iPad mini How is the iPad Mini's RAM?

I have not had any problems with apps crashing on my Mini, and I use all the same ones I had on my iPad 3 (restored from the same backup that was on the iPad 3).

I thought I would notice the difference in RAM, but it's negligible at best. It may take slightly longer to switch between apps or launch them, but they never crash.

I'd say the only difference I notice is that Safari routinely has to reload tabs if you've been away for a while. They don't stay cached as long as they would on a full size iPad.

Although I've noticed this on my iPhone 5 also, and it has double the RAM, so who knows?

When the mini has to reload a tab, at least it does so way faster than the iPad 1.

It really depends what kind if web page you're looking at. If I have the verge loaded, I could probably only have one other tab open without forcing a reload. If I'm just looking at amazon and want a bunch of tabs for different things, I can have a bunch open.

It's not perfect but it is definitely not that bad.

It would be nice to have more, but it gets the job done.

To be honest at this point I would wait to see if a new mini is right around the corner. Personally I am waiting for the mini to get the A6 before even considering the mini but right now I am a little upset with Apple so I might not buy another iPad at all.

iEvolution said:

To be honest at this point I would wait to see if a new mini is right around the corner. Personally I am waiting for the mini to get the A6 before even considering the mini but right now I am a little upset with Apple so I might not buy another iPad at all.

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You sound like a hurt ex girlfriend

TacticalDesire said:

I'm concerned about the RAM because I spend a lot of time in my web browsers throughout the day and keep a lot of tabs open on both my computers and mobile devices. My Nexus 4 with 2gb of RAM handles my usage habits just fine meanwhile my 5th gen touch released 5 months ago sometimes struggles with it's 512mb of RAM. I can imagine this problem only getting worse as time goes on and iOS updates being more memory intensive. Crashing is also a problem on the iPod and checking the logs shows me lots of low memory entries.

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It's a real problem. Expect to not be able to have more than 2-3 tabs at most without them reloading, and that's if you're lucky. If that's not a problem, then it can handle tons of tabs.

Can't say I've had many crashes though. It's very stable.

bobbysmith said:

It's a real problem. Expect to not be able to have more than 2-3 tabs at most without them reloading, and that's if you're lucky. If that's not a problem, then it can handle tons of tabs.

Can't say I've had many crashes though. It's very stable.

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Is a tab reloading really a problem, for all the second it takes? This makes me laugh. Is time really so precious that a quick page refresh is a problem?
OP the ram is not something you will ever think about when using the mini. It's very fast. Forget the ram man!

Defender2010 said:

Is a tab reloading really a problem, for all the second it takes? This makes me laugh. Is time really so precious that a quick page refresh is a problem?

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Why don't you go back to an iPad 1 where many sites stutter and apps take much longer to load? Seems like you have the newer iPad Mini. Is your time really so precious that you couldn't put up with the momentary stuttering while scrolling webpages on the iPad 1?

It's enough for me, gets the job done better than I'd expect!

TyPod said:

It's enough for me, gets the job done better than I'd expect!

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Yup. I haven't thought about how much RAM my iPad mini has in all the months I've been using it. It works great so I don't question it.

This is an interesting topic and you raise a great question...in fact Im happy with my iPad minis screen and A5 but the anemic RAM will be my reason to upgrade to next mini...Ive had a few app crashes, slow app loads and safari refreshes but its not a major problem...YET.

In my opinion the bare minimum 512 RAM is the weakest link of the ipad mini...

RAM was definitely an issue for me. Actually, it was one of the reasons why I didn't keep the mini. The iPad couldn't handle loading more than a few tabs at once, it was constantly refreshing.

syd430 said:

Why don't you go back to an iPad 1 where many sites stutter and apps take much longer to load? Seems like you have the newer iPad Mini. Makes me laugh. Is your time really so precious that you couldn't put up with the momentary stuttering while scrolling webpages on the iPad 1? I mean is your time really that precious? Makes me laugh so much.

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I have a Mini yes, but this is not my fault.

Defender2010 said:

Is a tab reloading really a problem, for all the second it takes? This makes me laugh. Is time really so precious that a quick page refresh is a problem?
OP the ram is not something you will ever think about when using the mini. It's very fast. Forget the ram man!

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Waiting 5-10 seconds may not be a huge problem, but it's worth pointing out since someone who switches between tabs a lot might find it tedious after a while. A bigger problem though is if you use sites where data had to be submitted to load the page or it's tied to an expired session. These can't just be reloaded. There's no real excuse for a device not to be able to handle more than two tabs in 2013.

I have no problems with the RAM or overall performance of the mini. It's a great little tablet!

TacticalDesire said:

It's actually quite annoying when you're filling out a form or some other text entry and you have to open a new tab and coming back to the old one and finding it have to reload, therefore losing everything. You'll stop laughing then.

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This is why I decided not to buy the first gen mini. The screen and A5 don't bother me at all, but the lack of RAM will be a problem. I learned my lesson from my iPad 1, very frustrating. YMMV.

Che Castro said:

You sound like a hurt ex girlfriend

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Sure am broski! Me and Apple were great lovers at one time! Unfortunately she became greedy, took my money and hasn't been putting out (as good of features) as she used to. It's been years since I've literally been satisfied by her.

In all seriousness I'm very disappointed in Apple the last couple of years. If it wasn't for iTunes, Smart Playlists and my heavily investing in the iTunes Store (when it was still DRM) I'd definitely be gone. Unfortunately nothing beats the sheer amount of options provided in iTunes Smart Playlists.

Main complaints?
- the intentional holding back of products for planned obsolescence. Not impressed by a iPad Mini coming out with 2011's specs. Greed at its finest.
- cornering of the lightning market. Complete BS that they didn't release any information to 3rd parties until months after release so that the 3rd party developers could be ready to make new products for it. Further, the cornering of the conversion adapters as a "Apple only" product at inflated prices. Greed at its finest.
- intentionally holding back memory upgrades for the last 3 or 4 years while still keeping the products (iPod Touch, iPad) at the same price points, even adding another $100 to the iPad...despite the obvious drops in flash prices since 2010. Greed at its finest.

I was also worried about the RAM in the mini (which I quickly forgot about once I picked it up and felt how light it was) but honestly it works fine with 512MB.

So - I LOVE my Mini - it replaced an iPad 3.
That being said - I think its CRAP in terms of future proofing. The 512 mb RAM has been a non issue to date - but I strongly believe come IOS 7 or IOS 8 it will suck
So why did I get it? Cause I plan to sell and replace it with a Retina model someday. And the performance NOW is great.
-Shaown

TheMTtakeover said:

I was also worried about the RAM in the mini (which I quickly forgot about once I picked it up and felt how light it was) but honestly it works fine with 512MB.

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That's what people said when the iPad 1 came out, it works fine.. Sure look at it now.

Fruit Cake said:

That's what people said when the iPad 1 came out, it works fine.. Sure look at it now.

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Yeah you're right...None of the orginal iPads work now