iMore’s Rene Ritchie has written an interesting post from his trip to Macworld 2013 last week about a trend I’ve heard a few times before: using your iPad mini as an actual phone. Ritchie wanted to save battery charge on his iPhone, so during his trip when he needed to check his itinerary or make a quick phone call, he pulled out the iPad mini and used Skype or browsed around the Internet. And at the end of what Ritchie says was a 19 hour trip, his iPad mini was still chugging right along, with over 30% battery left.

As I said, I’ve heard a few people talk about doing this before. The iPad mini is a powerful device, and while it is larger than a standard iPhone, the size allows you to carry it around in just one hand, and use it like its smaller iOS predecessor. The larger screen provides a nice wide-open feel, however, which can be very nice for games, and can make even productivity apps feel cleaner. As Ritchie says, combine the iPad mini with a headset and make a call on Skype, and you’ve just got a larger than usual iPhone.

So far, we’ve seen plenty of rumors about a bigger iPhone model, but no actual news from Apple just yet. Still, experiences like this, along with the fact that other smartphone companies have seen success with larger phone models, point to the possibility that there’s a sizable demand for a larger iPhone out there.

Using your iPad mini as a phone originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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