iPad mini Replacing a Mini 1: Is the Mini 4 that much "better" than the 3?

[DC Wallaby]

The Mini 3 is the only iPad Mini generation I haven't owned, because ... let's be honest, if you're buying the Mini 3, you may as well just buy an iPad Mini 2 because they are virtually identical aside from TouchID. The Mini 3 was a rather pointless update overall, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

That said, having owned the iPad Mini 2 and iPad Mini 4, it's hard to beat the power of an iPad Air 2 in the smaller form factor. I would choose the Mini 4 any day of the week, and it'll be useful to you for a lot longer than the Mini 2/3 would be.

 

[ScottNWDW]

I have had the mini 4 since Christmas now and to be honest it is one of the best iPads out there. It does everything my iPad Air 2 does and both of them are set up to be pretty much identical in the apps department. I may download different movies on each one for greater variety when I take them traveling, but that's about as far as the differences go.

 

[Ffosse]

Even the latest iPad Pro has 2GB of RAM. I wouldn't say they skimped on the Mini. The RAM needs of iOS and Android are not the same. Android devices have always had more RAM and processor cores.

Yes, and they skimped on the RAM - should have been 4Gb like the larger model.

 

[Donka]

The RAM issue to me is fragmentation. We know iOS runs fine under 1GB RAM (even 512mb for the most part) but certain apps will happily benefit from extra RAM. Having a single device with 4GB RAM could be a pain point for developers who would like to utilise the extra RAM but are constrained by the lower spec'd devices. We already had that but adding 4GB to the device line up fragments further. I would prefer to see us get to a minimum RAM size of 2GB with all 'Pro' devices have 4GB in the short term.

 

[Leo90]

You get double the ram/better screen/faster processor with iPad Mini 4 compared to iPad mini 3/2, hence totally worth the extra price.