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iPad mini Is 64gb enough on a mini 5?

J

jrs22

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 1, 2012
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i have a 2018 iPad Pro 12.9 but I still crave a new iPad mini 5. I’ve wanted a new mini ever since I gave away my iPad mini 4. I used to have this silly rule that I should own only one iPad at a time. I kept my first gen pencil and I have lots of lightning cables so the only additional expense lull be the case.

I’m prepared to spend $399 but not $549. I expect to keep a few library books on it, the Procreate app with drawings, and some documents. No videos, and I would move my photos to my iPad Pro regularly. Is 64gb of storage likely to be enough?
 
I have a 256GB 10.5 iPad Pro. I just checked my usage for over a year. 40GB. Switched my order to a 64 For the mini. That is more than enough storage for what I’ll use it for. YMMV
 
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jrs22 said:
i have a 2018 iPad Pro 12.9 but I still crave a new iPad mini 5. I’ve wanted a new mini ever since I gave away my iPad mini 4. I used to have this silly rule that I should own only one iPad at a time. I kept my first gen pencil and I have lots of lightning cables so the only additional expense lull be the case.

I’m prepared to spend $399 but not $549. I expect to keep a few library books on it, the Procreate app with drawings, and some documents. No videos, and I would move my photos to my iPad Pro regularly. Is 64gb of storage likely to be enough?
Click to expand...

I think if you already are using the pro as your main ipad and keeping the mini for reading and casual browsing, 64gb should be more than enough.

I own a 12.9 2018 pro 256gb. And have 189gb used because I use it for pretty much everything. If i had to take another ipad, it would be the Base storage. In case of need, there is always cloud storage!
 
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jrs22 said:
I’m prepared to spend $399 but not $549. I expect to keep a few library books on it, the Procreate app with drawings, and some documents. No videos, and I would move my photos to my iPad Pro regularly. Is 64gb of storage likely to be enough?
Click to expand...
Ebooks are small unless they're comics or cookbooks with lotsa images or something. Same goes for most docs. For ebooks and docs, I'd actually be fine even with just 32GB. Heck, my Kindle Paperwhite 3 only has 4GB and it's got hundreds of ebooks on it with almost 2GB to spare (granted, no space consuming apps on the Kindle).

I have an iPad mini 4 that's pretty much used as a tertiary iPad and it's at 40GB usage of which 20GB is comics.

Dunno how much storage Procreate will use, though.
 
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I’ve debated this with myself. I went from a 32 GB 1st Gen Air to a 128 GB Mini 4. The thing is, I got the Mini 4 once Apple stopped selling all other storage capacities. I checked my usage. Not even 30 GBs used. I’m going with 64 GB for the Mini 5 because I feel 256 GB is overdoing it for me. It’s not worth the extra $150 when I know I don’t store enough to justify the higher capacity.
 
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I just checked and I’ve only used 85 gigs on my Pro and I store all sorts of things there with no concern for space. Now I’m ready to buy a base mini.

I don’t travel enough to justify cellular, although I’m at the end of 3 weeks in Thailand. I bought a SIM card with unlimited data when I arrived and I’ve been using that as a hotspot while here. Data costs so much less in Thailand than in the states.
 
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My only personal iPad is a 64 GB iPad Pro 10.5" model. OK for my needs. For what I do on it, the extra storage is mainly about Netflix downloads for viewing on the road. With 4 TV shows loaded, I currently still have 29 GB available. I don't do any major image editing on mine though, just a few things here and there.

I think the sweet spot for me in the future would be 128 GB, but I don't need that now. It will be nice when the base model iPad Pro 11" is 128 GB in a few years. Maybe I'll upgrade to that then. Getting a 256 GB model is complete overkill for me.

Actually we have three iPads in the house. All three are 64 GB. The other two are for the kids, and they both are well over half empty, as their requirements are very light. It's only when I load up Netflix on them do they have more space usage.

In contrast, for my iPhone, 64 GB is insufficient, mainly because I take lots of photos on videos on the phone. For my iPhone, I need 128 GB today, but again, 256 GB is complete overkill for me even on my iPhone.

In contrast, for my MacBook, I have 256 GB. That is perfect for me. I can get by with 128 GB, but it is cramped.

And on my iMac, I have 1 TB, with over 700 GB used already used, despite the fact I have a NAS for most of my storage.

tl;dr:

For me, this is sufficient for now

64 GB: iPad Pro
128 GB: iPhone
256 GB: MacBook
1 TB: iMac <-- This will be insufficient within 2 years.
 
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For my Mini4, I'm using in the 40-50GB range, so I don't want to buy a new device and already be at 75% of capacity for something I'll hope to keep for 3 years (assuming we don't see another Mini update for that long.) But I load my iPad Mini with a lot of premium games that take a few GB each. For your usage, I think you'll be fine!
 
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I considered the 256 GB model but my main problem would be backup. I backup on iTunes on my 512 GB MacBook Pro and I wouldn't have the space on my MacBook Pro to backup a 256 GB device if it indeed, had that much stuff on it. So I got the 64. I am coming from a 16 GB Mini which was definitely too small. But I will partition with my iPhone (128 GB). I will put audio files on the iPhone (music, podcasts) and video on the iPad Mini so there will be more space on the iPhone (not that I need it - there's usually about 35 GB free).
 
Just to chime in one more time, if there had been a 128 GB version for an extra $50 (like with the XR), I absolutely would have jumped on it.

It’s kind of annoying that the iPad Pros have four storage options, while the Airs (the new Mini is a Mini Air) only have two storage options, just like the budget iPad.

I am grateful that it wasn’t a choice between 32 GB and 256 GB, though. Not that they would have done that. It would likely have been 32 and 128 for a $100 difference. We got the storage options that they offered to the 2017 iPhones instead. I guess it saves me money.
 
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Crow_Servo said:
Just to chime in one more time, if there had been a 128 GB version for an extra $50 (like with the XR), I absolutely would have jumped on it.

It’s kind of annoying that the iPad Pros have four storage options, while the Airs (the new Mini is a Mini Air) only have two storage options, just like the budget iPad.

I am grateful that it wasn’t a choice between 32 GB and 256 GB, though. Not that they would have done that. It would likely have been 32 and 128 for a $100 difference. We got the storage options that they offered to the 2017 iPhones instead. I guess it saves me money.
Click to expand...

I agree, going from 128GB to 128GB would've been a nice option.
 
pshufd said:
I considered the 256 GB model but my main problem would be backup. I backup on iTunes on my 512 GB MacBook Pro and I wouldn't have the space on my MacBook Pro to backup a 256 GB device if it indeed, had that much stuff on it. So I got the 64. I am coming from a 16 GB Mini which was definitely too small. But I will partition with my iPhone (128 GB). I will put audio files on the iPhone (music, podcasts) and video on the iPad Mini so there will be more space on the iPhone (not that I need it - there's usually about 35 GB free).
Click to expand...
Not everything gets backed up to iTunes. Iirc, backup size was just 10-20GB for my iPad with 200GB worth of content.
 
rui no onna said:
Not everything gets backed up to iTunes. Iirc, backup size was just 10-20GB for my iPad with 200GB worth of content.
Click to expand...

I imagine videos and audio files stored in iTunes doesn't get replicated and that can definitely save space. But I have the 64 GB and it should be more than enough.
 
pshufd said:
I imagine videos and audio files stored in iTunes doesn't get replicated and that can definitely save space. But I have the 64 GB and it should be more than enough.
Click to expand...
In addition to audio and videos, iCloud photos, apps, in-app content marked as downloads and cache don't get backed up, either. Still, if 64GB works well enough for you, it's good to save some dough. :)
 
rui no onna said:
In addition to audio and videos, iCloud photos, apps, in-app content marked as downloads and cache don't get backed up, either. Still, if 64GB works well enough for you, it's good to save some dough. :)
Click to expand...

I have it set up with most of my stuff and it reports 46 GB free which seems about right - it's using up about the same amount of space as what's used on the Mini 2. I would try out the speakers but I'm in the office and it wouldn't be nice to crank up the music on it.

One odd thing that I found - I plugged it into my Mac to sync it with iTunes and it just kept beeping every couple of seconds. I used another cable and it connected properly. It's possible that the first cable is only a charge cable.

The Mini 5 comes with a 10-Watt charger, which works, but I much prefer the 12-Watt chargers. It can take a long time to charge the iPad Minis and 20% faster is always nice.
 
EugW said:
For me, this is sufficient for now

64 GB: iPad Pro
128 GB: iPhone
256 GB: MacBook
1 TB: iMac <-- This will be insufficient within 2 years.
Click to expand...
Mine's the opposite. I need more built-in storage on the iPad and laptop than I do on iPhone and desktop.

iPad: as much as I can get (currently 256GB Pro 9.7 + 512GB Pro 12.9)
iPhone: 64GB is sufficient
laptop: 512GB mSATA SSD + 2TB HDD
Mini-ITX desktop: 256GB mSATA SSD + 512GB 2.5" SSD

Media is stored on a 20TB NAS. The desktop SSDs are both 80-90% full but they contain files that don't require fast storage that I can offload if necessary.
 
rui no onna said:
Iirc, it was around 55GB. Tends to vary a bit depending on iOS firmware version.
Click to expand...

This is true I literally watched it change before my eyes, on my 1TB with iOS 12.1 my system files were using 13.5GB. After updating to iOS 12.2 they have shrunk to 7.01GB now. Maybe they consolidated lol it a little, either way that is about a 6GB difference which would help some users.
 
tps3443 said:
This is true I literally watched it change before my eyes, on my 1TB with iOS 12.1 my system files were using 13.5GB. After updating to iOS 12.2 they have shrunk to 7.01GB now. Maybe they consolidated lol it a little, either way that is about a 6GB difference which would help some users.
Click to expand...
Part of that might have been the downloaded iOS update, which was then subsequently deleted.
 
I myself love physical storage space. I have so many 4K videos, and recorded game footage, and multiple duplicates. I do not use as much as @rui no onna. But, things change and I’m just now getting in the groove of using a iPad as a main device.
 
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