I've got to admit, small tablets have never particularly appealed to me.
While the larger format iPad is great for watching Netflix , or as a substitute laptop with a detachable smart keyboard, the iPad Mini always seemed to me like a big iPhone - but without the phone.
I realise this is a minority view. The iPad Mini has been well loved ever since it first launched in 2012, due to its portability (it slips easily into a coat pocket or a handbag) and its price (significantly cheaper than the larger models). It's also hugely popular with kids.
But with the latest version of its iPad Mini, Apple has introduced support for Apple Pencil - its excellent stylus with a hard nib that feels like a real pencil - and as far as I'm concerned, that's a game-changer.
The reason this excites me is because, even before I was a journalist, I always loved those spiral-bound reporter's notebooks.
Whether you're taking notes, making lists, or sketching something out, they're such a handy size, and you can use them standing up, holding the pad in one hand and a pen in the other.
The iPad Mini with Apple Pencil support is essentially the digital version of a reporter's pad. And if you're into using a stylus with your tablet, the iPad Mini suddenly starts to make a lot more sense.
You can make handwritten notes and sketches in Notes and Mail, and with Markup you can also annotate photos, PDFs and screenshots.
Pages, Numbers and Keynote all support Apple Pencil, so you can easily incorporate feedback into a document using smart annotation, or design a presentation using new animation options.
There's also a wide selection of third-party apps that support Apple Pencil such as Procreate, Good Notes, Notability, Pixelmator and Microsoft Office.
So whether you're a student, professional or creative, there are plenty of use cases where the iPad Mini with Apple Pencil is the ideal combination.
The other big attraction of the iPad Mini is that, unlike a lot of small tablets, it doesn't feel inferior to its larger counterparts.
It's got Apple's latest A12 Bionic chip, which is the same one that runs in the iPhone XS and iPad Air, and also has a Retina display (326ppi) with True Tone technology, which adjusts the white balance of the display to fit the ambient light conditions.
So despite the 7.9-inch screen, the iPad Mini is still great for streaming films and playing games with console-quality graphics. The paperback size also makes it a natural e-reader replacement.
It's got the same front- and back-facing cameras as the new iPad Air, which aren't as impressive as those on the latest iPhones but are capable of filming HD video, making them ideal for FaceTime calls.
You can even take advantage of the multitasking capabilities of iOS 12, with Drag and Drop making it easy to move images, text and files between apps.
With a starting price of £399, the iPad Mini is a bit more expensive than Apple's older 9.7-inch iPad (2018), which launched last year and comes with Apple's A10 Fusion chip.
If you want to take advantage of the Apple Pencil support, you'll have to buy one of those too for an additional £89.
That's a lot more than a reporter's pad, admittedly, but it's a pretty fair price for the amount of powerful technology Apple has packed into a small package.
