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

[ksec]

I think what some people wanted was an A11 mini with non-laminated display for $100 less. The jump from A11 to A12 isn't that great for most applications.

The A10 came out last year on the basic iPad. A bump to the A11 would not be unexpected and keep the $329 price tag. Apple dropped the laminated display from the basic iPad when they discontinued the Air 2 and dropped the price from $500 to $330 in 2017, so doing the same thing for the mini was a hope.

Maybe Apple found itself backed into a corner with no non-laminated chassis in production for the mini and the choice was use what they had or engage in some expensive retooling. In that case I guess Apple did the best it could do.

Which is again, those who wanted it are very Dell thinking and non Apple. I was surprise when they back track with non-laminated display. It was a world of difference. And Apple has always been about quality, and non laminated Display sucks.

It is the same as people calling for $200 iPhone. There is a pricing level and structure ( along with margin ) that when you go lower you have a very steep decline in quality. And yet most newer ( iPhone era ) Apple fans doesn't seems to understand.

But then most consumer buying iPad are not normal nerds and geeks, I am sure the Mini will still sells like hotcakes.

 

[mrr]

Apple Pencil support! Awesome.

That just leaves the iPhone as the last holdout.

Do it. Do it. Do it!

 

[ayuchan]

My iPad Air 2 died two months ago. I love the new iPad Mini form. Is this a worthy upgrade?

 

[MacFather]

Deleted.

 

[Solomani]

I'm not sure about that. The COVER is the same, but the Apple website doesn't list any cases for the iPad Mini. At least not any that I can see. The cases for the 4 will fit physically, but I saw two posts from people (unconfirmed though) that indicated the volume buttons are slightly different sized and the mic hole is in a different spot.

But as I said, "unconfirmed".

Ahh ok. I just checked. I was indeed referring to the Smart Cover. You were talking about the "whole case".

The website for the (new) Smart Cover is here, which it says does support both the latest 2019 Mini as well as the Mini 4.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MVQD2/ipad-mini-smart-cover-charcoal-gray?fnode=37

But yes. Personally I would not waste money on just a front cover. I would also want the entire CASE that protects front and back. Gotcha. I'd predict that the (official Apple) SmartCase won't be debuted for another couple more weeks.

 

[imola.zhp]

Not everyone needs to make a fashion statement with their devices. There are still a few of us who want a device that "just works".

That's fair, but for some people (some) using an iPhone X or newer all day and then going from that device to this device seems like a step backwards. My better half uses an iPhone SE, yeah, so if I have to use that phone for anything it seems like I just jumped back in time several years. I couldn't remember how to close apps on it the other day, I really had to think about it because its different, and arguably more natural, on my XS.

 

[dyt1983]

dupe post plz delete

 

[imola.zhp]

On my iPad Mini 2, the same gestures work for closing apps as on my iPhone X Max (even though the UI bar isn't displayed at the bottom). Since I have a smart cover, I pretty much never use the home button.

I could swear I tried this on the SE I mentioned, but perhaps I didn't. Interesting, I'll give it a shot, thanks.

 

[Jack Burton]

My iPad Air 2 died two months ago. I love the new iPad Mini form. Is this a worthy upgrade?

This machine looks like a tiny beast - iPhone Xr cpu/gpu specs in an iPad mini form factor. With Apple Pencil support, it's a great upgrade, IMHO.

 

[LibbyLA]

You really take two iPads with you at the same time? if not different chargers and pencils are not a problem....

When I’m beta testing a trail camera app, I typically take three iPads (cellular iPP 11, Mini 4, and either iPP 10.5 or 9.7 depending on which has the beta app on it), two Android tablets (one basic one in a rugged case for use in the field and another with a better screen, with beta app), and a Surface Go. To a camp that has no electricity unless we run a generator. Very poor cell signal even with a signal booster and directional antenna on a 40’ tower.

I usually use all except sometimes not the Go, but I have it with me if my programming students need help with their assignments or if I have to download firmware to be loaded onto test cameras. Can’t do that with an iPad, haven’t tried with Android because it would probably be more trouble than it’s worth.

 

[jamesrick80]

For the mini especiAlly because it's the most portable ipad, they should have added magnetic induction charging and used the Apple Pencil 2 or a even smaller apple pencil similar to the size of Samsung's S-pen. Alot of people don't want that large first generation Apple Pencil with their new Mini..shame on Apple.

 

[LibbyLA]

As a pilot, I am thrilled with this update. I just wish they still made the silicone rear case for it.

Me, too. I don’t use the microphone so I’m hoping that the Mini 4 silicone cases will fit the Mini 5. There are still some available on eBay. Pink ones are pretty readily available at reasonable prices.

 

[sfkeepay]

I admit to going from grateful and relieved that Apple has even released a mini 5 to put off that it has white-wall tires...I mean, thumb-thick bezels...and feather quill pen support. Just what we all need: two Apple pencils - one clinging to our 11–inch pros and the other dangling from the charging port of our new iPad mini like Lois Lane from a helicopter.

But better, I must remind myself, than none at all.

 

[nStyle]

Full size iPad for $250 (on sale but pretty easy to find) or this for $400? Hmm...seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[Crowbot]

Right now using mini to reply. Apple has done absolutely nothing to cheer about with their “update”. Apple on the go slow. They should have made mini incredibly lighter, thinner, not taller, removed the home button, and added pencil 2 support, not the obsolete pencil 1. And the price for mini is absolutely ridiculous. My next tablet won’t be an iPad. It’s as simple as that. Apple is taking advantage of customer loyalty.

The alternative might have been to just trash the mini line completely. Maybe Apple's dipping a toe in the water. If people eat it up then they can do a complete redesign. And the Pencil's not obsolete. It still does what it was made to do. And it's $30 cheaper than the v2. As for price, it is what it is. I remember spending a lot (at the time) of cash on the Newton.

 

[saytheenay]

This update is for businesses, not consumers. Businesses that rely on the mini and don't want to have to buy new mounts or cases, from pilots to point of sale systems. That's why they kept the same design and dimensions. And I'd be willing to bet sales of the mini to businesses vastly surpass consumer sales.

As a consumer, I love the mini design. Like the Air 2, it's a classic design that is excellent. I have a 10.5 IPad Pro and hate the protruding rear camera--impractical and in the way. Glad they kept Touch ID and the headphone jack too.

 

[hipnetic]

I haven't dug into the details specs of the old vs new Pencil, or what special hardware/changes the newer iPad Pros have that make them the only devices capable of using the new Pencil, but I'll just throw out there that it seems like a failure on Apple's part to not have designed the newer Pencil to be backward compatible with old-Pencil-compatible devices. The new Pencil is *mostly* what the old Pencil should have been from the start: shaped more like an old-fashioned pencil, not too long, and having a method of charging that doesn't require an easily-lost adapter to a Lightning cable (or require plugging into a Lightning port, which just looks ridiculous).

I'm still not a fan of the white color...I think they should have given the pencil a unique color (possibly #2 yellow pencil colored) to have it stand out more as something special/different than any number of their other boring, white, less-expensive accessories. And I think they should have the eraser functionality work using the "eraser-end."

When they were finalizing the design of the new Pencil I would think that they would have known that they were going to have some new iPads that be released afterwards that wouldn't work with it (but maybe not...maybe they hoped that the new iPad Pros would sell so well, that they could retire the older iPads altogether and wait even longer, if at all, to release a new round of iPads that would be completely redesigned to support the new Pencil as-is).

In any case, the current situation looks ridiculous, and it could have been avoided by making some design changes to the newer Pencil before they released it. Specifically, the newer Pencil could have some other method of charging it besides magnetically clipping it to a newer iPad Pro. It could have had a "Pencil case" (maybe sold separately, but not for too much money) that could work similar to the old AirPod case. Or, it could possibly have still had a charging port behind the non-pointy side (I'd call it the eraser-end, but it doesn't really offer eraser functionality that way). Granted, that may have prevented them from shortening the Pencil, so maybe the charging case would have been the better option.

Again, it wouldn't need to support *all* of the features when used with an older iPad (or one of these newer lower-end iPads), but it would have allowed them to discontinue the older Pencil and reduce customer confusion.

 

[Syrgul]

I haven't dug into the details specs of the old vs new Pencil, or what special hardware/changes the newer iPad Pros have that make them the only devices capable of using the new Pencil, but I'll just throw out there that it seems like a failure on Apple's part to not have designed the newer Pencil to be backward compatible with old-Pencil-compatible devices. The new Pencil is *mostly* what the old Pencil should have been from the start: shaped more like an old-fashioned pencil, not too long, and having a method of charging that doesn't require an easily-lost adapter to a Lightning cable (or require plugging into a Lightning port, which just looks ridiculous).

I'm still not a fan of the white color...I think they should have given the pencil a unique color (possibly #2 yellow pencil colored) to have it stand out more as something special/different than any number of their other boring, white, less-expensive accessories. And I think they should have the eraser functionality work using the "eraser-end."

When they were finalizing the design of the new Pencil I would think that they would have known that they were going to have some new iPads that be released afterwards that wouldn't work with it (but maybe not...maybe they hoped that the new iPad Pros would sell so well, that they could retire the older iPads altogether and wait even longer, if at all, to release a new round of iPads that would be completely redesigned to support the new Pencil as-is).

In any case, the current situation looks ridiculous, and it could have been avoided by making some design changes to the newer Pencil before they released it. Specifically, the newer Pencil could have some other method of charging it besides magnetically clipping it to a newer iPad Pro. It could have had a "Pencil case" (maybe sold separately, but not for too much money) that could work similar to the old AirPod case. Or, it could possibly have still had a charging port behind the non-pointy side (I'd call it the eraser-end, but it doesn't really offer eraser functionality that way). Granted, that may have prevented them from shortening the Pencil, so maybe the charging case would have been the better option.

Again, it wouldn't need to support *all* of the features when used with an older iPad (or one of these newer lower-end iPads), but it would have allowed them to discontinue the older Pencil and reduce customer confusion.

I don't have either pencil, nor an iPad that supports one, so this is just a wild guess, but from various review videos, it might have to do with how it pairs. Both seem to need to use their charging (plug in for lightning, snap to side for magnetic) to pair the pencils. So, unless that device supports that charging feature, they don't have a way to pair it, therefore it becomes 'incompatible'.

One way to test that theory is to take a USB-C to lightning cable and attach an old pencil to a new pro and see if they pair that way. I have neither, so I'm not going to be the one to test it, but if somebody did, they could try it and see.

 

[hipnetic]

I don't have either pencil, nor an iPad that supports one, so this is just a wild guess, but from various review videos, it might have to do with how it pairs. Both seem to need to use their charging (plug in for lightning, snap to side for magnetic) to pair the pencils. So, unless that device supports that charging feature, they don't have a way to pair it, therefore it becomes 'incompatible'.

One way to test that theory is to take a USB-C to lightning cable and attach an old pencil to a new pro and see if they pair that way. I have neither, so I'm not going to be the one to test it, but if somebody did, they could try it and see.

Just to clarify...I'm not doubting that the 2nd gen Pencil isn't compatible with these new iPads. I'm just saying that I doubt that there wasn't a way that they *could* have made a 2nd-gen Pencil that could have been. They could have given it a very small button somewhere that would have put it into "pairing mode", for example.

 

[AgentAnonymous]

Tell that to all the artists & professionals out there who are using their ipad pros in powerfully creative ways.

There is no professional who wouldn't be more productive on a PC. I understand you spent a lot of money on your iPad Pro, but most people understand that it's not really useful for anything other than watching Youtube videos.

 

[Greenmeenie]

There is no professional who wouldn't be more productive on a PC. I understand you spent a lot of money on your iPad Pro, but most people understand that it's not really useful for anything other than watching Youtube videos.

I’ve got nothing against PCs. Whats your beef with ipads dude? Do more professionals use PCs? Yup. But you couldn’t be more wrong or more ignorant about the pros that DO use ipad pros. The amount of professionals using ipads to create art, graphic design, music, phtography & video is huge & growing. Some use them with pcs, others use them exclusively.

Just cause you can’t believe that doesn’t make it not true. Thats just your bias talkin.

The ipad is so much more than a consumption device for me. And it has nothing to do with how much $ i spent on it. Lol. My ipad pro was less expensive than my last laptop, and i am way more productive on it. As an artist, it is my favorite creation tool that i have ever used. Period.

 

[kurosov]

. My ipad pro was less expensive than my last laptop, and i am way more productive on it. As an artist, it is my favorite creation tool that i have ever used. Period.

Despite the complaints some people have had about the iPad pro I've found it to be much cheaper and a definite increase in productivity of some work.

Instead of a Macbook & Wacom tablet, I've swapped to the 12.9" pro. Instead of paying a subscription for the Adobe suit I've got some sub £30 off off payment apps.

I've held off on a usual upgrade cycle since apple killed Aperture and after all this time i still can't stand lightroom. My macs have been relegated to managing old libraries and setting up images for print, The iPad does things better.

I recently sold my desktop mac's and and relying entirely on a 2012 Macbook Pro because i just don't need all that hardware anymore, On the off chance i need more power for transcoding videos etc I've got a gaming PC that can chew through those tasks, I don't need the advantages of OS X for a task that i leave running unattended.

I honestly don't see myself upgrading on the mac side in the near future.

Now the iPad is far from perfect but it is getting better. I'm still hoping to see someone like Affinity add a more comprehensive cross device photo library management feature instead of the janky file management they have so far. To be able to quickly access a full library, make sort choices on my phone while on the train and then pick up the iPad and edit directly would be fantastic, Bonus if it was added to their mac app so i can print from there.

 

[Zdigital2015]

How can Jony Ive sleep good at night?

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View attachment 827282

Probably with silk sheets on a $5K mattress, if I was to take a guess.

 

[AgentAnonymous]

I’ve got nothing against PCs. Whats your beef with ipads dude? Do more professionals use PCs? Yup. But you couldn’t be more wrong or more ignorant about the pros that DO use ipad pros. The amount of professionals using ipads to create art, graphic design, music, phtography & video is huge & growing. Some use them with pcs, others use them exclusively.

Just cause you can’t believe that doesn’t make it not true. Thats just your bias talkin.

The ipad is so much more than a consumption device for me. And it has nothing to do with how much $ i spent on it. Lol. My ipad pro was less expensive than my last laptop, and i am way more productive on it. As an artist, it is my favorite creation tool that i have ever used. Period.

Lol, this is comedy. No professional seriously uses an iPad unless they're being paid by Apple for sponsorship. And for a professional who sometimes has an iPad in his hands, there is no professional who wouldn't be significantly more productive on a PC. Just because you spent a lot of money on something does not mean it is for pros.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Full size iPad for $250 (on sale but pretty easy to find) or this for $400? Hmm...seems like a no-brainer to me.

True, the entry/level iPad is an amazing deal, but the mini 5 is a smaller version of the $500 (mid-tier) iPad Air, not of the entry level iPad.