Apple’s latest iPad Mini pushes their cute little tablet into a different category, but at the same time gives it fantastic performance, a stunning screen, and, interestingly, outstanding sound.

Rightly or wrongly, I’ve always thought of the iPad Mini as the iPad for kids because it’s smaller for little kids. It’s a great way to watch content, hand it over to them, and make the iPad your babysitter, as many parents do. Actually, the standard entry-level iPad is the better option for kids because there are more cases that are fun and durable, made for them, and they’re far more affordable.

Your entry-level iPad comes in at $749, while an iPad Mini is now going to set you back $1,099, up to $1,000 more if you want the most storage and the nano-texture display. That said, the standard iPad also comes in a range of beautiful colours, which might be more appealing to the family environment. Apple’s gone back to corporate with the iPad Mini, with just two colours, and simple, boring ones at that.

Under the hood, the iPad Mini features the A20 Pro processor from Apple Silicon, which is now found in their very best phones, giving us the best AI capabilities in a mobile device and the performance and efficiency you really want from a device like this to ensure you are truly getting the best battery life.

I’ve not had it for long enough to put that to the test, and frankly, it’s not something I would do anyway. I’ve never really had a problem with the performance of an iPad, which is why I find the visual improvements to this device far more fascinating than anything under the hood.

Out of the box, this thing is light. It’s lighter than previous generations, and it’s thinner too, coming in almost a millimetre thinner at 5.4 mm. It’s so noticeable. It really is a beautiful device at that thinner level.

I think, strangely, Samsung has pushed Apple further into this space because their tablets have been so thin over recent years. Apple has kind of sat on their hands a little bit when it comes to pushing those thin and light boundaries that used to be the headline act.

Power it on, and this model of iPad Mini that I’ve got does feature the nano-texture coating, which means I’m not getting glare here in my studio lights. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a studio like mine or whether you’ve just got a downlight in your home or a bright sun outside. Glare happens on a glossy screen. It just does, and this nano-texture display really diffuses that to a point where it is utterly viewable in almost every light.

There’s no question that, at the right angle, it’s not easy to watch, but at that same angle, an iPad without the nano-texture simply wouldn’t be viewable either.

Personally, you’re mad if you don’t get a nano-texture display on any Apple device that has the option. I think it’s a game-changer, and it’ll be well-received here on the iPad Mini, one of the most popular uses of which is for pilots carrying their flight books in a compact and easy-to-access form.

The OLED screen is beautiful. It is bright. It pushes that brightness with HDR content, but what I found most compelling about the screen was actually the viewing angles. The viewing angles on this really were quite wide. When I compared it to the sixth-generation model, which is now two generations old, the viewing angles were remarkably improved, and that made it even more impressive as a screen.

And while OLED is great, where this screen really excels is how it sounds, and that’s not a typo.

This screen hides a powerhouse of sound. Underneath the screen is what they call acoustic sound or acoustic speakers, which push the sound waves through the screen. We first saw this in Sony OLED televisions, which use OLED panels from LG Display. Very strange that LG Electronics never really picked that up as a technology because it is excellent.

On a tablet, it really feels like the sound is coming from the content rather than from the sides. One of my favourite things is that it really doesn’t matter how you’re holding this device. The sound doesn’t get muffled by your grip because it’s coming through the screen.

That $1,000 price is problematic. This used to be $300 less, but with everything that’s going on, perhaps this is the best we can hope for.

For heavy users of an iPad Mini in professional life, especially wherever there’s glare, this device is an absolute no-brainer, but for the family, I’d stick with your regular iPad: price and colour options make it a winner.

If you do grab a new iPad Mini – check out Belkin’s latest Infinity Folio – has strong protective sides, plus can be stood up at almost any angle