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Last updated 2 min read

iPad Mini 7 as a Productivity Device

#Gadgets

I've been in the market for an ultimate productivity porn device for everything: reading, note taking, simple administrative tasks, todo-lists, calendars, planning, etc.

Use Cases

My initial list of use cases included:

  • E-Books
  • Articles from read-later apps
  • Note-taking via Obsidian

I wanted to at least improve a number of things in my reading/note-taking:

  1. Reading experience in regards of things that I mentioned: A Few Years With Kindle Paperwhite 7th
  2. I wanted to enhance my note-taking by handwriting & sketching and integrate it with my Obsidian note-taking flow.

Calendars, to-do lists, etc are nice to-haves, but the main bottleneck with them is synchronization. If they don't synchronize seamlessly in the background they don't make sense at all. It's quite a troublesome out of the Apple ecosystem.

Obsidian has more options to sync, but it can be a caveat. Another pitfall is the keyboard. There is a chance that non-laptop usage will be too uncomfortable.

Portability is a must-have for me, but tablets don't fit in reasonably-sized sling bags. Requiring a backpack defeats the whole idea of portability advantage. I might as well carry a laptop.

On the other hand, it makes the choice easier: if I need a backpack, then a 10" tablet is not a portability deal breaker.

Alternatives

Here is a list of alternatives that I considered

  • iPad
    • Mini 7
  • ReMarkable
    • Paper Pro
    • Remarkable 2
  • Boox
    • Note Air 4c
    • Boox Tab Ultra C Pro
    • Go 7 Color (didn't consider, as it came out later)
  • Supernote
    • A6X2 Nomad
    • A5X2 Manta
  • Kindle
    • Scribe
    • Colorsoft
  • Viwoods
    • AI paper

Why iPad Mini 7 Nails It

After carefully researching how people use all kinds of e-ink tablets: Handwritten Note Taking References. Devices, Workflows & Software and workflows they build around note taking I concluded that some devices may be better in specific use cases but nothing can beat an iPad as a general-purpose device integrated within the ecosystem.

I don't think I could achieve anything close in UX with any of the devices other than my iPad: [[My Handwritten Note Taking Workflow with iPad and Obsidian]]

In the end, there were 2 devices on my shortlist: iPad Mini 7 and Boox Air4 C. Here are some thoughts on iPad Mini 7 vs Boox Air4 C and also A Few Notes on the Leading E-ink Devices

References

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