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
Display
When the original iPad Mini launched it came with a 7.9" 1024x768 IPS display. The third generation iPad had already existed for nearly eight months at that point, and so the display was a notable step down from the full size iPad. However, in order to drive its display the iPad 3 had to include a massive 42.5Wh battery, and was both thicker and heavier than the iPad 2 that came before it. There was simply no way to include such a display on the iPad Mini at that time.
A year went by, and Apple then launched the iPad Air and the iPad Mini 2, both of which had 2048x1536 IPS displays. Based on their specifications, one would think that the iPad Mini 2 was simply a shrunken down iPad Air. However, there was one caveat, which was the iPad Mini 2's color gamut. In order to drive down power consumption the iPad Mini 2 used an LED backlight array which didn't have the necessary spectral range to cover the sRGB color space, which gave it more muted colors than what one would see on the iPad Air's display. The following year came and went, with the iPad Mini 3 only adding Touch ID to the iPad Mini 2. At that point I began to wonder when we would finally see parity between the displays on the smaller and larger iPads.
This year's iPad Mini 4 appears to be the version that finally addresses the gap between the displays on the mini and normal size iPads. Apple claims that it has full coverage of the sRGB color space, along with the anti-reflection coating and display lamination that debuted on the iPad Air 2. Of course, anyone who has followed my tablet reviews knows that covering a color space doesn't guarantee accuracy of the colors within that space, and to examine the accuracy of the iPad Mini 4's display I've run it through our standard display testing workflow. As always, the display is calibrated to 200 nits, and measurements are performed with an X-Rite i1Pro 2 and managed with SpectraCal's CalMAN 5 software.
Peak brightness is surprisingly high on the Mini 4. I expected it to be more in line with the Air 2, but it's actually significantly brighter. Along with that comes higher black levels at max brightness, although if you put both at the same brightness the black levels are fairly close. The contrast ratio for the Mini 4 does fall a bit below that of the Air 2, and neither are in the same class as newer IPS LCDs on phones like the LG G4 and recent iPhones that use photoalignment to influence subpixel orientation in order to boost contrast. However, both are in line with the best you'll get on tablets without moving to an AMOLED panel with true blacks like the one on the Tab S2.
Greyscale accuracy on the Mini 4 is superb, and with almost every shade there's no way to see any errors. Once you hit 80% grey and above there is an ever so slight green tint, but it's nothing that you would really notice during everyday use, and error for the critical 100% white value is almost impossible to perceive. Gamma is also remarkably straight, and the average white point is only ever so slightly blue. I think that my unit actually tends less toward the blue than the average unit will, as in my experience iOS devices sit somewhere closer to 7000K than D6504 as the WLED backlights are more energy efficient when the display is calibrated to be slightly blue.
On my unit there's actually no way for the human eye to discern the difference between any of the measured saturations and the actual reference value, even if you were to put those two colors side by side. I can't imagine that this is true of all models, as achieving this level of calibration across every Mini 4 is simply not feasible. That being said, even if some Mini 4 had saturation errors that were three times higher than my result it would still be a great display and in most cases you wouldn't notice any visible errors.
The Mini 4 shows an extremely high degree of accuracy in the Gretag-Macbeth ColorChecker test, with only a couple barely noticeable errors in shades of orange. Again, I think my unit is probably one of the better ones out there, but if the average unit is even remotely close to this then it's going to have a very accurate display for essentially any color within the sRGB gamut. There's really not much more to say, as I can't find anything about the Mini 4's display that I could honestly criticize.
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tipoo - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
I wonder if this is pretty much what we can expect from the A8 in the ATV 4. Though it has a heatsink and no battery requirements, so it could go a bit further if they were arsed. Anything coming on that, AT team?Spectrophobic - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
It's a bit insulting that it uses the same SoC as the iPod Touch 6G. I would've preferred a underclocked A8X over a speed-bumped A8, mostly for the A8X's GPU. Considering the typical iPad user, this probably wouldn't be much of an issue as the A8 is still a fast SoC for the mundane things people do.Tech_guy - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
Yeah the GPU in the A8 wasn't designed to push this many pixels. And I hate paying a premium for a year old chip.NetMage - Saturday, October 31, 2015 - link
Paying a premium over what?denem - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
iPad Air Mini 4 should have shipped with an A9 processor, a, TouchID 2 sensor, and, IMO, debuted before the iPhone 6s. The iPad 2 for example introduced the A5 months before the 4s. It was Apple’s most significant platform move ‘evah’. Here is our new technology. This is exciting!“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price” Steve Job, Jan 28 2010. ‘Magical and Revolutionary’ are smoke and mirrors, but from the iPad 3, the formula became last years technology and yesteryears design. Serviceable? Yes. Exciting? No.
Even when the Air 2 did have genuinely new/interesting advancements: the A8X and 2GB Ram, Apple could hardly bring themselves to talk about it. Nothing should be allowed to detract from the iPhone. If the iPad is less expensive, it must be inferior, or so the thinking goes. Even today, the iPad Pro, which matches iPhone pricing does not sport the new TouchID. Apple’s whole mindset is flawed. An IPad is not a substitute iPhone. Doh.
Tech_guy - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
Yeah I would've bought it for sure with an A9 chip which they easily could've had considering they take less power than A8. The mini 4 GPU is the part that turned me off instantly. Iphone 6 plus GPU performance a year later. No thanks.denem - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
And let me guess, an A9 iPad would not have put you off from buying an iPhone if you needed one? No, hand me down technology does not impress anyone, but hey, let's kill enthusiasm and an entire product line while we are at it. Even the iPod got an A8 when it was still current. Bozos.denem - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
I guess I should have added that with 4x as many pixels to push, the mini 4's onscreen graphics are slower, a lot slower than the iPod 6. For example, the iPod 6 scores 41.7 fps onscreen for Manhattan HD, GFX Metal, while the iPad mini 4 pushes 15.7. (Source: arstechnica) Double plus stupid.Tech_guy - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
Yeah for the mini 4 to be taken seriously by me, a typical power user, it needed better hardware inside. It's literally the performance of an iPhone 6 plus graphics wise, which there's some instances where 6 plus dropped frames and lagged, even in the animations in iOS 9. I have yet to even go look at one because I was SO turned off by A8 rather than A8X or A9. Apple really did exactly everything they needed to do to chase me away from the iPad mini line, and iPad air 2 is too bulky in my personal opinion.akdj - Sunday, November 1, 2015 - link
You guys are hilarious. The A8 is t designed to push this many pixels (I'm writing this on iPad mini 4) but the A5 was? Or the A6x? The A7? I've got an iPad 4 as well as the Air 2 and I've used it daily since its release. It's awesome! Truly phenomenal. I've also used the mini 2 since it dropped. Killer tablet with excellent performance. Even today. It's using an A7 with identical resolution.That said, doubling the memory with the GPU & CPU share makes all the difference in the world. On the iPhone 6s, the Air 2 and now the mini 4.
I've got every triple A title ...if that's what you 'power users' are power using??? (I'm lost and I'm making money with mine!) from the App Store. Every. Single. One. There's not a single app or task i can perform on my Air 2 or iPhone 6s+ that I can't just as efficiently and quickly 'do, play, maiplulate read, consume, watch or produce' on the iPad mini 4. It's been through ten and twelve hour days with me the last few weeks and it's all the Air 2 is - I'll agree in a smaller package.
App developers are currently releasing apps aimed at the A5 & 6 as required hardware. Tomorrow that won't change and if anything will benefit the new mini ...as developers move into the 64bit minimum requirements of the first edition, the A7.
Thought as an actual user, consumer, producer, 'fellow power user?' (I've got a 15" MacBook Pro I typically use for heavy lifting but resources at thee largest tech and software companies in the world are now shifting ...in some cases 'more' resources to mobile than the desk. As a Creative Cloud subscriber since its inception, I'm floored by Adobe's mobile releases. They're incredible and work perfectly with Premier Pro, AE, PS and InDesign. IMHO MS could've left the iPad versions of Word, Excel, Power Point and One Note on v1. They're beyond awesome. I also fly (as a pilot) and rely on the iPad mini as my flight bag. It files my plans, tells me how much gas I need, weather and traffic conditions with up to date Jep charts, plates and NOTAMS. I'm not sure how much more power you're using than I am but there's simply no equal. Anywhere.
You guys all sound goofier than a three dollar bill. A month ago you couldn't get this package of performance. Today you can. It's lacking the A9, but has all other bases covered with display and doubling of RAM, incredible battery life and a smaller package yet YOU'VE got to have the might A9 or the three cores of the A8s ...when I'm absolutely sure as an owners of both you've NECER brought an Air 2 to its knees or limits. If so, please share (I'm aware of two limits on the Air 2 with apps currently available on iOS only ...any guesses?)
I'm honestly curious as to what constitutes a 'power user' of an iPad
Hilarious. Thanks for the laugh
K. Next
Ryan, it's Sunday bro!
:) I kid
Excellent write up as always. Many thanks
J