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iPad mini I'm still impressed by how usable iPad mini 2 is in 2024
- Thread starter iHorseHead
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Wasn't it internally the same as a iPhone 5s? Guessing it was 32 bit rather than the iPhone's 64 though. Used the 5s daily until late 2017 and it was wanting a better camera that prompted the change rather than the phone being too slow.
Yes, but all A7 devices are 64-bit, so it was just like the iPhone 5s. It was great on iOS 7 (and 8). Maybe on iOS 9, too.
Disagree on this. Battery deterioration can be caused from few factors, including bugs in the new iOS version as well as additional features in the new version. I have seen many cases where slowness is equivalent with short battery life and warm.
Not iOS 9, that was the turning point. iOS 9 and 10 are the same. iOS 9 is much more RAM hungry that 8, let alone 7.
Absolutely, I’m saying that some updates on some iOS versions can have decent battery life. Typically not as far as they can go. You see some posts above of an iPad Mini 2 kept on iOS 10 and my 9.7-inch iPad Pro kept on iOS 12 having decent battery life (about 25% worse than iOS 9, which is bad but not unusable like iPadOS 16). Not all updates from the first major one obliterate battery life.
I’m the #1 critic of iOS updates, but they aren’t all equal. Some are better than others, and some (especially early ones) may conserve that battery longevity.
Note, however, that I have always stated this, and this doesn’t change my recommendation: never update. Not to the first major version, not to the first point version, to nothing. Get a device and never, ever, ever hit that update button. But not all major iOS versions are equal.
Thanks for the clarification, I’ve never tried an A7 device on iOS 9, hence why I said “maybe”. I know iOS 7 and 8 are great and iOS 10 is awful, but I wasn’t sure about iOS 9. (Well, 11 and 12 are utter garbage but we know that already).
I dunno. I've used the iPad 3rd gen, 4th gen and OG Air on iOS 9. All have 1GB RAM but the 3rd gen was pretty awful on iOS 9 while the 4th gen and Air were still quite usable.
How? I don't have any difficulties. Never had. It's still fast and snappy. I can use web browser, which is up to date. Pages load fast. I can create documents, I can watch Netflix and YouTube. No issues whatsoever.
I'm just honestly impressed. I thought nothing would work. Now I use it as media consumption device.
Given apple basically refuses to only issue security updates (ever wonder what happened to that rapid system response feature? No fuss) to people who are unwilling to update their iOS to the next major version, in order to maintain their “no fragmentation” brag, people who don’t want to update stand to lose a lot. But again, the best software for any given hardware is almost always the original version, bars bug fixes and security updates.
iOS 9 is as usable as iOS 10 and 12 in my experience. I have the impression that iPad 3 wasn't good on any OS version, but I don't know, I have never had it... A7 got a hit from iOS 9, but didn't become unusable as iPad 2 or mini 1 (again I don't know about 3). Things did not get any worse on iOS 10.
Yeah, we can’t do much. And honestly, what’s the point of me having a bunch of devices where all of them have a diminished experience? Like OP stated, older iOS versions work okay.
Now I have a group of devices that as outdated as they are, they work perfectly.
My Mini 2's ended up being recycled a lot sooner than my fleet of Nexus 7's which I clung onto until even after the Cyanogen implosion.
God I miss that incredibly capable and super handy (narrower than the iPads) tablet. Still far more flexible in the end in it's day than any iPad, and even now to a good degree. Unfortunately Google sat on it after that and the 'good enough' iPads have made Android tablets irrelevant.
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I too had an Android tablet before my mini 2, and I loved it a lot. And used it even more than my mini 2 for years. I bought it in 2013 (while I got my mini 2 in 2014). I was the Galaxy Note 8, an 8" tablet with a built-in stylus. At a time where a stylus was unheard of in Apple's universe. I got my mini 2 for music, because Android could not run music playing/making apps. Little by little I moved to ipads, with the mini 4 and the mini 5, and never bought another mini Android tablet, but I have kept the Note 8 (which only died earlier this year).
(For those wondering "But wasn't the Note 8 a phone?", well the Note phones back then were at Note 2 or 3, and the Note 8 was called like that because it was 8" (not very smart by Samsung...). Because of course, at some point, after skipping the Note 6 for some reason, and having to recall the Note 7 (you all know how that went), what did Samsung do? Well it called the next Note the Note8, instead of "Note 8" to differentiate it from the tablet...)
(For those wondering "But wasn't the Note 8 a phone?", well the Note phones back then were at Note 2 or 3, and the Note 8 was called like that because it was 8" (not very smart by Samsung...). Because of course, at some point, after skipping the Note 6 for some reason, and having to recall the Note 7 (you all know how that went), what did Samsung do? Well it called the next Note the Note8, instead of "Note 8" to differentiate it from the tablet...)
I installed it on my mini 2 but it doesn't work since it requires iOS 12 and I have 10 and the older version crashes on launch...
I too have first hand experience of software updates destroying otherwise functional devices: iPhone 4 running iOS 7 and iPad mini 1 Running iOS 9, whereas iPad 1 running iOS 5 runs as good as it was on release and never felt anything abnormal, when I was using it that is. Sure tons of apps were not supporting it anymore but still.
Apple is squarely to be blamed of this usability nightmare For non-current generation of products, and devs are dragged along because of Xcode updates and App Store updates, both of which are apple’s making. It’s just so sad that few people understand the importance of not updating as you said, thus people like us are left to suffer.
Older devices fared way worse. 32-bit devices are unusable, and some 64-bit aren’t. There has been progress, but that doesn’t mean that the current standard is good: it isn’t.
Apple is to blame for disallowing downgrading (no excuses here, they should), but users are to blame as well: users see that devices are repeatedly obliterated, yet they keep updating anyway. What incentive does Apple have to do better if they can brag repeatedly about increasing adoption rates? Apple has no incentive at all. “Why do better, if people will eat whatever I throw at them and they’ll just keep hitting that update button regardless of what device they have?”
Me? I try to help individual users not to fall for this garbage (and I fail), but all I can do if that fails is try to help those around me (and myself).
Sadly, this leads into sheer selfishness: “update if you like. I don’t care. But don’t come later and tell me I was right, it’s too late by then, unless you learn the next time”.
The benefit of doing this is when friends finally realise I’m right and then tell me: “Hey look, I have an iPhone 13 and it runs iOS 15. You were right, this is the most flawless device I’ve ever used for this long”. That’s all I need. As long as I can help one person have a decent iOS device even if it is several years old, everything is okay. I will tolerate the repeated backlash I get from Apple apologists, because that one person who keeps a good device is worth it.
It’s just sad that, like you said, I have to suffer the consequences of being an extreme minority, because my devices lose way more support and compatibility than they would were people to follow this: if adoption numbers were 10%, apps wouldn’t drop support, because they’d lose 90% of their users.
Interestingly, people run older devices (it’s not like a majority upgrades every year anyway), but they update, so it’s just as if they upgraded their devices anyway.
Yeah, unfortunately iOS 12 is the minimum requirement. But take a look around. Maybe you'll discover something. I found this browser randomly. Before that I tried Opera etc and Opera worked horribly. I tried every browser I could find
I already have it install (for years). But to be honest, I use the browser on my mini 5, mini 2 is used for music mainly and it's great for that.