iPad Mini 2021 Review: Pocketable Power!

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all right no time for the gossip

it's like an ipad air

but

smaller hey what's up mkbhd here and the

ipad mini has always been so fascinating

to me just because i always wonder who

buys them and who uses them

and what they use them for and why they

chose it over other options like i know

my dad uses one but

my sister and i got it for him as a gift

so he didn't really choose it it kind of

chose him but then i see the pilot with

an ipad mini example constantly like i

feel like that's in every ipad mini

keynote but it turns out that's fairly

common for hobby pilots which is awesome

i've already realized that as a huge fan

of the ipad pro

this isn't for me but this refresh for

2021 makes it a real option again for a

lot of people so this is my mini review

of the new 2021 ipad mini so most of

what's new here is the design refresh

which is pretty simple the unibody

aluminum there's four new colors and it

gets all the beauty of those squared off

sides which i also think make it easier

to hold and like the ipad air you drop

the home button you keep the touch id in

the form of a power button fingerprint

reader combo up top it adds usb type c

at the bottom thank you very much and

this is actually the first ipad mini

with a camera bump that now houses that

new 12 megapixel camera on the back the

only real quirk though is the volume

buttons which are now also at the top

seemed questionable at first but then

you realize this new ipad mini has

second generation apple pencil support

and that slaps right onto the side

magnetically and the pencil is literally

the size of the entire side of the

tablet so there's no room for volume

buttons over there where they usually

are so they put them on the top and i

got used to that pretty fast anyway

mostly because i find myself using it in

landscape all the time all that being

said it's the smaller form factor to

give you an 8.3 inch display that you

can hold in one hand that you can fit in

smaller bags put in smaller places and

take with you more easily these bezels

look kind of big at first but then as

soon as you start using it you quickly

realize this is about as small as bezels

on a tablet can be

to give yourself something to hold with

your fingers before you start touching

the screen so this is the same size

bezels as ipad air and ipad pro just

with a smaller screen and that screen

is

fine

it's fine it's an okay screen it's 8.3

inches like i said which is bigger than

the last generation which i think was

7.9 and it's also bigger than the galaxy

z fold 3 unfolded but it's a much better

aspect ratio it's uh closer to

widescreen but it's not an amazing

quality display so it's an lcd again

still 60 hertz same pixel density as

last year same not that great 500 nits

max brightness as the last generation i

mean it's nice that it has full p3 color

support and has true tone but generally

speaking this is uh still a pretty basic

display it's fine indoors for sure for

reading watching videos all that stuff

no problem i just wouldn't expect to be

able to use this comfortably outside in

the sun

this one's got cellular antenna lines as

you can see so it is a cellular model

that now supports 5g but just so you

know no millimeter wave 5g on the ipad

mini which honestly is not a big deal

it's useless for most people in most

places but if you were trying to use it

on one of those hot spots

many won't support it but honestly

that's probably kind of a good thing

considering the battery life probably

the worst thing about the ipad mini as

tested is the mini battery granted i was

testing it pretty hard using it full

brightness all the time about as much as

my phone and on cellular on the go but i

felt like i needed to charge it at the

end of every full day so i could get

seven eight hours of screen on time out

of it which is good it's a tablet and it

has great standby time but that's

something to keep in mind it might not

last like a week like my ipad pro

sometimes does with light use my use of

the ipad mini though is very

generalist like you know i'm scrolling

through social media lots of emails i'm

watching videos things like that

but that's the thing about the ipad mini

is i feel like so many people who are

intending to get one already have some

specific thing in mind that they want to

do with it like i bet there's someone

out there who's going to get one of

these ipad minis and they're going to

make it the home kit smart hub

light switch that they're going to put

in the wall in their house and of course

you want the smallest ipad possible to

do that you know there's probably a

student who's about to go back to school

right now who's going to get this and an

apple pencil and they're going to use

this just for note-taking all day

they're on this thing with the apple

pencil sketching taking notes writing

things down all the time and you already

know actually i do already know that

there's going to be hobbyist pilots out

there

that are going to get these ipad minis

because apparently they're very popular

as the small ipad you'd use to plot out

your flight map and it's the one that

fits comfortably in the cockpit of a

smaller airplane this is the tablet they

want to use so for me this ipad is also

fine as a super fast 500

tiny tablet and it happens to have

decent features across the board to make

it versatile the stereo speakers on

either side for listening to music or

watching videos like i do are really

good

the new 12 megapixel camera on the back

it's plenty good for a tablet it's

basically the equivalent of what's in

the ipad air and the new ultra wide

front-facing camera with center stage

works exactly as well as it does in the

ipad air which is to say

a little bit shaky but perfectly fine

for video calls and face time or zoom

and then of course that apple pencil 2.0

support which is top of the line in this

price range ties right into ios 15 and

the swipe up from the corner for quick

notes and all the benefits of having a

dedicated stylus that's so good matter

of fact it's literally running

essentially the exact same software

experience

as all the other ipads out there same

exact software as the 800 ipad pros the

multitasking the slide over windows the

app library over to the side of the home

screen it's all here and of course many

people are already very familiar with it

and it's all running on apple's absolute

latest chip the a15 with the five core

gpu which is actually better than what's

in the ipad air right now so not only

will this ipad be running very smooth

pretty much locked right at 60 hertz out

the box but also virtually guarantees

you

many years of software support and ios

updates being the latest chip the one

thing that's kind of annoying in this

software here seems to be all this

padding around the home screen icons so

the whole ui is like a little more

compressed than i remember inside of

even those bezels it just made the ipad

mini feel

really

mini sometimes with all that small text

in the widgets especially when that

weather widget is literally bigger on

the iphone than it is on the ipad mini's

home screen but as soon as you jump into

an app though then of course you take

advantage of the bigger screen i'm just

not sure what that padding is about so i

don't personally have a use case that

really fits this ipad mini so that's why

i won't be getting one

but i think those who are thinking about

getting it already know you probably

already have a thing that you're

imagining getting it for something that

you want it to do

and so for that i would encourage you to

think about whether or not the new 9th

gen baseline ipad might actually be

better for that because it's 170 bucks

cheaper and has a bigger screen

but of course it's a different type of

tablet and if you're after the mini then

yeah it's pretty good oh but it does

actually it starts at 64 gigs so maybe

you could consider that a weakness of

this

um if you want to upgrade there is only

one other spec it's the 256 gig which is

150 bucks more so at that point you're

playing in a different price range but

the baseline 64 gigs 4.99 if that's all

the storage you need this one's a go but

yeah you know it would speak to me just

selfishly and maybe a little off topic i

was imagining like an ipad

mini pro

or maybe it would be an ipad pro mini

but you know what i mean like a tablet

this size

with a nice 120 hertz display and of

course you get face id and then you get

the pro camera system on the back and

probably a bigger battery but then

you're probably looking at like two

three hundred dollars extra so that's

probably why that doesn't exist but yeah

at this price what are you

cross-shopping it with like a galaxy tab

that's out there

you could be looking at a surface go

or maybe you're looking at like the new

uh kindle that just came out with

wireless charging something like that

all these have different specific use

cases in mind this being the most

versatile of the bunch definitely worth

a look

it's the ipad mini so yeah know your use

case

that's the advice i got for you today

that's been it

thanks for watching

catch you guys in the next one

peace

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