iPad Mini 2 worth it in 2017?

[rui no onna]

Let me tell you a secret my family learned, Apple stinks. My dad got a 6 to replace his SE (which became my phone) and he hated his 6. The 6 never worked and after a while, it just broke. My little brother's iPod just broke out of nowhere (he didn't do anything wrong with it) and my mom refuses to repair it. What do these devices have in common? They are all newer devices! My dad also said, "the SE is Apples's last good phone". On the topic of my dad, he read a bunch of articles saying that Apple's newer devices just break after a year. Also, I had an iPad mini 2 and loved it (I broke it and I don't have the money to repair it), so for my birthday I got the original iPad mini, and I hate it. The OG mini is super laggy, never updates, and it has no storage.
I really wanted to get an animation app but it requires iOS 10. Guess what? My iPad mini 2 updated a lot and I could've gotten that animation app on it! If I were to recommend Apple devices, buy the older ones because they came before Apple realized that they could make more money by making the newer devices to break. Another thing is that Apple's products are super overpriced. So don't be fooled by the "newer device means better", because that is just a false reality that humans want to believe.

The iPhone SE (2016, A9/2GB) is both newer and faster than the iPhone 6 (2014, A8/1GB).

Of course the OG mini is slower than your mini 2. It's got A5 chipset and is two processor generations behind the A7-based mini 2, not to mention only having 512MB vs 1GB RAM.

Maybe you want to use other examples for your "older is better" argument since your examples clearly show the older devices performing worse.

I still have the OG iPhone, iPhone 4, 4S, 5c, 5s, iPod touch 4th gen, and iPad 4 and Air in my possession. They're all super slow and laggy even compared to A9-based devices (released circa 2015-17). Old models also received far fewer firmware updates and they experienced greater performance degradation with each update than iOS devices with A8X/2GB or A9/2GB and newer do (barring the iPhone battery snafu). I'm still using the 2016 iPhone 7 (A10/2GB) and compared to my brother's 2018 iPhone XR (A12/3GB), I don't notice a difference in performance.

 

[eyeseeyou]

My middle schooler still uses an ipad air with the beta ipados and for how it's used it's almost overkill.

I was considering getting an ipad mini to be my dedicated BYOD for work but the screen is too small for word processing or writing emails or documentation.

 

[rui no onna]

My middle schooler still uses an ipad air with the beta ipados and for how it's used it's almost overkill.

I was considering getting an ipad mini to be my dedicated BYOD for work but the screen is too small for word processing or writing emails or documentation.

You mean Air 2? The OG Air isn't getting iPadOS.

 

[EugW]

My middle schooler still uses an ipad air with the beta ipados and for how it's used it's almost overkill.

No he doesn't, if you're talking about the original iPad Air.

iPadOS is simply not supported on the original iPad Air. It's supported on the iPad Air 2, but that's a MUCH faster machine. The SoC of the iPad Air 2 is literally twice as fast as the iPad Air's, and the iPad Air 2 has twice the amount of RAM too.

 

[eyeseeyou]

You mean Air 2? The OG Air isn't getting iPadOS.

hmm I guess it's the ipad air 2 then. Either way for general usage I can't say it's a noticeable difference from my iPad pro 10.5
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No he doesn't, if you're talking about the original iPad Air.

iPadOS is simply not supported on the original iPad Air. It's supported on the iPad Air 2, but that's a MUCH faster machine. The SoC of the iPad Air 2 is literally twice as fast as the iPad Air's, and the iPad Air 2 has twice the amount of RAM too.

What I meant was that for a "family" iPad the old iPad Air 2 is more than enough.

 

[rui no onna]

[doublepost=1567569579][/doublepost]

What I meant was that for a "family" iPad the old iPad Air 2 is more than enough.

Yep. Air 2's the first iPad that aged so gracefully.

For those who don't have an Air 2 they can hand down though, the A10/2GB 2018 iPad 9.7" which can often be found for $250/32GB and $330/128GB performs even better than Air 2 and is great value for money.

 

[EugW]

hmm I guess it's the ipad air 2 then. Either way for general usage I can't say it's a noticeable difference from my iPad pro 10.5
[doublepost=1567569579][/doublepost]

What I meant was that for a "family" iPad the old iPad Air 2 is more than enough.

The iPad Air 2 is definitely enough for many people for general usage, but IMO the iPad Pro 10.5’s performance is a pretty obvious difference.

 

[eyeseeyou]

The iPad Air 2 is definitely enough for many people for general usage, but IMO the iPad Pro 10.5’s performance is a pretty obvious difference.

Depends on what you're doing.

For web browsing and content consumption along with typing up emails I wouldn't say it's a huge difference.

 

[Closingracer]

Let me tell you a secret my family learned, Apple stinks. My dad got a 6 to replace his SE (which became my phone) and he hated his 6. The 6 never worked and after a while, it just broke. My little brother's iPod just broke out of nowhere (he didn't do anything wrong with it) and my mom refuses to repair it. What do these devices have in common? They are all newer devices! My dad also said, "the SE is Apples's last good phone". On the topic of my dad, he read a bunch of articles saying that Apple's newer devices just break after a year. Also, I had an iPad mini 2 and loved it (I broke it and I don't have the money to repair it), so for my birthday I got the original iPad mini, and I hate it. The OG mini is super laggy, never updates, and it has no storage.
I really wanted to get an animation app but it requires iOS 10. Guess what? My iPad mini 2 updated a lot and I could've gotten that animation app on it! If I were to recommend Apple devices, buy the older ones because they came before Apple realized that they could make more money by making the newer devices to break. Another thing is that Apple's products are super overpriced. So don't be fooled by the "newer device means better", because that is just a false reality that humans want to believe.

Nobody forces you to buy Apple products. Heck I’ve gone between both android and iOS devices countless times. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side (btw but this isn’t a dig on Android because it’s fine). You can get android phones and tablets if you want




Good job on reviving a 2 year old post as well

 

[StormTheFatCat]

The iPhone SE (2016, A9/2GB) is both newer and faster than the iPhone 6 (2014, A8/1GB).

Of course the OG mini is slower than your mini 2. It's got A5 chipset and is two processor generations behind the A7-based mini 2, not to mention only having 512MB vs 1GB RAM.

Maybe you want to use other examples for your "older is better" argument since your examples clearly show the older devices performing worse.

I still have the OG iPhone, iPhone 4, 4S, 5c, 5s, iPod touch 4th gen, and iPad 4 and Air in my possession. They're all super slow and laggy even compared to A9-based devices (released circa 2015-17). Old models also received far fewer firmware updates and they experienced greater performance degradation with each update than iOS devices with A8X/2GB or A9/2GB and newer do (barring the iPhone battery snafu). I'm still using the 2016 iPhone 7 (A10/2GB) and compared to my brother's 2018 iPhone XR (A12/3GB), I don't notice a difference in performance.

Oh, I'm sorry, but SE (I've also heard been called the 5e) sounds a little older than the iPhone 6. Then again it could be the person and not the device. My mom and friend both have the same apple phone (if I am not mistaken) and my friend loves her phone but my mom isn't the most satisfied with it. My mom's phone is newer but worse because she keeps getting spammed with storage and she had to completely reset it because of this. Also, I'm switching this argument to your "newer is better" because I can slightly agree. My brother says he wants a new phone because his phone takes 2 minutes to send a single text, my phone takes 1 second. Another thing to boost your "newer is better" argument is I had an iPod (it mysteriously disappeared) and another brother I have also had an iPod (his broke), and he had a newer iPod. A mobile game that we were playing got a huge update but his iPod was broken and my iPad and iPod (both older devices) couldn't handle the new update. I'm going back to the "older is better argument, because some older devices do work and can have satisfactory results though. Even though I complained about this I still like my current iPad, it's laggy but I can still draw on it , and I love art so I am happy about that. Would I like to repair my old iPad? Heck yes, but my mom said: "it's outdated and it's cheaper to buy a new one". I have both views of the argument and I will conclude to this, it's really personal preference: if you like the older devices better, go get one if you can. If you like newer devices, then save up and get what you like if you can.

 

[StormTheFatCat]

Nobody forces you to buy Apple products. Heck I’ve gone between both android and iOS devices countless times. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side (btw but this isn’t a dig on Android because it’s fine). You can get android phones and tablets if you want




Good job on reviving a 2 year old post as well

I have apple products and you're right, nobody forces you to buy apple products. If you think about it too much then you would think that Apple is one of the most commonly known technology brand. My step-sister and I like the game bitlife and her phone is a Moto phone, it uses the Google Play Store for apps. If you don't know, Android bitlife stinks (they update the App store first) so I let her play it on my iPod (that mysteriously disappeared). Her phone, however. is pretty cool. My family was lucky to get it for free (it really costs 300$) and she's let me play on it before. My oldest brother bought the same phone (he saved up that much money) and I think he likes it. My mom who dislikes her Apple phone is thinking about getting one. Apple has released some good products that I never bought since they are super expensive but my friend has one of those and let me play on it, it's pretty cool. The conclusion: The grass is green on both sides, you just need to weigh the pros and cons and see which one you like more.

 

[EugW]

Depends on what you're doing.

For web browsing and content consumption along with typing up emails I wouldn't say it's a huge difference.

For typing up emails the iPad Pro 10.5 has a huge advantage over the iPad Air 2, and that is the availability of the Smart Keyboard, which is great. I agree though that for speed for typing emails, both are fine.

For surfing though, while the iPad Air 2 is OK, the iPad Pro 10.5 IMO is noticeably peppier. Much lower rendering times and smoother. I also notice the lower tab refreshes with the iPad Pro 10.5, which makes sense since it has twice the memory.

 

[eyeseeyou]

For typing up emails the iPad Pro 10.5 has a huge advantage over the iPad Air 2, and that is the availability of the Smart Keyboard, which is great. I agree though that for speed for typing emails, both are fine.

For surfing though, while the iPad Air 2 is OK, the iPad Pro 10.5 IMO is noticeably peppier. Much lower rendering times and smoother. I also notice the lower tab refreshes with the iPad Pro 10.5, which makes sense since it has twice the memory.

Umm there are bluetooth keyboards for pretty much every single ipad that has ever been released. A keyboard is not unique to the 10.5 ipad. I have a 10.5 ipad and swapped the smart keyboard for a bluetooth keyboard with more angles and a lot more functionality. My childs ipad air 2 also has a logitech qode pro bluetooth keyboard which IMO is the best bluetooth keyboard ever made for an ipad. Near identical user experiences especially with ipados.

yeah the ipad 10.5 is peppier than older ipads but older ipads are not unusable at all.

 

[EugW]

Umm there are bluetooth keyboards for pretty much every single ipad that has ever been released. A keyboard is not unique to the 10.5 ipad. I have a 10.5 ipad and swapped the smart keyboard for a bluetooth keyboard with more angles and a lot more functionality. My childs ipad air 2 also has a logitech qode pro bluetooth keyboard which IMO is the best bluetooth keyboard ever made for an ipad. Near identical user experiences especially with ipados.

yeah the ipad 10.5 is peppier than older ipads but older ipads are not unusable at all.

I've tried a bunch of Bluetooth keyboards that fit the size of the various 9.7" iPads and have hated them all. Keyspacing is too small, and Bluetooth is a pain. Having Smart Connector support as well as full-sized keyspacing is a huge advantage.

But yeah, YMMV.

 

[eyeseeyou]

I've tried a bunch of Bluetooth keyboards that fit the size of the various 9.7" iPads and have hated them all. Keyspacing is too small, and Bluetooth is a pain. Having Smart Connector support as well as full-sized keyspacing is a huge advantage.

But yeah, YMMV.

The smart connector imo is a little overrated since Bluetooth keyboards last months on one charge. For me the Logitech keyboards have better spacing, feel like I’m pressing a real keyboard key and have media keys.

Honestly I could overlook most of that except the multimedia keys.

 

[Digitalguy]

The smart connector imo is a little overrated since Bluetooth keyboards last months on one charge. For me the Logitech keyboards have better spacing, feel like I’m pressing a real keyboard key and have media keys.

Honestly I could overlook most of that except the multimedia keys.

Af far as the 9.7 ipads are concerned, I tried several bluetooth keyboard , mainly from Logitech, for the ipad air 2. They all suck.
The logitech create for the 9.7 pro (with smart connector) instead is on a totally different league in terms of key shape, travel etc. (even if it looks very similar when you look at pictures of it, and spacing is virtually irrelevant. So it's not that the smart connector is super important in itself, but the keyboard that uses it is the best by far. Apple keyboards, while not as good, are still quite good for the 10.5 and 11 size. They are also very light, but leave the ipad exposed and so you need some additional protection, that often will offset the weight gain...