iPad mini 5 (2019) Review By Vector

First Apple created iPad, then iPad Mini, then Apple destroyed, iPad and created iPad Air only to destroy iPad Air and create iPad Pro twice thrice face whatever now, Apple has recreated iPad and finally iPad Mini and iPad Air as well. So what we have now for the first time is a fairly complete lineup of iPads from entry-level to mid-range to top-end, and that's thanks in large part to the new iPad Mini 5 and iPad Air 3 I got to spend some time with both in New York City and while I only managed who helps conned with the new mini. The new air is almost identical since I spent the better part of a year with the old 10.5-inch iPad Pro. As my primary iPad and I realize a lot of you want all the information possible to make the best buying decision possible as soon as possible. I'm going to offer up some preliminary thoughts on that as well. In other words, you're going to get twice the video bang for your view.

I'm Rene Richie, and this is vector before we get started. I'm just going to hit this mini here with the unbox hammer and see what we find, and it's pretty much what we always find: iPad pamphlets, stickers, charging, brick and lightning, cable and yeah more on that l-word in a scalding hot minute. The iPad Mini 5 is exactly the same size as the Mini 4. That's seven point nine inches on the diagonal for the display the iPad Air 3 is bigger than the air 2, though it doesn't quite go to 11 like the 2018 pro, but it gets pretty close. Ten point five inches, just like the 2017 pro now that might make it sound ever so slightly less portable than the previous generation air.

But, as Apple said a couple of years ago, when they debuted the 10.5 inch size, it's just perfect for the on screen and external keyboard. So in my opinion the trade-off is well worth it. Sticking with a 7.9 inch model in the age of iPhone.10's max might also seem strange to some people, big phones, overlapping with small tablets and all I've been guilty of saying that myself. But the aspect ratio actually does make a difference. Phones are big now, but skinny and tall.

That means documents are constrained not by the height but by the width, and that makes them small iPad Mini at four by three. Instead of nineteen point. Five by nine doesn't have that problem. It's not just that it's almost twice as large as the max pages fit on it almost perfectly as well, resulting in not just a bigger but much better experience. Sure if you don't want to have to buy or carry both a phone or tablet, the max is still a great mix, but if you do want a small tablet, it definitely still has some advantages over even a bigger phone stating the wicked obvious.

The design language of these new iPads is ancient or I. Guess classic, if you prefer both retain touch ID the second faster generation sensor and have the bezels to go along with it, which you know, isn't my personal preference, but some people legitimately prefer them. The bigger gripping area, regardless of things like palm rejection, just makes them feel more comfortable about holding it and yeah every time. I get that cockamamie camera covered warning on the latest generation, iPad pros, because I mostly use them in landscape and face ID, just ain't on top, like that chief I sympathize with them so much regardless Apple is saving the new design language for the high end, at least for now same with the speakers. The pros have for that adjusts the sound dynamically with the iPad orientation.

So, as you turn, it turns the mini five and air three stick to two which rotate the sound with the iPad, adjusting it not at all, that's nowhere, nearly as good, especially in landscape, but it's part of what's keeping the sticker price non-pro as well and yeah. They have lightning instead of USB, see for some people, especially those with tons of lightning accessories. Already, that's, probably more of a benefit than a drag for nerds like me, though, the ones who just want to plug everything into the same port, not so much, but it's obviously yet another point Apple is using for differentiation. In other words, if you want that more computer like connector, so you can hook up an external display and all of your other pro creativity, toys, you're still gonna- have to go with the pro creativity iPad, but that also means both still have their 3.5 millimeter headphone jacks, which is something the fancy new pro's and their narrower bezels. Just don't have room for anymore.

I've got ear, pods I'm fine, but for people who just prefer old, school, headphones or legitimately need to be able to conveniently listen and charge at the same time. For accessibility, these might be even better, then there's the silver, the Space Gray and wait for it. Apple's current coppery gold options, the latter of which Apple won't even give the pros anymore, not at any size, I guess out of risk of distracting us with all that shiny as someone who just loves all the colors and finishes and wishes we'd see even more of them like product red, at least it's something both the iPad Mini 5 and the iPad Air 3 have fully laminated displays, just like the iPad Mini 4 and the iPad Air 2 of yesteryear, and that's a considerable step up from the currently non laminated. Nine point: seven-inch iPad nothing, especially when combined with his anti-glare coating for really low reflectivity. It's not something everyone notices all the time, but if you're in bad indoor or bright outdoor lighting, it can really make a difference, especially for your eyes.

They're also DCPIP, three wide gamut color. So your Reds look really bright fiery red and your greens are beyond verdant, making them better than any mini or air. That's ever come before again, not everyone appreciates or even notices, wide color. But if you're painting on your iPad or working with photos, it looks so good. It's hard to go back to plain old RGB, there's no 120 Hertz promotion either.

So, if you're waiting for the buttery fresh refresh rate you'll just have to keep waiting or go pro, but there is true tone which dynamically adjusts the display to match the color temperature of the world around you keeping whites white, not blue, white or yellow white, but crispy paper, white I know some people dislike it for photo editing or other color-sensitive work, but I love it and leave it on all the time. On the inside we have the Apple A12 Bionic system-on-a-chip, it's not quite the soc of the pros which have the even beefier a 12x there you have for efficiency and for performance cores. Well, here you have but two of the latter and for GPU cores, rather than the seven of the X with yeah three gigabytes of memory. There's no face ID, of course, not on either, but the knurl engine in the a12 can still help power, all the artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision, tasks, Apple and all the apps throw at it. Everything from photo enhancement to photos sorting to patterns to sets to all the heavy lifting all those crazy new core ml apps do every day.

As silicon goes, it's pretty much identical to the iPhone 10s and still a huge bump up from the 810 fusion found in the nine point, seven-inch, iPad never mind, the a8 or a 8x in the old Mini, 4 or air 2 for what are ostensibly mid-range tablets. A 12 is just ridiculously pie overpowered, but the same is true of iPhone 10s. That's kind of apples thing these days, though, building in enough overhead that your devices won't just fly now, but keep on flying for four to five years and iOS updates to come with the length of time. Most people keep iPads or hand them down. Now, that's flat-out, terrific and for now.

Well, you can play the hell out of games like fortnight at sixty frames per second, or you know feel free to insert whatever the current hot game paying streamers a million bucks. A pop to promote these days is right there. All of this, with the iPad standard promise of ten hours of battery life. For both, as always it'll take me a little while to do real real-world testing with them, but there's a Pok?mon Go community day again this weekend and that'll help. And yes, you can ? Pok?mon on an iPad, especially the GPS models which don't drift maddeningly, like the Wi-Fi, only ones that Wi-Fi by the way is the same as before up to 866 megabits per second MIMO.

The LTE is new and improved, though not 5g, of course, because well literal lol, there's just almost no 5g almost anywhere yet, but it is up to gigabit LTE and, as you already know, the EMD will stick a regular sim in at home. If you go for the cellular model and then sign up with an e sim for travel packages whenever and wherever you're on the road. The cellular models are more expensive, of course, but I always go for them aside from GPS, I use them all the time, while traveling to coffee shops or to other cities as giant long-lasting tethers from my Mac, it's much better and much more secure than using whatever coffee shop, Hotel or Airport. Wi-Fi is just lying around waiting set, my data. So to me, it's always worth it where the new iPad, Mini, 5 and iPad 3 story starts to break down.

For me at least, a little is with the cameras. I get we're not paying iPad Pro prices and the cuts have to come from somewhere, but 8 megapixels, F, 2.4 and 1080p on the back just feels so five years ago the a12 image signal processor, which ties into the neural engine for features like smart HDR, should still help make the older glass be all that it can be, but there's just still going to be limits to that older glass I know some bump. Haters love these cameras because it doesn't bump, and the iPad isn't often a primary camera, so it could well be the best cut for most people, but I'll take a better camera and a bump any day. There is better news upfront, though, and megapixel 1080p camera for FaceTime and iPad selfies, which are to a thing know an emoji or me. Emoji, though, because you guessed it, you need the true depth camera on the pros for that.

But everything else is tuned for AR. The way Apple has been tuning everything else on all their cameras for the last couple of years. Well, amazingly, well, actually like a crystal clear window into a virtual world, well playing around that everything is just so ultra smooth, so ultra realistic that I just can't wait to get all of this up off my face. The new mini supports the old Apple Pencil. That's right, the first generation, not the second, probably because putting a flat inductive charging edge on the side would not only make it look like an iPad Pro, but will make it cost more, like one ? sure yeah your left charging it out of the Lightning port like an animal, but I love it pencil part, not the charging it like an animal part.

It's like digital field notes with online sync something I've won. It held something I've dreamed about for years: I love it I, get that some people might not enjoy smaller canvases for art. I mean it's been fine for me, but sure, even so, everything from taking notes to marking up documents to free handing productivity, apps like pages and keynote works, a treat and just the ability to carry it around in your jacket or sure non-skinny, hipster, Jean, back pocket and just pull it out and start penciling is terrific for the 10.5 inch. The pencil story is pretty much the same as the older pro bigger screen, bigger canvas, but there's a new chapter with the 10.5 inch comes a 10.5 inch, smart keyboard, it's the old version like the pencil but confession I still kind of like it. Better you've got to origami at more sure, but the keys end up in not out and that just feels less like bubble wrap it's folded back, there's no such smart keyboard for the mini, which is understandable if sad trombone, given how small it is, but is it weirder that I kind of want to see what Apple would do with one anyway? The new mini starts at 399 and the new air at 499.

Now the internet seems split about the latter, maybe even all lion about it. Some think it's a real improvement on the air and right at that perfect original iPad price point. Others feel like it's a cut-down pro without a cut-down enough price. When you look at everything is still packing, though, especially with the addition of the 812 processor I, think it delivers significant value for the money, especially for people who want pro like features without the pro like priced to go with it as to the mini I. Initially thought I wanted an even cheaper entry-level model, absent laminated display and with an older chipset would have made the whole product line even more accessible, but I also kind of always wanted a more expensive full-on mini pro, as well with the new design, language and yeah, even with a tiny, smart keyboard.

If I could only have one I'd be hard-pressed to pick between them, but now it turns out. I don't have to Apple picked a middle ground for a new mid-range iPad Mini. That makes the most sense. So now both are the new baselines. The new mainstream's, the new normal I'm, still going to be sticking with the new Pro, because I love all the tech that's packed into it, but for most people, I'd absolutely recommend the new mini and err.

Instead, my mom, who currently has an heir to has already asked for the family to team up and get her in air 3 for her birthday, and my sister, who currently has a mini 3, has also already asked us all to team up and get her the new mini five for her birthday as well and I. Think that's exactly the market for it. Anyone who has a much older iPad, that's gotten a little too long in the Lightning port and is looking to upgrade or people who want pencil and maybe the smart Keyboard, but could never previously justify the price of a pro or looking to sell or hand down their existing iPad and move on to one of these or people who are just looking to get into their first iPad, but not necessarily at the first floor, not the penthouse either, but something Goldilocks just right in the middle, so bottom line, if neither lowest price nor highest performance are your primary drivers. These new iPads are everything you want an iPad to be, and, of course, one of the best things you can do with these new iPads isn't just cool. It's brilliant, brilliant, daily problems are a fun bite-sized way to master concepts by applying them.

Each problem comes with illustrations, animations or interactive visualizations and all the contexts you need to solve the problem yourself and that's just such a better, more intuitive, more engaging way to learn. Take this one turn on the lights, which deals with how electricity gets transformed into light sound and yeah everything on this iPad right here. If you want to be an engineer, it's a great place to start, but that's just one example out of so many. So if you want to actively learn new fascinating concepts each day and get 20% off the annual subscription to view all problems in the archives, just be one of the first 200 to head on over to brilliant org, slash, vector and finish your day, a little smarter every day, Thanks brilliant and thanks to all of you for supporting the show okay whew. So this has been a 72 hour.

World wind, but I'll be back with more much more on the new iPad Mini and the new iPad Air. So just let me know how deep you want me to go and if you have any specific questions you want answered, you know what to do hit like hit subscribe and then hit up the comments below and let me know and thank you so much for watching.

Source : Vector