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iPad mini Buying an iPad Mini

A

au003

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I'm planning to buy an iPad mini, however I'm not sure if I should just buy the 4 or wait until the 5 comes out. According to rumours the 5 won't be released until March 2017 (and some even say the iPad mini line will be discontinued, so yeah).

What would you do?
 
Depends how long you can wait. There is a decent chance that an updated mini will arrive in March, but it's by no means guaranteed.
 
au003 said:
I'm planning to buy an iPad mini, however I'm not sure if I should just buy the 4 or wait until the 5 comes out. According to rumours the 5 won't be released until March 2017 (and some even say the iPad mini line will be discontinued, so yeah).

What would you do?
Click to expand...
Buy the 4 NOW. Just because Life is too Short to live without having an iPad Mini.
I love my Mini 4. It is with me 24 seven's and cannot imagine living without it. The wife can go but the mini will always have a place in my heart.
[doublepost=1474567996][/doublepost]When or if the 5 comes out, I will get it too.
 
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ron7624 said:
Buy the 4 NOW. Just because Life is too Short to live without having an iPad Mini.
I love my Mini 4. It is with me 24 seven's and cannot imagine living without it. The wife can go but the mini will always have a place in my heart.
[doublepost=1474567996][/doublepost]When or if the 5 comes out, I will get it too.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. Couldn't be more right.

If you want an iPad mini, go get the mini 4. You don't regret it. Just don't get the 16 gb model.

/Frank
 
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Frankras said:
Totally agree. Couldn't be more right.

If you want an iPad mini, go get the mini 4. You don't regret it. Just don't get the 16 gb model.

/Frank
Click to expand...
@au003 - I will add that the 64gb cellular model is a perfect fit (for me...) I don't have a lot of songs or movies that I feel the need to store but when I'm away from the house, the cellular advantage is max and it has a GPS chipset as well.
The current Mini on iOS 10 is very fast. I'm sure it may take a fraction of a second longer to load than it's big brother, but not enough of a lag to even notice. I have a few big games and I work a website every day (that's called employment) and she is buttery smooth through everything I do.
 
ron7624 said:
Buy the 4 NOW. Just because Life is too Short to live without having an iPad Mini.
I love my Mini 4. It is with me 24 seven's and cannot imagine living without it. The wife can go but the mini will always have a place in my heart.
Click to expand...
Haha completely agree. I'm so glad I splurged and got the mini 4 a few months ago, but I did wait for a $100 off Best Buy sale to get it.

Frankras said:
Totally agree. Couldn't be more right.

If you want an iPad mini, go get the mini 4. You don't regret it. Just don't get the 16 gb model.

/Frank
Click to expand...
Apple doubled the storage on the iPad mini 4, too, so 32GB is now the base storage model.
 
i too want a new mini for Christmas time. i'll wait for a mini announcement or not before then, if not i'll happily buy a mini4 🙂
 
It's just.. you know, it has an A8 chip while the newest iDevices have an A9/A10. Will it still be able to run the next iOS versions smoothly?
 
I will wait till after October to buy a new Mini, hopefully a Mini 5! A lot has changed since the 4 in 2015! It only has now the A8 and the iPhone 6 graphic chip not the X. Otherwise, I will buy a 4 on sale at Target or Best Buy or Walmart at $100 or more off and hopefully it will not be limited by storage size since there is only two now, 32 and 128! Last time,many offerings has one promotion and it limited to only the 16GB base model, the rest stay at the regular price! Whoever purchase or received the 16GB Mini 4, I feel for them to be so limited!
 
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Wait until you get closer to November unless you need it now. September is the worst month to make any major purchases. See if there are some discounts as you get closer to Thanksgiving (or if you are in Canada... then I have no idea when the best time to buy is!)

Check out the Apple Refurbished section and buy from there otherwise! 🙂
 
The Mini 4 is a good device. I just bought one 2 weeks ago to replace my fist iPad, the original Mini 1. That one still works acceptably though I suspected it was slow, and the battery was giving me fits for holding a charge in sleep, the push for me was it being dropped from the iOS 10.0 update path. As I travel and use a mix of WiFi services & tethering from the iPhone, it just seemed like a good time/excuse to do so. Just about everything is fast as should be expected from the first release.

The first Mini was a 64GB model and I barely used 34GB. I don't think is an option now with the Mini 4

If you have the time, around late November, Best Buy, Target & Walmart will start having Sales that will take some money off the list price from Apple's MSRP. I directed a friend to go that route last Christmas when her iPad was stolen from her Hotel Room Safe in Germany.

It paid for her to wait a few weeks to replace her iPad Air and saved somewhere between $125 & $175 by going this route.
 
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im_to_hyper said:
Wait until you get closer to November unless you need it now. September is the worst month to make any major purchases. See if there are some discounts as you get closer to Thanksgiving (or if you are in Canada... then I have no idea when the best time to buy is!)

Check out the Apple Refurbished section and buy from there otherwise! 🙂
Click to expand...

Don't need to really upgrade but like to have one in matte black and get the new expanded color pallet as well as the Taptic home button and hopeful 1080p and 3GB RAM!
 
HarryWild said:
Don't need to really upgrade but like to have one in matte black and get the new expanded color pallet as well as the Taptic home button and hopeful 1080p and 3GB RAM!
Click to expand...
1080p what? The Retina display on the iPad is greater than 1080p and the camera has recorded in 1080p for years.
 
HarryWild said:
Don't need to really upgrade but like to have one in matte black and get the new expanded color pallet as well as the Taptic home button and hopeful 1080p and 3GB RAM!
Click to expand...

The iPad Mini has had higher than 1080p resolution since the Mini 2. To be more precise, it's resolution is 2048x1536.
 
joeblow7777 said:
The iPad Mini has had higher than 1080p resolution since the Mini 2. To be more precise, it's resolution is 2048x1536.
Click to expand...
No it does not! You comparing it to a 16:9 form factor where HD is 1080p! The Mini has 720p! The only Apple mobile device that has 1080p is the iPhone Plus.
 
HarryWild said:
No it does not! You comparing it to a 16:9 form factor where HD is 1080p! The Mini has 720p! The only Apple mobile device that has 1080p is the iPhone Plus.
Click to expand...

Are you sure about that? Because this is the first time I've heard of modern iPad displays being just 720p.
 
Ffosse said:
The dumbest comment I've read on any forum so far today.
Click to expand...

A bit harsh, but what he's saying really doesn't make sense to me either. Pixel density will be affected by aspect ratio (and screen size), but isn't resolution simply a matter of the number of pixels? In which case, every iPad since the iPad 2 and the Mini 1 has had higher than 1080p resolution.
 
The 7.9 mini is a good size but the Air 2 got price dropped to the same price. Both sizes are nice. If you watch a lot of movies the 9.7 might be better. If you have an iPhone 6/7+ you may consider the larger iPad since the 6/7+ is a phablet.

screen%20shot%202014-09-10%20at%208.54.57%20am.png
 
HarryWild said:
No it does not! You comparing it to a 16:9 form factor where HD is 1080p! The Mini has 720p! The only Apple mobile device that has 1080p is the iPhone Plus.
Click to expand...
You're wrong. 1080p is 1080x1920. The iPad's resolution (in landscape) is 1536x2048. You could fit a 1080p picture in the middle of the iPad's display and have leftover pixels all the way around, mostly on the top and bottom.
 
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Channan said:
You're wrong. 1080p is 1080x1920. The iPad's resolution (in landscape) is 1536x2048. You could fit a 1080p picture in the middle of the iPad's display and have leftover pixels all the way around, mostly on the top and bottom.
Click to expand...

This is what happens when I watch 1080p Netflix on my Mini 4.
 
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