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The New iPad Mini
- sixothree 8y agoThis may sound crazy, but I would consider my iPad Mini 4 (with cellular) to be my primary computing device. To be fair, I have multiple desktop computers, laptops, and servers in my house. And for work we each get a development laptop and a desktop with multiple monitors. So I'm no luddite by any stretch. But it fits in the front pocket of a pair of Dockers type pants. Meaning, I often leave my phone at home and carry just my iPad. It travels with me to work and home. I bring it to meetings instead of my laptop, unless I am coding. I leave it open to skype so that conversations don't break my typing flow. It sits in front of my computer while I am home playing youtube. I bring it onto the front porch on a cool evening for kindle and carcassonne. And it goes with me to the hot tub. I originally bought it as a travel companion device. But found it fit so well, that I just carry it with me pretty much anywhere.
- Marsymars 8y ago> I leave it open to skype so that conversations don't break my typing flow. Even though I use it, I'm seriously considering uninstalling Skype on my iPad, since the idle battery drain of Skype is more than everything else on my iPad combined.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoMy main incentive to cut out Google/Microsoft/Facebook products is to save on battery life, it makes a material difference.
- reaperducer 8y agoThis may sound crazy, but I would consider my iPad Mini 4 (with cellular) to be my primary computing device. Not crazy at all. For millions of people around the world, even in developed countries, a phone or tablet is their main computing device. There was an Apple presentation about it once that mentioned some crazy percent, and I bet it's only gotten larger since then.
- cheeze 8y agoI'm with you but with my S10+ at this point. I use it for browsing the internet casually. As soon as I get to work I hook it up trough my USB-C hub to DeX to watch plex. When I get home, if I want to get some work done I hook it up over DeX and boot ubuntu on it. I don't bring a computer with me when I travel, I use RDP from DeX if I need to do some real heavy lifting that the Ubuntu distro I have can't do (which rarely happens, but does happen.) At this point I could go months with my phone, a USB-C PD charger, an HDMI cable, and a cheap ($20) USB-C hub. DeX is criminally underrated and the major reason I'm going Android (Samsung more than Android even) over iOS this generation. Granted, I'm losing out on security/privacy :(.
- anongraddebt 8y agoNot crazy or I'm crazy along with you. My primary computing device for work and personal tasks is a six inch smartphone. I've actually developed a marked annoyance when working on a laptop or desktop.
- nine_k 8y agoSo, it's a primary communication and consumption device. Very much like a smartphone, but with a bigger and better screen. Apparently it's the "phablet" of a few years back, finally implemented well.
- ianai 8y agoExcept my gen2 mini was my favorite “back when” too ;) I learned and read quite a lot on it!
- jumbopapa 8y agoI've been eyeing a tablet for a while. Unfortunately, the pickings with Android are rather slim, so that really only leaves the iPad. I haven't bought the iPad (6th gen) due to it only having 2gb of ram, but maybe the Mini is right for me.
- hellofunk 8y agoI'm curious, why are you concerned about 2gb of ram? What do you plan to do on the iPad that requires more than that?
- izacus 8y agoBrowsing the web?
- ceejayoz 8y agoI've never once felt like the iPhone browser (mine has 2GB too) lacked RAM.
- Marsymars 8y agoSame here. The lack of Firefox with extensions is by far and away the single biggest pain point I have with web browsing on iOS, 2GB of RAM doesn't even register.
- kalleboo 8y agoOn the iPhone it's fine, but my iPads have always been constantly reloading tabs and felt like they cheaped out too much on the RAM (or needed a swap system)
- saagarjha 8y agoYeah, no. 2 GB of RAM is plenty for browsing the web; this isn’t Android where everything less than some absurd number of gigabytes (4? 6?) is useless.
- izacus 8y agoI love that someone finally made a small 8" 4:3 tablet again - it seems like the perfect form factor for reading. Right now I'm still using my aging Galaxy Tab S2, but it's software support has ended. The only serious annoyance I have is the lack of USB-C... all my other devices (laptop, phone, headphones, etc.) are on that new port now and I only have to carry a single charger. Except for the tablet :(
- jumbopapa 8y agoI would likely read on it some if I bought it, but I can't stand anything other than a kindle or paper for reading for an extended period of time.
- izacus 8y agoKindle is awesome for books, but I use my S2 8.0 for reading the internet / PDFs and watching movies. Which isn't as practical on a Kindle :)
- nardi 8y agoYou can get a USB-C to Lightning cable if you want to charge off the same charger.
- 00deadbeef 8y agoI've had my iPad Mini 2 for years now and love it. Finally a worthy upgrade.
- noir_lord 8y agoSame, I have a gen 6 ipad that I like and an iPad Mini 2 that I love, I bought the mini 2 for mobile safari testing but outside of my desktops/laptops I spend way more time on the Mini than I do my phone, it's just a convenient form factor. Think I'm gonna spring for the new mini and give my old mini to the boy.
- CalChris 8y ago> It has the same A12 CPU ... with 3 GB of RAM on the system-on-a-chip Actually that's package-on-package. The LPDDR4X DRAM is glued (well, reflow soldered) to the back of the A12 Bionic. https://www.techinsights.com/about-techinsights/overview/blog/apple-iphone-xs-teardown/ https://www.techinsights.com/about-techinsights/overview/blo... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_on_package https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_on_package
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- crooked-v 8y agoIf this had been in the "Pro" style with a thin bezel and USB-C, it would have been an instant buy.
- mark_l_watson 8y agoI agree. For $100 more, they could have had both a thin bezel and usb-c, and I would have bought one instantly.
- theshrike79 8y agoReally? Nice to have a supply chain and production tooling expert on this site too! Or maybe they couldn't have just quickly re-tooled and redesigned everything without making the price too steep compared to the other models. And why would they? These models will sell like mad. It's not like there's any actual competition in the tablet market. Google doesn't care and Samsung releases a half-hearted attempt every now and then for the hardcode iOS allergics.
- scarface74 8y agoThat kind of defeats the point. They were trying to reach a price - $499 for the Mini wasn’t that price.
- qu1mby 8y agoI love that the mini has been refreshed with the retina display - though was hoping for the new form factor (no button + smaller bezels)
- AdmiralAsshat 8y agoSo what is the nomenclature for these things now? Apple keeps calling them the "New" i-X, which gets me confused with the last one they released that they called the "new" one, and eventually we settled on some kind of retroactive name for it like "Retina i-X" or "i-X (20XX)".
- kgermino 8y agoI think it's similar to Macs. iPad mini (2019), just like 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2018).
- wlesieutre 8y agoiPad Mini (2019) seems like the reasonable choice. The Mac and iPad are stable enough as products that the main pressure to upgrade is that it's broken or too slow. It's not like an iPhone where there's a new design language every three years, steadily improving cameras, or big improvements to screen brightness and anti-glare. If they put iPhone version numbers across all their products you'd have obnoxious names like iMac 19s Max. Calling them by their size and year is more meaningful than trying to remember "How old is an iMac 14?" since they aren't on a strict yearly release clock like the phones are.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- AWildC182 8y ago....Why did the Pro get USB-C but the Mini is now shipping with Lightning? I'm so confused. I just want all my shit to have one charging cable.
- saagarjha 8y agoIt’s not an iPad Pro.
- JeremyBanks 8y agoNo, it's even newer, so we'd expect it to use the same cable if Apple wants a nice transition for their users. But their rent-seeking penny-pinching CEO doesn't care about producing a good product lineup any more. He just cares about margins, and this saves a few cents per unit.
- MBCook 8y agoNo, it’s an existing iPad with a new chip in it. That’s cheap and easy to make. You want USB-C? Ok. That means new case. Might as well make other changes because you have to pay for tooling again. And all the assembly lines have to be updated. And people retrained on the new assembly procedures. All that costs money. And they want to hit a low price point. So they put a new chip in the old thing (and a new screen? But same size) and don’t have to raise the price. The mini is already more expensive than the iPad. You think an extra $50-70 would help it sell better? All for USB-C?
- jsight 8y ago$50-70 to switch to USB-C? That seems like a pretty healthy exaggeration.
- leadingthenet 8y agoHow the hell are you being downvoted for this?! Have people gone insane?
- melling 8y agoNo FaceID? TouchID often failed. never works with wet fingers, for example. I’ve also gotten used to saying “Hey Siri, my weather” as I pick up my phone then looking at my screen to unlock. “open New York Times” “open Wall Street Journal” “open CNBC’ I should look into Siri shortcuts. I’d like a “Hey Siri, Hacker News” [Update] Done! Siri was ready with Hacker News as a suggestion. I noticed on another device, even without a shortcut, I can say “open the website Hacker News”
- abtinf 8y agoI wish I could use Siri as you describe. Alas, it rarely recognizes the wake word unless I’m holding it very close, and queries take far too long anyway. For weather, it is much faster to simply pick up the phone, which automatically turns on the screen, then swipe right.
- StreamBright 8y ago>>> The iPad Mini uses a Lightning port and has a microphone jack. Is Apple returning to reality?
- saagarjha 8y agoNo, they just kept the same external ports as last time.
- jayess 8y agoI feel like the mini is way underrated and I was worried they would cancel it. My mini is my favorite device. I'm excited to trade in my old one for a new one.
- emsy 8y agoApple's lineup is getting so confusing. The iPad Mini is praised by a lot of Apple enthusiasts but for me it just adds more chaos to their product lineup. Which tablet supports which pen? Can I connect my iPad to my Macbook using the included cables? Do I charge with USB-C or lightning? Does my device support 3D touch? What's the difference between an iPad and an iPad Air? What's the difference between the Macbook and the Macbook Air and why is the Air thicker? Does my Mac have a T2 chip (the new iMacs don't). Can I get my device of choice with 128GB (only the XR, not the XS). There's too much segmentation and I think it's appropriate to ask whether this would've happened under Steve. If I can't keep up with this mess, how do they expect non-tech people to do so?
- fumar 8y agoI do see your point on increased SKUs. I can't afford the pro line across the entire Apple suite. Using price alone, I am guided to the Air or non-pro products. I am sure some folks are only looking at the base core line. Again price is the guide here. As a consumer, I am not really looking at the iMac Pro, Macbook Pros, iPad Pros thus I don't feel the increase in segmentation.
- chipotle_coyote 8y agoI would argue that the problem with the MacBook line currently is that there's not enough segmentation. The 13" non-Touchbar MacBook Pro and the new Air are confusingly similar, the 12" MacBook seems like it was supposed to have replaced the Air but is now just hanging around shuffling its feet awkwardly, the old non-retina Air is also still hanging around just so they can say they have a laptop for $999, etc. The iPad lineup to me doesn't seem particularly confusing at all, other than perhaps the naming. There's pretty clear differentiation across the products and price points. I'll be honest, I think some of your questions are deliberately overstated; I think Apple expects "non-tech people" aren't ripping their hair out over the difference between Lighting and USB-C, because they look at the charging cable that came with their new iThing and can pretty easily figure out which end goes into the iThing and which end goes into the wall socket. Most people don't connect their iPads to their MacBooks. Most people shrug at the weird naming. These are mostly tech pundit problems. I would love it if the MacBook lineup could be as clear and non-stupid as the iPad lineup again. I think it's appropriate to ask whether this would've happened under Steve. There are certainly things Apple has done in the last five years that make me ask that question, from the Touchbar to the butterfly keyboard to the way iOS's text editing controls, especially with external keyboards, are still shit compared to the Mac after nearly a decade. "But the Air is thicker!" is...just not one of them.
- gcb0 8y ago> Face ID is so much better than Touch ID. Yeah, no.
- saagarjha 8y agoHave you tried using it?
- kevas 8y agoyup... have the iPad Pro 11 & an older mini (use that for the gym/cardio and when I don't want to lug something so big around)... I do not use FaceID at all. Tried it, yet went back to the Pin.
- saagarjha 8y agoWhy not? Did it not work for you?
- m463 8y agoI like thumb to unlock myself. Main reason I'm on iphone 8 for ... forever probably.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- traderjane 8y agoI have trouble with FaceID but I also have trouble reconciling my experiences with other people's reports of perfect flawlessness. It might be that people have the attention awareness on/off, use the phones in very different conditions, etc.
- listic 8y agoIs there anything similar to the new iPad Mini on the Android side?
- saagarjha 8y agoNot really, AFAIK. Android tablets are not a particularly great market…
- dragonwriter 8y ago8” tablets with broadly similar features exist (e.g., Galaxy Tab S2 8”), though details vary a lot, and since I don't think any near the top of the field have a refresh in a couple years (8” isn't a hot spot in the Android tablet market), they're probably mostly less expensive but not quite at feature parity, ignoring OS/ecosystem preference issues.
- int_19h 8y agoThey usually get bad screens in that segment. The last 8" Android tablet that I would consider good was Huawei MediaPad M5, which is 8.4" 2560x1600.
- B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago$3xx - iPad 9.7 $4xx - iPad Mini 7.9 $5xx - iPad Air 10.5 Is it just me, or is the small cheap one to give to the kids, or keep around as the 'spare iPad', missing from the lineup? Even if it was just 20 or 30 bucks less than the current iPad 9.7 ?
- geddy 8y agoWish they'd come out with an iPhone Mini! That is, back to the 5/SE roots. I love the iPad Mini but it doesn't really have a space in my repertoire alongside my SE and Watch.
- PHGamer 8y agoquestion? couldnt apple make an accessory that connects/syncs the pencil 2 to the ipad mini 5 without having to use the pencil 1?
- saagarjha 8y agoHow would you charge it?
- Teckla 8y agoI think PHGamer answered that already: an accessory. Presumably some kind of dongle.
- saagarjha 8y agoBut there aren't any ports on it.
- arthurcolle 8y agoThe hypothetical dongle would get electricity via the iPad port and then would expose a surface that would leverage the magnetic coupling/inductive charging for the Apple Pencil in the same way that it works now. Might not be the most attractive dongle but I don't think there's anything physically impossible in engineering something with the capabilities needed to allow charging...
- mysterypie 8y agoThere's an acute problem with using the iPad Mini that no one has yet mentioned here. The text is too damn small unless you have perfect eyesight. For example, Hacker News in Safari on the Mini appears in a super tiny font. If you pinch-zoom, the edges of the page roll off the screen, and you'd be constantly panning left and right. I've tried extensions that increase the font size on web pages -- they all have some failing, like making the letters run together or messing up tables. I'll grant that this is not the fault of the iPad Mini itself. I blame web standards and browsers for not requiring all parts of a page to scale linearly and re-flow cleanly. It is (in theory) a problem solvable entirely by software. However, the reality of the web is what it is. If you don't have perfect eyesight, it's better to buy a large iPad with the same resolution as the Mini, and then everything is nice and legible. It's a shame because I love the portability of the Mini.
- mperham 8y agoThere's a fix that every person over 40 eventually learns: Settings > General > Accessibility > Larger Text
- mysterypie 8y agoThat setting does not increase text size in web pages which was my main complaint. It increases size of text in some menus in iOS (and not even all of them) and not in third-party apps either, and is completely useless for web pages.
- malloreon 8y agoif this had edge to edge and face ID I'd line up to get it.
- chx 8y ago> The iPad Mini hits a sweet spot: it’s way bigger than any phone and way smaller than any laptop. Yeah, I bought a One Mix Yoga 2S for that purpose. I understand the need for pure tablets for some but you can't beat that little powerhouse of a laptop-tablet. The hardware practically matches up with the latest Macbook Air -- Amber Lake Core CPU, 8GB RAM, NVMe SSD. It's 7". I love, love, love it for emergency purposes. Not an everyday workhorse but if you are on call ... beats hauling a 14" laptop everywhere for those once-in-a-half-year emergencies.
- tootie 8y agoI posit that while iPads may be "the best" tablet, you could get 95% as much utility out of a 3 year old Kindle Fire.
- saagarjha 8y agoDoes your Kindle Fire perform well?
- tootie 8y agoI don't actually have one. I never use tablets for anything. I have a few iPads in the house that fell in my lap and they are basically used as portable YouTube machines by my kids. I do use a phone that costs $300 unlocked and is 95% as useful an iPhone.
- elagost 8y agoI have an 8" from last year that performs fairly well. I only use it for reading comics and watching videos, and I have f-droid and some programs from there installed (Termux, firefox klar) and it never feels like it's lagging or too slow. The dual speakers are nice, and I like that it has a microSD card slot.
- camillomiller 8y agoI used to read Gruber often, but I feel his reviews especially grew stale and uninformative, well written but plain. Also, he’s quite late to a lot of stuff while not adding enough insights to justify being that late. I think I changed in the way I read Apple-related news, so maybe he has always been like that and it’s just my perception that shifted? Either way, I think I just don’t want to spend my time reading one-company pundits. (He usually gets any other company’s doings so shallowly wrong, it’s embarrassing)