iPad Mini2 - how is the performance?

[lali]

Hi everyone,

I am thinking of 'upgrading' our two older iPads (iPad2, iPad3) to iPad mini 2's.

This is for children playing crossy roads and watching movies on the road etc...

Would I be buying technology that is already behind? Touch ID is a non-issue for us. We are looking at having smaller tablets just for the kids.

Our iPads (2 and 3) have become extremely slow of late with the upgrades to IOS9. I gather it is the same kind of behavior on the minis.

thanks for your inputs

Lali

 

[RickTaylor]

If you're not too picky, the iPad mini 2 still works fine. However the iPad mini 4 will probably last longer with 2GB of ram and a faster processor.

 

[Narcaz]

For the usage of your kids it should be ok. But honestly the UI performance (e.g. Spotlight, App Switcher, Notification Center) went downhill since iOS 7.1.2. And even the PB of iOS 9.2 doesn't look very promising on it. So Apple is probably not going to fix it in the future. Very sad, because most apps and games perform reasonably well.

Maybe you could check this out in the store, because not everyone is so sensible to lag. If you can get a good deal, i would still upgrade those older iPads, because you get Picture in Picture Mode, Sideview and access to content blockers (adblockers for Safari).

 

[whodatrr]

IPad Mini 2 provides the same performance as the iPad Mini 3, but without the fingerprint ID.

It's fast enough to do what we need it to. While the mini 4 seems nice, will you need enough power to warrant the extra cost? With Wal-Mart selling the Mini 2 for $199, it's a lot cheaper than the three.

When they went on Sale for $219, last Black Friday, Santa got 4 of them. My oldest kids use theirs, but the woman and I pretty much let ours gather dust.

iPhones are now pretty good tablets, and we both now have 12" retina MacBooks. There's not much functionality missing between those two.

 

[lali]

Thanks to you both.
From everymac, I notice little or no performance difference between the iPad mini2 and mini3.

In comparison to what we have now, they both appear to be 4-5 times faster than my ipad2 and ipad3 N (!!!!!!!!!)

Up to now the biggest challenge I have seen for idevices is to keep up performing welll with the IOS updates, especially IOS9.When shipping these devices worked relatively well.

 

[vlinkz]

If you're not going to do intensive gaming on it, the mini 2 is fine. I wouldn't want it because it of the RAM limitation (and the A7) but for people who just check emails, use iMessage and casually browse the web it's fine.

There's no noticeable difference between the mini 2/3 because the hardware is identical except for the Touch ID.

iOS updates fine when you first get it too from my experience.

 

[shortcrust]

I've just changed my original mini for a mini 2 and I'm happy. I've got a useable ipad again. if you look at the benchmarks the difference between the mini and mini 2 is massive whereas the mini 2 doesn't look too shabby compared to the new models. Safari is not snappy and you get a few little pauses here and there but it's fine for me, and it's a bargain. I got a refurbished one from apple for £189 and just sold my original on ebay for £150 (admittedly going from 32gb to 16).

 

[BigMcGuire]

I have a Mini 2 as of this year, a friend of mine got his for his birthday last month. My wife has had her Mini 2 since last year. It doesn't feel laggy - I use mine for reading mostly (light weight). I don't think we'll be upgrading ours for another year or two. But yeah, other posters are correct - if you can afford it, the iPad Mini 4 will be a lot more future proof. If you can't, don't feel bad for getting the Mini 2 - I love mine and use it daily. Between that and my 6+ I'm happy with the performance.

 

[EdisEdward]

Have had mine since it came out. Solid device. Still going strong. Occasional lag and can't open many tabs on safari or many apps at same time, but battery is still great and can do basic apps like YouTube/Netflix/mail/FaceTime just fine

 

[lali]

hi
Could anyone with an ipad mini2, mini3, or mini4 comment on the performance under this game: Smashy Roads: Wanted ?

This games lags enormously on my ipads2 and 3, but it plays smoothly on my iPhone6+.

This game is known for its bugs and lag on older devices, I wonder where it cuts off? Ipad mini4 ok but the rest not ok, that sort of thing..

Thanks very much everyone for contributing up to now it sure helps

Lali

 

[Narcaz]

hi
Could anyone with an ipad mini2, mini3, or mini4 comment on the performance under this game: Smashy Roads: Wanted ?

This games lags enormously on my ipads2 and 3, but it plays smoothly on my iPhone6+.

This game is known for its bugs and lag on older devices, I wonder where it cuts off? Ipad mini4 ok but the rest not ok, that sort of thing..

Thanks very much everyone for contributing up to now it sure helps

Lali

The game is performing good on my Mini 2. I could spot a miniscule difference in contrast to my 6S Plus, but that would be really picky. It is definitely playable and doesn't suffer from heavy frame drops.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I find my iPad Mini 2 to be very comparable to my iPhone 6+ speed wise. Mini 2 is just a bit faster on installing updates (when done side by side) it seems like.

 

[emembee]

Despite a rebuild I now find the mini2 on the latest 9.3.5 really quite slow. It was extremely good performance on original release with ios7 (I think).

 

[DcGamer05]

Wow this is an older thread. The iPad mini 2 has significant performance increases in iOS 10. The current beta i have installed and am posting from it. I have an ad blocker installed and enabled and overall safari is excellent scrolling is greatly improved and even playing a video in PiP mode does not slow it down like it did on iOS 9

I just bought my mini2 I already have an iPhone 6 I almost returned my mini 2 but I tried out the iOS 10 beta and I'm glad I did. Remember the A7 may have aged but it was and is a capable processor the bottleneck is the RAM but overall when something did have to reload its not painfully slow like on iOS 9. Overall I am extremely impressed with 10. The OS doesn't seem to slow down after that initial fresh install speed devices sometimes have.

I'm glad I have my mini2. I'm attached to it at the hip and seem to be using it more than my iPhone 6 and honestly the speed is comparable. I couldn't use my old iPad it was an original iPad Mini and it was so slow and made it impossible to use when I was so used to the speed of my iPhone 6.

Maybe try a new thread next time I'm not really sure. But I advise you to try a fresh install of iOS 10 you will be impressed