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zapmymac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 24, 2016
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Just got a used iPad mini 5 and it is on 15.0.1

Should I keep 15 on it or DFU it to 18?

The chip is the one that was in the iPhone Xr series

Use case: browsing socials and using as a reader. Super basic…

Thoughts…
 
1 for, 1 against….

I have the Air 3 which has the same chipset/RAM configuration. Frequent reloads but otherwise, it doesn’t feel slow.

If you don’t have any apps requiring higher than iOS 15, you can just stick to it for now.

Mind, there have been a lot of security fixes between 15 and 18. Depends on how important those fixes are for you based on your usage.
 
I have the Air 3 which has the same chipset/RAM configuration. Frequent reloads but otherwise, it doesn’t feel slow.

If you don’t have any apps requiring higher than iOS 15, you can just stick to it for now.

Mind, there have been a lot of security fixes between 15 and 18. Depends on how important those fixes are for you based on your usage.
That’s really the main concern…all the security fixes I miss out on.

App wise, just the basics..


Hmmmmmm
 
If you update it to iPadOS 18 and it totally sucks, can you then undo that and downgrade to 15?

I say this because my Mini 4 eventually got so bloody slow as to be almost unusable -- and that was just from updating it to iPadOS 15. Feels like you'd be risking the exact same thing with a Mini 5 and iPadOS 18.

Honestly, I would just leave it alone for the basic usage you're talking about.
 
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I have 2 mini 5, I left one on 16 and one on 17. I am not going any higher, I'll skip both 18 and 19 (which should be the last). My mini 5 already feels much slower than my 2018 11 pro on 17. And I don't want to go the way of my mini 4 which became unusable on 14 (was still usable on 13). The mini 5 is still usable on 17. I think I won't even update my 2018 pro to 18, despite it having 6GB of RAM (double the mini 5).
Personally I couldn't care less about security. Only app compatibility is what might matter, but for now most apps require iPadOS 15 or later so it's fine.
 
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If you update it to iPadOS 18 and it totally sucks, can you then undo that and downgrade to 15?

I say this because my Mini 4 eventually got so bloody slow as to be almost unusable -- and that was just from updating it to iPadOS 15. Feels like you'd be risking the exact same thing with a Mini 5 and iPadOS 18.

Honestly, I would just leave it alone for the basic usage you're talking about.
As OP said: 1 way trip

15/16/17 have had several exploited zero days, so I’m inclined to update, but I also know from experience that Apple updates can and do slow an old device…

I just am perplexed.
 
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