During the last few weeks, I have been using and testing out the blue iPad Mini seventh generation for myself. This comes not quite a month after I purchased the MacBook Neo in March 2026 shortly after it was released.
My reason for buying the iPad Mini 7 was actually quite a simple one. I wanted a device where if I was at home in my bed or bathtub, that I could browse the web, manage social media, and watch TV shows and movies from on a bigger screen than my iPhone 15 Plus. Heck, I’ve even used it a couple of times to stream TV shows while in my car on my dinner break at my full-time job.
That’s it. Oh, and that I did buy Apple’s charcoal gray Smart Folio for iPad Mini case for it too.
For the record, my most-recently used iPad before this iPad Mini was the iPad Air fifth generation that I used for nearly four years with the Magic Keyboard case on it.
There are currently no plans to turn it into a full-time e-reading device because, while I do love to read, I prefer to read physical books instead of ebooks.
As for how the device looks, I will say that I do like it a lot. It’s a slim, compact iPad Mini that feels nice in the hand. Having the volume rockers on the top near the sleep/wake button has thrown me off at times, but can come in handy when using the iPad in landscape mode.
When it comes to the sound quality, it’s pretty good. Obviously it could be better in terms of how loud the speakers get, but for my uses, it does the job. I would imagine that Apple will be putting even better speakers in the eighth generation model whenever that is announced.
It generally does well with processing speeds. I have yet to come across any sort of lag with the device since I purchased it. The battery life on it is good as well.
Design-wise, where this iPad Mini 7 loses some respect for me has been that I purchased it in blue and the blue on this iPad Mini seems pretty faded. It’s like a slight blush of light blue to it, whereas with my iPad Air fifth generation, you could definitelty see the blue coloring on it. The same can be said for my MacBook Neo and first generation AirPods Max headphones too. I’m not sure why Apple would blush a color like light blue since you can hardly see it well?
However, I do not see the blue color all that much because of the gray Smart Folio case I bought for it.
The camera works well and looks good enough for an iPad Mini camera. In fact, here is an image below I took using my new iPad Mini 7 of the current book I’m reading, along with my blue MacBook Neo under it:
All in all, while it does have some minor drawbacks, this is still definitely a great iPad Mini in 2026. I’d even go as far as to that if you were to pick this iPad over a regular-sized one, or the Air or Pro models, the Mini would be very much a great choice. It has something for everyone, compact and light-weight, and that there is arguably no better tablet of its size on the market right now.
For me, the iPad Mini 7 gets 4.5/5 stars. At the end of the day, it is still an iPad in 2026 that does what it is supposed to do and more. It lost half a star due the blue coloring issue, though.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
