Just because i always wonder who buys them and who uses them and what they use them for and why they chose it over other options like i know my dad uses one but my sister and i got it for him as a gift, so he didnt really Choose it, it kind of chose him, but then i see the pilot with an ipad. Mini example constantly like i feel, like thats in every ipad mini keynote, but it turns out thats fairly common for hobby pilots, which is awesome. Ive already realized that as a huge fan of the ipad pro this isnt for me, but this refresh for 2021 makes it a real option again for a lot of people. So this is my mini review of the new 2021 ipad mini so most of whats new. Here is the design refresh, which is pretty simple: the unibody aluminum theres four new colors, and it gets all the beauty of those squared off sides which i also think make it easier to hold and like the ipad air, you drop the home button. You keep the touch id in the form of a power button, fingerprint reader combo up top. It adds usb type c at the bottom. Thank you very much, and this is actually the first ipad mini with a camera bump that now houses that new 12 megapixel camera on the back. The only real quirk, though, is the volume buttons which are now also at the top, seemed questionable at first.
But then you realize this new ipad mini, has second generation apple pencil support and that slaps right onto the side. Magnetically and the pencil is literally the size of the entire side of the tablet. So theres no room for volume buttons over there, where they usually are, so they put them on the top, and i got used to that pretty fast anyway, mostly because i find myself using it in landscape all the time. All that being said, its the smaller form factor to give you an 8.3 inch display that you can hold in one hand, that you can fit in smaller bags put in smaller places and take with you more easily. These bezels look kind of big at first, but then as soon as you start using it, you quickly realize this is about as small as bezels on a tablet can be to give yourself something to hold with your fingers before you start touching the screen. So this is the same size bezels as ipad air and ipad pro just with a smaller screen, and that screen is fine, its fine, its an okay screen. Its 8.3 inches, like i said, which is bigger than the last generation, which i think was 7.9 and its also bigger than the galaxy z fold 3 unfolded, but its a much better aspect ratio, its uh closer to widescreen, but its not an amazing quality display. So its an lcd again still 60 hertz same pixel density as last year same not that great 500 nits max brightness.
As the last generation, i mean its nice that it has full p3 color support and has true tone, but, generally speaking, this is uh still a pretty basic display, its fine indoors for sure for reading watching videos all that stuff, no problem, i just wouldnt – expect to Be able to use this comfortably outside in the sun, this ones got cellular antenna lines as you can see. So it is a cellular model that now supports 5g, but just so, you know no millimeter wave 5g on the ipad mini, which honestly is not a big deal, its useless for most people in most places. But if you were trying to use it on one of those hot spots, many wont support it, but honestly thats, probably kind of a good thing. Considering the battery life, probably the worst thing about the ipad mini as tested is the mini battery granted. I was testing it pretty hard using it full brightness all the time about as much as my phone and on cellular on the go, but i felt like i needed to charge it at the end of every full day, so i could get seven eight hours of Screen on time, out of it, which is good its a tablet – and it has great standby time but thats something to keep in mind, it might not. Last like a week like my ipad, pro sometimes does with light use. My use of the ipad mini, though, is very generalist, like you know: im scrolling through social media lots of emails, im watching videos, things like that, but thats the thing about the ipad mini is, i feel like so many people who are intending to get one already Have some specific thing in mind that they want to do with it? Like? I bet theres someone out there whos going to get one of these ipad minis and theyre going to make it the home kit.
Smart hub light switch that theyre going to put in the wall in their house and, of course you want the smallest ipad possible to do that. You know theres, probably a student whos about to go back to school right now, whos going to get this and an apple, pencil and theyre going to use this just for note taking all day theyre on this thing, with the apple pencil sketching, taking notes writing things Down all the time – and you already know – actually – i do already know that theres going to be hobbyist pilots out there that are going to get these ipad minis, because apparently theyre very popular as the small ipad youd use to plot out your flight map and its The one that fits comfortably in the cockpit of a smaller airplane – this is the tablet they want to use. So for me, this ipad is also fine as a super fast 500 tiny tablet and it happens to have decent features across the board, to make it versatile. The stereo speakers on either side for listening to music or watching videos like i do, are really good. The new 12 megapixel camera on the back its plenty good for a tablet, its basically the equivalent of whats in the ipad air and the new ultra wide front facing camera with center stage works exactly as well as it does in the ipad air, which is to Say a little bit shaky, but perfectly fine for video calls and face time or zoom, and then, of course, that apple pencil 2.
0 support which is top of the line in this price range ties right into ios 15 and the swipe up from the corner. For quick notes and all the benefits of having a dedicated, stylus, thats, so good matter of fact, its literally running, essentially the exact same software experience as all the other ipads out there same exact software as the 800 ipad pros, the multitasking the slide over windows, the App library over to the side of the home screen its all here and, of course, many people are already very familiar with it and its all running on apples. Absolute latest chip, the a15 with the five core gpu, which is actually better than whats in the ipad air right now. So not only will this ipad be running very smooth, pretty much locked right at 60 hertz out the box, but also virtually guarantees you many years of software support and ios updates being the latest chip. The one thing thats kind of annoying in this software here seems to be all this padding around the home screen icons. So the whole ui is like a little more compressed than i remember inside, of even those bezels it just made. The ipad mini feel really mini. Sometimes, with all that small text in the widgets, especially when that weather widget is literally bigger on the iphone than it is on the ipad minis home screen, but as soon as you jump into an app, though, then, of course you take advantage of the bigger screen.
Im just not sure what that padding is about, so i dont personally have a use case that really fits this ipad mini so thats. Why i wont be getting one, but i think those who are thinking about getting it already know. You probably already have a thing that youre imagining getting it for something that you want it to do, and so for that i would encourage you to think about whether or not the new 9th gen baseline ipad might actually be better for that, because its 170 bucks Cheaper and has a bigger screen but of course, its a different type of tablet and if youre after the mini, then yeah its pretty good, oh, but it does actually. It starts at 64 gigs. So maybe you could consider that a weakness of this um, if you want to upgrade there, is only one other spec, its the 256 gig, which is 150 bucks more so at that point, youre playing in a different price range, but the baseline 64 gigs 4.99. If thats, all the storage, you need this ones a go but yeah, you know it would speak to me just selfishly and maybe a little off topic. I was imagining like an ipad mini pro or maybe it would be an ipad pro mini. But you know what i mean like a tablet, this size with a nice 120 hertz display and of course you get face id, and then you get the pro camera system on the back and probably a bigger battery.
But then youre, probably looking at like two three hundred dollars extra, so thats, probably why that doesnt exist but yeah at this price. What are you cross shopping it with like a galaxy tab, thats out there you could be looking at a surface go or maybe youre. Looking at like the new uh, kindle that just came out with wireless charging, something like that all these have different specific use cases in mind, this being the most versatile of the bunch, definitely worth a look its the ipad mini so yeah know your use case. Thats.T-UhbAcZd3I
