The mini is for portable consumption, not productivity.
That depends on personal usage and while it may be true for you, it is not a universal truth for all.
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Don't get the iPad Mini 6 lol, it's an awful product. Bad UI scaling and terrible screen with jelly issues, surprised it even made it past Apple's QA, as a company who loves to overly obsess over tiny details.
About rightThe mini is for portable consumption, not productivity.
Some reviewers are complaining the 11” screen is too small for stage manager…
Regarding Stage Manager, I think there are 2 kind of people, those who wanted better iPad multitasking and those who wanted extended display support (and sure many wanted both, but most probably wanted one feature more than the other). Personally I don't particularly like Stage Manager for multitasking on the iPad. A better split screen (like Samsung does) would have been a better solution for me. However I am in the camp of external display support and I am taking any kind of desktop mode, as long as it's possible to extend the display...
And honestly for extended display any USB C device could have been supported if they reduced the number of active apps on non M1 iPads. But they decided to set the bar very high and make no lite version for non M1 devices. This has a negative impact on the value of older devices (people will upgrade sooner, especially once M2 is out later this year, flooding the market with used 2018 and 2020 pros) and may impact sales of the minis for those wanting this feature (and will reduce the value if a new mini gets M1 next year, which however I doubt will happen)
For you it is flawed. For those of us who enjoy using ours, it isn’t. You made your decision based on your wants, needs, and standards. Those of us who love ours have different wants, needs, and standards. Look down your nose and be judgmental all you want to but we’re grownups and we’re spending our money, not yours.Cool, thanks for the update. I had to return mine, I wish I could be as content as some people on here to pay for an expensive new product and be happy keeping a flawed one.
Ok, I’m happy that you have found it to work great for you. Didn’t mean to cause any offence, was just describing my personal opinion about it.For you it is flawed. For those of us who enjoy using ours, it isn’t. You made your decision based on your wants, needs, and standards. Those of us who love ours have different wants, needs, and standards. Look down your nose and be judgmental all you want to but we’re grownups and we’re spending our money, not yours.
My mini 5 is not my main iPad (the 12.9 is) but I really like it, especially for use in bed and the occasional note taking. I feel no need to replace it with a mini 6. Sure USB C and pencil 2 are nice, but performance is still great on the mini 5 and I prefer the older smart cover. I have no intention of selling it and will probably keep it for several years (for my use, it will be fine until the battery is decent). I doubt the mini will be redesigned again for a while. I'll upgrade when the mini gets 8GB RAM, which will probably be the mini 8 or 9. And at that point Stage Manager should be possible too.Good summary.
I'm in the "just give me better external display support" camp. Don't really care about the other feautures, but don't mind them.
Shame they can't or don't want to enable better external display support however - even if it would be with less open apps/slower speeds or just mirroring instead of extending the iPad Mini "desktop".
Finally got to hold a Mini 6 in my hand last week is not very comfortable to hold (sharper edges) vs the Mini 5 (rounded edges).
I'll stick with Mini 5 if I can't sell it for a good price and hope for a future refresh which enables this function (and at least slight redesign to make it more comfortable again).
But I don't think that's what's happening here. It sounds like Stage Manager is over-engineered to require a what an M1 brings to the table. And if that was not the only way to get desktop class multi-tasking on the iPad (in the way that it is not the only way to get desktop class multi-tasking on the Mac), I'd chalk it up to being a higher-end feature that finally utilizes the M1 being in an iPad. But the fact that the only way that we can get true multi-tasking on an iPad is with something like Stage Manager and that Stage Manager REQUIRES an SoC faster than the A12X and A12Z which already were faster than Intel MacBook Airs and Intel 13" MacBook Pros (that can also handle stage manager) makes no real sense.
I am curious, how would you splinscreen on a large 27“ external display? this doesnt make much sence in my mind, and I would rather have windowed environment on an external screen, and splintscreen on ipad *as windows on ipad also dont work, since the screen realestate is too smallRegarding Stage Manager, I think there are 2 kind of people, those who wanted better iPad multitasking and those who wanted extended display support (and sure many wanted both, but most probably wanted one feature more than the other). Personally I don't particularly like Stage Manager for multitasking on the iPad. A better split screen (like Samsung does) would have been a better solution for me. However I am in the camp of external display support and I am taking any kind of desktop mode, as long as it's possible to extend the display...
And honestly for extended display any USB C device could have been supported if they reduced the number of active apps on non M1 iPads. But they decided to set the bar very high and make no lite version for non M1 devices. This has a negative impact on the value of older devices (people will upgrade sooner, especially once M2 is out later this year, flooding the market with used 2018 and 2020 pros) and may impact sales of the minis for those wanting this feature (and will reduce the value if a new mini gets M1 next year, which however I doubt will happen)
I also don't buy that an iPad mini shouldn't be able to have multi-tasking. Maybe not in the form of Stage Manager, but in SOME KIND OF UI. Hell, all of the iPhones should have it. It's a feature that Android has had with phones and tablets for years now.
It's not that people will complain no matter what, but because Apple chose the wrong thing to make M1 exclusive. It is not credible to people that something like this cannot work on slightly older chips.
Interesting question and one which highlights the dichotomy laid out in the post you quoted—namely that some people are looking at the mini as a primary iPad they would want to use with an external display and some, like me, see the mini as a secondary iPad valued for its portability and something they will likely never dock.I am curious, how would you splinscreen on a large 27“ external display? this doesnt make much sence in my mind, and I would rather have windowed environment on an external screen, and splintscreen on ipad *as windows on ipad also dont work, since the screen realestate is too small
I agree with youInteresting question and one which highlights the dichotomy laid out in the post you quoted—namely that some people are looking at the mini as a primary iPad they would want to use with an external display and some, like me, see the mini as a secondary iPad valued for its portability and something they will likely never dock.
And this dichotomy alone undercuts any decision to bring Stage
Manager to the mini in the near term. Why spend all that effort for a relatively niche device many (if not most) of whose users will never really benefit from it? I'm not advocating for this position, mind you, simply saying it makes sense at a time when development resources are not unlimited—what with all the other devices being migrated to Apple Silicon right now.
What you are suggesting is exactly what I was suggesting.I am curious, how would you splinscreen on a large 27“ external display? this doesnt make much sence in my mind, and I would rather have windowed environment on an external screen, and splintscreen on ipad *as windows on ipad also dont work, since the screen realestate is too small
I think it's credible that Stage Manager requires an M1 at minimum. What I don't think is credible is that Stage Manager is the only thing they've come up with to give the iPad desktop-class multi-tasking when (a) it ought to be possible to give the iPad desktop-class multi-tasking SOMEHOW using the A12X, A12Z, A14, or A15 at the very least, and (b) There are Intel Macs with similar RAM, storage, and processor performance that have no issue running that many apps at once. I'm not saying it's the best time, but you could take a 2015 MacBook Air with 4GB of RAM (weaker in pretty much every way compared to a fourth generation iPad Air or a sixth generation iPad mini), and load 8 apps on it simultaneously and multi-task and window manage between them using Big Sur, Catalina, or Mojave. The fact that what Apple lande with for iPad multitasking and the fact that it was so deluxe that it required an M1; that's the part that's dumb. They could've been more economical with their design objectives.
Oh, but you were looking now your nose at all us rubes who happen to like our Mini 6…Ok, I’m happy that you have found it to work great for you. Didn’t mean to cause any offence, was just describing my personal opinion about it.
No one is looking down on anyone here, it’s a free market economy. Have a nice day.