UPDATE:
So I've had the new iPad mini 5 now for over 3 weeks and wanted to post more detailed thoughts. First, the background: I had an Air 2 and my wife had a mini 4 that we both took turns using, but primarily my wife used the mini because she preferred the smaller screen. I always had a larger sized iPad since the 1st gen iPad but when she got the mini, I would start using it more and more. Last year, I tried out a 10.5 Pro which I returned and when I decided to sell my Air 2, I just shared my wife's mini 4 for the time being. I started to get more and more used to the portability and screen size, so the mini was really growing on me.
Fast forward to the end of March 2019, and after my aunt bought her boys new iPads (9.7 2018 versions), she gave me the boys old 1st gen minis to sell so I took advantage and decided to get a new iPad after only using my iPhone basically. I was thinking about the 10.5 Pro because I could find it for $499 or less and I loved using it before. I also tried an 11 inch Pro which was fantastic but again, about $300 more. It was hilarious, but after using the 10.5 and 11 inch I found the devices so unwieldy. When in bed, they were a burden for me to use and the portability just was not there, it was actually bothering me. I told myself damn, I knew what the problem was, I was a mini man now! I could not get used to anything larger simply because I had grown to love and use the mini 4 for all that time! So the thought popped into my head to try the mini 5 despite my love of the Pro-motion tech of the Pros....
Well, I tried a mini 5 of course and I have not looked back since. Its absolutely a blast to use. First, yes the design is the same but for me, the bezels make it much easier to hold and has not bothered me once. I know for a fact that had Apple released a Pro design on the mini, bye bye to the $399 price point, and that is something I knew I didn't want to spend a ton of money on (at least for my uses). Back to the design, yes the rear camera is the same, but I use my iPhone for photos anyway. The front facing camera was more important because I face-time all the time and the 7MP upgrade was very welcome indeed! I also love the new Space Grey, it looks so slick and I'm preferable to the darker shades anyway. All in all, I still love the design and it doesn't bother me that it remains unchanged. And I LOVE that thinness, so light and portable this thing just disappears in my hands. When I use it, I never feel any weight and I can set it down and pick it up like it was a feather. Exactly what I was looking for and wanting the whole time.
The screen; it's gorgeous. Coming from using a mini 4, you can tell a difference. Colors look more vivid and the screen just pops. True Tone is something I wanted before and we finally have it and it looks fantastic on the mini. I loved looking at the Pro screens because they were truly awesome displays, but this mini screen is no slouch. Of course, when I use my iPhone X I will admit that I wish the mini's display was OLED due to those perfect blacks on the X, but again the price of the mini was surely to go up had the put an OLED in there and even then, the LCDs Apple makes are still really very good when it comes to blacks and color reproduction. Those 326 pixels per inch come into play and everything is just razor sharp, I love it.
And the performance! This A12 is insane. Yes it's not the A12X, but with the screen being much smaller you aren't going to notice any lag or slowdown on this beast; the mini 5 carries its own weight when it comes to its form factor. Everything runs smoothly and multitasking is a joy. This thing smokes the mini 4 and it isn't really close (the mini 4 is still a nice device but its now the A8 in comparison) and wow, it screams. What do you expect when you have a 4 year time jump in between devices? Another poster mentioned somewhere on this forum that despite it being $399 still, we are getting amazing value from this device. He said Apple could have easily stuck an A10 in here and called it a day but instead we get the latest A12 processor so I would agree, this is an insane deal for the price in terms of what we get. And yes, we get 3 GB instead of 4, but with the A12 and the neural engine along with it, I honestly have had no issue with speed and doing multiple things on this that would make me cry out for the extra ram. And add to that pencil support which I've also been using and personally, I have not had any issues having less screen to work with although I'm sure actual artists will have different opinions about that. But surfing around alone using the pencil is really nice to have and something I thought I would never see on a mini. And of note, the lack of Pro-motion hasn't bothered me in the slightest like I thought it would. That is something that really surprised me given that was a potential dealbreaker.
In the end, the mini 5 is just a wonderful device that packs power into a small form factor that yes, despite the 7 year same design, continues to impress with what comes from within. With a new front facing camera, beautiful screen and incredible processor the mini 5 is not to be overlooked at all.
