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iPad mini Microcenter iPad mini 5 64 GB wifi - $80 off
- Thread starter Nacho98
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Grabbed the last gray one they had, seems overall good, just a very slight magenta hint in the upper right corner in portrait mode, only viewable on a full black screen in a dark room at max brightness, but not bad at all and only aware because I read the forums (and it is NOTHING like some of the pinkies in those threads...), and it does have two specs of dust under the glass - first time ever having dust under the glass...I suppose it’s no different than dust under a screen protector though. Probably not worth the hassle of playing the lottery. Been a couple hours and I already don't notice them, even on a plain white screen. Viewing angles aren't great, but that's not a normal use case and will quickly be forgotten.
Do have to say I was shocked to see a crappy mechanical home button, even at this price. Feels cheap. Otherwise the device seems really nice and I'm happy. Had an Air 2 that I sold last year, have been without an iPad for a year so it seems fresh-ish despite the boring old design and not wanting to go back to having a TouchID device. My Air 2 was also white, not gray like this one, so that helps it feel new.
Do have to say I was shocked to see a crappy mechanical home button, even at this price. Feels cheap. Otherwise the device seems really nice and I'm happy. Had an Air 2 that I sold last year, have been without an iPad for a year so it seems fresh-ish despite the boring old design and not wanting to go back to having a TouchID device. My Air 2 was also white, not gray like this one, so that helps it feel new.
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So I've had it for 24 hours now, and it's a nice little device.
One thing I do like about it, is that with the text size set to the smallest possible, I really like how small everything is. I always set the text size of my iOS devices to the smallest possible, and I was surprised to see that the text on the mini is actually even smaller than my Xs when both are set that way. Then I found the more apps on the screen option, making stuff even smaller, and I really like it.
I also like the brightness of the screen, the uniformity of it and the color, and of course, it makes my 3x as expensive Xs look dingy (TT off, etc.). The mini has a nice white point, gotta love Apple's LCDs, OLED is way overrated if a junky piss yellow whitepoint is what we have to deal with from Apple on that front.
I like the dark shade of space gray this year.
What I don't like about it, as mentioned, is the tired chamfered edge design, and the flimsy mechanical home button. I'm really not thrilled to reintroduce TouchID devices into my life at this point either, but it is what it is I guess. I also don't like that it doesn't have a physical screen lock switch or a camera flash just for the odd picture of the dog or whatever when it's the device I have in hand.
Beyond that it's...an iPad, same exact ****, different year. I have two apps installed on it, and almost all the stock ones deleted and everything pared down to minimum to keep it simple for content consumption. All set up, I have 56 gb free of 64, lol.
I'm debating though if I am going to keep it or return. Sure I will use it a lot, but I didn't miss not having an iPad for the last 12 months either. By having it, it's one more device to maintain/update/care for, etc. It was nice not giving a rat's ass about iPad OS all these past weeks/months, since I had no iPad to concern myself with. Sort of on the fence on keeping or returning, tbh.
One thing I do like about it, is that with the text size set to the smallest possible, I really like how small everything is. I always set the text size of my iOS devices to the smallest possible, and I was surprised to see that the text on the mini is actually even smaller than my Xs when both are set that way. Then I found the more apps on the screen option, making stuff even smaller, and I really like it.
I also like the brightness of the screen, the uniformity of it and the color, and of course, it makes my 3x as expensive Xs look dingy (TT off, etc.). The mini has a nice white point, gotta love Apple's LCDs, OLED is way overrated if a junky piss yellow whitepoint is what we have to deal with from Apple on that front.
I like the dark shade of space gray this year.
What I don't like about it, as mentioned, is the tired chamfered edge design, and the flimsy mechanical home button. I'm really not thrilled to reintroduce TouchID devices into my life at this point either, but it is what it is I guess. I also don't like that it doesn't have a physical screen lock switch or a camera flash just for the odd picture of the dog or whatever when it's the device I have in hand.
Beyond that it's...an iPad, same exact ****, different year. I have two apps installed on it, and almost all the stock ones deleted and everything pared down to minimum to keep it simple for content consumption. All set up, I have 56 gb free of 64, lol.
I'm debating though if I am going to keep it or return. Sure I will use it a lot, but I didn't miss not having an iPad for the last 12 months either. By having it, it's one more device to maintain/update/care for, etc. It was nice not giving a rat's ass about iPad OS all these past weeks/months, since I had no iPad to concern myself with. Sort of on the fence on keeping or returning, tbh.
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I really hope apple makes a faceid mini. That would be an instant buy. Predicablely they would shrink the bezels, which will increase the screen size. Otherwise i might as well get an iPhone Pro Max