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iPad mini 2019 review: the best small tablet - YouTube
Channel: The Verge
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Okay, it's a new iPad mini.
[2]
It looks exactly like the old iPad mini,
[5]
and the one before that,
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and the one before that,
[8]
and the one before that.
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Seriously, here's a
first channel iPad mini
[11]
from 2012, and here's the new one.
[14]
They look almost identical
from the outside.
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Same form factor, same aluminum body,
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same giant bezels, same headphone jack,
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same camera placements,
even the same Smart Covers.
[23]
If you had any previous
iPad mini and have secretly
[26]
replaced it with this new one,
there's a chance you might
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not even notice the difference.
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All of the changes to the
new mini are on the inside,
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and they're pretty significant,
which they should be,
[35]
seeing as it's been almost
four years since the
[37]
iPad mini 4 was released.
[38]
Now, these internals are
really similar to the new
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iPad Air, which Apple
also announced this week.
[43]
I've actually got one here,
but Dieter is really excited
[46]
about reviewing it, so he's
going to do that next week.
[48]
I'm going to focus on the
mini, which, honestly,
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I've grown really fond of
over these past few days.
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It's been a really fun review.
[55]
(light hip music)
[58]
I asked people what they
wanted to know about the
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iPad mini on Twitter, and
the most popular questions,
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by far, were either “Why does this exist?”
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or “Why should I buy one?”
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Which are pretty fair
questions, but I think they have
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a really simple answer:
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because you want a killer small tablet.
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That's it!
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That's the whole reason
this new iPad mini exists.
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There simply isn't another
tablet at this size
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that can compete.
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Small Android tablets usually
have much slower processors
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and are really designed
for watching video.
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There isn't a great app ecosystem.
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And there just aren't
any small Windows tablets,
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apart from the Surface Go,
which is still really big
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compared to the mini.
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With the new mini, you
get basically the entire
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feature set of the new
iPad Air in a small,
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premium package with
more tablet app support
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than basically anything
else in the market.
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If you are the sort of
person who wants a powerful,
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small tablet, the new iPad
mini is the best choice,
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full stop.
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I mean, it's basically the only choice.
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Now, that's not to say this
new iPad mini is perfect
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or even that it's state-of-the-art.
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It kind of feels like Apple
put together a bunch of stuff
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from the iPad parts bin,
and called it a day.
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But the good news is
that the iPad parts bin
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is full of pretty good parts.
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So it worked out.
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Here's what's new.
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You've got an A12 processor
with Apple's Neural Engine,
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an updated 7.9-inch display
with Apple Pencil support,
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new cellular radios with gigabit LTE
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and dual-SIM support in the cell model,
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a new 7-megapixel
front-facing camera with an
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f/2.2 lens.
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Then, there's the old stuff.
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You've still got a physical
Touch ID button on the front.
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There's no Face ID or
fancy haptic button here.
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Two stereo speakers on the bottom.
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On the back, it's the
same old 8-megapixel
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f/2.4 camera, which takes
extremely medium photos,
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and there's a Lightning
connector on the bottom,
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not USB-C like the new iPad Pros.
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Apple told me that they
think of USB-C as an iPad Pro
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feature and that it was
also really important
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to maintain compatibility
with the existing ecosystem
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of iPad mini accessories and use cases.
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So, they stuck with Lightning.
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I get that.
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You can't really swap out
an old mini for a new one
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with no disruption if you change the port.
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But at this point, Apple's
connector situation
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is just super confusing.
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Is the future USB-C or not?
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Someone, anyone, let me know.
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Apple Pencil support is equally confusing.
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The new iPad Pro came out late last year
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with the second-gen Pencil that
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magnetically clips onto
the side of the iPad
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and charges wirelessly. But
the new mini doesn't have
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any of that.
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Instead, you've got
Apple's first-gen Pencil,
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which, yeah.
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(light music)
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Using the old Pencil is
why I say it feels like Apple raided the
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iPad parts bin.
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The new Pencil is so much
better than this one.
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It's easier to hold,
it's easier to charge,
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it's easier to keep track of, it
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doesn't have a silly cap for you to lose.
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If there was killer
competition for small tablets,
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I bet Apple would've gone
with the second-gen Pencil
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on the new mini. But there isn't,
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so you get the first-gen Pencil.
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Do your best to hold on to the cap.
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The Pencil itself feels just
like the first-gen Pencil
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on any other iPad.
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It's fast and responsive.
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It works great across apps that supported it,
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and it generally makes the iPad feel like
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much more than just a consumption device.
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But it's not bundled in a box.
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It's another $99, which
raises the total cost
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of the new mini to $500 to start.
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That feels like a miss.
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If Apple is serious about
the Pencil on the iPad,
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it should start putting it in the box.
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(upbeat music)
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Aside from Pencil support,
the display is very nice
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in the way that premium Apple LCDs
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are always very nice.
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It's laminated, unlike the cheapest iPad,
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so it feels like you're
touching the pixels,
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and it's got wide color
support and a respectable 500
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nits of brightness.
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What it doesn't have is
ProMotion, which is Apple's
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fancy variable refresh
rate tech that makes
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scrolling super smooth.
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I love ProMotion. I think it's the best.
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But I honestly didn't find
myself missing it too much
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on the mini's small screen.
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The A12 processor on the
iPad mini is the same chip
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in the iPhone XS and
XR, so it's plenty fast.
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I didn't encounter any slowdowns or lags
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as I edited photos in Lightroom,
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played a few games, and
tried a couple AR demos.
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The mini runs the same
iOS 12 as other iPads,
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which means you can multitask on a mini,
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which is hilarious on a screen this small.
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Here's two open apps, a popover window,
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and a video window going all
at once, and everything is
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working just fine.
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Now, I'm on record saying
iOS 12 is too limited
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to support replacing a
laptop with the iPad Pro,
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but the mini doesn't have to carry
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any of those expectations.
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So, to me, the trade-offs
feel way more acceptable.
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So those are the highlights
apart from battery life,
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which, honestly, I haven't
had enough time to test.
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Apple quotes about 10 hours
of video playback time,
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and the mini has been running
for more than a day so far.
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No iPad has ever really
had battery life issues,
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so I'm not that worried about it.
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Speaking of the other iPads,
it's worth noting that
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Apple's got a pretty intense
lineup of tablets now.
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There's the cheap $329
9.7-inch iPad with the
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slower processor and a just-okay display,
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the new $399 iPad mini and $499 iPad Air,
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which basically share a spec
sheet, aside from screen size
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and a Smart Keyboard connector on the Air,
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and the two sizes of iPad
Pro, which are marketed
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as full-on laptop replacements
and start at $800.
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Like I said, Dieter's going to
review that new Air soon,
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but there's basically an
iPad in every price point
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between $300 and $1,500 now.
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That's a lot.
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After using the new iPad mini for a while,
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I grew pretty fond of it.
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Phones and tablets have just
been getting bigger and bigger
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for years now, and it's
refreshing to use a tablet
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that stubbornly remains small.
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I liked reading on it
better than my big iPads.
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I felt less rude using it
in meetings than my phone
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or my laptop, and I was less bothered
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by the many limitations on iOS 12
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because the mini is so
obviously a secondary computer.
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And iOS devices have been getting
increasingly complicated
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and expensive lately,
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and reviewing them often feels
like I have to figure out
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if they're worth the huge cost premium.
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Reviewing the mini, on the
other hand, has been really fun
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because it's obviously
worth $399 if you want
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a small tablet, especially
considering the last mini
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went for four years without any changes.
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This thing is built to last.
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The question is really just if you want a
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killer small tablet and how you use it.
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That is really up to you.
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Hey, everybody. Apple put out
the iPad Air this week as well.
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It's basically got the
same specs as the mini
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and a larger screen.
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Dieter's going to review that next week,
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so keep it locked, YouTube.com/TheVerge.
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