oldest good enough ipad mini?

[slackerinabox]

looking for a tablet for non-intense stuff (email, web browsing, e-reading in a pinch) and just want something that's not sluggish. What's the cheapest, modern ipad mini? Meaning still getting updates, still pretty seamless but not necessarily state of the art

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Mini 4.

I have a Mini 3. You want the 4. No joke. 2GB of RAM matters. (The CPU is only marginally faster.)

That said, the 4 is 3 years old at this point - I'd wait for an update.

Compared to, say, a Kindle, the 8" screen in the Mini makes it a little too big for single-handed use. (Reading in bed, that sort of thing.)

Alternatively, an iPhone 7 Plus is about the same price, has a faster CPU, the same 2GB of ram, and the 5.5" screen is pretty close to Phablet territory, if you have good eyesight.

 

[Eug]

Yeah seconded. 2 GB is a big advantage, which means the mini 4. Unfortunately, it's old now.

Everything you describe can be done on a 1 GB iPad mini but the problem is tabs often reload in Safari. They still reload on a 2 GB iOS device, but it happens much less often.

Alternatively, an iPhone 7 Plus is about the same price, has a faster CPU, the same 2GB of ram, and the 5.5" screen is pretty close to Phablet territory, if you have good eyesight.

7 Plus has 3 GB RAM actually. However, I wouldn't recommend it as an iPad replacement. Too small. Surfing on it is a vastly different experience compared to an iPad. The browser interface is very different. Actually, I'm not a fan of the minis for surfing either. I like it much better on 9.7" iPads because of the larger text size.

My current setup is:

iPhone 7 Plus
iPad Air 2
MacBook 12"
Dual 27" iMac 🙂

 

[dave_the_nerd]

7 Plus has 3 GB RAM actually.

Really? Sweet. I thought Wikipedia said 2 but I may have misread something. :thumbsup:

 

[Eug]

Really? Sweet. I thought Wikipedia said 2 but I may have misread something. :thumbsup:

7 has 2 GB
7 Plus has 3 GB

Interestingly the it's the same for the 8 and 8 Plus. I had assumed both the 8 and 8 Plus would get 3 GB, but the 8 only got 2.

 

[slackerinabox]

Thanks guys - it looks like that's the current generation, so no savings to be had.. Hmm, might just get a cheap galaxy tablet or wait it out for the next generation..

 

[manly]

Thanks guys - it looks like that's the current generation, so no savings to be had.. Hmm, might just get a cheap galaxy tablet or wait it out for the next generation..

The mini is almost discontinued. The original business case was a more affordable (and compact) iPad at the $399 mark.

Now that the iPad (2017) is $329 list price, they didn't even bother to update the mini last year. They kept only the 128GB model around for $399, a terrible deal IMO. The mini 4 debuted in Sept. 2015.

Lately you can get the regular iPad for $250 + tax. Considering how long these things last, I find that hard not to recommend except for specific use cases (for a youth, for very basic usage, for a low income household). The low sale price is rumored to be clearing out stock ahead of a refreshed iPad. That's a bit surprising to me considering the iPad (2017 aka 5th gen) is only a year old at this point and doesn't have any deal-breaking flaws. Plus you won't get the next model for $250 anytime soon so that doesn't necessarily reduce the value proposition of today's best deal.

 

[v-600]

I've got the mini 2 and ios11 really killed it as far as smoothness goes, regardless of tab retention etc. Not sure if its the SOC speed or the amount of RAM but I'd go for the mini 4.

I've not updated to the 4 as there's never really been a good time to justify it over the 2 and am holding out hope for the new ipad mini that's probably not coming.

 

[Eug]

The rumour mill has the 9.7" iPad updated this spring and getting a price discount. No mention of the iPad mini.

I've got the mini 2 and ios11 really killed it as far as smoothness goes, regardless of tab retention etc. Not sure if its the SOC speed or the amount of RAM but I'd go for the mini 4.

I've not updated to the 4 as there's never really been a good time to justify it over the 2 and am holding out hope for the new ipad mini that's probably not coming.

The mini 2 has 1 GB RAM and A7. Both make for a usable iOS 11, but not really with a great experience. The A7 SoC is a little too old and can be laggy, although it's worse with the iPads than the iPhone 5S. The 1 GB is manageable with light usage but kinda sucks with Safari. It also causes lag with app switching.

IMO, the sweet spot for iOS 11 at the lower end is Apple A9 with 2 GB RAM but A8X with 2 GB is OK too if you don’t watch HEVC video. The A8 of the mini 4 is better than the A7 but not ideal.

As you can see from the above graph, the performance jumps significantly going from the A8 to the A8X and A9.

 

[Harry_Wild]

I am hoping for a new Mini 5/Pro this June or September with the iPhone X looks and features.