Apple Announces New Fifth-Generation iPad Mini With Apple Pencil Support, Revamped Retina Display and A12 Bionic Chip

[Zdigital2015]

Yeah, I'm genuinely surprised by some of the visceral reactions, too. I bought the Mini 4 in September of 2015. It was $499 for the 32gb model then. It's been an excellent tablet for my needs, and I will get the 64gb Mini 5.

There are a lot of armchair CEOs in these forums and now that the new iPad mini (5) is a real product, a lot of wish fulfillment has been torn down, which tends to really ramp up the discord. Literally, the same thing happened when the Mac mini was announced, and still goes on to an extent in certain sub-forums.

 

[MiamiC70]

So you can choose either too little memory or overpay for too much memory. Because adding a 128gb option was just to much trouble. ****ing Apple!

 

[Shark5150]

Fits my needs. Ordered 64gb space gray. Never thought they'd do a refresh, so I'm happy!

 

[Crowbot]

HORRIBLE. apple’s confirm it is on the technology go slow, repackaging old technology and passing it off as new.
Not only disappointing but just plainly pathetic.

Have you used an iPad mini? The latest chips and a renewed display. I'l take that gladly.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

I think the prices are great.. $500.00 for a 10.5 is a steal and is a sweet spot for tablets.

Mini specs are great, but I have no use for one.

But they look like tablets from 2013!!!

 

[Brady13986]

I’d buy one but I don’t know which is bigger... the price or those bloody bezels

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Have you used an iPad mini? The latest chips and a renewed display. I'l take that gladly.

Just such old, dated design though. Lazy in fact. Come on Apple make a mini sized iPad Pro design. Not something with a 2011 design.
Confusing keeping touch ID and lightning when only 5 months ago, you were promoting Face ID and USB-C Apple! What a mess of a line up!

 

[EssModelsRule]

This thing has thicker top and bottom bezels than the original iPad mini from 2012. It's a damn shame.

View attachment 826977

You need to blame the Mini 4 for that.

 

[alexandr]

crap, these should cost less...

 

[Spizike9]

64gb base storage still. SMH

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Yeah, I remember the day that Apple only sold a few items and kept everything simple.

Absolutely! Their own line up is a mess - 4 iPads mixing old design and brand new all classed as 'new' and MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. And then the old iPhones mixed with new. MESSY! and confusing for many.

 

[Crowbot]

The price is quite disappointing. I was expecting a $299 non-laminated display device with the A11 processor. Essentially a smaller version of the expected $329 basic iPad. Note that even the basic iPad supports the Apple Pencil.

I guess I just don't see who this device designed for. It is essentially an iPad Pro Mini. I suspect a lot of people who wanted a new mini just wanted a small device they could throw into a purse or side pocket of a messenger bag so they can check the news or read a book while commuting.

I'm hoping Apple will announce something else along with the refreshed basic iPad. What I fear though is Apple is going to discontinue the basic devices and only offer the higher-priced, higher-profit models with no options for those of us that don't need the absolute latest processor and a laminated display for the extra $200.

The mini is for people who don't want to lug around a big device. I use mine for the usual plus reading the papers and watching movies. I had a larger iPad but went mini for my latest (iPad 4). Never looked back. I'm very happy that the new mini brings it up to the internal specs of the newer iPads. Plus, it fits in my lab coat pocket perfectly.

 

[fmillion]

iPad Pro Mini please

Or how about a 7.9" thin-bezel thin-profile OLED-display iPad mini with Apple Pencil support and four speakers.

It could be called the iPad Pro Air mini XS.

And then Apple could rename the 10.5" iPad to the iPad Pro Air mini XS Max. You know, because it's larger than the mini XS.
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Absolutely! Their own line up is a mess - 4 iPads mixing old design and brand new all classed as 'new' and MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. And then the old iPhones mixed with new. MESSY! and confusing for many.

It's kind of funny. Steve Jobs was against:

• the netbook
• a smaller iPad
• a bigger iPad
• USB 3.0

And yet Apple has all of those now. (MacBook Retina, iPad mini, iPad Pro, and every machine since 2012)

I think Steve was also against bigger phones too.

 

[dan110]

This is disappointing, but not unexpected.

I think Apple could've reclaimed a lot of goodwill by redesigning the Mini to parallel other iPads (eg Pen2 support). Also, having a logical price-to-feature proposition would've been more respectable. For example:

• 64 GB starting at $399 (could've saved this model for the education market)
• 128 GB starting at $499
• 256 GB starting at $599

If they had done this, then I'd whip out my credit card in a heartbeat, but, Apple's going to do what Apple's going to do.

 

[Fanboi4life]

No. There's absolutely no excuse for a bezel that big on a 2019 product, c'mon Apple!

 

[n-evo]

Check out that chunka bezels.. is this a retro 90's concept?

Yup, because that’s when the original iPad launched.

 

[Val-kyrie]

I’m pretty confident that both new iPads will have the 3GB RAM A12 out of the XR. But take that with a grain of salt.

The new iPad Mini has to have 3GB RAM minimum for me to purchase it. Let’s hope this is the case.

 

[truthertech]

Just such old, dated design though. Lazy in fact. Come on Apple make a mini sized iPad Pro design. Not something with a 2011 design.
Confusing keeping touch ID and lightning when only 5 months ago, you were promoting Face ID and USB-C Apple! What a mess of a line up!

Perhaps you know something that Apple doesn't. Perhaps with their vast market research and actual data from tens of millions of consumers who have bought iPad minis, and the hundreds of millions who have bought larger iPads, they know that most people who want a smaller iPad are choosing it for the form factor and not to replace a laptop, and hence adding additional expensive pro features this go around would perhaps be foolish. Perhaps if MILLIONS of people around the globe buy it, we will know who had better insight. Stay tuned.

 

[RickInHouston]

Yeah crazy that they would increase the screen and power and all the other upgrades but not increase the price. Thank goodness.

The faster CPU is 'today's standard'. The slower CPU from yester-year is yester-year's standard.

 

[Ravi_MR]

I'm so happy with this refresh; While I do own a 10.5" Pro, it's my mini 4 that I use every day - reading while commuting, office notes etc. The new mini has pencil support (I was using Adonit Dash 3), thankfully still laminated display and A12 - everything I wanted!! Can't wait to get hold of it! Dates for India release hasn't been announced yet though..

 

[bearington]

Ugh... This is exactly what I've been waiting for but that bezel

With current technology I'm certain they could have done better. Having said that, it's < £300 so probably worth a punt.

 

[GoodWheaties]

I am mystified as to the obsession over bezels, be it an iMac, iPad or MacBook Pro on these forums. Who cares?

Same here. I mean my thumb has not changed in size.

 

[Khedron]

So let me make sure I got this right.

We have a new product that uses the old way of authentication, the old accessory, and the old port. Apple's whole deal is a cohesive ecosystem. They made fun of the "toxic hell stew" of Android and its splintered ecosystem. Having two different UI's isn't splintered? Two different ways to charge on essentially the same product lines isn't splintered? Two different styluses isn't splintered?

They have a chance to have a single charging cord across all of their product lines. They have created a situation where if I have a new iPad Pro, it will be harder to add a mini. Not to mention the frustration of going between a TouchID device and FaceID device (if you have done it, you know it is rather frustrating).

Apple's product lineups are an inconsistent mess! Which is a damn shame for a company whose calling card used to be simplicity and interoperability.

Tim Apple can only see bottom lines. That's why he doesn't notice the notch.

 

[Winni]

Why did this require the store to be down?

One word: Marketing.

There is no universe in which an online store needs to be taken down for technical reasons when a new product is added to its database. Can you imagine the Apple Store going down when they add a new third party accessory to their product portfolio? I didn't think so.

They're only doing this to catch attention.

 

[WldWzl]

I am actually pretty happy with the upgrade. I have always loved the mini size and find it perfect for how I use a tablet, so yeah, ordered