Need Suggestions on buying a used iPad Mini-2 or 3 ?

[augustya]

Hi Guys !

I am a bigger iPad Screen fan and never believed that the iPad Mini could be of any use to me. But lately I have realised that a Mini can work good for controlling things like Music, Room Automation, Lights...you know such daily chores,fast, rough use work. Just will use it as a Remote Control for various things. I may not use it for any heavy processing or multi-tasking. So what is the bare minimum I would need a Mini-2 or Mini-3 ? Will a Mini-2 Deliver it for me ?

I still do not wanna spend on buying a first hand, brand new Mini. I want a Mini which can comfortably run the iOS 11.xxx and does not slow down and hangs. So which Mini should I be looking at as the bare minimum model, if I do not wanna splurge ? the Mini-2 or the Mini-3 ?

Any place online that you guys can suggest which can sell a used Mini-2/3 in excellent condition for around $100 USD ? I thought gazelle was a good place, but sadly everything is sold out there, and is tad expensive there.

 

[g35]

Hi Guys !

I am a bigger iPad Screen fan and never believed that the iPad Mini could be of any use to me. But lately I have realised that a Mini can work good for controlling things like Music, Room Automation, Lights...you know such daily chores,fast, rough use work. Just will use it as a Remote Control for various things. I may not use it for any heavy processing or multi-tasking. So what is the bare minimum I would need a Mini-2 or Mini-3 ? Will a Mini-2 Deliver it for me ?

I still do not wanna spend on buying a first hand, brand new Mini. I want a Mini which can comfortably run the iOS 11.xxx and does not slow down and hangs. So which Mini should I be looking at as the bare minimum model, if I do not wanna splurge ? the Mini-2 or the Mini-3 ?

Any place online that you guys can suggest which can sell a used Mini-2/3 in excellent condition for around $100 USD ? I thought gazelle was a good place, but sadly everything is sold out there, and is tad expensive there.

Theyre exactly the same except Touch ID and color options. Look at Swappa and eBay (find a seller with lots of good feedback)

Neither one runs iOS 11 comfortably, they will both be slow. The Mini 4 even stutters on iOS 11. You need an iPad 5th gen or later to be what I would call comfortable

 

[rui no onna]

Both Mini 2 and 3 have Apple A7 chipset and 1GB RAM (like iPad Air). The most notable difference between the two is TouchID support. I don't think I'd consider them to run iOS 11 "comfortably" rather, more like sufficient for very simple tasks.

Either will do at this point time but there's a possibility that Apple might not update those models to iOS 12. Take that into consideration in case whatever home automation software you use might need higher iOS versions.

Frankly though, I'd rather opt for a 2017 iPad (A9/2GB) for ~$240 than a Mini despite the less comfortable size.

 

[Jimbo Limbo]

Hello,

I used an ipad mini 2 on a daily basis. I would not recommend spending money on an ipad mini 2 or 3.

I quite like my ipad, and enjoy using it. It's just that with only 1 gb of RAM, the machine is limited.

I would suggest hunting around for a used ipad mini 4 which is a much better machine, with 2 gig of RAM.

Recall that a mini 3 is just a mini 2 with a touch sensor, so not worth spending more for it, despite the higher number.

I am considering buying a used mini 4 if apple doesn't refresh the mini at the next ipad announcement. It is the most convenient size of all. I have a mini 2, ipad air 2 and use iPad Pro 12.9 at work, so I have a basis for that opinion.

The mini series size makes it super portable, great for gaming and typing, and reading and more.

Please go to my thread about apple updating the ipad mini and add on some more likes, or even better, request one on the apple feedback page.

 

[Dave-Z]

I would also recommend against a Mini 2 or 3. iOS 11 is painfully slow on them.

At Christmas I got a Mini 4 to replace my Mini 2 because I couldn't tolerate how long I had to wait for the simplest things. Even the on screen keyboard sliding up was slow.

 

[cwerdna]

Recall that a mini 3 is just a mini 2 with a touch sensor, so not worth spending more for it, despite the higher number.

Totally agree. The mini 3 is worth virtually 0 extra dollars. If they were the same price and otherwise identical (in terms of storage and condition), I'd take the 3. If the 3 were $10 more, I might take the 3 instead. It it's more than a $10 difference, I'd pass and take the 2.

I used to have an iPad Air (sold it and got a Pro 10.5") and still have my mini 2. The Air was a bit faster than the mini 2 and neither are particularly fast these days, esp. running iOS 11. Mini 4 is a lot better but so old now that it's crazy that Apple hasn't come up with a revised version of it... It's hard to justify paying for a mini 4 at the prices Apple wants, even for a refurb.

Also, it's possible the iPad mini 2 and 3 will be dropped for iOS 12. iPad Air, mini 2 and possibly mini 3 would be the next logical devices to dead-end with iOS 11. iPad 4 was dead-ended with iOS 10. It's stuck at iOS 10.

 

[augustya]

So guys lets say if I go for the used iPad Min-2 you guys strongly recommend to not to upgrade to iOS 11 right ? And would iOS 9.3.5 be fine on that, on the iPad Mini-2 ? or would that also be laggy and slow and miserable ?

 

[eplchamps]

I just bought a mini 2 Unlocked for $100 this weekend. Looking to still get a mini 4 Unlocked.

 

[augustya]

And guys, one more question ? If I am using lets say Spotify or Tidal or whatever and If I am downloading,saving the Tracks for offline Music, (I guess it saves locally) How much space would I need then ? I mean what is the best storage I can go for ? I was initially thinking just the 32GB ! I might just store some Photos on it, not the entire album from my iCloud drive, but some. So in that case how much Storage would I need ?

 

[augustya]

I just bought a mini 2 Unlocked for $100 this weekend. Looking to still get a mini 4 Unlocked.

Oh ! Thats a great deal you got ! Where did you get it from ? How is the battery performance ? And how is the screen condition ? wear and Tear ? Scratches ?

 

[eplchamps]

Oh ! Thats a great deal you got ! Where did you get it from ? How is the battery performance ? And how is the screen condition ? wear and Tear ? Scratches ?

I got it through the selling app - Letgo. Seller listed it for $140 and the ad was over a month old. Messaged the seller with a $100 offer and he accepted. Condition was good minor scratches here and there. No accessories and the battery is at 90 percent according to Battery Life app.

 

[augustya]

So guys I am getting confused in this, So If I just wanna use the Mini as a Remote Controller Device just to stream Music to my AirPlay Speakers Via Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, where there is also an option to save Offline Music, where it downloads and saves the Track on the device, so that occupies some space aswell on the device, but I do not like, save like a Huge pile of Tracks (I might just occasionally do that, if I may have liked something) So Music and apart from that some occasional photos do you guys think I really need an iPad-3 or later for that because that is changing the Price game.Basically for my needs I just wanna have a small Apple iPad Remote Control in the form of Mini !

The iPad Mini-2 which is available at $150-$180 The Mini 3 and all is all $250 and upwards. So do I need an iPad Mini-3 & 4 in this ? And would 64GB of storage be OK ?