The Apple iPad Mini 4 Review
by Brandon Chester on October 28, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPad Mini 4
Battery Life
When Apple unveiled the original iPad they claimed that it had a ten hour battery life, and that claim generally held up well. That ten hour battery rating has continued with every iPad released since then, and it has become something of a de-facto target for other tablet manufacturers. Rarely do I see a company promise above ten hours, and nobody has really been able to go very far above it in our web browsing battery life test.
Even though the iPad Mini 4 is rated for 10 hours of usage and Apple is usually able to meet that goal in lighter and more balanced workloads, there will obviously be differences depending on exactly what tasks the user is performing. Because of this, it's important to examine the Mini 4's battery life in a variety of different scenarios to see how different workloads influence the battery life. As always, the first two tests are our WiFi web browsing test and video playback test, followed by BaseMark OS II's CPU-bound battery test, and GFXBench 3.0's GPU-bound battery test.
WiFi web browsing battery life on the Mini 4 is exactly where it needs to be. It actually lasts about 40 minutes longer than the iPad Air 2 which is likely due to the lower power requirements of the smaller display during the duration of the test. Video playback battery life is actually slightly shorter than I expected, although still quite good. Since Apple does apply CABC during full screen video playback when the UI isn't showing it's likely that the reason for the gap between the Mini 4 and the Air 2 is due to the Air 2's larger battery, with the display's brightness and gamma being played with a bit to reduce display power consumption, and the power cost of decoding H.264 video essentially being the same fixed amount on both devices.
The iPad Mini 4 does exceptionally well in BaseMark OS II's battery test. Not only does it last longer than any other device on record, but it also achieves the highest battery score on record. A simplified description of the battery score is that it's a combination of the device's average battery drain per unit of time, along with consideration given to the device's CPU load during the duration of the test. In the case of the iPad Mini, the amount of throttling occurring was far lower than most other devices, with only the Nexus 9 being close while also lasting an hour shorter. This doesn't bode well for other tablets like the Galaxy Tab S2 which don't last as long and throttle much more heavily during a prolonged CPU load.
GFXBench's infinite T-Rex HD test is another very strong showing for the Mini 4. It lasts quite a long time, and sustains its performance for the entire duration of the test. This is something that really has to be considered when comparing the performance of Apple's SoCs with the competition, especially when discussing the GPU. For example, both the Tab S2 and Mini 4 achieve similar frame rates if you just run the T-Rex HD test once, but as you can see the Tab S2 actually runs well below 30fps when you continue to run the test, and so with a real game with that level of visual quality the Tab S2 would never be able to produce a playable frame rate.
Apple usually does well in our various battery tests, and the Mini 4 is no exception. Video playback battery life is definitely not as good as full sized tablets or anything using an AMOLED display, but it's still a good result. As for the rest of the tests, the Mini 4 consistently achieves a great battery life combined with great sustained performance, and there's not much more you could ask for from a mini tablet.
Charge Time
The time to charge a tablet is almost always longer than a smartphone, especially now that quick-charging phones charge at a rate as fast or faster than tablets do, while also having significantly smaller batteries. The last few tablets I've looked at have had longer charge times than I had hoped for, but I wasn't really worried about the iPad Mini 4's charge time because it comes with Apple's 12W charger and the iPad Air 2 already had the lowest charge time on record for a full size tablet
At 3.13 hours to charge, the iPad Mini 4 is second only to the Dell Venue 8 as far as the charge time for tablets is concerned. I actually have to give Dell credit for pushing their charge time so low. While the Mini 4 isn't the fastest tablet on record, 3.13 hours to go from 0% to 100% is still a pretty good result, and in my experience charging it at night every couple of days is more than enough to keep the battery going so I don't expect that it's going to pose an issue for users.
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akdj - Sunday, November 1, 2015 - link
I meant to add the speed of the onboard storage and it's read write performance as well as the anti reflective coating, better color gamut and similar brightness with phenomenally accurate displays ...my guess is it's a power users dream to own a secondary display that is this mobile and this accurate with a gazillion apps that benefit the creative folkAnyway
Moving along
...there's more than just the 'A8' here that's in play and the iPod touch isn't much of a comparison.
osxandwindows - Friday, October 30, 2015 - link
No they could not produce more a9s then was necessary for the iPhones.denem - Saturday, October 31, 2015 - link
You have some inside information perhaps? The whole iPhone supply chain is set up to be able to meet demand.akdj - Sunday, November 1, 2015 - link
Hence the reason they're using two companies to fab their SoC this year? TSMC & Sammy? That's not tradition. It's very likely a contributing factorosxandwindows - Tuesday, November 3, 2015 - link
What did you want them to make 120 million of a9 chips?, come on dude even thats a hy number for samsung.akarogi - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
If the iPad switch to match the ID of the iPhone 6, the rounded edges would render useless the multiple Keyboard or stand accessories that I've purchased. That hard edge on the iPad is important for stability, to be able to firmly catch the edge on whatever stand you're using.For example, the Microsoft Universal Mobile keyboard works well to prop up just about any device I own, except for the iPhone 6. The rounded edges catch just enough to hold it, but the slightest bump on the desk will send it crashing down.
Of course, manufacturers would just make new accessories for a new iPad ID, but I wonder if what I mentioned above factors into their decision to keep the existing ID. Having stability on a stand is much more critical for an iPad than for an iPhone, and iPad accessories on average will be a more significant monetary investment... so I'm quite glad my new Mini 4 still works on my keyboards and stands.
akarogi - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
for example... think about how you would have to design a keyboard stand for an iPad with iPhone 6 industrial design, if you wanted to allow multiple viewing angles, like if you wanted to offer a 45-degree angle. With the rounded edges, this would be difficult to do without having a holding mechanism that needs to have a contact point far up onto the glass... basically the contact point would have to be right at the edge of where the screen starts. I don't think it would work unless they left a pretty decent flat margin between the edge of the device and the edge of the touchscreen.GC2:CS - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
The charge time for the iPad mini 4 looks really exciting, bassically on par with an iPhone 6 Plus (with an 5W adapter).It's better than any iPad ever cause if i remember corectly the iPad and iPad 2 got around 4 hours (10W ) the new iPad got over 6 (10W) the 4 get something like 5,5 (12W) and then Air got a much smaller battery and pushed down back to 4.
But please, from every source i can find, only the late 2012 iPad and iPad Air shipped with an 12W adapter and both mini 4 and Air 2 got the 10 W power adapter.
Can anandtech confirm this ? And does it mean there could be even a bit better charge times made with an 12W one ?
And then... what about the iPad pro ? Its got a 38,5 Wh cells which is bassically two iPad mini batteries stucked in there. So the big question is if it's going to ship with a 12W power adapter, or something higher. Like you know the Mac Book with it's 39,7 Wh battery got a 29W power adapter and I just feel thet iOS devices got behind in this area.
Would like to see some charging time data for the MacBooks.... to compare.
And the maybe even more important question to some, will this X-watt power adapter charge the smaller iPads even waster than the 12W one ?
Exchequer - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
Regarding that final tip. If you are a student and you need to create word documents then you will quickly find out that the default apps on IOS and Android do not support track changes. With a lot of searching I did find an app (Documents Ti Go) for Android and for IOS I never found one.So basically if you want to edit documents your best bet is a Surface (Pro) where you can just install the full office suite like you are used too.
kmmatney - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
I can't imagine being a student and creating word documents on a tablet, though. At least get a cheap laptop. Then again I was a college student before laptops existed, and was using a desktop with Windows 3.1 and dot matrix printer. Our track changes was "Save As...".