Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “iPad Mini 2021 Review – A Lowkey BEAST!”.
What’S going on guys, it’s your average consumer and today we’re going to be taking a look at the brand new 6th generation. Ipad mini – and this is the one with the updated body, the new design, so that it matches the ipad pros, as well as the most recent ipad air. Now this is a completely welcome change. I like the ipad mini you guys. I personally think it’s an awesome device if you’re not looking for a tablet. That’S too large but don’t get me wrong.
I am an ipad pro 12.9 inch user on a daily basis, but sometimes you just don’t want a tablet that big, especially if you’re traveling, maybe you’re, going somewhere. You want to have a tablet that you can still be productive on. This is the one you want to take a look at.
This is the one you want to take around with you without it being cumbersome, but you still get access to all that ipad os goodness. So, let’s talk about that new design right now. I personally think that this design is great. I think it’s almost a flawless design, i’ve loved it since apple introduced it with the ipad pros.
It is great it’s great looking. It feels comfortable in the hand. This one is a little bit different uh with the new ipad mini.
There is now apple pencil support, so you can throw your apple pencil over here and funny enough. It’S almost the entire size of the ipad itself, so that does mean apple had to move the buttons to the top. Now at first i thought it was really weird and if you’re coming from like an ipad pro or something already, it does take some getting used to no lie because i’m pretty used to just hitting my buttons over here. But there is an upside to this. If you are using the tablet in landscape mode, it feels pretty natural to just kind of hit the buttons on the side. So this feels pretty good instead of having like to hit the bottom or something it just feels really natural to get on the sides and the ipad mini is smart enough to know when you switch sides, the volume up and volume down still match so up will Be up down will be down, no matter the orientation you have it in. I don’t know about you guys, but for me, when i’m using a tablet, my biggest thing with them is always going to be content, consumption, so the button placement it has its benefits. So if you’re big on content consumption like i am you’re going to be pretty happy with the speakers here, these have really nice loud speakers just like the bigger versions. So if we were to like throw up a video all right, so one of austin’s favorite songs, don’t judge the boy, loves cars but check this out.
Okay, that’s enough of that, but the speakers are impressive, even though it has like this really small body. Definitely good enough now it doesn’t match the other ipads, but more than enough considering its size. Now, because we have the updated design, we have a larger screen since those top and bottom bezels are now gone uh and it’s an 8.3 inch display for me.
I think it looks pretty good i’ve seen some people make some complaints that it’s not the best looking screen. Personally, i think it looks just fine uh. One thing that i do kind of agree about is the fact that it could be a brighter screen.
This is it at max brightness. Is it completely blown out your camera jam yeah? So typically, if this were an iphone, j would have been like. Please turn that down. So this could be an issue, maybe if you’re using it outside when you’re outdoors, you want as much brightness as possible, so you can still very clearly see everything. This particular model does not get as bright. That could be an issue, but i think that indoors, it’s comfortable to the eyes like i wouldn’t have any complaints here but outside is where you might have trouble now.
Also, if you’ve got an ipad pro already, the bezels might seem like they’re a little bit on the bigger side at first. For me, it definitely did feel like that. I’Ve gotten pretty used to it and it doesn’t feel like there are large bezels and it honestly does give you a little space to hold the actual device. So my my thumbs can be over here, holding it properly and look i’m almost going onto the screen. So i think it’s fine that the bezels are this size. One thing that i do feel like i’m not crazy about is the overall layout of ios.
I feel like there’s a lot of dead space on the sides that could have been used for like an extra row of icons. That would have been nice even when you have it in portrait mode. You guys can see there’s just like all this wasted space.
I personally would have liked to see that space be occupied with something useful, and i really like just how the ipad mini feels in the hand. Honestly. This is just like a big phone, whereas if this were a phone, this would not be a comfortable hold uh, but the fact that it’s a tablet makes this. You know it’s a very different ball game, especially when taking it out. It feels nice to not have like a gigantic tablet with me uh.
I can still get all the extra things that i want to get done on my tablet, but like in this really nice portable form factor. Now, of course, a lot of people will pick this up. Maybe they want to do some stuff for productivity and of course you know when there’s productivity involved you’re going to be typing things out, so it feels pretty comfortable to type on this, like especially when you’re using it two-handed when it’s sideways, not so much, but thankfully We do have a solution for that from our sponsor logitech, so this right here is the logitech mx keys mini now. This is like the smaller version of one of my favorite keyboards.
Ever the logitech craft, wireless keyboard and they’ve come out with a smaller version. For those minimalists out there, it is an awesome experience to type on this and it actually has like smart features with the keys. So if you have it laying down and you’re in a dark room – and you want access to those backlit keys, it’ll automatically sense. Your fingers going over the keys and illuminate, and i just feel like with the ipad mini.
It makes a really good combo, since the ipad mini doesn’t have like a smart keyboard or anything. So this gives you a nice comfortable layout that you can type on uh. I can’t talk and type sorry, but what’s also cool is the fact that you can pair up to three different devices uh right here. I’Ve got the ipad mini and i can have my computer or anything else that i want paired to this all in one little body. So this is great and it makes taking them both around very easy. So we can go ahead. I can take something as small as my latest bag, throw both in and you’re like good to go. So if you guys want to learn more about the logitech, mx keys mini definitely check the links down below in the description i’m telling y’all this one’s absolutely worth it, but back to the ipad mini typing on it. Like i said when it’s in portrait mode, it’s pretty simple landscape, it’s doable, but i’d rather use an external keyboard for something like that. Now i didn’t mention the fact that this doesn’t have a smart keyboard, but it does have like the smart cover.
So you can still kind of close it up it uses magnets does get a little bit dirty, but you know it does have some protection if you’re looking for it now, one of the biggest changes that we haven’t talked about so far is touch id is now Moved up to the power button, just like we saw with the ipad air, it is now available here and i like it. I like touch id on the power button. It’S seamless very easy to use, i kind of wish. We saw that on the iphone 13.
You know, but you know that’s that’s another conversation we’ll save that for that video, but it is good to have that here. As you can see, touch id is really quick. It is very easy to get inside of your device, so i am not mad at the inclusion here now. I think the inclusion of the apple pencil 2 is a nice touch here, i’m not going to say i’m the biggest apple pencil user. I honestly just pull it out like if i see it on top of the ipad, i’m like oh yeah, i got the pencil. Let me you know, let me use it to swipe around a little bit.
I don’t think the regular everyday person really needs to pick one up to pair with their ipads, but if you’re an artist or someone who obviously can take advantage of it. I think that this is actually a pretty nice canvas to take around with you. Instead of bringing around a giant ipad, while we know a bigger screen would be more useful, like a bigger canvas is always nice, but if you want something really compact or if you’re, maybe you’re just note taking, this is actually a really good combo. So if i just wanted to be like um, you know, don’t judge, stop it. Carl! Don’T don’t talk about my handwriting like this yeah, you know. So, if you want to, if you want to write notes down, you can definitely do that.
Uh. You take notes in class that kind of thing: it’s nice, don’t mind my horrible handwriting. This is why i type y’all.
This is why i got it to tech. I can’t do that can’t put the pen to paper all the time, but no, if you want to use it for those kind of things, it’s nice, that this is available. I think, if you’re going to have an ipad you’re going to want it to support the pencil, and luckily i think, all of them officially do even down to the 9.7 inch version all have some kind of apple pencil support, which is the way it should be. Now, when it comes to battery life, this is okay. It depends on how heavily you use your ipad. I know for a lot of people. Ipads are very situational, sometimes they’ll pull it out and it can last a pretty long time.
But if you’re being consistent on this guy chances are you’ll get maybe a couple of days out of it with between charges. So it’s not the best ipad battery life we’ve seen, but it’s tiny. What do you expect? It’S just like with the mini versions of the iphones. You have to expect a drop in battery life, but this one is not the best, but it’s definitely fine.
Now, even though these are tablets, they do have cameras now. This does have the 12 megapixel camera similar to what we saw with the ipad air, but of course, with the a15 bionic. You know you get some software tweaks in there as well. So it’s a decent camera, definitely usable! So if you do need to take photos with your ipad, this one can definitely do the trick now.
One thing that is also changed is the fact that we have a 12 megapixel front-facing camera that allows for the feature center stage. So if you jump into something like facetime or zoom, any video conferencing app you’ll be able to have your tablet down, and then you can see it’ll automatically get wide for all of us to be in the shot. If jay gets out of the picture, you’ll see that it’ll focus in on just me and carl and if we lose carl it’ll just kind of focus in on me. So it’s a pretty cool feature. If you have to do like any presentations on like zoom or something or maybe you’re cooking in the kitchen you’re on facetime, with someone a family member or something you’re, moving around a lot while talking it could keep track of you. It does a pretty good job.
So that feature is there if you like it now, let’s talk about the price right, so this thing starts at 500 bucks for 64 gigs. I personally would have liked to see 128 gigs. Be that starting point. That’S that range, where you kind of don’t have to worry about like running out of space or anything 64 gigs i’d be concerned. That’S my tablet. I want to throw a bunch of apps on my tablet without worrying. I feel like it’s basically get eaten up pretty quickly, so i would have liked to see 128 at 500 bucks, but there is a 256 gig option uh, but that one is 649. so that one’s going to cost quite a bit more. But you do get some more space now.
Do i recommend the ipad mini? I personally really like it. I feel like i could take this around instead of the ipad pro that i usually take around with me, usually because i have like my laptop with me and then i’ve got that 12.9 inch ipad, it’s like kind of like having two laptops, but i still want Access to ipad os, i feel like this is that solution. I get my access to ipad os and i still get a nice large display without it being some cumbersome device.
Considering what else i have in my backpack, it just makes it really nice and easy. So i personally really like it: it has the power of the a15 bionic, so anything that you would want to do on an ipad you’re going to be able to do here with no problem. So if you like the form factor, you feel like this one would be a lot more comfortable to use on the go or maybe even inside it’s an easy buy. Like i said i do wish, the storage was a little bit more uh, but as a performer as a device that can just be taken anywhere in terms of portability.
I think it’s a really really solid option, but i feel like, if you’re making a decision between like the mini or the pro or even the air, you kind of have to know that you want something: that’s on the smaller side to take around with you. So if you feel like that is what you want, this thing is definitely a good buy. It has all the power you’ll need for it to last a few years, and it just overall looks good and is a solid performer. Like i said, if you can afford it, i’d get the higher storage option because you want to be able to have stuff on here, but that’s just me that about wraps up this video guys.
Hopefully you enjoyed it. If you did be the cool guy or girl that gives this video a thumbs up, and what do you guys think of the new ipad mini? I’M super happy. It now has this design. It makes it an easy addition to my gadget backpack, but until next article guys it’s your average consumer peace, i got i got.
I bought my own carl. Now you want the purple one. No .