“After using the iPad Air and then the iPad Air 2 for years as my primary work system, the recent purchase of an iPad mini 3 has replaced them handily,” James Kendrick writes for ZDNet. “My preference is going as light and portable as possible, so recently I considered going smaller with the iPad mini 3. I do light work on the iPhone 6 Plus when I have no tablet with me, but there’s no way I’d head out for a long work day with just the phone.”
“I wasn’t sure if it would be good enough given the smaller display but decided to get the iPad mini 3 and give it a try as my daily work system. I picked one up from Apple (gold, 64GB, LTE) and have been using it every day since the purchase,” Kendrick writes. “I paired it with the Jorno Folding Keyboard for the heavy amount of writing I do daily, and the pair is as productive as the bigger iPad and a keyboard case.”
Kendrick writes, “The iPad mini 3 is not only better than the bigger tablet for work, I also find that to be the case at home.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iPad mini 3 does pack much functionality in a small package. Do you prefer the size of iPad mini over iPad Air?
I love my mini 3. Way better for daily use than the Air 2.
Been saying this since the day iPad mini came out.
The iPad is too big for daily use when traveling around.
Its perfect for the home, maybe okay for the office.
But iPad mini is just right for those on the go.
The perfect Size, weight and battery life.
Its big enough for apps that require creativity or content creation Keynotes, Numbers, Pages.
iPhone 6 plus is still too small for these needs.
However it has true telephone services which make my choice a little harder to say — the iPad Mini still wins.
The iPad mini size is ideal to read a book, surf the web, and for editing medium spreadsheets. Yes, I use the iPhone 6 plus when I am mobile but I revert to the iPad mini whenever possible.
My iPad mini Retina (2 gen) is perfect for everything, be it on the go or at home. My wife now uses the iPad and the MBP.
But, but . . . The last article said we should dump our iPads for a MacBook. They’ll shovel any moose poop to get attention!
So, what is the iPad Pro for?
With time, it will be a question of what you’re going to do with the iPad. I can easily see any supervisor who’s walking around on a factory floor wanting the Mini. (And yeah, I don’t want one, but that’s because of my needs.
Whereas, if someone is staying inside one room when they work, they may be happy with a stationary iPad, with bigger being better. Example: A hospital operating room where you’re doing conference surgery.
There i no single ‘If you work, use THIS’ recommendation to make.
Graphics work …
But along with that we will need a good and accurate pointing device , Good ram and more sophisticated applications.
Personally i would love to see an apple hybrid device !
( please dont shoot ) 😳
I’m thoroughly addicted to my Apple Magic Trackpad and the equivalent on my MBP. But if I want to draw, I pull out my Wacom.
Hopefully, you saw this week’s earlier article at MDN about styli for iPads.
Are you using the cintiq tablet? Those are awsome.
I just like to see a turnkey ios/osx tablet solution for highend/pro work from apple.
And yes 🙂 i i have been following the stylus rumors for a while and writing apple feedback… Very excited about it 🙂
I have feeling we may see it this year !?
Off the topic… You knkw what im addicted to?
My Applewatch… Man i love this thing !
Cheers
I wish I had a cintiq! In only have a mere Graphire 4.
I sadly have to wait until I get an Watch. But I’m enjoying learning about them and reading about other people’s experiences. IOW: I already blew my Apple money for the year AND I’m sorting out buying a house.
Right on… best of luck in buying your dream house!:)
But i have this inkling of a feeling that u will get an i watch sooner than later 🙂
Have a good weekend DC..
Later
Cheers
Konnichiwa sensei!
こんにちは先生！
何だろう御前！日本語出来るの？アイパッドの事ですが、やっぱり、OS X出来たら良いけどさあ。。。
When I first got my 6+, my Mini2 did stay in my bag quite a bit. Up to that point I was using a 4S and the Mini was my goto device. Now I find myself going back to the Mini2 for games, videos and apps such as Netflix, Facebook and Flipboard. The 6+ is my go to for email, music and texting. For work, there is nothing better than the Mini2 with the Zagg Keyboard. I always feel that my 15″ Retina Pro is a wall between me and everyone else in the meeting. At first I thought I would abandoned my iPad, but I’ve simply parsed out tasks per device better after having gotten used to the 6+.
I had an iPad mini and replaced it with an iPad Air. I am way more productive at home with the Air than with the mini. I can’t wait to get a larger Pro, which I hope will remain light and with small bezel. I work with architectural plans, do digital work, read, use reference materials with large graphics. For me, the bigger the better. Although I could see that if I am traveling on vacation a Mini would be a good choice to have. I might get me a mini 4 when it comes out.
I have an iPad Air – but I don’t use it for work, and never will. I type too much – and it’s not the keyboard which is the problem (though the onscreen keyboard is a pain) because I have a wireless keyboard…
It’s the lack of a mouse or pointing device. Using a finger for selecting text is absolutely horrible.
And if I had a trackpad and wireless keyboard my MacBook Air would still be my first preference.
Even just browsing the net on the iPad is a pain – tabs won’t preload and some complex pages won’t load at all. To see The Guardian’s British election blog yesterday I had to switch to the MacBook Air. The page just would not load on the iPad.
A work-specific app on an iPad is a different issue. But my iPad is used only for reading the news and playing games. I use my macs for everything else except calls and navigation on my iPhone 6.
Would I buy another iPad? Yes, probably, eventually. 2018 perhaps… But never a mini.
I have an iPad Air but I’m looking forward to an iPad Pro. I do a lot of work with information rich data like electron micrographs and elemental x-ray maps. A small screen like that of a mini would be far too cramped. I would like to remotely connect to my computer at home to use some custom software which has rather busy screens. It sort of works now but it requires a lot of pan and zoom.
Also, at conferences and trade shows I use the iPad to show people the results of our work. The iPad Air is OK but a little larger would be nicer.
I’m a little concerned about the weight of a larger iPad but the tradeoff of a larger screen will make it worth it.
Could not agree more!
Cant wait for the pro… Im just hoping that it will have the ability to run full fledged applications rather than waterdown apps..
Combine that with nice pointing device ( stylus, and i believe it is coming )
Nice file management
Good ram…
Now if i asked for osx running on it .. I woukd probably get shot !
But id love it !
Ideally i would love a “new mackbook” style hybrid device.. Running osx and ios depending on mode!.:)
It will be great !
I have had two Mini’s. Dropped the first one on a corner and wrecked it. Bought a second one which I use everyday at work. But that’s primarily for e-mail and looking at web sites.
But even though there are some serious issues with OSX Yosemite, my plans are to move away from iOS as much as is practical.
I am a content creator, web sites and HTML animation. As such, there are few Apple apps that have any real value for me. Mail, Safari, but am liking Firefox more because there are more issues with Safari. Pages, all the others, I use very little because they dont do what I need. Especially in the newer versions, less with every “upgrade”
My content creation apps are all 3rd party specialized for particular functions. Pixelmator, Art Text2, Sparkle for web (which is what I-Web should have been), Affinity for vector and pixel artwork, Hype for animation, many other apps that an iOS user would most likely never heard of. I know some people use the iOS Pixelmator app for editing, but need a lot more capability that the OSX version has. Thats pretty much true across the board.
Sorry, but iOS really is for the consumer, not the producer, although there are people who mess with it that way. I am sure there will people who will disagree, but the touch interface is only practical for basic functions. You can’t do what I do using it, unless you really like doing things the hard way using 3-4 times the number of hours. You can’t make a living that way.
I have a Mini, and an 2009 Mac Pro for my content creation work. Unfortunately the Mac Pro is limited to Snow Leopard and will not run some apps that I need that require the “latest, greatest” and I suppose I dont blame the developers, there are features in Yosemite that unfortunately the developers must use, just wish they could have been incorporated in Snow Leopard, which I think is the high point of OSX. Dont like the later interfaces, reminds me of the Windows days (daze) much UI inconsistency and too many bugs, hidden menus etc. but it is the best alternative. So far.
So, my replacement for my iPad Mini will be a Macbook, far better for mobile because it doesn’t run on iOS, and can run the programs I actually use. iOS is good for some things, but its not a workhorse, more like a pony, which have their place.
iOS fans need to remember: without the Mac, you would not exist, for many many reasons. You need developers, content creators, etc and that comes from the Mac OS versions, and I dont see how that can change. It really is a content consumer device, and we have to admit that.
There is a lot more to life than music, not knocking it, but that is its prime reason for existence.
I’ve cracked the screen on 2 iPad Minis. The second was while it was in a case and I dropped it ~2 feet onto a carpeted floor. I love the size but cannot trust the screen. Too prone to cracking.
I think the iPad mini 3 + LTE is perfect for me. Great size for reading, typing, playing games, watch movies, checking Twitter, music, etc. Also was my first device that has Pay. I was able to take advantage of the fast processing on it to get the Watch on release day! Brilliant device. I don’t care if it’s basically a mini 2. It works great for my needs. I’m afraid they’ll take away the silence button in the next generation like they did with the Air 2. Stupid.
I’m on my second iPad mini. I bought a space grey iPad mini 3 last November and I love it. I considered an Air this last time around, but I like the smaller size of the mini. Cost was also a factor since I bought one with cellular connectivity.
The iPad mini 3 is a nice machine, but, what’s keeping Apple from putting the triple-core A8X processor in it? Sales cannibalization? Otherwise I can’t see a huge reason to buy it over the iPad mini 2. The TouchID sensor isn’t anything to write home about.