Welcome to Max Tech and this is our review of the iPad Mini 6.
I’ve been using the new mini 6 for the past week and I’ve really just been trying to
answer one question.. Who is this new iPad meant for?
Because in reality, Apple does have some other great options in the iPad lineup like the
new 9th-generation budget iPad for $170 less than this mini.
Or on the other hand, there’s also the flagship M1 iPad Pro that has a huge number of advantages
over the mini..
So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I realized that when you look at everything
Apple is giving you with the new mini 6, it seems like the perfect package for a portable
iPad experience.
However, there is one MAJOR downside that’s stopping me from buying it myself!
But before I get into that, I want to quickly run through the major changes and feature
differences on this new iPad Mini.
Of course, it finally got the full redesign that both the iPad Pro and Air have already
received, which by the way, also comes with an increase in price, now $500 which is definitely
pretty pricey considering the 64GB of base storage.
But this new design is probably the single biggest factor that makes the new mini so
nice because we know this modern design is sticking around for many years, so it’s
gonna look and feel fresh compared to old design which just looks so ancient at this
point.
And alongside the new look, you also get a huge number of feature changes that are focused
on being up-to-date as well as improving your everyday life.
For example, the USB-C port alone has already made my life better because I’m able to
use one charging cable to charge both my MacBook and this iPad which is so much more convenient.
But going even further, the USB-C port allows you to connect a huge number of accessories
that require more power like external SSD drives and things like that, since Lightning
is so limiting that it can’t even connect to many external hard drives out there.
And even better, now that the Lightning port is gone, the new mini finally supports the
2nd-generation Apple Pencil which uses the magnetic charging connector on the side of
the iPad mini to both connect and recharge.
But probably my favorite feature about the new pencil is that you can temporarily store
it right on the side of the iPad mini instead of having to find a place to put it down and
potentially lose it, or having to stuff it in your pocket. Oh and by the way, hit the
subscribe button if you haven’t already for more reviews like this one.
Now believe it or not, the most exciting new feature for me is actually the dual stereo
speakers on both the top and the bottom!
Every single iPad Mini of the past has come with speakers on only the bottom, and it’s
still the case for the new 9th-gen budget iPad, which means that when you’re playing
games or watching a video in landscape mode, the sound would only come out of one side,
which honestly bugs me SO MUCH!
Just listen to this speaker comparison so you can hear what I’m talking about.
So yeh.. Not only do you get true stereo sound with the new mini which is a game-changer,
but the quality itself is much better on multiple levels!
And before I get into the some more improvements thanks to the redesign, I want to quickly
mention that the headphone jack is now gone on the mini, which I personally don’t care
about since I don’t remember the last time I used it.
But on the positive side, there are some more upgrades thanks to the redesign, like for
example, the better rear camera with the added flash, the relocated volume buttons and the
new power button with Touch ID which had to happen to give us the larger 8.3” redesigned
edge-to-edge display.
And speaking of the new display, it obviously looks much better with the rounded corners
and uniform black bezels, but I do wish they made the bezels a little bit thinner because
the ones on the side of the old iPad Mini 5 are noticeably thinner.
But apart from that, the display quality itself is literally identical in terms of brightness
and color reproduction, with the only difference being the slight bump in resolution to maintain
the same 326 pixels per inch due to the larger display size which by way uses a new slightly
more tall aspect ratio.
Now I know you guys want me to talk about the jelly scrolling issue that everyone’s
making a fuss about, so let’s get right into that!
Because this iPad mini isn’t an iPad Pro, it only features a 60hz display refresh rate,
just like the more expensive iPad Air and every other non-Pro iPad.
What that means is that the image on the display at any given moment gets updates 60 times
every single second, compared to 120 times per second on the iPad Pro, which obviously
makes it feel more choppy and less smooth, especially in this slow-motion footage.
But in terms of the Jelly Scrolling issue, I realized that it’s mostly only noticeable
when you quickly scroll up and down a page, which means that you’re intentionally looking
for jelly scrolling because no one really does that in regular use.
When simply scrolling at a realistic page through a website or twitter, I didn’t really
notice the jelly scrolling issue, so I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker.
But one thing’s for sure, using the Apple Pencil on the mini doesn’t feel nearly as
smooth as it does on the iPad Pro.
Now the biggest issue about the new mini not coming with 120hz ProMotion is that I’ve
also been testing my iPhone 13 Pro Max this entire week for my full 25 minute review that
we just published yesterday, and this iPhone now comes with the same 120hz ProMotion as
the iPad Pro.
And I seriously love this feature so much that I can’t stand using this 60hz iPad
Mini 6, and it’s the main reason why I will NOT be buying it.
So if you’re even considering buying the iPhone 13 Pro or any future Pro model iPhone
with ProMotion support, I would honestly recommend getting the M1 iPad Pro since it comes with
a bunch of extra features like ProMotion, Face ID authentication, quad-speakers, better
cameras with LiDAR, a Thunderbolt port, MUCH more performance and double the storage space
for only $250 more on Amazon right now.
But of course, not everyone wants to spend that much cash on an iPad, so that brings
us down to the new iPad mini 6 for $500 and the iPad Air 4 for as low as $539 on sale
on Amazon.
Believe it or not, even though the iPad Air is more expensive, the new mini actually has
quite a few advantages over the Air.
First up, since the Air hasn’t been updated for the longest period of time, it’s now
the only iPad that doesn’t come with Apple’s new 12MP ultrawide selfie camera, which honestly
looks really good and it enables the new center stage camera feature that tracks your face
as you move around the frame in FaceTime and other apps.
And on the rear, they both have 12 megapixel cameras, but the Air actually lacks a flash,
so if you like scanning documents, the mini is better for that, and it also now supports
5G connectivity if you buy the cellular model compared to 4G on the Air.
Now on top of all of that, we did a full iPad Mini 6 vs Air 4 comparison video and we discovered
that the microphone quality is actually much better on the less expensive mini, just hear
it for yourself!
The most obvious one is the fact that the mini 6 comes with the new A15 Bionic chip
with a 5-core GPU compared to the A14 chip in the Air with a 4-core GPU, which means
that it’s more powerful in terms of both the CPU performance and the graphics performance,
which is gonna give you a couple of advantages.
First of all, the extra single-core performance is gonna make it feel more snappy and improve
the web browsing performance as well.
And the extra graphics performance means that you’re gonna have less cases of dropped
frames while gaming, especially if you compare it to the previous iPad Mini 5!
Here’s an example from Dame Tech on YouTube who showed the gaming performance of Genshin
Impact, which is the most demanding iOS game there is, and the mini 6 stuck to a pretty
solid 60FPS for the entire test compared to tons of dropped frames on the mini 5, finishing
out with an average of 59.1 FPS compared to 47.1!
Not only that, it did it while using quite a bit less of the CPU and MUCH less of the
GPU, 75.2% compared to 98.1%, which means that it only used around 6000 mW of battery
capacity compared to around 7600 Mw on the mini 5, and on top of all of that, it ran
at a cooler 30.6 degrees celsius compared to 32.2 because the A15 uses the latest 5nm+
process node from TSMC which is much more efficient.
All of this basically confirms that the iPad mini 6 is the best Apple device for iOS gaming
other than the M1 iPad Pro, and it’s even better than the iPhone 13 Pro Max because
the larger size of the iPad Mini means that it handles heat better, so the display doesn’t
dim like the iPhone does during Genshin Impact gaming.
And of course, the compact size of the mini is incredibly comfortable to hold in your
hands for everything from gaming to video watching, or just simply using it on your
couch, compared to the much larger iPad Air which is a lot heavier and isn’t as comfortable
to hold for long periods of time.
I’m not kidding, this compact size is so nice that even my one and a half year old
son was able to hold it just fine in his hands while watching the music video of his favorite
song.. Baby shark.
So yeh.. If you’re thinking of getting an iPad for your kids.. This one is the jackpot.
It’s seriously amazing.
And even one of my friends who is a pilot mentioned that he wants to buy the new iPad
Mini because even the 11” iPad Pro is a bit too large for comfortable use in his plane’s
cabin.
But of course, there are some good reasons for the larger iPad Air’s size. The main
one is the smart connector, which the iPad mini doesn’t have.
That smart connector on the the rest of the larger iPads, even the 10.2” budget iPad,
allows you to connect incredibly useful keyboard cases that come with trackpads, like my all-time
favorite Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro and the Air, as well as Logitech’s Combo Touch
for the budget iPad, which basically turns them into laptop replacements.
So if you choose the mini, you’ll have to sacrifice excellent keyboard case support
since it’s obviously too small to support a decent keyboard.
But thankfully, Apple did pack in some magnets into the chassis just like they did on the
Air and the Pro, which means it supports the new Smart Folio which magnetically attaches
to the back of the iPad while also covering the front.. And it even comes with a kickstand
for watching videos or anything else.
And with that said. This finally brings me back to the original question.. Who is this
iPad meant for? And I think I’ve finally nailed it down.
The iPad Mini 6 is meant for four categories of people, so let’s go through each one
and how it fits perfectly for the different use-cases.
The first category is for someone who wants a new iPad but doesn’t want to spend over
$500 for one, but at the same time, they don’t want to go with the budget iPad 9 because
it packs a much slower chip and the older design. This iPad mini 6 is now the perfect
balance between pricing, feature set and ultimate value.
The second category is obviously for kids because it’s just so convenient to hold
and it’s updated with the latest specs which means you can buy it right now and use it
for the next 5 years or longer.
The third category is for gamers who want a small and portable iPad with more than enough
performance for the best 60FPS games out there like Genshin Impact instead of something large
and bulky like the iPad Pro.
And the fourth category is for someone who already has a laptop for all of their work
or productivity tasks, and they just want a compact yet up-to-date iPad for just relaxing
on the couch and doing tablet things like browsing the web, using social media, playing
games or anything else you can think of.
So with all of that said.. There is only one thing that’s stopping this new iPad mini
from being the perfect compact iPad.. And that’s the lack of 120hz ProMotion display
technology.
And unfortunately, I’m not expecting that feature to come to non-Pro iPads for probably
at least a couple of years at the minimum.
But I guess that in reality, not everyone is as picky as I am when it comes to display
refresh rate, so if it’s not a big deal for you, then this is probably the best time
to buy an iPad ever because Apple really did work wonders with the new iPad mini 6.
So hopefully you enjoyed this one week review, and if you did, go ahead and click that circle
above to subscribe for more videos like this one and definitely check out our iPad mini
vs Air comparison video right over there. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in
the next one!