My current iPad is 5 years old. Still works but S-L-O-W. Drives me a little crazy. I used it all the time in the beginning then when I got an Mac Air laptop I put the iPad aside for awhile. I’ve been using it again, especially when I travel.
I was looking at Costco yesterday - didn’t get all the specifics (storage, if the mini was a “2” or a “4”…). NOT interested in the PRO - I need to make an economical choice and don’t really need the large screen of the pro.
The iPad Air screen is 9.7 inches. The mini is 7.9 inches. Is it really that much of a difference? I mean I guess technically it’s 20% less screen space…but the price of the mini is inviting (call me cheap).
How I will use it?
check email
read books
read magazines
play mindless games when traveling
access apps
answer emails but not long emails.
I don’t have the best eyes but DO wear reading glasses ALWAYS when reading.
Mini Questions:
hows the keyboard?
are you satisfied with the clarity of the display?
any cons on your end??
A mini would drop in my purse easier - I don’t carry a large purse.
I don’t think the iPad Air has many drawbacks - except the price. Not sure which way to go!
I would NOT get an mini Ipad from Costco UNLESS it has the ability to connect to the internet via a cellular service, like Iphones.
Most mini Ipads available at Costco are wireless only. That is why they are cheaper.
I did not realize that until I brought one home. Returned it promptly .
I’ve had the original iPad, the Mini, the iPad 3, and now the iPad Air 2. I like the size of the Air 2 better than the Mini for my eyes. I used the Mini primarily for reading, but found it redundant when I got an iPhone 6 Plus. You will find the Air 2 a lot faster than a 5 year old iPad. Lots of things will run faster and smoother. A newspaper app had become unusable on the iPad 3, now it’s mostly fine on the Air 2. The Air 2 is also noticably lighter than a 5 year old iPad (was that a 2/3/4?). The Mini is better for putting in a purse, no doubt about that, but the overall usability of the Air 2 is much better for a person without teenage eyes. The screen size difference is not 20%, it’s about a 33% in area. The current Air 2 price looks to be close to Black Friday prices because new iPads will be coming out soon.
I think only you can make the decision as to whether or not the extra 2" is worth the extra money. For me (I have the latest iPad Air) it definitely would be as I spend a few hours a day with it. If you’re only spending a few minutes at a time, then I’d save the money and maybe just buy an iPhone 7+ instead of the mini. But if you’re going to sit in front of the screen for an hour or more at a time, then I’d say it’s worth it. But take my advice with a grain of salt since I never had any intention of buying a tablet for myself; mine was provided to me for work.
I’ll rant a little bit that Apple is really slacking on the their non-iPhone hardware. They’re reaallllly slow to update their macs and iPads. So in principle it would give me a little heartburn paying $600 for an iPad that hasn’t had a hardware refresh in over 2 years, if I was considering buying one today. Come on Apple, you have billions in cash laying around and you can’t get on a 12-18 month hardware refresh cycle?
BTW I use a Logitech keyboard for my iPad and am very happy with it.
An iPad Air 2, while being about 2 years old, costs under $300, nowhere near $600. What I’m impressed about with Apple, is that the iPad 3 that I had got iOS updates for over 4 years. The original iPad from 2010 that we have still runs, albeit slowly. The longetivity of iPads has been great for our family.
@abasket Sorry about that, I just noticed it was refurbished from Walmart. The price seemed reasonable to me since they were about $275 on Black Friday. So actually about $400 now from what I see. I would wait a month or two at that price and see what happens when the new ones come out soon (supposedly).
I replaced my original IPad in September with a iPad Pro 9.7 in wi-if only 128 gb. I mainly use it at home and in hotels when traveling. My H has a mini. I encouraged him to get the mini because I thought I would like it. I never use it and I strongly dislike trying to read anything on it.
My old IPad had gotten slow and at times unresponsive. I had an out of town guest who works in the computer industry and writes software for Apple products. He encouraged me to get the Pro. It is night and day difference. It is fast and the clarity of display also noticeably better. It is light weight for its size and I find typing on the onscreen keyboard easy. The only drawback is it is still large for carrying around.
I bought mine at Costco while on vacation in Montana. I paid no sales tax, used my Costco credit card and also have a business membership so I will also get some additional rewards for the purchase. My H balked at the idea but we decided it would be my birthday and holiday gift gift for the year.
I think my next IPhone might be a plus. I think that would serve me over a mini for reading and such on the go.
My regular computer is a HP laptop that was bought for $500 so you can imagine how much I love my IPad to spend I think over $800 on an IPad.
You will find whatever you buy to be an improvement over what you have.
Apps…and anything else you might store. Even the most simple apps are taking up more and more memory these days. I have a ton of my apps up in the cloud…because 32 is not enough to store my basics on the iPad Air.
I wish o had gotten at LEAST 64.
And while you don’t have pictures now…will you ever have any while you own this device.
I could have written Mom60s post. I was running out of memory on my Air and got the smaller Pro (9.7). It’s not the big screen, abasket. We got it at Costco and it is wifi only. It’s been great.
So much depends on YOU. I have an old iPad, an old iPad mini, and a iPhone 6s, as well as other non Apple electronics. The go to device for me is my phone. I use it more than all my other Apple and non-Apple devices combined.
In second place in terms of use is my desktop and third place in terms of use is my iPad mini. YMMV. My mini has only 16gb of memory, my phone has 64 and is much newer. I can see in all my devices without glasses. I especially like the two-factor ID, password plus fingerprint on my iphone.
I bought an iPad Air 2 last year, but gave it to my daughter this year and bought an iPad Pro. The storage on the iPad Air 2 was just not enough. It was running great but the pro is soooo much better. But It is also soooo much more expensive. If I were you I would probably wait a little longer until the new generation of iPads comes out - you can probably get the iPad Air 2 for a lot cheaper.
I have an iPad mini and never use it. It’s just too small, I was always having to enlarge the screen to enlarge the font…which cuts down on the entire page view. I have the ipad2 now and love it.
