The iPad mini is an unsung hero in the iPad lineup. When I talk to MacSparky Labs members, quite often the iPad mini is their favorite iPad. And the reason for that is that it’s the iPad for non-iPad Pro users.

There are some people who want to use an iPad as a laptop replacement and make it work essentially as a Macintosh. But for a lot of people, they’re looking at it as an in-between device, something like what Steve Jobs described when he first stood on the stage with the first iPad. And for so many people, the iPad mini is the perfect fit for that. It’s small and portable, it’s easy to type on in portrait mode with your fingers, and it’s just big enough to give you a substantial benefit while small enough to be almost pocketable.

For this reason, I’ve heard from a lot of Labs members who want the iPad mini to get a Pro version. This week we got something in between the old iPad mini and a Pro version, but it’s really a nice upgrade anyway. The updates include a larger 8.5-inch OLED display, a nano-texture option, the A20 Pro chip, and a thinner and lighter design with water and dust resistance.

The interesting angle to all this is how this iPad mini fits in a world that also has the iPhone Duo. Because in the same month, Apple has given us not only a much-improved iPad mini, it has also given us a phone that unfolds into something approaching an iPad mini. It still runs iPhone software, so it isn’t literally an iPad mini.

I think for a lot of people, the iPad mini plus a traditional iPhone might be the right answer. You keep the conventional iPhone you prefer, but still get the convenience of a mini.

The question is, if you had that larger screen in your pocket, how often would you pull it out and unfold it? And while the answer to that question is going to vary for a lot of people, I think that’s the pivot point here.

If you really believe you would use the iPhone Duo as an iPad-mini-like productivity device that you have with you at all times, that’s probably a good reason to buy one. If not, the new iPad mini is hard to resist.