iPad Mini vs. iPad Air – Which Should You Buy?

By Josh Teder

iPad Air vs. iPad Mini: Which Should You Buy?

If you’re looking to get an iPad but can’t decide whether to go with an iPad Air or an iPad Mini, I’ve spent well over six months with both types, and I’m going to take you through how I’ve used each one — and which I would pick.

Size: The Most Consequential Choice

The most obvious and consequential part of this decision is size. Do you go with 7-inch, 11-inch, or potentially 13-inch, since the Air comes in two different sizes? Out of the three, the iPad sizes I’ve gravitated towards the most are the iPad Mini and the 13-inch Air, but for two very distinct use cases.

The 13-inch size is where I land when I want to do work that’s more akin to a laptop workload. That’s where the iPad Air has a real advantage over the Mini, because the iPad Mini doesn’t come with a Magic Keyboard accessory like the Air does. Though I’ll be honest, it’s not my favorite Magic Keyboard Apple makes for an iPad. That would be the iPad Pro’s Magic Keyboard, because of its aluminum material and better, larger haptic trackpad. And that isn’t the only thing I like better about the iPad Pro — if you want more of my thoughts on the iPad Pro versus the iPad Air, check out my full comparison of those two iPads.

For content consumption — watching stuff on a plane or relaxing on the couch — I also lean towards the larger 13-inch screen. That larger screen makes a huge difference.

Where the iPad Mini Truly Shines

Then there’s the iPad Mini’s 7-inch form factor, which is really where things get interesting for specific use cases.

The one thing I keep coming back to is reading in bed or lounging on the couch. When I want to curl up and read on an iPad for a long stretch of time, I don’t want some big, cumbersome slab to hold up. The Mini just feels much better to hold in your hand for long periods.

“It can really carve out a specific, perfect role in your life that none of the other bigger iPads can quite fill in the same way.”

The other use I found for the Mini is, honestly, quite unexpected: it’s the perfect size for my teleprompter, which I started using at the beginning of 2025. iPads are great in general for those kinds of unique niche tasks, and the Mini really shines in space-constrained situations. That’s why you might have heard that a lot of pilots prefer the Mini over the 11-inch or 13-inch Air — it fits perfectly in a cockpit where real estate is really tight.

Drawing and Note-Taking

What about drawing or taking notes? This has always been a use case that the iPad handles pretty well, though it’s not my personal favorite for note-taking specifically. That honor currently goes to the reMarkable Paper Pro. I’m also reviewing the new Kindle Scribe Color for that purpose as well, so keep an eye out for that.

The real trade-off for drawing and note-taking comes down to two questions: How portable do you want your iPad to be? And how much writing or drawing space do you ideally want?

At home, I find myself wanting more space, so I’d go for the Air over the Mini. But if I were on the go a lot — wanting a surface to jot down quick notes in a coffee shop, or meeting clients on-site — I might really prioritize the portability of the device over the ideal writing space. Especially since I don’t always know how much desk space I’ll have available the way I do in my home office.

Think through those two factors for yourself and where you’re planning to use your iPad most of the time. That should point you toward which size will be more ideal for you.

Performance: Does the Chip Difference Matter?

What about video editing, gaming, or other performance-intensive tasks? There is actually a difference worth considering here. The current iPad Mini runs on the A17 Pro chip, while the current iPad Air was just updated with an M4 chip. That not only gives the Air better CPU and GPU performance overall, but the M4 also includes a media encoding engine that will deliver significantly better performance in Final Cut for iPad.

“For gaming or other processor-intensive tasks, I’d go for the current iPad Air.”

So for gaming or other processor-intensive tasks, I’d go for the current iPad Air.

Other Differences Worth Knowing

Are there other differences worth knowing about between these two iPads? Yes and no.

Battery life is actually the same between the current models. One notable new difference is that the iPad Air has been upgraded to Wi-Fi 7, which will net you faster speeds if you have a Wi-Fi 7 router — though unless you’re uploading and downloading a lot of files, I’m not sure how much this will matter to most people.

There are a few other minor differences worth noting: the Mini has a True Tone flash, which depending on your use case could matter. The Mini’s front camera is also in a portrait orientation rather than landscape. And if you want to max out storage, the current Air goes all the way up to 1TB, while the Mini tops out at 512GB.

So, Which One Should You Get?

Those are the major differences between the iPad Air and the iPad Mini, in my book.

If I had to choose one iPad for myself, it would probably be the Air — or honestly the Pro. That’s the iPad I reach for most of all of the ones I currently have. Though, actually, I think I use the Mini more, because it’s literally part of my teleprompter setup, I use to film all of these posts. So I guess it would actually be the Mini.

And that’s kind of the thing that’s magical about iPads in general, but especially the Mini. It can really carve out a specific, perfect role in your life that none of the other bigger iPads can quite fill in the same way.

If you’re leaning towards the Air but curious how it stacks up against the iPad Pro, check out my full comparison of those two iPads. And for all the products we recommend, check out our shop page at 6monthslater.net/shop — search “iPad deals” to see any current iPad models that we’ve noticed have gone on sale.