Yeah even at the same weight as a larger device, a smaller device has a center of mass closer to your hand making it easier to hold, and a smaller device is obviously more weildy as it takes up less space, and I think there is a mental aspect as well—the smaller size makes it mentally more “approachable” and “casual”. But of course, bigger screens have their advantages too. So it’s about balance. The right balance is very subjective—depends on the function, depends on the person—but I think the mini hits a balance that a lot of people find ideal or close to ideal for casual consumption, especially reading.
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iPad mini Real thoughts on iPad mini 5?...
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Yeah even at the same weight as a larger device, a smaller device has a center of mass closer to your hand making it easier to hold, and a smaller device is obviously more weildy as it takes up less space, and I think there is a mental aspect as well—the smaller size makes it mentally more “approachable” and “casual”. But of course, bigger screens have their advantages too. So it’s about balance. The right balance is very subjective—depends on the function, depends on the person—but I think the mini hits a balance that a lot of people find ideal or close to ideal for casual consumption, especially reading.
Thanks for explaining the centre of mass business. Very interesting. I am completely ignorant about such things.
When I am in my customary recumbent position on a couch or bed, I love large tablets. However, when, as is often the case, I'm moving about or sitting up, I much prefer something smaller. I live in a fairly large place (this is British understatement). If you secreted yourself outside in let us say a bush and spied on me, you'd be amazed to discover my eccentric figure trundling along at all hours while reading ebooks or listening to music over headphones.
You got it. Some people don't realize that ProMotion 120Hz is the display refresh rate, not frames per second. At 60Hz there may be a 16.6ms delay in when the frame is refreshed, and refreshing at 120Hz can make a small but noticeable improvement when a lot of motion is happening on the screen such as with rapid scrolling.
For still images it still reverts back to 24hz, and for movies at 24 frames per second the refresh rate doubles to 48Hz.
The human eye can accurately guess what the frame rate of a video is up to about 150 fps, so the 120Hz refresh rate should be pretty close to natural vision if looking at something off screen.
That’s true, but it’s specs will still good for the time. Since the Air 2 didn’t really have a successor at the time, the Mini 4 basically being a smaller version of it still made it one of the best tablets on the market.
Did you know?
LTE model also has GPS (and GLONASS) which the non-LTE model doesn't have.
LTE model also has GPS (and GLONASS) which the non-LTE model doesn't have.
It is because it is an iPad running iPad apps.
I do not have a phone, using my iPad mini 4 LTE for communications using Textme app for phone and SMS messaging.
I would love to add an iPad Pro 12.9.
I got sucked in
$25 off preorder with Best Buy being a reward member, and had some gift card funds laying around
64gb WiFi space grey for $250 after all that , excited to give it a whirl
I really have no complaints about what it offers for the price on paper in Apple-land and I’m pretty picky generally. None. Been inadvertently in the market for a ‘regular’ iPad, I love my 2nd gen 12.9 jailbroken w Smart Keyboard but...
Sold my 9.7 pro prematurely for $250 when I got an 11” iPad Pro and ended up returning it because couldn’t justify the price even on sale, the size always bothered me for on screen keyboard, and it was selectively unresponsive which I didn’t want to wait to see if it was a software issue or hardware for the money.
My 12.9 is great but i need a regular iPad to complement it since its more of a faux-laptop replacement always connected to the Smart Keyboard, and this should fit the bill perfectly. Love the idea of both extreme sizes the smallest and biggest too, and classic/2nd gen Touch ID/share the pencil so i dont need to buy another/ headphone jack.
I had a mini2 and loved it, mini1 not being retina bothered me, but really didn’t like the non-laminated glass aspect of the 2 and gave it to a parent eventually who had the mini1, when i traded up iPads and always kinda missed it, excited to get back on the bandwagon
Was intrigued by mini 4 but felt I already had enough iPads at the time, or something i don’t remember. And have been tempted many times by mini 4 recent deal,s but conflicted since such old hardware. Glad i held out
None of the recent iPads have intrigued me that much: iPad 2017/2018, this 2019 10.5” air, the 11/12.9” redesign underwhelmed me, the 10.5” Pro since I have the same thing in a 12.9”,
This one does
$25 off preorder with Best Buy being a reward member, and had some gift card funds laying around
64gb WiFi space grey for $250 after all that , excited to give it a whirl
I really have no complaints about what it offers for the price on paper in Apple-land and I’m pretty picky generally. None. Been inadvertently in the market for a ‘regular’ iPad, I love my 2nd gen 12.9 jailbroken w Smart Keyboard but...
Sold my 9.7 pro prematurely for $250 when I got an 11” iPad Pro and ended up returning it because couldn’t justify the price even on sale, the size always bothered me for on screen keyboard, and it was selectively unresponsive which I didn’t want to wait to see if it was a software issue or hardware for the money.
My 12.9 is great but i need a regular iPad to complement it since its more of a faux-laptop replacement always connected to the Smart Keyboard, and this should fit the bill perfectly. Love the idea of both extreme sizes the smallest and biggest too, and classic/2nd gen Touch ID/share the pencil so i dont need to buy another/ headphone jack.
I had a mini2 and loved it, mini1 not being retina bothered me, but really didn’t like the non-laminated glass aspect of the 2 and gave it to a parent eventually who had the mini1, when i traded up iPads and always kinda missed it, excited to get back on the bandwagon
Was intrigued by mini 4 but felt I already had enough iPads at the time, or something i don’t remember. And have been tempted many times by mini 4 recent deal,s but conflicted since such old hardware. Glad i held out
None of the recent iPads have intrigued me that much: iPad 2017/2018, this 2019 10.5” air, the 11/12.9” redesign underwhelmed me, the 10.5” Pro since I have the same thing in a 12.9”,
This one does
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I currently have an iPad Pro 10.5, with Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. For a while this was a laptop replacement. But I just bought a MacBook Air.
I ordered the iPad Mini 5 because I wanted something small. Bigger than my iPhone 8+ but smaller than the 10.5. Something to use while sitting on the sofa — browsing the web — and for watching TV in bed. I use the Apple Pencil when tutoring online: I think the smaller size of the Mini may make this easier.
I’m nervous about the speakers. I don’t know if the responsiveness (latency?) of the Pencil will be as good as it is on the Pro. I don’t know what pro-motion is but wonder if I’ll miss it.
If I like the Mini, I’m selling the 10.5 back to Apple. With the sale also of the Smart Keyboard the entire transaction is nearly cost-neutral.
I’ll end up with something better in some respects and worse in others. Whether I stick with it remains to be seen. Estimated shipping April 2-5.
I ordered the iPad Mini 5 because I wanted something small. Bigger than my iPhone 8+ but smaller than the 10.5. Something to use while sitting on the sofa — browsing the web — and for watching TV in bed. I use the Apple Pencil when tutoring online: I think the smaller size of the Mini may make this easier.
I’m nervous about the speakers. I don’t know if the responsiveness (latency?) of the Pencil will be as good as it is on the Pro. I don’t know what pro-motion is but wonder if I’ll miss it.
If I like the Mini, I’m selling the 10.5 back to Apple. With the sale also of the Smart Keyboard the entire transaction is nearly cost-neutral.
I’ll end up with something better in some respects and worse in others. Whether I stick with it remains to be seen. Estimated shipping April 2-5.
Same here, but not as good of a deal as 250, at least I have 45 days to get price adjustment in case of a sale like the iPad pros had back in Dec. lol.I got sucked in
$25 off preorder with Best Buy being a reward member, and had some gift card funds laying around
64gb WiFi space grey for $250 after all that , excited to give it a whirl
I really have no complaints about what it offers for the price on paper in Apple-land and I’m pretty picky generally. None. Been inadvertently in the market for a ‘regular’ iPad, I love my 2nd gen 12.9 jailbroken w Smart Keyboard but...
Sold my 9.7 pro prematurely for $250 when I got an 11” iPad Pro and ended up returning it because couldn’t justify the price even on sale, the size always bothered me for on screen keyboard, and it was selectively unresponsive which I didn’t want to wait to see if it was a software issue or hardware for the money.
My 12.9 is great but i need a regular iPad to complement it since its more of a faux-laptop replacement always connected to the Smart Keyboard, and this should fit the bill perfectly. Love the idea of both extreme sizes the smallest and biggest too, and classic/2nd gen Touch ID/share the pencil so i dont need to buy another/ headphone jack.
I had a mini2 and loved it, mini1 not being retina bothered me, but really didn’t like the non-laminated glass aspect of the 2 and gave it to a parent eventually who had the mini1, when i traded up iPads and always kinda missed it, excited to get back on the bandwagon
Was intrigued by mini 4 but felt I already had enough iPads at the time, or something i don’t remember. And have been tempted many times by mini 4 recent deal,s but conflicted since such old hardware. Glad i held out
None of the recent iPads have intrigued me that much: iPad 2017/2018, this 2019 10.5” air, the 11/12.9” redesign underwhelmed me, the 10.5” Pro since I have the same thing in a 12.9”,
This one does
I think the mini 1 was two years after it’s larger equivalent and a bit less for the mini 2. Minis have always been an afterthought with parts and/or time.
According to Wiki, the 1st generation iPad was originally released on April 3, 2010. The 1st generation mini together with the 4th generation iPad were both originally released on November 2, 2012. The mini 2 was first released on November 12, 2013, the Air having been released a little earlier on November 1, 2013.
So yes, you are more or less correct. Chapeau! Your memory serves you well.
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Making the Mini 2 and Mini 5 exceptions thus far, and the Mini 5 a pretty darned good option if one wants the small form factor. Sure, it's missing Pro features but performance-wise, it should last quite a while (even if the Mini does end up not getting updated for another 4 years).
Rather than the odd photo someone posted elsewhere, the real benefit of a better camera is improved document scanning. iPads make great document scanners.
I think the mini is very underrated.
For home automation it can be easily mounted and not look obtrusive while providing an easy to read display.
I used mine as a car gps and entertainment provider.
When traveling on a plane the display size is a perfect compromise between the smallish phone screen and the size of a full size iPad.
Gaming much easier to hold.
Picture/video is much better than attempting to do the same on the phone.
Note taking is possible using the 2 thumb method.
For me: ebooks, music, audiobooks. Everything else, larger tablets.
Yes, I guess that is one consideration I hadn't thought of, although on a practical basis I'm not sure why someone would want a 12mp image of a document.
I remember having my Mini 1 years ago, but ultimately I'm not sure I could go back to that form factor again. And that's mostly due to size than features.
I can see the value it could bring to existing Mini users. But beyond that, I'm not sure of the target audience. I mean, only a couple weeks ago, I was thinking that the mini tablet market was dead. Apple seems to think differently. So, we'll have to see how well it's received.
I can see the value it could bring to existing Mini users. But beyond that, I'm not sure of the target audience. I mean, only a couple weeks ago, I was thinking that the mini tablet market was dead. Apple seems to think differently. So, we'll have to see how well it's received.
I see it as a subsidiary rather than a main device.
Man if only they added proper stereo speakers to this, I would have loved the small form factor.
I just held an old Mini 3 and the chassis is just perfect, zero issue with the size, weight, bezels.
The price, however, means I'd have to pretty much sell my Pro 12.9 2017 with 512 GB and LTE to get the much smaller iPad with LTE / 256 GB. I'd even consider doing that if it didn't mean losing the good speakers, which is the feature I'm getting the most value out of on the big iPad.
I just held an old Mini 3 and the chassis is just perfect, zero issue with the size, weight, bezels.
The price, however, means I'd have to pretty much sell my Pro 12.9 2017 with 512 GB and LTE to get the much smaller iPad with LTE / 256 GB. I'd even consider doing that if it didn't mean losing the good speakers, which is the feature I'm getting the most value out of on the big iPad.
My only gripe with the mini 5 is also the lack of true stereo speakers.
Which means I need to choose between a larger viewing screen on mini vs better blacks and sound on XS Max.
Which means I need to choose between a larger viewing screen on mini vs better blacks and sound on XS Max.
I use our iPad Mini 2 as a SatNav and I had to get cellular for the GPS but I also used it as a hotspot. I order the Mini 5 base model. I guess I will bring the iPad Mini 2 and the iPad Mini 5 on trips and use the Mini 2 for SatNav - that will leave more space on the Mini 5 for podcasts, videos, books, etc. The Mini 2 does a few things well but most things poorly. SatNav is one thing that it does well.
[doublepost=1553706712][/doublepost]I hauled out my Nexus 7 to see if it could be used as a book reader. I haven't really used it for several years because the performance was so bad. I fired up the Kindle and the program took several minutes to load. It took minutes to load a book as well. So I turned it off and put it back into the desk. It's possible that it was trying to update a bunch of programs. The Nexus 7 is better than the iPad Mini for reading books because it's a little smaller but a lot lighter. So I use the Mini 2 for reading books last night.