Apple iPad Mini 4 First Impressions
For the original German review, see here.
Rarely has an Apple device been released with so little hype prior to its release as our present review sample. Normally the opposite is true: Malicious tongues even claimed that a fourth edition of the iPad would not be launched at all. Instead, the focus was placed on the new iPhones and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro in Cupertino. Moreover, if the listener were not attentive, the only two sentences concerning the Apple iPad Mini 4 at the keynote event would have been missed. The first sentence dealt with the price, and the second was when Phil Schiller promised that the power of the iPad Air 2 has been packed in the casing of the new Mini. That was it. There is not even a news item in the German Apple news section about it.
Despite it all, Apple's iPad Mini 4 is the first iOS device of the preceding keynote event that sees the light of day - and the first that comes with iOS 9. In addition, it is equipped with a "new" chip - the Apple A8 known from the 6th generation iPhones, and marginally improved cameras. The iPad Mini 4th generation is also slightly slimmer. That is basically it since neither Force Touch nor 3D Touch have found their way into the little iPad. But wait - there is something else: The A8 chip operates at a slightly higher clock rate in the iPad Mini 4, and Apple throws in 2 GB of working memory. That equals to twice the capacity compared with the precursor.
Nothing has changed in terms of price, design or available colors. Once again, the iPad Mini 4 comes in Space Gray, Silver or Gold, with the option of 16, 64 or 128 GB of storage as Wi-Fi or LTE models. The price starts at 389 Euros (~$440). The top-of-the-line model costs around 709 Euros (~$802); our review sample with 64 GB of storage and LTE is sold for 609 Euros (~$689).
We dedicate this preview test primarily to the performance of the "new" SoC, the photo quality of the new cameras, the screen, and the maximum possible battery life. An in-depth review will follow in the coming weeks before we look at the new iPhones starting next Friday. Some aspects concerning handling will also be different thanks to 3D Touch.
First Impressions
There is not much to say about the casing of the fourth Apple iPad Mini. If you have seen one, you have seen them all. Well, almost. In fact, until now, the 4th generation iPad Mini has been the slimmest and lightest. It has taken a major step, especially in its height of now only 6.1 millimeters (~0.24 in; iPad Mini 3: 7.5 millimeters/~0.3 in). At the same time, Apple has reduced the weight of the small iPad. With a weight of 304 grams (~11 oz), the LTE model is almost ten percent lighter than its precursor. Apart from a fraction, its length and weight are also the same. The differences are only seen in a direct comparison - typical for Apple. This is also true for the impeccable build and material quality. No more should be said about the casing within the framework of a preview.
Cameras & Multimedia
The cameras of at least the last two iPad Mini generations lagged slightly behind other premium tablets. Apple has modified the primary camera of the new 4th edition, and has now installed one with eight million pixels rather than the previous 5 MP sensors. The front-facing camera is still an old acquaintance: The FaceTime camera with 1.2 megapixels can also record HD videos. As before, the primary camera records Full HD.
Nevertheless, miracles should not be expected from either camera. In sufficient ambient light conditions, the primary camera shoots decent photos with natural, vivid colors. However, picture noise can be seen against a cloudy sky and the quality is average. The front-facing camera makes the most of its low 1.2 million pixels, but it cannot perform any magic tricks, either. Therefore, as the name suggests, the front-facing camera's main application field will remain to be FaceTime. One thing was clear after the first shot: Upgrading just for the sake of the cameras is not worthwhile.
Display
Yet another point where nothing has changed: The screen. Without fail, Apple has been using the same screen since its second iPad Mini, the iPad Mini Retina. 7.9 inches, Retina resolution of 2048x1536 pixels are all based on an IPS display. Complaints? Not necessarily. With 326 ppi, the pixel density is still more than sufficient for sharp fonts and graphics. We cannot complain if the rates and color reproduction are satisfying. However, the precursor was not one of the best in its class in terms of screen rating. Its brightness and the contrast in particular, did not fulfill the claims of an ultimate high-end tablet.
The screen of our current review sample manages to score a bit better after all. The brightness is now over 400 cd/m² on all measuring points, and it is distributed well with an illumination of 91 percent. The black level of 0.58 cd/m² has also been improved slightly, but is by far not enough to celebrate. However, the resulting contrast of 709:1 is satisfactory. A first glance at the grayscale levels and colors confirm the very good outcome of Apple's iPad Mini 4. The sRGB color space is almost completely covered. The shifts in the grayscale and colors are almost consistently within the imperceptible range. Primarily the decent image quality makes up for some aspects, and lets the screen rating of the iPad Mini 4 look good overall.
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Brightness Distribution: 91 %
Center on Battery: 411 cd/m²
Contrast: 709:1 (Black: 0.58 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 2.15 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.91
ΔE Greyscale 2.72 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
Gamma: 2.29
| Apple iPad Mini 4 PowerVR GX6450, A8, 64 GB SSD | Apple iPad Mini 3 PowerVR G6430, A7, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Mali-T628 MP6, 5420 Octa, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact Adreno 330, 801 MSM8974AC, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Google Nexus 9 GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU), K1 (Denver), 32 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | -13% | -27% | -43% | -17% | |
| Brightness middle | 411 | 357 -13% | 258 -37% | 531 29% | 430 5% |
| Brightness | 421 | 344 -18% | 261 -38% | 518 23% | 411 -2% |
| Brightness Distribution | 91 | 86 -5% | 91 0% | 91 0% | 92 1% |
| Black Level * | 0.58 | 0.61 -5% | 0.66 -14% | 0.77 -33% | |
| Contrast | 709 | 585 -17% | 805 14% | 558 -21% | |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 2.15 | 3.35 -56% | 3.66 -70% | 6.29 -193% | 3.17 -47% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2.72 | 2.09 23% | 2.51 8% | 7.04 -159% | 3.29 -21% |
| Gamma | 2.29 96% | 2.4 92% | 2.22 99% | 2.78 79% | 2.39 92% |
| CCT | 7012 93% | 6851 95% | 6450 101% | 8600 76% | 6746 96% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 55 | 100 | 73.75 | 62 |
* ... smaller is better
Performance
At the keynote event, Apple boastfully promised that the performance of the iPad Air 2 would be packed in the compact casing of the iPad Mini 4. Thus, users who prefer the smaller tablet will not have to accept any performance losses. Why Apple should then install the A8 chip known from the 6th generation iPhones and not the A8X from the Air 2 remains a well-kept secret. The A8 in the iPad Mini 4 clocks 100 MHz faster at 1.5 GHz than those in Apple's smartphones, and is supported by two rather than one GB of RAM. The third calculating engine of the A8X will certainly not be able to compensate that. A PowerVR GX6450 from Imagination takes care of graphics power. This GPU was the fastest in its category at the time of its release, and will provide the fourth iPad Mini with more than enough graphics performance. It will not be enough to defeat Apple's iPad Air 2, though.
But first things first. Initial tests show that Apple's iPad Mini 4 has made a major leap forward compared with its precursor. The Mini 3 falls behind even further in the graphic-driven tests than in the system benchmarks. The browser performance also speaks clearly for the iPad Mini 4 - at least when compared with its precursor. However, the new iOS 9 operating system also plays a role here. Repetition of tests with Apple's iPad Air 2 resulted in significantly better outcomes in the browser tests than under iOS 8.
One of the greatest steps forward is in the internal storage. The drive's rating via PassMark exhibits an improvement of whole 257 percent over the iPad Mini 3.
At present, we can therefore note: Apple's iPad Mini 4 has made a great leap forward compared with the 3rd generation in terms of performance. However, the new iPad cannot deliver the promised performance on the level of Air 2.
| Geekbench 3 | |
| 64 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| 64 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| AnTuTu v5 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| 3DMark | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Score (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics Score (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Physics (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| GFXBench 3.0 | |
| 1920x1080 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| on screen Manhattan Onscreen OGL (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
| 1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| T-Rex Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| Sunspider - 1.0 Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 | |
| Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| WebXPRT 2015 - Overall (sort by value) | |
| Apple iPad Mini 4 | |
| Apple iPad Air 2 2014 | |
* ... smaller is better
Temperature
The temperature development is reasonable - at least in the tests that we could perform to this point. The iPad Mini 4 does not get unduly hot under permanent load, and even stays slightly cooler than its precursor.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 38 °C / 100 F, compared to the average of 33.7 °C / 93 F, ranging from 20.7 to 53.2 °C for the class Tablet.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 42 °C / 108 F, compared to the average of 33.2 °C / 92 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 30.9 °C / 88 F, compared to the device average of 30 °C / 86 F.
Energy Management & Battery Runtime
The power consumption has not changed much since the 3rd generation. The rates are virtually identical in the idle range. However, the rates are not top notch, either. Under load, there are hardly any differences at the upper end. The 4th edition consumes slightly more power than the 3rd at the peak. On the other hand, we recorded considerably lower rates than in the precursor in the partial load range. We are curious as to how this will affect battery life; especially since the battery capacity has now been reduced to 19.3 Wh (iPad Mini 3: 23.8 Wh). However, the manufacturer promises a Wi-Fi runtime of ten hours.
We could perform a preliminary runtime test even in the limited time. Apple's iPad Mini 4 lasted for an impressive 8:59 hours during Wi-Fi browsing while the other communication modules were disabled and the brightness was dimmed to 150 cd/m². However, it must be kept in mind that our current browsing test is considerably more demanding than the one we used on the iPad Mini 3. By comparison: The recently tested, new flagship from Asus, the ZenPad S 8.0, was depleted in less than six hours. There are, however, a handful of tablets that last significantly longer than the new iPad Mini, such as Acer's Iconia One 8.
| Off / Standby |   0 / 0.1 Watt |
| Idle |  0.8 / 3.6 / 3.9 Watt |
| Load |
6.1 / 8 Watt |
    
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Key:
min: ,
med: ,
max: Voltcraft VC 940 | |
Preliminary Verdict
It can be said at this point of time that Apple has improved some aspects of the iPad Mini 4 compared with its precursor. It can also be said that it cannot keep up with the performance of an iPad Air 2. Apple has simply promised too much, but this was obvious just by looking at the technical specifications. Nevertheless, the slightly higher clocked A8 chip combined with two GB of RAM provide the new Mini with impressive computing and graphics power. Both the internal flash memory and Internet browsing performance have increased tremendously. This is all bundled in an even slimmer and lighter casing. Above all, Apple has finally treated its iPad Mini 4 to a higher resolution camera - but only with moderate success. Upgrading just for the sake of the cameras will certainly not be worthwhile.
Our in-depth review will disclose whether switching to the new iPad Mini makes any sense at all. So far, the little iPad Mini is very much on the right track - especially since Apple has not increased the prices despite the weak Euro.
Price comparison
