iPad mini iPad Mini 7 Buying Advice

[Andy_2341]

Hey everybody. I was browsing amazon today when I saw an awesome deal on the mini 7. I have a Mini 6 Wifi+Cellular 256GB that I got in March of 2024 and I mostly use it for content consumption, note taking, and some basic other tasks. It is my main vacation/ trip device too. I turn to my Mac for heavy stuff, but the mini 7 still gets lots of use. I've been noticing more lag, reloads when having several tabs open and music playing (often), and a few crashes where everything had to reload. I was going to push for mini 8 but the mini 7 Wifi+Cellular 128GB is just $549, which is $100 less than I paid for my Mini 6. Does the Apple Pencil Pro really help that much with general note taking? I know the A17Pro will help with the other things. Any other input from Mini 6 to Mini 7 users is also welcome.
Thanks everyone in advance.

 

[rui no onna]

I've been noticing more lag, reloads when having several tabs open and music playing (often), and a few crashes where everything had to reload.

This is exactly why I upgraded. Pretty happy with the upgrade.

I was going to push for mini 8 but the mini 7 Wifi+Cellular 128GB is just $549, which is $100 less than I paid for my Mini 6. Does the Apple Pencil Pro really help that much with general note taking? I know the A17Pro will help with the other things. Any other input from Mini 6 to Mini 7 users is also welcome.

Yeah, my only gripe is the mini 7 is eSIM only so I'm still keeping my mini 6 for travel (Google Fi data only SIM is physical only for now).

Can't comment on the new Apple Pencil. I use a $20 ESR clone and that works just fine for me for note taking/PDF markup. Bonus, I can use it on all my iPads except the 2016 & 2017 iPad Pros.

 

[Andy_2341]

This is exactly why I upgraded. Pretty happy with the upgrade.




Yeah, my only gripe is the mini 7 is eSIM only so I'm still keeping my mini 6 for travel (Google Fi data only SIM is physical only for now).

Can't comment on the new Apple Pencil. I use a $20 ESR clone and that works just fine for me for note taking/PDF markup. Bonus, I can use it on all my iPads except the 2016 & 2017 iPad Pros.

Awesome. Thanks for the reply. I use Verizon on eSIM, so that isn't a problem in my use case. I wish the Pencil I have would work with the Mini 7. Does your ESR have double tap? I'm addicted to that feature now.

 

[rui no onna]

Awesome. Thanks for the reply. I use Verizon on eSIM, so that isn't a problem in my use case. I wish the Pencil I have would work with the Mini 7. Does your ESR have double tap? I'm addicted to that feature now.

Nope. It doesn't have the more advanced features on the Apple Pencil.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I'd reboot the 6 and check again. From time to time, Apple stuff needs a full reboot.

I have cellular 6 and don't notice the issues you are sharing. Of course, the 7 will be a little faster... but then so will the 8 and 9 too. My last hop was from 2 to 6 when I actually HAD to because key apps would no longer function. I expect my next hop is to 9 or 10.

Everyone's uses are different but I'd definitely try the full reboot first. You will probably find there is plenty of punch still in the 6.

 

[Andy_2341]

I'd reboot the 6 and check again. From time to time, Apple stuff needs a full reboot.

I have cellular 6 and don't notice the issues you are sharing. Of course, the 7 will be a little faster... but then so will the 8 and 9 too. My last hop was from 2 to 6 when I actually HAD to because key apps would no longer function. I expect my next hop is to 9 or 10.

Everyone's uses are different but I'd definitely try the full reboot first. You will probably find there is plenty of punch still in the 6.

By full reboot do you mean a force restart? Cause I’ve restarted it and the issues perisisted.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Full cold boot, like shutting it all the way down to OFF, waiting a bit of time, then firing it back up again... but a force restart might be equivalent.

The next thing I'd consider is what apps do I leave open at all times that are eating up resources. I generally close most apps when I'm done with them, leaving only a small number (about 4) open at all times.

Same with Safari tabs. If you have a lot of tabs open, you have a lot of memory allocated. Close tabs for sites that you don't really need to try to hold in memory at all times.

Do a search for other resource hogs for iDevices and consider each suggestion one by one as important to you or not.

Or just buy a 7 and resolve it for the short-term but then you'll probably see the same relative "slower" effect when Apple launches an 8. If that's OK with you, there's nothing wrong with regularly buying new technology.

 

[Andy_2341]

Full cold boot, like shutting it all the way down to OFF, waiting a bit of time, then firing it back up again... but a force restart might be equivalent.

The next thing I'd consider is what apps do I leave open at all times that are eating up resources. I generally close most apps when I'm done with them, leaving only a small number (about 4) open at all times.

Same with Safari tabs. If you have a lot of tabs open, you have a lot of memory allocated. Close tabs for sites that you don't really need to try to hold in memory at all times.

Do a search for other resource hogs for iDevices and consider each suggestion one by one as important to you or not.

Or just buy a 7 and resolve it for the short-term but then you'll probably see the same relative "slower" effect when Apple launches an 8. If that's OK with you, there's nothing wrong with regularly buying new technology.

I prefer to hold on to devices long term. I’m generally don’t have more than 5 background apps (Music, Google Slides, Google Classroom, Safari, Noteful) open. I keep Safari tabs to a minimum aswell. RAM showed fine on DeviceMonitor^2 after the mini blacked out on me but cpu usage was through the roof. And it forgot the apple pencil that was attached to it was its Pencil. I’ll try turning it off for longer though. The part that I find odd is iPadOS 18.2.1 had it running better than new, but iPadOS 18.3 seems to have completely reversed that.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Perhaps it’s just bugs? There’s plenty of those to go around until- IMO- about the .5 or .6 updates when the current OS generation seems to finally reach a fairly stable level (with longer term bug exceptions of course).

This time may be different since A.I. is a rolling release but we’ll see by about WWDC or so.

I’ve dodged upgrading so far until about .5 or .6 at the earliest.