Stunning iPad mini 6 design reveals the Apple tablet we really want

Stunning iPad mini half-dozen design reveals the Apple tablet we really want

(Image credit: Parker Ortolani/Twitter)

Despite owning and loving the 2019 iPad mini, I'm loath to suggest Apple is due a refresh. Yes, it has the body of a tablet from 2015, just considering Apple left the iPad mini unloved for four years, I think expecting yearly updates in the same way you might for MacBooks and iPhones is a touch misguided.

Still, if Apple tree were to update the iPad mini, so I certainly wouldn't say no to an aesthetic closer to the iPad Pro. And that'southward only what designer Parker Ortolani has imagined with his latest concept design: an iPad mini that'due south nearly 20% smaller, while retaining the same screen size, just by reigning in the chunky bezels.

damn do I wish they'd make an iPad mini like this pic.twitter.com/y4qYdslDCfJuly 24, 2020

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Such a change would involve a couple of modifications that might prove unpopular. For starters, the current iPad Pro ditched the home button to make style for Confront ID, and that's something this iPad mini concept would have to do too (unless there was a dorsum mounted fingerprint sensor, or no biometrics at all).

More importantly, plenty of people — myself included — are quite happy with the electric current dimensions of the iPad mini. For me, with the Apple Pencil and the fantastic Notability app, it makes for a perfect alternative to a notebook when I get to events and carry interviews. Making information technology smaller would have away that feeling.

So what about keeping the dimensions and just using the saved bezel space for actress screen real estate? If that's your dream, then wonder no more than: Ortolani has you lot covered with a mock up:

for all the folks asking... this is what the iPad mini would await like if they kept the same footprint and extended the display… I'm personally non a fan of the aspect ratio… but I know lots of people want a larger brandish pic.twitter.com/wmhzbHFgWDJuly 25, 2020

This, every bit Ortolani points out, disrupts the aspect ratio, but does give you 8.ix-inches of screen to play with — not a meg miles abroad from the ix.7-inch display on the original iPad. Still, it'due south certainly appealing if the body-to-screen ratio is all of import to you lot.

Of course, in a sense, making beautiful designs like this is the piece of cake part. Managing to keep information technology in place while fitting all the iPad innards within is trickier, and while Apple could have undoubtedly made the 2019 iPad mini a bit prettier by making something new, it just fabricated sense to keep the four-year-quondam grade factor.

At present that they hopefully appreciate there is one, peradventure they can be a bit more experimental next time effectually. Electric current rumors point to an iPad mini 6 arriving in early 2021, when it could pack the same Apple A13 Bionic chipset that powers the iPhone 11 series and iPhone SE.

The rumors study that the screen will exist additional to 8.five-inches, and then maybe Ortolani'southward concept art isn't likewise far removed from what nosotros'll be unboxing early on adjacent twelvemonth.

Freelance correspondent Alan has been writing near tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in betwixt. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine as well. When not weighing upwardly the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you lot'll probably find him tackling his always-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.