iPad mini 2nd Gen iPad Mini End of Life?

[LarryJoe33]

I have an old 16GB iPad that has grown painful to use. It's slow, unresponsive and I have to manage the storage pretty regularly. I think it's running iOS 9 which is the last supported iOS.

I really only use it in bed, keep it on my nightstand. Check email, iMessage and watch TV via Xfinity (which surprisingly it can handle after slowly navigating to a channel.

If I wipe it clean and reinstall iOS and a few apps will it run faster?

 

[Dave-Z]

Probably will not run faster.

FWIW, I have an iPad mini 2 running iOS 11 beta so iOS 9 is not the latest that can run on a gen. 2. It runs slow but is usable if you have patience.

 

[BMcCoy]

Is it actually a first generation iPad Mini, rather than second?

The first gen is limited to iOS 9.3.5, and has the A5 chip/512MB RAM.

The second gen is still receiving iOS updates, and with the A7 chip/1GB RAM, is still fairly responsive to use. I have one. It sometimes stutters in games, and is generally not as slick as the newer iPads, but it's certainly very usable, and quick enough for email/internet use etc.

 

[onepoint]

iPad Mini 2 brought the retina screen, correct?

And 3 brought Touch ID. And 4 brought a casket

 

[Greenmeenie]

I currently use the ipad mini 2 running iOS 10. Its fine for surfing the web, reading emails, doing light video & photo editing, but it's showing it's age. The physical home button doesnt work now, and isnt covered by apple warranty anymore, so i had to set up a virtual home button in settings. It works, but its buggy and is a pain to use sometimes. I do notice my ipad is much much slower than the new ipads in the apple store, which is to be expected.

I really want to upgrade to a pro model to use an apple pencil for sketching while traveling. The ipad mini is the perfect travel size. I would love to see Apple release a pro version, but that didnt happen. I may wait until the iphone ios11 keynote in september to see if Apple quietly announces an ipad mini update. But if it doesnt get apple pencil support, i will definitely get the 10.5" ipad pro. Cant wait any longer.

 

[LarryJoe33]

Is it actually a first generation iPad Mini, rather than second?

The first gen is limited to iOS 9.3.5, and has the A5 chip/512MB RAM.

The second gen is still receiving iOS updates, and with the A7 chip/1GB RAM, is still fairly responsive to use. I have one. It sometimes stutters in games, and is generally not as slick as the newer iPads, but it's certainly very usable, and quick enough for email/internet use etc.

Yeah, you are correct, it is a first gen. I just restored to factory. I am going to keep it light. I have plenty of other devices that are fully configured. We will see, haven't had 13GB free in a while.
[doublepost=1502642283][/doublepost]Maybe I should start looking at used iPads that are only a year or so old. I bought this thing in December of 2012.

 

[skinniezinho]

Probably will not run faster.

FWIW, I have an iPad mini 2 running iOS 11 beta so iOS 9 is not the latest that can run on a gen. 2. It runs slow but is usable if you have patience.

Sorry to bump this thread. I am about to buy a used iPad mini 2 32gb. It will be mainly a ebook reader and light surfing. Based on your experience do you recommend updating to iOS11 or should it stay on 10.3.X?

 

[rbtwln12]

Sorry to bump this thread. I am about to buy a used iPad mini 2 32gb. It will be mainly a ebook reader and light surfing. Based on your experience do you recommend updating to iOS11 or should it stay on 10.3.X?

I have this iPad, rarely used, (I use an iPad Pro 9.7 as my main machine) so as an experiment I installed iOS 11 and surprisingly it made the iPad mini 2 just a tiny bit faster! I did a clean install so have no idea how it would cope with games or that sort of thing but for web browsing and reading it certainly did it no harm.

Rob.

 

[skinniezinho]

I have this iPad, rarely used, (I use an iPad Pro 9.7 as my main machine) so as an experiment I installed iOS 11 and surprisingly it made the iPad mini 2 just a tiny bit faster! I did a clean install so have no idea how it would cope with games or that sort of thing but for web browsing and reading it certainly did it no harm.

Rob.

Thanks a lot for your input. I guess when iOS11 comes out I will try asap, then if it slows my device I will go back till iOS10 is signed.

 

[Dave-Z]

Sorry to bump this thread. I am about to buy a used iPad mini 2 32gb. It will be mainly a ebook reader and light surfing. Based on your experience do you recommend updating to iOS11 or should it stay on 10.3.X?

It runs iOS 11 just as well as it runs iOS 10. So I do recommend the update. For reading only it will be perfectly fine.

 

[eric89074]

It runs iOS 11 just as well as it runs iOS 10. So I do recommend the update. For reading only it will be perfectly fine.

I agree. iOS 11 beta feels faster than 10 on my air 2. The mini 2 will probably be updated to at least ios13.