The cute but spec'd iPad mini 6 was probably not supposed to be the star of Apple's California Dreaming event on Tuesday. But while many of Apple's smallest tablets have been upgraded or replaced, it is certainly the most interesting of all the company's announcements.

I have often overlooked the iPad mini in the past; the iPad mini (2019) did not make my shortlist at all when looking for a new personal tablet, and it is also the only iPad that did not appear on Tom's Guide's best tablets list. But the arrival of the new iPad mini is about to change all that.

First of all, the iPad mini's new design brings the iPad up to date. It looks more like Apple's iPad Air and iPad Pro, and the ugly bezels that were supposed to disappear from the base of the new iPad are gone. As a result, the display is also larger, going from 7.9 inches to 8.3 inches on the 2019 iPad mini. This is a major quality-of-life change, providing users with more space in a frame of roughly the same size.

The mini also supports the second generation Apple Pencil, a significant improvement over the original. It is more compact and can be stored and charged using a magnetic connector on the edge of the tablet. This is much more practical than the first-generation Pencil, which lacks the convenient storage feature and must be charged via the regular iPad Lightning connector.

Computing power will also take a big leap forward thanks to the new A15 Bionic chipset in the iPad mini. The previous model used the A12 Bionic chip, which was already a year old when it was introduced. This time around, the iPad is equipped with the A15 chip at the same time as the iPhone 13 is equipped with the A15 chip, making it as powerful as the M1-equipped iPad Pro that you can get without having to buy one.

Another iPad Pro feature that the iPad mini 6 (and iPad 9) lost is the Center Stage front camera. This allows the iPad to control the zoom level of the video feed when you are on a call or recording yourself, allowing it to follow you around and adjust when people enter and exit the frame. on the iPad Pro, and it was very effective.

While not the most exciting change, swapping in a USB-C port could prove very useful. Also, as Apple showed in its presentation, this will allow the iPad mini to work with many new accessories that were previously not an option.

The only thing missing is a keyboard folio case like on other iPads, but this may be because the mini is too small to have ergonomic and functional keys. It would also be kind of Apple if they offered a 128GB storage model instead of making users struggle to choose between a 64GB base version or a 256GB version that costs an additional $150. It's frustrating, but we'll just have to swallow it as room for future improvements.

I am excited about the changes to the iPhone 13 lineup, especially what Apple is doing with the iPhone 13 camera and the new 120Hz ProMotion display on the Pro model. It looks attractive. It's best not to talk too much about the new basic iPad, even if it does have some worthwhile upgrades. Even with these considerations, I'm convinced the iPad mini was the star of the show.