A9 Device Owners - Is the Mini 4 experience decent?

[IJBrekke]

I picked up a 6S over the weekend and the speed is really nice. Still not sold on the form factor (it may go back for an SE), but obviously the A9 is a big improvement.

Predictably, it has made my Mini 2 feel slower by comparison. My question is - for those of you with an A9-equipped iPhone, does the Mini 4 hold its own performance-wise? It occupies a very weird space right no, having the A8 but 2 gigs of RAM. My guess is that the RAM matters more than the chip currently, but I want feedback from those of you that use both before making any decisions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[iOSUser7]

I have both iPhone SE and iPad mini 4 and I can confirm you that the iPad mini 4 is blazing fast. I sometimes experience stutters with the iPad mini 4 in certain areas that I don't encounter with the iPhone SE but it's only when I'm being extremely picky (and it doesn't bother me anyway). You most likely won't notice a single difference in speed when switching devices, performance is very similar.

And to answer your question, the A7 and A8 chips are really powerful SoCs and have no trouble in running even the most demanding apps but the 1GB of RAM (in the A7 and the first version of the A8) sadly limit the performance of the device especially in multitasking and Safari browsing.

Thankfully the iPad mini 4 got the second version of the A8 chip (with 2GB of RAM and better clock speed) which make it a lot better than an iPhone 6 (I had one before so I know what I'm talking about) or an iPod Touch 6G and is much closer to an iPhone 6s in term of performance.

 

[rijc99]

It's good. Only thing slow about it is the Touch ID when compared to the 6S.

 

[phillyboy82]

I found the UI laggy on the iPad Mini 4, but the iPad Pro remedied that

 

[Skika]

It's good. Only thing slow about it is the Touch ID when compared to the 6S.

This is true for the Pros as well.

 

[Whoakapi]

I have both a 6S and a mini 4. The mini 4 definitely has acceptable performance.

For normal browsing, Youtube and streaming I couldn't tell you whether the iPad was equipped with an A8 or A9. Even with multi-window it works great.

 

[jcmeyer5]

I picked up a 6S over the weekend and the speed is really nice. Still not sold on the form factor (it may go back for an SE), but obviously the A9 is a big improvement.

Predictably, it has made my Mini 2 feel slower by comparison. My question is - for those of you with an A9-equipped iPhone, does the Mini 4 hold its own performance-wise? It occupies a very weird space right no, having the A8 but 2 gigs of RAM. My guess is that the RAM matters more than the chip currently, but I want feedback from those of you that use both before making any decisions.

Thanks in advance.

I'm rocking a A7 mini 3 right now, and I have no complaints, so I would guess the A8 in the mini 4 should do well.

Duh. Same as your mini 2. Never mind.

 

[asleep]

The Mini 4 is excellent, great speed and a truly beautiful display... highly recommended.

 

[James.K.Polk]

I've loved my Mini 4 in the few days I've owned it but... The pencil for note taking keeps drawing me away. The way that Mini screen looks through is really something amazing.

 

[boston04and07]

I recently upgraded my iPhone 6 to a 6s and my mini 2 to a mini 4, both around the same time, and so far my experience has been great. Both the 6s and the mini 4 seem completely equal to me in terms of speed and responsiveness, honestly. Both are much smoother and faster than my mini 2 and very easy to use. Then again, I don't do anything super intensive on my iPhone so it might be hard for me to judge. I also haven't noticed any difference at all in Touch ID between my 6S and mini 4. In fact I just unlocked both a few times trying to look for any noticeable differences but they seemed about the same to me, so I'm really interested that they're not like that for everyone! They're definitely both much faster than my older iPhone 6, that's for sure. Maybe I'm just still used to that so everything seems fast by comparison. Sometimes too fast - I usually don't have time to check my notifications before my phone unlocks!

Anyway, I absolutely love the mini 4 - it's definitely my favorite iPad out of all the ones I've owned so far. The screen is absolutely amazing, it handles everything I throw at it very well, and it's been a pleasure to use so far.