So, I Ended Up Getting an iPad Mini (Premium)

This is vaguely embarrassing, and though I was unhappy with my previous iPad, I wasn't expecting to make a change this soon. But I got a payment notification from Leanpub, which shouldn't have been a surprise, but was. And it put my PayPal balance over the top, so what the heck.

A few thoughts. Mostly positive, I guess.
? It's ... pretty small
I've owned several iPad Minis over the years, dating back to the original version Apple released in 2012. But I've owned far more full-sized iPads, and my most recent model, a 2024 iPad Air, is even bigger, at 13 inches, and it's heavy too. When I first opened the box, I thought, uh-oh, this might be too small. But it's right-sized for reading, and is notably bigger than a Kindle e-reader. Which wasn't clear until I put them side-by-side.

? This is about reading
I've collected a few pithy phrases over the years. One is the right tool for the job. Another is to optimize for the everyday. The iPad Mini hits on both. I read every day on an iPad, and I sometimes--rarely--use it to watch videos. This can handle both tasks well, and it's a better size than the iPad Air 13-inch for reading. Also, the App Store has more and better reading apps, though this is a subtle distinction.

?Why not a full-sized iPad?
It occurred to me that the base iPad, with its 10.9-inch display, or the similarly-sized11-inch iPad Air might be a sort of "Goldilocks" tablet from a size perspective, bigger than the iPad Mini but smaller than the 13-inch Air. But math gets in the way. The iPad Air is stupid expensive, plus I already have a new one. And the base iPad only comes with 64 GB of storage; I've come to like having 128 GB, and use the extra space. Thanks to Apple's extortionist upgrade prices, a base iPad with 128 GB storage is $499, the same price as the iPad Mini (which also has 128 GB). And the iPad Mini is more future-proof, with a newer A17 Pro chip, compared to the A14 in the base iPad.

?Display matters
I love the idea of e-ink. I especially love the idea of color e-ink, and I have no issues with the pale and somewhat washed out color e-ink displays I've seen. But they're limited to e-readers and some admittedly interesting Android-based devices (basically phone-sized and mini-tablets). We're never going to see e-ink on an iPad.

? Why not Android?
I like Pixel Android and I often do use a Pixel phone. If Google hadn't screwed up the aspect ratio of the Pixel Tablet display, I might be using that now. But I have zero interest in a general purpose Android tablet, or an Amazon Fire HD tablet (having just checked out the latest version). There is an alternative timeline in which I get an Android mini-tablet with a color e-ink screen, however. I could put up with it on a device that was right-sized and just for reading. It could happen.

? Isn't it ironic, don't you think?
One of the key criticisms of Android tablets is that some apps aren't optimized for the larger display and instead of...