Apple's smallest iPad has been around for years and it has its fans. The advantages of a smaller tablet include a lower price and easier portability. It can slide into big jacket pockets or small bags,

The bigger iPads are increasingly competing with your laptop; the Mini very much still complements it. The Mini has always felt like an afterthought — updated only occasionally, forced to run apps and an OS clearly designed for larger screens — but the one-handed iPad was the one for me anyway.

We marked October 22 on the calendar and canceled our appointments. We were almost certain that Apple would hold its second fall keynote on that day and unveil new Macs and iPads. But then, just when we were expecting an invitation, Cupertino sent us instead a press release with details of the 7th-gen iPad mini… and nothing else.

The most important thing about the new iPad mini is that, on the one hand, it’s a pretty minimal update. It got a better processor—the A17 Pro from last year’s Pro iPhones—and Apple supposedly fixed a display refresh problem that previously caused what is known as “jellyscrolling” where one side of the display refreshes slower than the other.

Earlier this month, Apple announced a new iPad mini for the first time in three years. Ahead of the device launching this Wednesday, we have