The iPad Mini is an interesting product. It’s something of a niche, especially with the larger-screen phones being the norm. But it has its dedicated following, with many saying it’s the most “iPad” of iPads. The argument is that the Mini best represents the original goal of having a third category of device between a smartphone and a laptop. It doesn’t try to be a laptop; it’s just an iPad.

At least, before iPadOS 26.

With this upcoming OS release, Apple has decided to do something I’ve been advocating for years and is expanding more advanced multitasking capabilities to Apple’s smallest tablet (as well as the base iPad, but that is a topic for another time).

It might seem a little ridiculous, but iPadOS 26 kind of transforms the way you can use the iPad Mini. In my mind, this update gets us a little bit closer to the mythical iPad Mini Pro that so many of us iPadOS users have wanted for years.

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Pro Level Hardware

Thanks to the somewhat steep hardware requirements of Apple Intelligence, the seventh-generation iPad Mini ended up getting quite the upgrade in 2024. Moving from the A15 Bionic to the A17 Pro brought a roughly 30% performance improvement, and is the first time a Pro chip has been available in an iPad Mini. In single core performance, the A17 Pro is faster than the M1 and M2, trailing a bit behind the M4. Multicore performance is a bit further back, but still in the ballpark of the M1 iPad Pro.

The new chip also brought a RAM increase from 4 GB to 8 GB. 8 GB of RAM doesn’t sound like much these days, but iPadOS isn’t a heavy as something like Windows or macOS, so it really does go further than it does on a MacBook.

The Mini is a bit behind the times with a USB 3 port in the era of USB 4, but it supports up to 10 Gbps, which means for most of the things you’ll plug it in, it should be fast enough.

The Neural Engine got a sizable bump from 15 TOPS to 35 TOPS of performance. While that admittedly doesn’t mean much today for iPad users, this ensures that AI features should remain fast and performant as Apple and third-party developers continue to add them.

What does all of this mean? It means the iPad Mini for sale today is already packing Pro-level performance, in some respects. There are areas where it falls short in the hardware department, notably with the display, but performance for productivity and graphics tasks is very solid.

iPadOS 16: Multitasking Options Galore

The same way the iPad Mini (A17 Pro) took at big leap over its predecessor in hardware, iPadOS 26 give the Mini a big improvement in its software abilities. The Mini picks up not only the new Windowed apps multitasking option, but also the previous iPad windowing option, Stage Manager. Though I’d maybe call it “Stage Manager 2.0” as iPadOS 26 corrects many of the naggling issues that haven’t been addressed since the feature debuted in 2022.

Windowed Apps

The new windowing system makes it so you’re free to load up as many apps and windows as you want on the relatively small 8.3 inch Retina Display. Though you probably won’t want to. On a screen this small, it doesn’t really make a ton of sense to have 12 apps on screen at the same time. You can, however, move beyond the arguably limited capabilities of Split View and Slide Over, and build a workspace that works well for you.

Once the screen fills up with windows, and on the Mini it quickly will, you’ll want to use the Dock or Expośe to be able to get to apps that are hidden behind other windows.

I’ve read conflicting reports as to whether or not there’s a fixed limit on the number of apps you can have open. It seems like any limit here is on the number of apps you have open that stay active. It looks like at some point, iPadOS suspends older apps, but quickly resumes them when you bring them to the forefront. I guess this could be an instance of “taking advantage” of the additional power of the A17 Pro chip (I still hate that sentiment).

Stage Manager

Now, to be honest, as an iPad user that learned to use the existing multitasking system, this all feels a bit messy to me. So adding Stage Manager into the mix can help here.

If you’re new to Stage Manager as an iPad Mini user, this is a multitasking mode that encourages you to group apps into workspaces aka “Stages” and switch between them as needed. Its hallmark feature is that, for some reason, every new app you open will open in its own Stage, which can be kind of jarring. However, once you get your Stages arranged, Stage Manager can be a very productive way to work. Your most recent Stages can be accessed from a strip on the left hand side of the display (you may need to swipe in from the left to see it.

Pro Apps Support

As the iPad Mini’s hardware has gotten better, so too has its support for various Pro apps in the iPadOS ecosystem.

Swift Playground and Logic Pro have always been supported on the Mini 5 and up. With the A17 Pro iPad Mini, Final Cut Pro came to Apple’s smallest tablet. While apps to still appear to be able to limit compatibility to iPads with M-Series chips, I expect this to happen less and less as these more powerful chips trickle down into the iPad Mini and base iPad.

Accessories

There’s no Magic Keyboard for the iPad Mini, but it has wired and wireless keyboard and mouse support. I’m more a fan of a separate keyboard and mouse setup, but there are plenty of Magic Keyboard-like keyboard cases offered by third parties that can make the Mini the super tiny laptop of your dreams.

Just like the Pro, the iPad Mini’s USB port lets you connect to all sorts of useful peripherals like audio interfaces and external cameras.

The Last Step To Going Pro

Let’s step back and look at everything the iPad Mini has to offer. It now has:

• Windowed multitasking
• Hardware Keyboard Support
• Mouse/Trackpad Support
• Apple Pencil Pro support
• A modern USB port
• External storage support
• External camera support
• Final Cut Pro and Logic
• Other iPadOS Pro apps (ZBrush, LumaFusion, Xogot)

From a capabilities perspective, this looks a lot like what the iPad Pro offers. The last thing the iPad Mini needs to “go pro” isn’t Face ID or a Promotion display, although I’d love to see both of those.… its full external display support.

That’s right, on iPadOS 26, the Mini still only supports display mirroring, which isn’t super helpful for general productivity use cases. There is an API that lets an app extend content to the display in this mode, but very very few apps every took advantage of it.

If the Mini had proper external display support, it would become an even more compelling product for so many uses. Imagine a super small and pocketable tablet, that you can plug into a dock and have it connect to your keyboard, mouse and camera, audio interface…all of it. You can get your work done, then it detaches from all of that and slides neatly back into your purse or your suit jacket pocket. Would that not be an amazingly compelling product?

Conclusion

Considering a “Pro” device not just for its hardware specs but for its efficiency in getting work done, the iPad Mini 7 with iPadOS 26 comes closer than ever to fulfilling the Mini Pro expectations of iPadOS enthusiasts. External display support is the last major feature the Mini needs to get there. Will we ever see it? Who know…hopefully Apple doesn’t do something silly like reserving full external display support for the rumored OLED iPad Mini.