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A Mini Conundrum: Mini 2 or Mini 4 (both 64GB)

Johnny365

Johnny365

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 30, 2015
1,033
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Which would you choose?


What if the Mini 2 64GB was Black/Space Grey?

What if the Mini 4 64GB was White/Gold?

Mini 2 64GB $100 (used) and Mini 4 64GB $499 (new)?

For price sake, better to stick with Mini 2? How is it with iOS 9.1? And if we can't discuss jailbreaks, let me know, but how does Medusa run on the Mini 2 which allows a variation of multitasking that the Mini 4 officially has?

Thanks!
 
If you can afford the mini 4, it would be the choice I would make. If not the mini 2 seems like a good deal.
 
Somewhat depends on your uses, but at that price the Mini 2 is a reasonable buy, even if you only get a year or two out of it before you upgrade.
 
newellj said:
Somewhat depends on your uses, but at that price the Mini 2 is a reasonable buy, even if you only get a year or two out of it before you upgrade.
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I agree. For a bill I would take that Mini 2 and get as much out of it as you can before you feel it needs upgrading. Who knows, maybe by the time it finally feels outdated you'll have a mini 5 to buy. Mini 2 for a bill would be my choice, assuming it's in perfect working order.
 
I am in the process of selling a Mini 2 and even with the upgrade to iOS 9.1 it still ran buttery smooth. No it isn't as fast as the Mini 4, but you are likely to get another couple of years out of it for $100. It's really a no brainer decision in my opinion! Unless you are one of those that just need to have the latest, but it doesn't sound like you are. I actually purchased the Mini 4 and returned it because I just couldn't justify dropping $500 for the little improvement it offers on the things I do each day.

By the way I am only selling it because of my aged eyes and I need a bigger display. So, I opted for purchased a refurb Air 2, which has worked out great for me. I don't find it that much faster than the Mini 2 either.
 
That price for a mini 2 is very cheap. I'd probably go for that.
 
This is like asking who would you rather marry...an older attractive person who's not so smart, but doesn't cost much to keep happy, or a younger smarter person, who might not be so good looking (sorry, gold is ugly in my book) with fancy taste?

Every single person will have a different answer.

I pass them both up for the nicer looking space gray 4, at whatever the cost.
 
I'm a Mini 4 fan all the way... but for THAT price, the Mini 2 is such a bargain it's hard to justify passing it up.
 
OTACORB said:
I am in the process of selling a Mini 2 and even with the upgrade to iOS 9.1 it still ran buttery smooth. No it isn't as fast as the Mini 4, but you are likely to get another couple of years out of it for $100. It's really a no brainer decision in my opinion! Unless you are one of those that just need to have the latest, but it doesn't sound like you are. I actually purchased the Mini 4 and returned it because I just couldn't justify dropping $500 for the little improvement it offers on the things I do each day.

By the way I am only selling it because of my aged eyes and I need a bigger display. So, I opted for purchased a refurb Air 2, which has worked out great for me. I don't find it that much faster than the Mini 2 either.
Click to expand...
My mini 2 has been horrible on iOS 9.1, 9.2 is much better but still pretty poor. Done 2 clean installs. If you use the spotlight or app switcher regularly, iOS 9 is absolutely horrendous. If the only animations you ever see are going in and out of apps, it's passable but it still skips frames a bit, especially when pinching to close to go to the home screen.

But seriously. That app switcher was legit 10FPS on the mini 2, spotlight like 20 and very sluggish. Mini 4 is probably better but not by a ton since A7->A8 wasn't a huge jump. Haven't actually used a mini 4 though so yeah take it with a grain of salt.
M-5 said:
That price for a mini 2 is very cheap. I'd probably go for that.
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joeblow7777 said:
I'm a Mini 4 fan all the way... but for THAT price, the Mini 2 is such a bargain it's hard to justify passing it up.
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I'm leaning towards the mini 2 to be honest because $100 is nothing for an iPad that's still up to date. Yeah I just rained **** on it a second ago, but we are talking a 5x difference in price.

If you are strapped for money get the mini 2. If you have a lot to throw around, get the mini 4.
 
Colour matters less to me on iPads compared to iPhones, so if I were decided between the two that would have no effect either way.

Price however... the Mini 2 for only $100 is extremely attractive, provided that it is in good condition. If so, I gotta say I'd lean heavily towards the Mini 2 since you can pick it up at 1/5th the price of a new Mini 4, especially so if you need to keep an eye on finances.
 
mcdj said:
This is like asking who would you rather marry...an older attractive person who's not so smart, but doesn't cost much to keep happy, or a younger smarter person, who might not be so good looking (sorry, gold is ugly in my book) with fancy taste?

Every single person will have a different answer.

I pass them both up for the nicer looking space gray 4, at whatever the cost.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's exactly like that. Good Job.:rolleyes:
 
masotime said:
Does it still have a warranty attached to it?
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I'm guessing not. I won't know for sure until it arrives late this week or early next. She got it when it first came out, but Apple has since discontinued the 64/128 storage options to make the Mini 4 more enticing.

Regardless, I went for the Mini 2 64GB. I haven't had an iPad since the 1st generation 32GB/Wifi model. I do have an iPhone 6 Plus 64GB, and recently sold my Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 to Amazon (Mini 2 is roughly the same time period from the Tab Pro). It was a great tablet, but I've grown more fond of iOS than Android in recent years.

Thanks for everyone else on putting things in perspective. Yes, it is a no brainer at 1/5 the price. I'll just have to see how I feel about performance and everyday tasks when it gets here. I don't use spotlight on my iPhone so the sluggish performance with that wouldn't even be noticed by me.
 
Mini 4 is a Exelent upgrade from Mini 2. Contrast on the display is amazing, and it has Lammineted screen, which is the best part of it :D and colors are alot better :) mini 2 colors look undersaturated :/ A7 to A8 not big upgrade ? I feel big difference between A7 vs A8 on gaming!
 
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ucfgrad93 said:
Agreed. However, I'd still go with the mini 4 if you can swing the finances @Johnny365
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Agreed again, but at $100 a lot of questions fade somewhat. :)

modernaccord said:
Mini 4 is my recommendation. It's noticeably thinner and lighter, way more powerful, and won't go obselete as quickly as the Mini 2 will.
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Dollar for dollar, the Mini 2 at $100 is probably more "future proof" than the Mini 4. Figure three years use then sell the Mini 4 for $125, you paid $125/year for ownership. This total cost of the Mini 2 is less than that and although it's a little slower, it's not _that_ bad. I still have a Mini 2 and it's perfectly usable, it's just not as nice to use.
 
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XTheLancerX said:
My mini 2 has been horrible on iOS 9.1, 9.2 is much better but still pretty poor. Done 2 clean installs. If you use the spotlight or app switcher regularly, iOS 9 is absolutely horrendous. If the only animations you ever see are going in and out of apps, it's passable but it still skips frames a bit, especially when pinching to close to go to the home screen.

If you are strapped for money get the mini 2. If you have a lot to throw around, get the mini 4.
Click to expand...

That is just not my experience. I've just not had any issues on the iPad Mini 2 with iOS 9.1. I do use app switcher and again it works smooth.

I can't disagree that if you have the money go for the Mini 4, but if you are looking for a Mini and don't need or want to spend the money on the latest then the iPad Mini 2 would be satisfactory.
 
I cant believe someone is selling mini 2 for $100. I recently sold mine for £180. I think its a great ipad and tbh my Air 2 doesnt seem any faster than the mini2 however my safari never reloads anymore. Nice.
For 100 dollars, its a steal.
 
XTheLancerX said:
My mini 2 has been horrible on iOS 9.1, 9.2 is much better but still pretty poor. Done 2 clean installs. If you use the spotlight or app switcher regularly, iOS 9 is absolutely horrendous. If the only animations you ever see are going in and out of apps, it's passable but it still skips frames a bit, especially when pinching to close to go to the home screen.

But seriously. That app switcher was legit 10FPS on the mini 2, spotlight like 20 and very sluggish. Mini 4 is probably better but not by a ton since A7->A8 wasn't a huge jump. Haven't actually used a mini 4 though so yeah take it with a grain of salt.




I'm leaning towards the mini 2 to be honest because $100 is nothing for an iPad that's still up to date. Yeah I just rained **** on it a second ago, but we are talking a 5x difference in price.

If you are strapped for money get the mini 2. If you have a lot to throw around, get the mini 4.
Click to expand...


Same experience on mini 4. App switcher is around 10fps every single time. It's atrocious and amazes me that they pushed it out the door like this. Frame drops everywhere. Hopefully 9.2 patches some of this up. BTW my mini 4 is like 3 days old and did this out of the box, so i seriously doubt it is anything other than the OS itself causing this.
 
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