Anyone getting iPad mini 4?

[Midwayman]

I'm not in the market for an iPad but I wonder if Apple will not update the Air 2 until next fall? That just seems really weird to me, and I wonder if they'll push out an Air 3 in 5-6 months (there are currently no rumors to suggest this).

It makes sense if you think about the pro. It give the pro a lot more separation in terms of performance. If there was an air 3 this year with the same SOC, it'd be harder sell.

It might end up like this-
Pro- Newest SOC
Ipad- Last years pro
mini- Last years iphone

Pretty easy way for them to segment their tablets going forward.

 

[manly]

It makes sense if you think about the pro. It give the pro a lot more separation in terms of performance. If there was an air 3 this year with the same SOC, it'd be harder sell.

It might end up like this-
Pro- Newest SOC
Ipad- Last years pro
mini- Last years iphone

Pretty easy way for them to segment their tablets going forward.

No I get that, but it's not a good business decision IMO. The Pro is more of a niche product and with tablet sales already down year-over-year for numerous quarters now, this will not help invigorate iPad sales. I understand giving the Pro a built-in advantage for now, but if the Air 2 hasn't been updated by next summer, it will be considered an "old" device.

It's almost a gamble/bet by Apple that people will buy iPads in the holiday Q4 no matter what (as gifts), so they aren't required to update the Air 2 at this time. The Air 2 is a fantastic device and when on sale, it's at a fair price point. So maybe Apple is right to stand pat...

 

[Midwayman]

No I get that, but it's not a good business decision IMO. The Pro is more of a niche product and with tablet sales already down year-over-year for numerous quarters now, this will not help invigorate iPad sales. I understand giving the Pro a built-in advantage for now, but if the Air 2 hasn't been updated by next summer, it will be considered an "old" device.

It's almost a gamble/bet by Apple that people will buy iPads in the holiday Q4 no matter what (as gifts), so they aren't required to update the Air 2 at this time. The Air 2 is a fantastic device and when on sale, it's at a fair price point. So maybe Apple is right to stand pat...

Yah. But its not like there is much of a threat from Android this year. If there was any year to delay, 2015 is it with how much they got caught with their pants down on the 64bit transition. Had the mini4 released with the a8x instead of the a8 I might be more inclined to think apple was planning a half year refresh.

 

[suklee]

Ordered a white 128GB... never used white before, have always been a black/space grey guy, thought I'd give it a try. Mini 2 will get passed down to my sis.

BTW, is it "technically possible" for the Apple Pencil to work on the mini 4 with a later update?

 

[Eug]

Ordered a white 128GB... never used white before, have always been a black/space grey guy, thought I'd give it a try. Mini 2 will get passed down to my sis.

BTW, is it "technically possible" for the Apple Pencil to work on the mini 4 with a later update?

AFAIK, no.

 

[Midwayman]

Ordered a white 128GB... never used white before, have always been a black/space grey guy, thought I'd give it a try. Mini 2 will get passed down to my sis.

BTW, is it "technically possible" for the Apple Pencil to work on the mini 4 with a later update?

The type of stylus requires a different digitizer. I'd be surprised it it works. However they did put a different digitizer on the air 2 that screwed up some of the fancy fine point styluses. Maybe they thought ahead, but I doubt it.

 

[Eug]

IFixit confirms iPad mini 4 has 2 GB RAM & battery is smaller.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad+Mini+4+Teardown/48891

 

[suklee]

My mini 4 arrived this morning, that was fast... even had it engraved. Definitely feels thinner in hand than the mini 2 (6.1mm vs. 7.5mm). Most looking forward to Touch ID :biggrin:

How long before Touch ID makes its way to the iMac / MacBooks? (finger print sensor on a magic mouse maybe?)

PS. I also got the new aluminium dock, build quality is nice but display angle is non-adjustable and sits up too vertical for my liking. Also, as I type on the mini, it's not stable and rocks the device back and forth. Docked iPhone 6 was slightly better but for US$50 there must be better options out there.

 

[Eug]

DisplayMate: iPad mini 4 gets a Great Display with a Full Color Gamut and Record Low Reflectance

The iPad mini 4 has finally grown up and become a full fledged respectable iPad family member with a high performance display that Steve Jobs would be proud of - with not only a full and very accurate 101% sRGB Color Gamut, but even more important, with a very low 2.0% screen Reflectance - the lowest we have ever measured for any mobile display - very impressive!

All of the previous iPad minis had a small 62% Color Gamut with poor color saturation, and very high screen Reflectance - the mini 3 had 6.5% Reflectance and the original mini had a blinding 9.0% Reflectance.

First of all, the colors and color accuracy of the iPad mini 4 now match all of the recent full size iPads and also the recent iPhones (5 and 6 including S and Plus). So across the entire mobile iOS product line you'll now see color matched photos and screen images. The mini 4 is an excellent super size upgrade to the iPhone 6(S) and Plus and now truly qualifies as a small version of the iPad Air 2.

But in terms of real-world viewing conditions, the record low 2.0% screen Reflectance actually makes a bigger visual difference for the image colors and image contrast that you actually see because ambient light washes out and degrades the displayed images and reduces screen readability - so its record low Reflectance actually makes a bigger difference!

The previous record holder for low Reflectance was the iPad Air 2 with 2.5%, but most of the Tablets that we have tested recently fall in the range of 5.0% to 6.5% screen Reflectance (including the mini 3). So the iPad mini 4 has a Contrast in ambient light that is a factor of 2.5X to 3.2X higher than most other tablets (and 36% better than the iPad Air 2) - a major display performance improvement in real world viewing conditions! In fact, the iPad mini 4 has a Contrast Rating for High Ambient Light of 225, the highest we have ever measured and another record for the mini 4.