Quandary over OS for iPad

[cheddar-caveman]

To date I have tried both iPad mini 3 & 4 for running the DJI Fly App for flying my DJI Mini 2 drone.
The 4 was OK for quite some time until DJI modified the Fly App and it is overloading the iPad 4.
So now looking at the iPad 5 & 6 as DJI say both of these are compatible, have the processing power as long as they have an older OS below 15.
All the ones I look at have the "latest" OS 15+ running. Is it at all possible to downgrade to an earlier version? I have read that Rene.e can do this? Can anyone confirm this as I don't want to trash the iPad if I buy it.
Thanks

 

[cynics]

I have no problems piloting a Mini2 from the Fly App via an iPad Mini 5. Although I feel the iPad Mini 6 would be a better investment because of its generational leaps in SoC plus it has 4 GB of RAM. Buying an iPad Mini 5 at this point will just lead to you having another outdated iPad Mini before you get the iPad Mini 6.

Couple problems with rolling back iOS/iPadOS. First the iPad Mini 6 shipped with iPadOS 15, there isn't a working older iOS version for it, aka no iPadOS 14. Secondly the oldest signed IPSW is 15.6. So there isn't a straight forward way to roll back either iPad Mini 5 or 6 to a version prior to iPadOS 15.6.

Plus you said it yourself, DJI app update overloads the CPU. While there MIGHT be a performance enhancement on iOS 14 with the iPad Mini 4 its overlooking the actual problem....DJI app update overloading the CPU. However another way of saying that is the hardware in the iPad Mini 4 isn't powerful enough anymore.

The iPad Mini 5's A12 SoC is an enhancement to the tech found in the A11 SoC which uses much more powerful high power and high efficiency cores but also implemented Apples Neural Engine. Those things allow background task to be processed much more efficiently with minimal effect on foreground task.

The iPad Mini 4 not only has less RAM (2gb) to utilize for task but this also causes the already slow (comparatively) SoC to need to work hard to manage the RAM. Lose lose situation. The iPad Mini 5 got 3gb and the 6 got 4gb.

Regardless of the device you use I would still close out all the apps in the multitasking tray. Turn off background app refresh. Minimize notification. Turn off auto updates. Etc etc etc...anything that could run in the background. Plus to avoid CPU/GPU throttling I would minimize screen brightness as much as reasonably possible (hard outside) and keep charging off if reasonably possible. Both of those things add a considerable amount of heat into the unit and its can easily cause throttling.

Good Luck!

 

[cheddar-caveman]

Many thanks cynics, most helpful.
Looks like saving up for a Mini 6 it has to be. Birthday coming up next month🤔🤔🤔

 

[cheddar-caveman]

Rumour has it my family are clubbing together to get me the iPad mini 6 for my 84th. next month 😎😎😎