Should I just get the old iPad Mini instead of the new one with retina display?

[Bhawnalovezu]

I've been waiting for the new one for a really long time, and the new iPad Mini has finally been released in the Philippines yesterday.

I wasn't really sure back which of the two to get, but I decided to wait so that if I do end up getting the old one, it would at least be a lot cheaper.

The 16GB version costs $460 while the old one costs $345. There was only a $20 decrease of price in the old one, which is of course, really disappointing. Do you think that it is worth to spend all that money for the new iPad Mini or is the price way too unreasonable?

I am going to use the tablet mainly for surfing, videos, reading, games, and powerpoint presentations.

BQ: How many GB should I get? Would 16 be enough for games, some ebooks, and notes in class?

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[HenryLong]

Go for the new one, it's definitely worth it!

IMHO capacity of an iPad should not be less than 32 GB.

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

Go for the new one, it's definitely worth it!

IMHO capacity of an iPad should not be less than 32 GB.

Hello! Thanks for the reply. Today, I found out that a shop at the mall still sells the 32 GB version of the old iPad Mini at the same price of the new 16 GB iPad Mini 2 ($418) - a lot cheaper than from the apple store. Which do you think I should go for? The 32 GB of the new one is out of my budget, so I'm not really sure at this moment which to pick. Really appreciate your time and knowledge. Thank you!

 

[JackieInCo]

Hello! Thanks for the reply. Today, I found out that a shop at the mall still sells the 32 GB version of the old iPad Mini at the same price of the new 16 GB iPad Mini 2 ($418) - a lot cheaper than from the apple store. Which do you think I should go for? The 32 GB of the new one is out of my budget, so I'm not really sure at this moment which to pick. Really appreciate your time and knowledge. Thank you!

Keep saving until you can afford the Retina Mini. You will not regret it.

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

Keep saving until you can afford the Retina Mini. You will not regret it.

I wish I could and I would love to save a few more bucks for the 32 GB but my family finds it quite unreasonable to spend more for a device like that. Thanks for the advice though! I really appreciate it.

 

[The Doctor11]

iPad with retina display!!!

Its much much much better. Go with that. 16 gigs should be fine.

 

[JackieInCo]

I wish I could and I would love to save a few more bucks for the 32 GB but my family finds it quite unreasonable to spend more for a device like that. Thanks for the advice though! I really appreciate it.

Remember though, on the 16GB iPad, there is only about 13GB of space.

 

[AndrewMRiv]

I've been waiting for the new one for a really long time, and the new iPad Mini has finally been released in the Philippines yesterday.

I wasn't really sure back which of the two to get, but I decided to wait so that if I do end up getting the old one, it would at least be a lot cheaper.

The 16GB version costs $460 while the old one costs $345. There was only a $20 decrease of price in the old one, which is of course, really disappointing. Do you think that it is worth to spend all that money for the new iPad Mini or is the price way too unreasonable and I should just stick to the old one?

I am going to use the tablet mainly for surfing, videos, reading, games, and powerpoint presentations.

BQ: How many GB should I get? Would 16 be enough for games, some ebooks, and notes in class?

Thank you so much for your help!

Hello, I have a lot of family members in the Philippines so I am sure that they are going to be jumping on the new iPads as well! Good luck to you!

As an owner of the regular iPad Mini with 16gb, I can say that it will definitely be enough for your needs. I only wish that I got one with larger capacity since I store several videos on it. Before I started adding videos to it, it had more than enough space for notes and games.

As for Retina vs Non Retina, my friend got the Retina iPad Mini we both put the brightness to 100%. There wasn't TOO big of a difference. It wasn't like "day and night" but his was a bit clearer. I personally wish that I had waited for a Retina iPad Mini, but that is only because in my head I like to have the best of the best. As long as you don't put a screen protector on your iPad's screen (and frequently clean it) then it should remain looking beautiful. The only real difference I saw on the home screen was that his screen appeared to be a tad brighter and everything was bit sharper.

It is up to you. The regular iPad Mini does NOT have an ugly screen by any means, but my personal bias likes the Retina iPad Mini. My friend dubbed it "the best iPad ever so far."

I hope this helped.

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

Hello, I have a lot of family members in the Philippines so I am sure that they are going to be jumping on the new iPads as well! Good luck to you!

As an owner of the regular iPad Mini with 16gb, I can say that it will definitely be enough for your needs. I only wish that I got one with larger capacity since I store several videos on it. Before I started adding videos to it, it had more than enough space for notes and games.

As for Retina vs Non Retina, my friend got the Retina iPad Mini we both put the brightness to 100%. There wasn't TOO big of a difference. It wasn't like "day and night" but his was a bit clearer. I personally wish that I had waited for a Retina iPad Mini, but that is only because in my head I like to have the best of the best. As long as you don't put a screen protector on your iPad's screen (and frequently clean it) then it should remain looking beautiful. The only real difference I saw on the home screen was that his screen appeared to be a tad brighter and everything was bit sharper.

It is up to you. The regular iPad Mini does NOT have an ugly screen by any means, but my personal bias likes the Retina iPad Mini. My friend dubbed it "the best iPad ever so far."

I hope this helped.

Hey! Thank you so much for your reply. I actually recently found a store that sells the old 32gb iPad Mini and the new iPad Mini (16gb) for almost the same price, with the new one being a tad expensive. I am actually kind of debating right now, whether to get the higher quality or quantity. How does the new ipad and old compare performance wise? I also heard that the apps now are 5x larger due to it bring retina optimized. Is this true? I was leaning towards the new one, but this really made me reconsider. Will the old, perhaps 16gb (or 32) suffice? I'm so sorry for all the questions. I'm just really confused and I want to make sure I choose the right one as I will be using it for at least 2 years. Thank you so so much! This really means a lot to me. I hope you and your family have a merry Christmas!

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

Its much much much better. Go with that. 16 gigs should be fine.

Alrighty! Thanks!

----------

Remember though, on the 16GB iPad, there is only about 13GB of space.

Aww.. I have a 16gb iPod touch, and I currently have around 125+ apps and a gb of music and pictures respectively. Right now, I have around 3 gb left. For some reason, the data on the apps increased, which kind of filled it up. I feel that it might be enough but I also heard that apps are larger on iPads. I hope this is not true. Can you confirm this? :/

Thank you so much!

 

[maflynn]

I am going to use the tablet mainly for surfing, videos, reading, games, and powerpoint presentations.

BQ: How many GB should I get? Would 16 be enough for games, some ebooks, and notes in class?

I think the retina based model will excel at reading, due to the superior display. The 16GB should be fine, though I will say that if you plan on having movies on the iPad you may run into some storage constraints.

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

I think the retina based model will excel at reading, due to the superior display. The 16GB should be fine, though I will say that if you plan on having movies on the iPad you may run into some storage constraints.

I often stream videos online, so that won't be much of an issue hopefully. May I know how large a standard iPad app is? Thank you so much!

 

[rctlr]

I got three Non retina, 16gb ipad minis for my daughters for Yule.

As they mainly watch youtube using the app, movies using AirVideo HD, and music via spotify, they are stoked, and 16gb is more than enough.

The eldest will be using it for college, but we'll be providing her with Seagate Wireless Plus HD, where she can keep her videos and photos stored on that, dropbox for misc, and icloud for documents.

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

I got three Non retina, 16gb ipad minis for my daughters for Yule.

As they mainly watch youtube using the app, movies using AirVideo HD, and music via spotify, they are stoked, and 16gb is more than enough.

The eldest will be using it for college, but we'll be providing her with Seagate Wireless Plus HD, where she can keep her videos and photos stored on that, dropbox for misc, and icloud for documents.

That sounds like a great idea! I'll make sure to check those out. Those would certainly be helpful as I am really leaning towards the 16gb model now. Thank you so much!

 

[AndrewMRiv]

Hey! Thank you so much for your reply. I actually recently found a store that sells the old 32gb iPad Mini and the new iPad Mini (16gb) for almost the same price, with the new one being a tad expensive. I am actually kind of debating right now, whether to get the higher quality or quantity. How does the new ipad and old compare performance wise? I also heard that the apps now are 5x larger due to it bring retina optimized. Is this true? I was leaning towards the new one, but this really made me reconsider. Will the old, perhaps 16gb (or 32) suffice? I'm so sorry for all the questions. I'm just really confused and I want to make sure I choose the right one as I will be using it for at least 2 years. Thank you so so much! This really means a lot to me. I hope you and your family have a merry Christmas!

I did not get to play with my friend's Retina iPad Mini too much, but it would make sense for the performance to be faster due to the faster processor and for the apps to be larger due to its extra amount of pixels.

You sound a bit like me that you would regret it later on if you got the regular one rather than the cool new Retina one.

I would say to go for the retina!

16gb. You just have to make sure that is all you need. Do you already have a current iPad right now? If so, is it enough space or do you wish you had more?

If you don't have an iPad, what about an iPhone or iPod? If you were to remove the songs from those would you have enough space?

Also, for notes in class, if you download Pages, you can have your documents save onto your iCloud which would result in you not taking up any extra space on your iPad (since its stored in cloud storage).

Good luck and thank you!

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

I did not get to play with my friend's Retina iPad Mini too much, but it would make sense for the performance to be faster due to the faster processor and for the apps to be larger due to its extra amount of pixels.

You sound a bit like me that you would regret it later on if you got the regular one rather than the cool new Retina one.

I would say to go for the retina!

16gb. You just have to make sure that is all you need. Do you already have a current iPad right now? If so, is it enough space or do you wish you had more?

If you don't have an iPad, what about an iPhone or iPod? If you were to remove the songs from those would you have enough space?

Also, for notes in class, if you download Pages, you can have your documents save onto your iCloud which would result in you not taking up any extra space on your iPad (since its stored in cloud storage).

Good luck and thank you!

I currently have a 16gb iPod touch 4, and so far, I have around 3gb left. My music and pictures took up 1 gb respectively, and the apps and some notes took up the rest. I've had it for almost a year now and I did not find any problem with the storage (I rarely download apps which take up more than 50mb, but I did notice that the data keeps increasing by itself), although, I kind of feel that due to the app size being larger on iPads, I would end up filling it up twice as fast. This is pretty much my only fear and what's holding me back. I think that I might just go for the 16gb, especially since I'm going to use the internet and iBooks most of the time anyway.
Thank you so much!

 

[ElectronGuru]

I upgraded from the 1 to the 2. They are both great devices. The choice is all about the screen but isn't.

The A7 is epic and the extra ram helps too. It's really about how much performance you need overall. If this is doing a lot for you and you'll use it much of the day and waiting for things to load/draw slows you down, go with the 2. If this is casual, few times a week, go with the 1.

If your at 80%+ on 16 already, def get the 32. If you want to have video (more than a movie or two), make it 64.

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

I upgraded from the 1 to the 2. They are both great devices. The choice is all about the screen but isn't.

The A7 is epic and the extra ram helps too. It's really about how much performance you need overall. If this is doing a lot for you and you'll use it much of the day and waiting for things to load/draw slows you down, go with the 2. If this is casual, few times a week, go with the 1.

If your at 80%+ on 16 already, def get the 32. If you want to have video (more than a movie or two), make it 64.

Thank you! I heard that the new one is going to get 1gb of ram. What exactly are the benefits of having a higher number of it on tablets?
I might use the internet more with the iPad, 'cause I already have a lot of apps and music stored on my iPod. I might just get the 2nd gen. Thanks again. Merry Christmas!

 

[SusanK]

The first generation iPad mini 32 and 64 gig are available on the refurb site. The 32 is $339 and the 64 is 419.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Thank you! I heard that the new one is going to get 1gb of ram. What exactly are the benefits of having a higher number of it on tablets?

Same as a computer. More RAM means being able to do more things at the same time. If you regularly keep 5+ tabs and 10+ apps running at the same time, 512mb will feel crowded. Basically, go with the 2 if youre a power user.

BTW, I got so used to the instant page load speeds on the 2 with full wifi bars, that I ended up buying an Express to extend full bars to the far reaches of my network.

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

The first generation iPad mini 32 and 64 gig are available on the refurb site. The 32 is $339 and the 64 is 419.

I can't seem to find it anywhere on my country's site. I don't think they sell refurb ones here. :/

Thanks though!

 

[Bhawnalovezu]

Same as a computer. More RAM means being able to do more things at the same time. If you regularly keep 5+ tabs and 10+ apps running at the same time, 512mb will feel crowded. Basically, go with the 2 if youre a power user.

BTW, I got so used to the instant page load speeds on the 2 with full wifi bars, that I ended up buying an Express to extend full bars to the far reaches of my network.

That's crazy lol. I am definitely going to get the 2 now. I actually went to the mall this morning to buy the 2, but unfortunately, the store where I planned to buy it was closed since it's Christmas. Almost all other shops were opened though, including the iStore, so I was able to play around a bit with the display models. I definitely noticed some differences, especially with the speed it took to load web pages and games, although, the screen did not really look as bad on the old one as I imagined. Still going with the new though. Thank you!