iPad mini iOS 12 on iPad mini 2

[pika2000]

in short, iOS 12 gave my iPad mini 2 a new life. It’s quite amazing what Apple has done for the 5 year old tablet. I was giving up on my mini 2 on iOS 11 as it was showing up its age. But no, that’s just iOS 11. Under iOS 12, I feel like having a new device. Task switcher and keyboard no longer lag. That alone improves usability a lot! Of course, one cannot escape the paltry 1GB RAM, but hey, this is a tablet from 2013.

If Apple drop support for the A7 devices next year, than these devices end with a very high note on iOS 12.

In comparison, Google has long abandoned its Nexus 7. Back in 2013, many bashed the mini 2 and preferred the Nexus 7 due to its price. 5 years later, who has the last laugh.

 

[Freakonomics101]

It gave a lot of old devices new life. iOS 11 convinced me to not buy any iDevice with less than 2 GB of RAM. Even with iOS 12, I still won’t. But iOS 12 gave my friend’s Air 1 a lot of life back so I would imagine it’s the same for the Mini 2.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Honestly it’s amazing how they’re still supporting devices from 5 years ago. I’ll bet 100% of Android devices that were around in 2013 are at a landfill somewhere.

 

[profets]

I think it also speaks to the longevity of some of these A series SoCs. The A7 was a big deal when it launched as their first 64-bit ARM chip and no one was really expecting it.

 

[iLLUMI]

I just went from 9.3.5 to 12.0.1 on my Mini 2 and performance is quite good.
There are a couple of lags when accessing the camera and when logging in but overall it performs slightly better than the previous version I had.
The lags I had in 9.3.5 have gone.
Now I can upgrade many of apps that needed a minimum of iOS 10. Nice!!!
Its like having a new iPad again.

Would be nice if future release of iOS 12 could improve on some of the laggy areas.

 

[HarryWild]

It still locks or hangs if you use it a lot however and take a while for it to clear it memory. I just shut off my Mini 2 and turn it back and like new!

 

[gnomeisland]

I'm still planning on upgrading when they announce the new iPad Pros but I feel the same way. iOS 12 has *almost* made the mini my preferred device again. I loved the direction that iOS went but it was so, so, so painful to use.