everal years ago, I was in love with the iPad Mini. It had a 7.9-inch high-res Retina display and it wasn't much larger than a Kindle. It could handle my everyday work and was small enough to sneak along with me wherever I went. It was the perfect travel gadget. It made me wonder why I ever needed a larger iPad at all.
Now, of course, I wonder whether I even need an iPad at all, since phones are larger and laptops have gotten more versatile. But the iPad Mini 4 has caught my eye again and I've used it constantly. I like it. But I don't know if it's my favorite iPad anymore.
2014's iPad Mini 3 wasn't really an update; it was, quite literally, just a 2013 iPad Mini 2 with the addition of a Touch ID home button for fingerprint identification. The Mini 4 is the iPad I wanted last year: it has an upgraded A8 processor, better cameras, and a more vivid, color-rich Retina display, and on top of all that it's a bit thinner and lighter. It also supports split-screen apps, the coolest part of iOS 9 -- the Mini 4 joins the iPad Air 2 and the upcoming iPad Pro as the only iPads that can do it.
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To add LTE support -- for using cellular data when there's no Wi-Fi to be found -- add $130 (or £100, AU$160) at each price point, and adjust your cellphone billing plan accordingly. My review version is the 64GB $629 model with Verizon LTE service.
It's also worth pointing out that -- at each storage capacity -- you're saving $100 over that larger Air 2, Apple's 2014 9.7-inch model which remains in the lineup. But it begs the question: If you're spending this much on a tablet, why not get the larger, faster iPad Air 2? (With that model already seeing some impressive holiday discounts, the question is even more relevant.)
The reverse is also true. Apple's 2013 iPad Mini 2 remains on the market, with a reduced list price of $269 (16GB) and $319 (32GB) -- £219, AU$369 or £259, AU$429, respectively -- and already seen on sale for as little as $199. Yes, it's not as zippy as the Mini 4, and it lacks the newer model's Touch ID fingerprint reader.
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The best part of the Mini was always how portable it was, without much sacrifice. That's still true here. iOS 9 feels like a perfect fit, too, and that might be the best reason to look into this iPad. If you liked the design before and don't already have a huge phone, this is a versatile little tablet.
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A 'tweener tablet
So, let's assume you have a 5-inch or larger phone. The extra space of a 7.9-inch tablet is nothing to sneeze at; it adds up to significantly more screen real estate than you'd expect, and its 4:3 aspect ratio fits word processing and productivity apps better than 16:9.But the days of clear divisions between gadget screens are over. It's a gentle curve from tiny all the way up to super-big, and you pick the size that works best for you.
The Mini still feels like a superior e-reading device: it's Kindle-like and easy to tuck away in a small bag. I've taken notes on mine, too, in landscape mode. But you can do a lot of movie-watching and game-playing on larger-screened phones now, too.
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Compared to previous recent iPad Mini models, the screen is enhanced. It has the same 2,048x1,536 "Retina" resolution as the iPad Mini 2 and 3, and adds the same laminated display and antireflective coating as the iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro. The difference was noticeable, giving the screen a real pop -- colors seem richer and more vivid, too, matching the quality of the Air 2.
The front-facing 1.2-megapixel FaceTime camera is the same one found on all current iPads (except for the addition of burst mode), but the rear iSight camera gets ramped up from 5 to 8 megapixels to match the one on the iPad Air 2.
I wouldn't want to shoot a feature film with it, but it's good for the sort of home movies that are the more common target of tablet video shoots. More importantly, it's a very solid tablet for making FaceTime and Skype video calls.
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