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I just realized the iPad mini does not have the A5X chip in it!
- Thread starter saintforlife
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Personally, I was excited about the iPad mini till I heard it only had an A5. I recently went from a 4S to a 5 and the speed and caching increase is incredible. That's coming from someone who was perfectly happy with the 4S and it's speed (I sold it to completely pay for the 5; it made financial sense).
As far as the retina argument, I believe they 1) wanted to keep the cost down so they could maximize profits at $329 and 2) didn't want to introduce another resolution making universal apps even more bloated. The alternate step up to using the iPad 4's resolution would either be not technically possible currently and/or complete overkill.
As far as the retina argument, I believe they 1) wanted to keep the cost down so they could maximize profits at $329 and 2) didn't want to introduce another resolution making universal apps even more bloated. The alternate step up to using the iPad 4's resolution would either be not technically possible currently and/or complete overkill.
But the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD have better screens that aren't retina and they cost less.
The reason there is no A6 is because of the iPad 2. In Apple's eyes a $329 Mini should not outperform a $400 iPad 2. The same reason a $300 iPod touch shouldn't outperform a $650 iPhone.
I don't even care about the Retina screen, all I wanted was the A6 to future proof it for the next iOS's and apps. Sigh, I'll probably get one to try it out anyway...
I don't even care about the Retina screen, all I wanted was the A6 to future proof it for the next iOS's and apps. Sigh, I'll probably get one to try it out anyway...
1 GB of Ram is not needed. 512MB is all you need.
Nexus 7 has 1 GB? Nook HD too? Doesn`t matter.
says its enough, its enough.
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Says who?
Nexus 7 has 1 GB? Nook HD too? Doesn`t matter.
says its enough, its enough.----------
Says who?
As long as people keep buying, can you blame Apple for continuing to leave out items like the A6 for future upgrades? If you're not happy, send a message where it matters - the wallet.
I knew the RAM in the iPad 1 wasn't sufficient, but finally gave in when I got a new job in fall of 2010. After updating to iOS 5 I regretted not holding out for the iPad 2 every time I used it. My Mom's still crashes regularly. Not making that mistake ever again.
Fair enough. My problem is that if it's going to be a "second tier" device then it's too expensive for that. I'd actually prefer it to have retina screen and A6 and cost 400$ than this. It's to expensive to be a "cheap"/second tier" device, and it doesn't have enough under the hood to justify the price (for me of course).
I was expecting them to discontinue the iPad 2. I guess it makes a lot of money for them. They haven't reduce the price, but the production process must have definitely become much cheaper. The profit margin on that must be insane now. It makes sense for them, but I don't like it. I think the iPad 2 is overpriced.
Again, it does make sense for them, but I don't think the consumers like it.
That's why I said an A6. I don't see an X chip making sense with that screen res either.
Of course it does fine. But it's old tech now, which makes sense, it was released a while ago. Let's say an iPad has a life/viability of 3-4 years. After that running apps on it becomes harder. The iPad mini was released now, with hardware from a 1 1/2 years ago. So it half life/viability.
If they put A5X into mini, it would be very difficult to justify the higher price of iPad 2. For at least another year (and if you don't play games, let's give it another 3 years at the minimum), A5 is sufficient for the screen resolution. After that, Apple would expect you to upgrade to the next generation mini.
Notwithstanding that the A5X is not going to be faster than the A5 at any practical application on the iPad Mini's pathetic screen, the A5X also sucks down more juice, decreasing battery life.
Plus the A5X is a VERY EXPENSIVE SoC, it's larger than a Intel Dual-Core i5.
Plus the A5X is a VERY EXPENSIVE SoC, it's larger than a Intel Dual-Core i5.
Will you repeat this for me next year when the iPad Mini 2 inevitably comes with a Retina Display?
Yah, well, seek disappointment and ye shall surely find it somehow. wtf. I'm a devoted fan of Apple and I disagree with you. I don't second guess their take on the rollout of the iPad mini at all. Not the spec, not the price points. They're in business to make a buck. They need to sell their product lines (make us want to part with the money) but they also need to make a profit and have enough money to feed the R&D beast or they won't have a product to roll out one day, and so then what? Then they're like Kodak, waking up one morning and realizing they missed a whole bunch of trains and the rent is overdue on all those empty plants.
We pay in advance for innovation. Has it been worth it so far? Hell yes! The Macs. The Powerbooks. The iMacs. The iPod. The iPhone. The iPad. Any company worth a dime would give a billion dollars to have come up with any of those product lines. Well Apple has come up with them while making a profit and continuing to feed the innovators amongst them. It's no mean feat. it's amazing.
OK so the iPad mini. This is a utilitarian size tablet and most people will not even notice its limitations. I don't plan to run massive inventory management databases on mine, I just want to be able to read books, do mail, watch movies, listen to music, take notes, calculate a few things, take some photos, catch the news headlines, check my calendar. The thing won't even break a sweat keeping up with what I ask of it. It will be 5% user, 7% system, 88% idle MOST of the time it's turned on. Think A5 can handle that just fine. Is it a little pricey? What does that mean? For what? For what it is? For "the Apple tax"? For what's coming down the pipeline in 3 years? I think about my dreams of what Apple might bring me next when I was running some beige box like the Mac IIcx, and I didn't have the imagination to envision the iPod. Was the IIcx pricey? Oh yeah. Was it worth it? Yeah. It helped bring the iPod.
Frankly, If I weren't aiming to upgrade my iPad 1 to the 4 at the same time I get the iPad mini, I'd go for the 64GB version of the mini, because I think it's worth the dough. Could stash a lot of movies and TV on it then for sure. But, I can only afford to get the 16GB if I mean to max out the spec of my 4th gen big iPad. Anyway if it's worth the dough to me, what's it to you? Thanks for being disappointed on my behalf but really, don't let the door catch your belt loops.
I'm not disputing that, it just seems like Apple withheld it because of financial considerations. It's the only reason that makes sense to me. Why would they have left it out if it cost the same to manufacture and they wouldn't have to put the price up? Unless the mini 2 has retina and they make it a selling point next year
It's like you guys completely forget about costs and draw a line between products.
Let's charge $299 and put a retina display, LTE, and an A6. Sounds nice, but they aren't in the business to be nice.
I'm not disputing that, it just seems like Apple withheld it because of financial considerations. It's the only reason that makes sense to me. Why would they have left it out if it cost the same to manufacture and they wouldn't have to put the price up? Unless the mini 2 has retina and they make it a selling point next year
Then at least give it a higher resolution screen but isn't a retina. The whole product seems like a rush job to get it out for the holiday shopping season.
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Apple has the cheapest manufacturing costs around, they could do all of that for a reasonable price but won't cause they want to keep their worldwide annual revenue at over a 100 Billion dollars.
I just asked for A6.
My problem is that at that price it's neither cheap, nor high end. It feels like a budget tablet at a non-budget price.
If they couldn't make it much cheaper, I would have preferred they made it cost more, but have much newer tech inside. Make it the smaller brother of the new iPad, not of the iPad 2.
As it is now it doesn't interest me at all.
Exactly. Thanks apple for making me wait another 6 months for mini w retina display. Better not be a yr.
A5 performs well-enough, is cheaper and most importantly sips power. The battery life on the iPad 2 got quite a noticeable jump in battery with the 32nm A5.
I haven't been too impressed with the battery life in my iPhone 5 (though having just been overseas I had that sucker in Airplane mode with WiFi turned on and the battery life was insane so I think it might have something to do with network settings) but the iPad 2,4 gets to this day the best battery life going around.
On a tablet designed for reading, browsing, emailing etc (this is NOT the tablet for gamers) the killer feature is battery life. The A5 would give it that in spades with the option of the A6 when a retina display eventually drops into the iPad mini.
I haven't been too impressed with the battery life in my iPhone 5 (though having just been overseas I had that sucker in Airplane mode with WiFi turned on and the battery life was insane so I think it might have something to do with network settings) but the iPad 2,4 gets to this day the best battery life going around.
On a tablet designed for reading, browsing, emailing etc (this is NOT the tablet for gamers) the killer feature is battery life. The A5 would give it that in spades with the option of the A6 when a retina display eventually drops into the iPad mini.
That would have been sweet, to have the iPad Mini a smaller brother of the iPad 4. Why go back 2 generations to the iPad 2 specs.
For all those saying to keep costs down, this is a damn expensive entry to the 7" tablet market.
Must have been for power preservation reasons.
Must have been for power preservation reasons.
Exactly... When there was speculation about the mini, I was thinking there were two paths they could take.
1) Focus on a low price.
2) Focus on making a premium device (at a much higher cost) <- this seemed to me like the path they would take.
1. would interest me. I could have bought one as an impulse buy. (the same reason I am flirting with the idea of buying a nexus 7)
2. would interest me as well. I wish the ipad 3/4 was lighter and smaller, but I don't want to compromise on power all that much.
What they made is middle of the road. It's neither cheap nor high end. I have no interest in that...
This! My 3rd Gen iPad has hopeless battery life compared to the iPad 2 and I'd sometimes happily swap the retina display for the battery life I used to have.
My partner still has the iPad 2 and when I use that, I can't say it feels sluggish in comparison so I'm betting the mini with the iPad 2s resolution squashed into a smaller area with the same A5 processor will be just fine for most people's uses.
Yes to iPhone 4/4s/5, Yes to iPad 3/4, but a HUGE NO to iPad 2. Do you think Apple's been selling iPad 2 inventory that was built 2+ years ago? No, they've been manufacturing non-Retina iPad 2's all the way up to the second you read this post. Its not necessary in the iPad 2 but somehow, in your infinite wisdom, you think it's necessary in the iPad Mini. Thank god you are just a consumer and not involved in Apple's strategy.
Says Cook and Co.
I'll repeat it for you and anyone else too simplistic to understand the strategy for the iPad Mini right now.
The iPad Mini does NOT need a Retina to sell at the volumes Apple needs it to. Any more than the iPad 2 needs a Retina display to sell at the volumes that IT has ALSO been selling.
The iPad Mini is geared as the entry-level tablet offering for Apple's ecosystem. It is specifically positioned and engineered to cannibalize 20% or more of Apple's iPad 2 users. Its geared towards the education and business user markets, as well as the replacement for the iPad 2. It's an anchoring product positioning strategy, classic textbook example of a move engineered to maintain existing market dominance while simultaneously grabbing the few percentage points of market share that they don't currently own. Apple created the tablet market. They own it. Its a brilliant move on their part to throw a low-end (but still feature packed) tablet into the mix as a means of setting the "low" bumper to frame their "high" bumper of their overall iPad strategy. How do you best manage competition nipping at your market share from the low end? Easy....you redefine it and own it. Masterful.
I realize that business strategy is very tough for people to understand when you personalize Apple as a company and the iPad as a device that was built specifically for you. But the iPad Mini is EXACTLY engineered, with intentional features included and excluded, for the product position that Apple desires, not what YOU desire. What YOU desire has no strategic value to Apple. They don't want an over-the-top offering right now. They have that in the iPad 4(th Gen).
A year from now, after the iPad Mini has sold what I'm sure will be "record breaking volumes" and the iPad 2 has been effectively cannibalized, their strategy will likely move to the next phase which may or may not include pervasive "Retina everywhere."
Get it through your heads....you aren't the brilliant Apple product strategists you think you are. Apple's playbook is obvious, the analysts have easily figured it out already, even before the debut of the device. Its surprising so many of you can't but then again.....guess that's where the percentile pundits are right.
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^ THAT. well said. the battery life on the iPad Mini with the A5 will be insane. i expect people to well exceed 10 hrs just how i exceeded 10 hrs on my iPad 2
People tend to forget that the A5X had 40 percent more surface area than the A5 and runs about 10-15 degrees hotter. I could see issues with heat the smaller size of the iPad mini.
I think that the mini was given the A5 for costs reasons, same with the lack of Retina Display. Remember Apple profits comes from their hardware and everything else is gravy.
Amazon makes no money from the Kindle Hardware, they want people to be into their services. Google Nexus is sold almost at costs also but Android was built to expand their foothold in search and internet advertising.
I think that the mini was given the A5 for costs reasons, same with the lack of Retina Display. Remember Apple profits comes from their hardware and everything else is gravy.
Amazon makes no money from the Kindle Hardware, they want people to be into their services. Google Nexus is sold almost at costs also but Android was built to expand their foothold in search and internet advertising.