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All iPads Still no Mini 3 Teardown?
- Thread starter rrrahu1
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The mini 3 has the same chip as the mini 2 so extremely doubtful that it will have 2gb ram
You don't need a teardown to determine RAM, plenty of software/apps can show this, and yes Touch ID is the only difference.
The A7 in the original mini (APL0698) was packaged with RAM. The A7 in the iPad Air (APL5698) could have adjacent RAM added. They would either have redo their A7 Mini package, or retrofit the Air A7 package for the smaller Mini. It seems unlikely they would go through the trouble, especially given that A.) They seem to be position the Air as the flagship device and B.) The old rumors of split screen multitasking seemed to say that only the larger iPad would get that feature. However I would love to be proved wrong! RAM is probably the biggest single hardware component that contributes to longevity in modern iOS devices.
I want to see a tear down to confirm the RAM is the same--otherwise I'm probably getting a refurb mini 2 (anyone have experience with a refurb one). I guess I just have a hard time believe that apple did nothing more than it did, even though that's what it seems.
Got my refurb mini 2 today. Only noticeable difference against new is the box says refurb on it. Great savings at the moment, they won't last, apple clearly wants to shift stock so people wanting more than 32 GB have to buy the mini 3
Why. Have you seen a tear down? Yes, everyone believes it is 100% identical except for the Touch ID, but people are curious if there was a silent change as well.
(And it isn't exactly the same because of the Touch ID and shiny gold color)
I thinking of ditching my iPad Air for a mini 4th gen next year. I am wondering how does the current stack up for long term use in hands. I still find the iPad Air annoying to hold and heavy when i am lying down in bed. In terms of performance i am wondering how safari fairs and how World of Warcraft Hearthstone (if anyone here plays it on their mini) preforms, as it is the only game i seem to be playing on my iPad nowadays.
Truthfully I see little to no real world difference between my air 2 and rMinn when doing side by side testing. With the air 2 you can have a ton of tabs open and Safari will not reload like the mini does but that's about it.
The mini with Retina does great with Hearthstone. It's a shame they didn't upgrade the Mini this year, but the reality is that most apps aren't going to take advantage of the new chipset until at least next year because it's not in the app-makers best interest to build apps/games that only a small subset of users can take advantage of. Right now the Mini 2 is the best iPad on the market when you base it on portability/price/performance.
I spent some time at the Apple Store yesterday looking at the Air 2. While I was there, I pulled the Air 2 and Mini 3 side by side to do a quick test to see if the Gamut issue had been fixed. I think we pretty much already knew it hadn't. But, worth a quick test.
Last October, when I briefly had all 3 tablets (Mini 1, Mini 2 and Air), I compared a picture I took (below), having a lot of Purple in it, to see how well the 3,tablets displayed the color. The Mini's have trouble with this color and with red (ie reds aren't pure red, but appear more orange). The 2 Mini's on the right & Air on the left. The 2 Mini's display the purple as blue.....the purple flowers are correctly displayed on the Air).
Yesterday while in the Apple Store, I pulled up the same photo (from my photo site) and compared it on each tablet. The results: The Mini 3 still displays the purple as blue and the colors in general appeared just as muted and lackluster as they did on The Mini 2 I owned for the past year. So at least the display appears to be the same. I'm betting tests (displaymate, etc...) will confirm the Mini 3 still has the same 63% gamut.
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The mini 4 will likely still be limited to 1GB of RAM because that's what the iPhone 6 and 6+ have.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I will wait it out till next year as my Air is still running great, and than i will ditch her for a mini as the iPhones seem to be getting bigger screens every two years .
Oh, so it was "tear down". I assumed "Tate down" was a typo for "Take down". Oh well!
Yes. Here
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad+Mini+3+Teardown/30628
Like I said. It is a Mini 2 with touch ID.
