When comparing iPad Mini 4 vs iPad (2017), the Slant community recommends iPad (2017) for most people. In the question“What is the best iPad?” iPad (2017) is ranked 1st while iPad Mini 4 is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose iPad (2017) is:
Costing just above $300 in its most basic version (the most expensive one costs $559), this iPad has a very attractive price tag for its features. It has a 9.7″ Retina display and comes with a 64-bit A9 chip that ensures a fluid performance and enough computing power for demanding games and other applications. Overall, its features and performance are equivalent to those of other tablets that cost at least $100 more.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Sleek design
The iPad Mini 4 only weighs 299 grams, which makes it easy to hide it in a bag or a pocket of your jacket. It's very small and portable with particularly attractive, high quality industrial design.
Pro Battery lasts up to 10 hours
This iPad's battery lasts quite long, especially when compared to previous iPad mini versions. It can sustain up to 10 hours of internet browsing, video watching videos or music listening, due to its 19.1 watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery.
Pro Camera
The iPad Mini 4 has a much better rear camera than the previous iPads. With an improved sensor, advanced optics, and a cutting‑edge image signal processor, the 8-megapixel camera in iPad mini 4 captures incredibly detailed photos and cinematic 1080p HD videos.
Pro Brilliant screen
The iPad has a 7.9-inch display with the resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. That equates to 326 pixels per inch, which is higher than the iPad Air 2's. It also has a new anti-reflective coating to help with use outside in the sun.
Pro Feels like you're actually touching what's in the display
This iPad mini's fully laminated display has impressive quality, giving the impression that you can actually touch icons and content. It's a Retina display, with a resolutions of 2048 x 1536 at 326 ppi.
Pro Excellent value for money
Costing just above $300 in its most basic version (the most expensive one costs $559), this iPad has a very attractive price tag for its features. It has a 9.7″ Retina display and comes with a 64-bit A9 chip that ensures a fluid performance and enough computing power for demanding games and other applications. Overall, its features and performance are equivalent to those of other tablets that cost at least $100 more.
Pro Great power for games and media
This tablet uses a 64-bit A9 chip and 2GB RAM, which ensure fluidity when gaming, watching media, or even doing some light multimedia creation tasks (in GarageBand, for example). Evidently, it doesn’t perform as well as the iPad Pro, but it’s very noticeable that it’s more powerful than the previous iPad Air 2.
Pro Good for a pleasant media watching experience
The 2048x1536 display, with a 264 ppi pixel density, handles content reproduction quite well. Despite missing some importante features, such as True Tone technology or anti-reflective coating, it’s still a good screen that creates a pleasant experience, creating vivid and rich images. However, it’s noticeable that it’s not as good as the displays of the iPad Pro or of the iPad Air 2 from the previous generation.
Pro Camera is good enough for modest photography
The iPad 2017’s camera is quite decent. It’s 8 MP sensor and good color reproduction capabilities allow for some good photo-taking. Still, it’s not as good as the iPad Pro’s 12 MP camera.
Pro Long battery life
The iPad 2017's battery lasts up to 10 hours (while doing tasks equivalent to regular internet browsing, watching videos or listening to music). It's a lithium-polymer battery with a capacity of 8,800 mAh, which represents a great improvement from the iPad Air 2's battery, which only had 7.340 mAh.
Cons
Con Pricey
Relatively expensive compared to other high-end tablets. Given that it's a 7.9'' inch tablet and that, due to its size, its not appropriate for certain kinds of tasks.
Con Storage
Due to a lack of SD card slot, the iPad's storage capacity cannot be upgraded.
Con Hard to replace the battery
The battery of this iPad cannot be replaced easily.
Con Listening to music without headphones leaves much to be desired
This iPad's speakers are not the best to listen to music. They could use some more potency to properly deliver powerful sound.
Con No accessory connector
There’s no connector for accessories: to connect them to the tablet, Bluetooth is the only possible option.
Con Storage options could be better
32GB and 128GB are the only storage options available, with no possibility of expansion (via SD cards, for example). This means there’s a huge gap between the lowest option, which will feel like not enough for lots of people, and the highest one, which has too much space for those same users. A 64GB version would probably be more balanced and the most suitable for the majority of users.
Con Takes too long to charge
This iPad's battery takes around 4 hours to completely charge, which can feel like too long in many situations where you don't have that kind of time to spare.