iPad Will you be updating to the public beta of iPadOS 18?

[Yebubbleman]

Personally, I’m going to wait for the final release.

What about you?

I was originally going to wait until the final release. But I found a good deal on a 64GB Wi-Fi only 6th Generation iPad mini that, in light of already owning a 256GB Wi-Fi+Cellular 6th Generation iPad mini that I use more extensively, I decided to use for testing betas and MDM solutions. Suffice it to say, the 64GB Wi-Fi only model is now running the third iPadOS 18 Developer Beta (which is effectively the same OS as the first iPadOS 18 Public beta).

I won't ever use a primary device of any platform for betas. But if I happen to have a lower-end spare of a given model that I already own (or an older iPad in general), I'll totally use it for betas!

 

[Elusi]

Great? I doubt it. Even 17 has hiccups on the mini 6.

It should still run fairly decently though. I'm running the 18 beta on an iPad 9 (A13/3GB) and I haven't noticed any slowdowns vs 17.

17 runs great on mine. Either yours is defective or we just have split views on the term.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Great? I doubt it. Even 17 has hiccups on the mini 6.

It should still run fairly decently though. I'm running the 18 beta on an iPad 9 (A13/3GB) and I haven't noticed any slowdowns vs 17.

17 runs okay on my mini 6. I have a sneaking feeling that it only does so because that's what it shipped to me with. iPadOS 17 upgrades and DFU restores have not been all that reliable. iPadOS 17, in general has been a really buggy release. iOS 17, on the other hand, hasn't, for some reason. Sonoma has mostly been okay.

 

[sparksd]

17 runs great on mine. Either yours is defective or we just have split views on the term.

Been pretty steady on my Mini 6, too.

 

[rui no onna]

17 runs great on mine. Either yours is defective or we just have split views on the term.

Different apps used, usage patterns, performance tolerance, etc.

For the most part, it's Safari that likes to freeze or crash on me. Then again, I often have 50+ tabs open.

 

[Student of Life]

Curious how iOS 18 runs on mini 6

Iirc it’s the weakest specs of current iPad lineup right

I have been using the developers beta on it and it's been pretty good. Remember some of the more intensive features like stage manager are not available on this iPad. Also none of the AI stuff is up, so just from a basic performance point of view, the Mini 6 is running good.

 

[thadoggfather]

I have been using the developers beta on it and it's been pretty good. Remember some of the more intensive features like stage manager are not available on this iPad. Also none of the AI stuff is up, so just from a basic performance point of view, the Mini 6 is running good.

Has it been a nice upgrade feature wise for you or more of the same

 

[Student of Life]

Has it been a nice upgrade feature wise for you or more of the same

Honestly it's more of the same with a tweak here and there. The calculator app is actually useful. I like how you can with the Apple Pencil write out some basic math problems and it solves them. Nothing out of this world but a welcomed feature. Granted this is minus anything AI related.

 

[muzzy996]

Has it been a nice upgrade feature wise for you or more of the same

Of course it all depends on what one uses their device for, for myself my Mini 6 is just a general browsing and media consumption device so I'm trying the beta with no set expectations and I don't really see much difference. I tried messing with the icon customization and ended up going back to standard since nothing really looked better otherwise.

I continue to think that command center on iPadOS is a completely wasted opportunity - it takes up just 1/4 of the screen and that's just plain stupid to be unable to use the rest of the empty real estate. So while it's great that those who want it now have multiple sheets for control center and can customize it, it's silly that there's so much wasted screen space on an iPad even one as small as the Mini. This particular UI limitation has always been a frustration for me; I understand that iPadOS is rooted in iOS but it has been forked for a while now and some of this stuff like huge expanses of unusable space in control center, widget slide over menu or the notification shade should not still be lingering around.

I do notice improvements in Messages and I'm sure there's other little things that are general improvements.

Everything else is just uninteresting to me - I don't use Notes much, nor the Calculator etc. I primarily stay within Safari, Youtube, Messages, Teams and a few other streaming and smart home apps and that's it.

 

[EmilioCube]

Still curious how it fares I guess with bugs more particularly though performance and battery life

I would go with the public Beta as it has been released a few days ago.
My iPhone SE 3, despite having heavy battery issues (just as before), works perfectly fine with the public Beta, not any issue at all.