Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad mini iPad mini = back to 512MB of RAM
- Thread starter klover
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
There also just isn't any significant cost saving associated with for Apple associated with using a lower amount of RAM. And no particular need to get that savings since Apple didn't exactly pick an aggressive price point on these.
I'm expecting 1GB myself though.
I'm expecting 1GB myself though.
Better 'specs' on the SGS3 compared to the iP5, but the iP5 outperformed it by a long shot.
Hardware/software integration is where it's at.
This is precisely why I started this thread - I occasionaly use my Mom's Scrabble machine (I mean iPad 1) and when browsing, it's just terrible with the reloads, checkerboards, etc.
512 RAM is not speculation. A5 chip denotes a SoC (System on Chip Design) which should include the RAM specification.
It's a $70 less expensive, smaller iPad 2 with upgraded cameras. I'm still surprised many were expecting more. The iPad 2 performs better than the 3 in many situations, as will the mini. Is it a bit pricey? Yes, but component cost is speculated to be just under $200, and since when does Apple sell anything near cost?
This is what I hate about apple. They very well know that early adopters will buy it regardless only to have to buy the second generation model when they put in an adequate amount of ram and processing power. I also would imagine that this model will have a short iOS update life since it has the same internals of the 1.5 year old ipad 2.
More ram and quad core mean next to nothing....better screen is only noticable on tablet apps and in web browsing - and is not simply decided on which has the most ppi.
Look at the iPhone 4S and 5 - both have the same ppi but one looks noticeably better. I tried the N7 and couldn't get past the scaled up phone apps and the Android OS.
If by sell on its name, you mean sell to those who prefer the Apple ecosystem - then yes. But it will also attract those who may have a Mac but no tablet because of the lower entry price. Is it a budget tablet? No - but its about equidistant from the lower end 7" tablets and its higher end big brother.
In the end - an extra $80-$100 is well worth it for all the things that come with the Apple ecosystem - and given this has generally been the price difference between Apple and the competition since the start of this "new tablet era", I'd say Apple isn't really concerned with the mini being a hit.
----------
What are 99% of 7" tablet users going to do on it? Read books, play games, surf the web....why does this device need to have overkill specs right off the bat?
The N7's supposedly superior quad core processor gave me trouble on a regular basis - lagging through apps, crashing and what not (not to mention, as I said above, most of those apps are scaled-up phone apps that don't even take advantage of the resolution of the display). There's a difference between specs for the sake of specs, and finely tuned specs based on the highest possible efficiency. I'll let you guess which companies go with which approach.
----------
The screen is also better in the mini than the 2. Not only do you take the same number of pixels and cram them into a smaller area, but the screen technology (evidenced by the iPhone 5) has improved tremendously. Sure they didn't go into those details - but I'd be willing to be the iPad mini screen looks much better than we assume a 163 ppi screen would.
It's unlikely. As mentioned by someone else, the A5 processor has RAM built into the chip itself. Apple would have to have an entirely seperate manufacturing process to make chips with 1gb of RAM in.
I can't see any reason at all why it would make sense for them to do that when essentially most users who don't visit macrumors wouldn't know or care whether it had 512mb or 1gb of RAM.
balls. Really wish they'd just put the bloody A6 in here and be done with it....
I think it is same to assume it has 512MB. As previously stated, the A5 only has 512MB of RAM built into the SOC. Unless Apple decided to either re-do the A5 solely for the Mac Mini (at which I think they would have called it something like the A52) or added additional memory lanes coming off the A5 to "external" RAM from the SOC (which again would have required some additional rework of the A5 + losing valuable space to the external memory chips).
A5 is a very nice chip in my iPad 2 and I rarely notice the checkerboarding unless I am accessing a lot of really big/heavy image used sites I don't notice the checkerboarding unlike my original iPad which I can barely surf on one tab without it....
I would have preferred 1GB of RAM for future updates though....
A5 is a very nice chip in my iPad 2 and I rarely notice the checkerboarding unless I am accessing a lot of really big/heavy image used sites I don't notice the checkerboarding unlike my original iPad which I can barely surf on one tab without it....
I would have preferred 1GB of RAM for future updates though....
who cares if it only has 512MB of memory? my old iPad 2 still runs smoother than my iPad 3. games are smoother, scrolling is smoother, the iPad 2 opens apps faster.
512MB is perfectly sufficient for the iPad Mini. 1GB wouldn't make a noticeable difference to anyone except users who are purposefully trying to benchmark the hardware
look at the iPad 3. it has 1GB of memory and look how that runs. see, it has nothing to do with the memory. the A5X in the iPad 3 is insufficient in achieving the same level of fluidity as the A5 in the iPad 2. i bought my iPad 3 on October 3 so i will be taking full advantage of that unofficial 30 day exchange program to get the iPad 4. the A6X will be a godsend to the Retina iPad...a badly needed update.
good riddance A5X...
512MB is perfectly sufficient for the iPad Mini. 1GB wouldn't make a noticeable difference to anyone except users who are purposefully trying to benchmark the hardware
look at the iPad 3. it has 1GB of memory and look how that runs. see, it has nothing to do with the memory. the A5X in the iPad 3 is insufficient in achieving the same level of fluidity as the A5 in the iPad 2. i bought my iPad 3 on October 3 so i will be taking full advantage of that unofficial 30 day exchange program to get the iPad 4. the A6X will be a godsend to the Retina iPad...a badly needed update.
good riddance A5X...
Maybe so... but the App Store will surely help it. 275,000+ apps already fully compatible (and made for it).
Is it just me or does the iPad mini seem to have the internals of the iPad 2 (except for the camera)?
You can't expect iPad mini to have the internals of the bigger iPad when it costs nearly $200 less. Also if they did, it'd eat away the sales of bigger iPad.
No kidding. I lost a long forum post yesterday after switching tabs to grab a link. Totally irritating.
I think, actually, the mini has two mics (one for noise cancellation), not the ipad2.
Photo Stream, iMessage, AppleTV control, find friends, itunes match, ibooks, bookmark sync, and FaceTime.....those are the apps I use 80-90% of the time with my ipad. To have this in a bigger form factor than my iphone but smaller than my ipad is going to very convenient. I have a Nexus 7 and its a great device. I love taking it around with me, but it doesnt have 3g/lte, cannot txt, have to use kindle for all my books to sync across devices, can only Skype, and need to work around using Google+ for my pics. for some this may be ok, but in my ecosystem where even my 3 year old has an ipod touch he facetimes me with when I travel, it doesnt make sense. Not to mention the hordes of digital movies I have on itunes that are not compatible with the Nexus 7. I might keep the Nexus 7 and use it as a GPS in my car, because that at least is far superior to anything apple, but other than that, it just doesnt fit...
Yeah but one app could be safari. Open three or four tabs and on ipad 2 it's checkerboard or reload, and that's damn annoying especially if one of the tabs is say this forum and your replying to a post, flick to another tab to grab image source or link, flick back to this tab and because of memory it reloads the page and erases everything you just typed.
That happened quite a lot on iPad 2 for me, with iPad 3 and iPhone 5 its completely effortless experience.
So yes even in one application, the difference between 1gb and 512mb is noticeable.
Exactly an example of what I mean...
That's an estimate based on the fact that the iPad 2's A5 chip and iPhone 4S' A5 chip also had 512 MB of RAM. I believe the new iPod touch's also got an A5 chip with only 256 MB of RAM.
If you look at the A4 chip, however, you'll see there are variations from 256 MB to 512 MB.