- What's up, guys?
David here and it is Awesome Stuff Week here on YouTube.
Today is Tuesday Reviews Day and we're gonna be reviewing
probably the most under-hyped and overlooked product
that Apple announced last month in the iPad Mini 4.
Now, this video's being sponsored by YouTube
for Awesome Stuff Week where they're rolling out
a new feature called Shoppable
where you can shop for a product
that you see in a video straight from the video,
including this one, just by clicking on
that little eye icon at the top right of your screen.
It's actually pretty cool, so check it out
if you have a chance.
But with that said, let's go ahead and get right into it.
(upbeat hip-hop music)
All right, so first thing's first.
The iPad Mini 4 is not a blown-up version
of the iPhone 6S.
In fact, from a tech spec standpoint,
it has very little in common with the 6S,
as it doesn't have 3D Touch, it doesn't have
the new 12 megapixel camera, and it doesn't run
on the A9 chip.
But on an iPad, and especially an iPad Mini,
this isn't really that big of a deal, at least for now.
While the iPad Mini 4 looks almost identical
to the iPad Mini 3, the Mini 4 is actually
a significant upgrade over its predecessor,
which is something you couldn't really say
about the somewhat forgettable and now discontinued
iPad Mini 3.
Really, Apple should've called the iPad Mini 4
the iPad Mini Air, as it's both the lightest
and the thinnest iPad available right now,
measuring in at just 6.1 millimeters thick
and weighing only 298 grams, which on a tablet
is incredibly light and makes using it
for those long video or gaming sessions
much more comfortable than any other tablet
on the market right now.
The display has the same 2048 by 1536 resolution
as its predecessors, but this new screen
is actually a lot better than the spec sheet would indicate.
It now has a fully laminated display,
which basically eliminates the gap
between the screen and the cover glass,
giving you up to 44% more color saturation.
It also has an anti-reflective coating, which reduces glare
by up to 56%, making it a lot easier to see
when using it under direct light.
Under the hood, the iPad Mini 4 is powered
by the same Apple A8 chip that we saw on the iPhone 6.
But it is now coupled with not one,
but two gigabytes of RAM, which allows it
to take full advantage of iOS 9's
new multitasking abilities, like Split View,
where you can run two apps on the screen at the same time
and picture in picture, which lets you shrink
a video down to the corner of the screen
while you work on something else.
I've been using the device for a couple of weeks now,
doing a lot of multitasking and gaming in between,
and so far I haven't really noticed any hiccups
or slowdowns with the A8, so performance is
definitely not something you'll have to worry about.
And luckily neither is battery life,
as the iPad Mini 4 is rated to last
for up to 10 hours of web surfing and video,
and in my experience, it actually seems to last
even longer than that, with me being able to go
pretty much three or four days without needing a charge.
Now for those of you who are into taking pictures
with a tablet, you'll be happy to know
that Apple upgraded the five megapixel camera
up to an eight megapixel shooter
that can also do 120 FPS slow-motion video.
And while I can't say that I spent a whole lot of time
using the camera, mainly because I didn't want to be
shunned from society, the few photos I did take
for the purpose of this review looked pretty good, actually,
especially when in well-lit conditions.
Unfortunately, the 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera
wasn't bumped up to five megapixels like on the new iPhones,
which is too bad, since video calling on an iPad
offers a much better experience than video calling
on an iPhone, thanks to the larger screen.
So I would've much rather seen Apple upgrade
the front-facing camera instead of the rear camera,
but thankfully despite its relatively low
megapixel count, the front camera is still good enough
to get the job done.
The bottom-facing stereo speakers on the iPad
offer surprisingly good sound,
considering the size limitations,
however I do wish Apple would've adopted
either front-facing speakers, like we've seen
on several other tablets, or a four-speaker setup
like on the new iPad Pro, as I did manage to accidentally
cover up the speakers quite a bit while I was
watching video and gaming, which kind of took away
from the otherwise immersive experience.
And I guess the only other real complaint
I have about the new iPad Mini is the lack
of the physical mute slash rotation switch
that the iPad Mini 3 and almost every other iPad
before it had, which was just a way more
convenient way of locking rotation,
compared to having to go through control center.
The iPad Mini 4 replaces the iPad Mini 3 from
the Mini lineup, and comes in at the same price points
of 399 for the 16 gigabyte model,
499 for the 64 gigabyte model,
and 599 for the 128 gigabyte model.
If you want a wifi and cellular model like I have here,
it'll set you back an additional 130 bucks
at each storage tier.
Now which model you get completely depends
on how you plan to use it, as you will probably
or hopefully not take as many pictures
as you do on your phone, but at the same time
you'll probably want to consume a lot more media,
so personally I went with 64 gigabytes,
as I do like gaming on that bigger screen.
But if you don't plan on gaming and taking pictures
and you plan on using it mostly for streaming things
like Netflix or watching YouTube, then you just might
be able to get by with 16 gigabytes.
But if you can afford it, I would recommend
biting the bullet and just going with 64 gigabytes
so you don't have to regret it later.
So I guess the main question is:
Is the iPad Mini 4 worth the upgrade?
And again, it depends.
If you already have the iPad Mini 3,
then I would say probably not, but otherwise
I think the better display, the addition of the Touch ID
fingerprint scanner, the thinner and lighter design,
and probably most importantly the ability
to do split-screen multitasking,
which you can only do on the newer iPads by the way,
makes the iPad Mini 4 the best small tablet
that money can currently buy.
All right, guys, that is it for me in this video.
Like I mentioned earlier, it is Awesome Stuff Week
here on YouTube, so to see more awesome tech videos,
check out the link down below in the description.
Thank you guys for watching and I'll see you
in the very next episode.
(upbeat hip-hop music)