidecar, or just a companion device to use along my Mac thanks to universal control. And for those things, the 11” iPad Pro offers a superior experience with the bigger display. Also, YouTube videos look gorgeous here, although I don’t watch movies on the iPad, just YouTube videos. The 8GB of RAM that the M2 offers are really great for multi-tasking, this M2 iPad Pro feels faster than my previous 2018 iPad Pro which only had 4GB of RAM.

So… I’m a bit confused about what I’ll do in the future, keep the M2, or sell it when the iPad Mini 7 is released, and get one of those. What I do clearly know, is that I am absolutely not going to have two iPads. That’s the only thing I know for sure.

My Mini is my most used device because it’s so casual, so easy to pick up and hold and use, like a phone, but more immersive/productive than a phone obviously because it’s bigger (FYI I like my actual phone to be small). Anything bigger than the Mini I feel is more of an active decision to use. I actually waited when the first 9.7” iPad came out—it was both too big for how casually I wanted to use it, and too small for how productively I wanted to use it (I also wanted a stylus for drawing). It wasn’t until the Mini and the 12.9 Pro with Pencil came out that I jumped on the iPad and got both sizes, for different purposes.

I think typing on the Mini is best holding it in portrait and typing with two thumbs, although landscape isn’t terrible. It’s probably the ideal size for portrait thumb typing.

I believe the Mini has the highest pixel density for iPads, if that makes any difference to you.

The Mini isn’t great for PDFs, textbooks, and Sidecar obviously because of its small size. One device can’t have it all. You can only find the set of trade offs that are most in line with your preferences and most beneficial to your set of circumstances, which of course as others have said, only you can decide.