The previous iPad mini 3 was hardly an upgrade. It was just an iPad mini 2 with TouchID and it comes available with a gold colour option. When the iPad Pro was announced yesterday, they managed to slit in the iPad mini 4 into the keynote without much fanfare.
So what’s new with the iPad mini 4? Surely it is better than the iPad mini 3 and it really is.
As usual, there’s nothing new with the design so it still retains the unmistakable iPad mini appearance with its unibody aluminium body. However Apple has made some significant changes on the overall dimensions. It is only 6.1mm thin, which is the same as the iPad Air 2, the thinnest for an iPad.
In addition, they have also made some weight reductions bringing it down from 331g previously for the WiFi version to just 298.8g. Likewise, the WiFi + 4G Cellular versions which used to weigh 340g on the iPad mini 3 is now just 304g.
The display is still the same 7.9″ incher but they have improved it with the same fully laminated display as the iPad Air 2 with additional anti reflective coating. In the camera department, it gets the same combo as the bigger iPads with an 8MP f/2.2 main camera which now brings Burst shots and Slow-mo onto an iPad mini. Meanwhile the front still gets the same 1.2MP unit.
The most welcome change is the processor, where it gets a newer A8 chip but it is still a notch below the A8X chip that’s powering its top of the line iPad Air 2. Apple claims that the A8 is 1.3x faster in processing and 1.6x faster in graphics than the previous A7.
With iOS 9 being released very soon, the new Split View feature allowing you to run 2 apps side by side was previously exclusive just to the iPad Air 2, (and now iPad Pro) likely due to processor requirement. The new upgraded processor allows the iPad mini 4 to use split view, so this is good news for multi-taskers that prefer to use a smaller iPad. In terms of connectivity, it supports faster 802.11ac WiFi as well as Bluetooth 4.2. The battery life remains unchanged with up to 10 hours of use in a single charge.
You get to pick up the iPad mini 4 in 3 colours – Silver, Space Grey and Gold. So far no word on its Malaysian availability but it won’t be as affordable as before especially with the recent price hike due to currency fluctuations. For more info, head over to the iPad mini 4 product page.
