The Multipad Lifestyle

David Sparks is a bad influence. The idea of having multiple iPads first got into my brain listening to Mac Power Users #317 when he confessed to Katie Floyd that he had bought a 9.7” iPad Pro to go with his 12.7” one.1

My path to multiple iPads was a little different. For many years I ran 9.7” iPads. Originally, of course, 9.7” was the only choice. I was never really tempted by the iPad mini, not so much because of screen size, but because my iPads tended to spend a lot of their time connected to external keyboard cases. While some manufacturers make keyboards sized to the mini, they’re really too small for effective touch typing (even 9.7” sized keyboards are on the cramped side).

The iPad Pro

When the original 12.9” iPad Pro came out, I thought it was interesting, but not something I’d really be interested in. It was so big, and I had a fairly new iPad Air 2 that I still really liked. Then my Air 2 was stolen and I had to figure out what to replace it with. After quite a bit of debate I ended up getting a 12.9” iPad Pro.2

I really do like the big iPad Pro. The big screen is great, especially for watching video and it does split view multitasking much better than the smaller iPads. The Apple Pencil has been useful, but not anywhere near as big a deal for me as it has for some other folks. I use it mostly for occasionally marking up PDFs rather than drawing.

For me, though, the real killer feature is the Smart Keyboard. As I mentioned, I’ve run external keyboard cases3 with my iPads almost from the very beginning. While I’ve found them much better than the onscreen keyboard, cases sized for 9.7” iPads have always been a little cramped to type on. The larger size of the 12.9” is finally enough to fit a real, full sized keyboard layout. The magnetic connection makes it much easier to get the keyboard on and off the device, so I can easily swap back and forth between typing and just using the iPad without the keyboard to watch video or browse the web. The Smart Connector is a big advance over Bluetooth in that the keyboard is always on. With Bluetooth keyboards if you haven’t typed anything in a while you have to wake the keyboard up before typing.

While I have not gone nearly as far down the route of making the iPad my primary machine as folks like Fraser Speirs or Federico Viticci, the 12.9” Pro has allowed me to go further in this direction than I previously thought. These days I don’t usually take my MacBook Pro with me when I travel unless I think I’ll have a particular need for it.

As much as I love the 12.9” iPad Pro, there have been some disadvantages to it. When I had a 9.7” iPad, it was pretty much my constant companion. With the help of a Tom Bihn Ristretto4 I had it with me almost all the time. I don’t carry the 12.9” around nearly as much. The extra size and weight make it easier to just leave it and only bring my phone. It’s not really a take everywhere” device for me the way the 9.7” was.

The big iPad is also sometimes awkward around the house. It’s great for working at a desk or table, or sitting on the couch watching a video, but it’s big enough to be a bit awkward to hold in one hand and tap or type with the other.

Thinking about a smaller iPad

Initially, these disadvantages had me thinking about getting a larger iPhone. Ever since the iPhone line split into the regular and plus sizes, I had stayed with the smaller phone. Since my phone was effectively taking on some of the roles that the 9.7” iPad had filled for me, it had me considering whether an iPhone 7+ would make sense. In the end, though, I just couldn’t do it. The bigger phone just wouldn’t fit in some of the places where I keep my phone, and it’s not really friendly to one handed operation.

Eventually, I came round to the idea that the only way I could fill the gap left by the 9.7” iPad was another iPad. Unlike David, however, my solution to this was not a 9.7” Pro, but a iPad mini. I thought the mini would nicely split the difference between the big Pro and my iPhone.

I’d been thinking about going this route for quite a while, but part of the reason I decided to jump on it was the signs that the iPad mini might be on the way out. Apple recently dropped all of the mini models except the 128gb size, as well as undercutting it price-wise with the new $329 iPad. If I wanted the new one, this might be the time to do it.5

While buying a second iPad is pretty much the definition of a splurge, I did economize in a couple of ways. This is my first iPad without cellular data. I relying on wifi and tethering to my iPhone for this one. I also went with just a 32gb model, which is the smallest amount of storage I’ve ever had in an iPad. I figure that the big iPad Pro is going to remain my primary platform for watching video and I don’t sync my music library to any of my iPads, so all I really need is enough space for apps. While Apple isn’t selling the 32gb iPad mini any more, it was still available from other sellers. I found a good deal on one from Walmart. It had evidently been sitting on the shelf for a while, since it came out of the box with iOS 10.0, rather than the then-current 10.3.1.

The iPad mini

This was the first time in a long, long while that I’ve set up an iOS device from scratch. Usually, when I get a new iPad or iPhone I just restore from my old device’s iCloud backup. Thinking about it the last iOS device I set up completely from scratch was probably the original iPad.

That said, cloud services make getting all my data on a new device pretty easy. Download the apps and set up iCloud, Dropbox, and a couple of app-specific syncing services (like OmniPresence).

There are some aspects of the smaller iPad that take some getting used to. The touch targets are all a bit smaller, for instance.

The keyboard is really way too small for touch typing. I find myself doing a lot more hunt and peck, often with the mini in my right hand and typing with my left. Holding the device vertically in both hands and typing with both thumbs is probably the fastest way to enter a non-trivial amount of text. When I’m using the mini I also find myself missing the number key row from the iPad Pro onscreen keyboard (though the flick keyboard in iOS 11 may mitigate that). The mini clearly isn’t going to be a machine for serious typing, compared to the iPad Pro or a Mac.

I use Split View quite a bit on my iPad Pro, but it definitely isn’t as useful on the mini’s smaller screen. I find myself using Slide Over when I need to access data in a second app (I did this with 1Password quite a bit during the setup process when I needed to enter credentials in other apps).

So far I find myself using the iPad mini quite a bit as a secondary screen. It’s what I grab when I’m doing something else and want to look something up on the internet or check email. If I’m sitting down to concentrate on one task I’m more likely to use the big iPad (or the Mac).

Accessories

When I got the mini I did some hunting for a shoulder bag that really took advantage of the mini’s small size. Getting the smaller device in putting it in a bag sized for the 9.7” iPad seemed like a waste, so I really wanted something designed for the mini, but those are few and far between. I ended up getting a nice Waterfield Design iPad mini sleeve with a shoulder strap. This is about as minimalist as you can get (if anything I wish it had a bit more space for extra gear than the one very flat outside pocket that the sleeve sports). I’d link it, but it looks like Waterfield isn’t making the iPad mini sized one anymore.

The other piece of gear that I got for my iPad mini was a cheap folding stand. Frankly, these are not very high quality (though I haven’t broken one yet), but they are the lightest and most compact stand that I’ve been able to find. Everything else would be bulkier than the iPad mini itself. This little stand slips nicely into the flat pocket on the Waterfield case (though it doesn’t always want to stay there).

Was it worth it?

I haven’t ended up using the mini as often as I thought I would, in part because around the time I got the mini I cut down on how often I went out for lunch, which was one of the main times I figured I’d be using the mini. Still, I think it was worth it, even if it is clearly a secondary device for me.


  1. He’s not the only one, of course. I know other people are doing the same thing, notably Myke Hurley and CGP Grey. 
  2. A few months later the 9.7” iPad Pro came out. If it had been out at the time (or if I had known it was coming) I probably would have gone with the smaller size and never known how well the 12.9” Pro would work for me. 
  3. First Zagg, then Bridge
  4. An older model Ristretto specifically sized for a 9.7” iPad that they don’t make any more. 
  5. Before buying new, I did check Gazelle and some other sources for used models. I could only find 16gb or 128gb models, and even those only seemed to be available in the gold color (which I detest). 

August 28, 2017


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