dumastudetto
macrumors 603
iPad Mini 6 is a truly remarkable device. I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger now. You can always upgrade later when the iPad Mini 7 is released.
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iPad mini iPad Mini 7 - will we see one this year?
- Thread starter Hooterville
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iPad Mini 6 is a truly remarkable device. I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger now. You can always upgrade later when the iPad Mini 7 is released.
rui no onna
Contributor
How long are you willing to wait? If you’re not in a hurry, I’m sure there’ll be holiday deals on the iPad mini 6 even if there’s no new mini released.
Personally, I got a mini 6 upon release and plan on buying a mini 7 if there’s a RAM increase. I find 4GB RAM too annoying on iPadOS 16 (too many reloads).
dumastudetto
macrumors 603
4GB RAM is generally fine on the iPad Mini 6. iPadOS manages resources beautifully.
Except when it doesn't and reloads occur.
What’s really frustrating is some apps reload or revert to some default state every time I leave it even if only for a split second.
I’m on Mini 5, but this can’t be a ram limitation though I’m thinking, because it’s immediate, light apps, and no other background computing going on. It must be a bug or dumb programming.
I’m thinking of the Gmail app, I lose my search results every time I put the app in the background. And the other day, I forget which app, but I was halfway down a document/page and every time I left it to refer to info in another app, even for only a second, when I returned it brought me back to the top, so I had to scroll down and find my place again every time. I had to switch to using Slide Over for the second app (Notes I believe it was) to stop losing my place in the first app.
dumastudetto
macrumors 603
Doesn't happen enough to justify putting more RAM in the iPad Mini 6. Occasional reloads are just iPadOS managing the smooth operation of your device efficiently and effectively.
rui no onna
Contributor
I’m not a huge fan of Stage Manager but this is one of the nice things about it. It actually keeps the app state. I do notice higher RAM usage with it enabled though.
For example, right now I only have the following open: Safari (6 tabs), Gmail (with search result)+Messages and Usage app. The Usage app is showing on 7.3GB free on 16GB RAM.
Earlier, I was doing a bunch of comparison shopping on Amazon and I was down to 53MB free. I don’t know how many tabs I had open but it was a lot. It was actually acting kinda funky so I closed all tabs and then Safari and that freed up 9GB RAM.
Mind, I have the Usage Memory widget on my home screen on the Mini 6 and it’s always at <200MB free so I’m guessing it’s often ejecting and loading things into memory. I expect it’s the same case on the Mini 5 so your scrolling issue may still have something to do with lack of RAM.
On occasion, the tab and cell position resets in Excel when I’m swapping between Safari and Excel on my 2017 12.9. Hard resetting the iPad fixes it.
rui no onna
Contributor
And the A12X/Z iPad Pros with even older chipset but 6GB RAM don’t reload as much.
This isn’t the fault of the chipset. It’s entirely down to low RAM paired with iPadOS (and likely apps as well) being more memory hungry. I rarely saw reloads on 4GB RAM with iOS 12.
You're comparing a "Pro" and a "mini". Product segmentation wouldn't allow feature parity.
dumastudetto
macrumors 603
Yes exactly. People forget this when making demands for more RAM and ProMotion.
rui no onna
Contributor
The feature difference is 4GB vs 6GB RAM and the resulting reloads is due to that. An iPad mini with 6GB RAM should exhibit similar reload behavior to an iPad Pro with 6GB RAM.
Like I mentioned, RAM increase is one of the things I’d like to see on the iPad mini 7.
2023 iPad mini will likely get a A16 Bionic chip.
All variants of the SoC come with 6 GB of memory.
Don't forget that the Air is not Pro, either - 8GB RAM.
azentropy
macrumors 601
That would be pretty disappointing for those of us who are bothered by the jelly scroll screen issue. I skipped the 6 not because it wasn’t powerful enough or didn’t have enough memory, but because I found the screen to be frustrating.
Momof2.1107
macrumors demi-goddess
If you do decide to get the Mini 6, compare Apple to Amazon. I got both my Mini 6 and 12.9 iPad Pro cheaper on Amazon than Apple.
Momof2.1107
macrumors demi-goddess
I love my Mini 6 and will keep it until Apple stop releasing software updates. I’m going to do the same thing with my 2022 12.9 iPad Pro. They’ll both last me for some years. My 2017 iPad Pro is still going strong but possibly won‘t be getting iPadOS 17, so I upgraded.
Momof2.1107
macrumors demi-goddess
My 12.9 iPad Pro and 14 Pro Max have FaceID, so it took about a day to get used to using TouchID. I have fingerprints on both hands so it‘s faster for me to unlock.
a "Pro" that was upgraded twice since (M1, M2 models) and a "mini" that has yet to be released yet.
Your comments is the equivalent of saying a 2023 Macbook Air should never outperform a 2013 retina MBP. Because of product segmentation.
So the widget reading and only specific apps reloading seems to suggest both RAM shortage and faulty software are the culprits, right? But also, it seems strange that it’s always reading less than 200MB free, no? You think that’s normal for all Mini 6’s?
rui no onna
Contributor
Safari is a memory hog and I always have it open so for me, that’s kind the norm. In fairness, Chrome and Firefox are memory hogs, too, so I reckon it’s just modern web browsing in general.
I’m currently on the mini 6 with have 33 tabs in Safari (I’m sure almost all of them will reload) and Usage is showing 80MB free.
iPadOS memory management is what it is for better or worse (mostly worse for me). Having more RAM helps mask the inherent flaws.
rui no onna
Contributor
The M1 iPad Pro was released before the mini 6.
But yes, tech upgrades tend to trickle down. Air 5 already has 8GB so there’s a good chance the next mini will get a RAM bump.
dumastudetto
macrumors 603
iPad Air is also a bigger and much more expensive device with M1.
iPad Mini is more targeted towards consumption and basic productivity tasks. iPad Air they promote as a productivity device with Magic Keyboard support. It makes sense that iPad Air would have more RAM.
Which in no way precludes putting more RAM in the Mini.