I got my kid a tablet and reckoned the iPad mini was a better choice, and I wanted to call him, read books and play games with him remotely, and the highest rec

I got my kid a tablet and reckoned the iPad mini was a better choice, and I wanted to call him, read books and play games with him remotely, and the highest recommended app for this (Caribu) worked best on iOS. I don't really recommend Caribu (now owned by Mattel and the lack of love put into it is showing) but I don't know anything better. A bug that bites every other day: a request for more screen time comes in (parental controls) while the iPad was last in landscape, and I unlock it in portrait. Messages comes up after I press the alert to approve it, but the messages UI is stuck half way between landscape and portrait, and the message that requires approval is off the bottom of the screen and can't be scrolled back. Rotating the iPad doesn't help. I have to quit Messages and restart it, sometimes a couple of times. Another thing that creeps me out every time I do it: I download a free app and somewhere along the line I have to press a Buy button, or there is some "Processing payment" notification, that makes me think I was duped. And I have a generalized gripe about the stores - there are like 3 different store apps on a new ipad, really confusing. Even worse, as an English speaker living in Switzerland (3 major official languages) some stores, like the Apple store, default to German with no configuration possible, and while the App store only shows app reviews written in Switzerland, so I basically see no English reviews for any apps. I can't opt in to seeing UK or US reviews. Funny you should mention smoothness. After I got my ipad, I immediately regretted not getting the pro because 60Hz animation is quite flickery on a big screen. Outside video calls I only use the iPad for watching tv shows. It's kind of a redundant device for my lifestyle.