HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The iPad Mini (branded and marketed as iPad mini) is a line of mini tablet computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a sub-series of the
iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operati ...
line of tablets, with screen sizes of 7.9 inches and 8.3 inches. The first-generation iPad Mini was announced on October 23, 2012, and was released on November 2, 2012, in nearly all of Apple's markets. It featured similar internal specifications to the iPad 2, including its display resolution. The
iPad Mini 2 The iPad Mini 2 (formerly marketed as the iPad mini with Retina display, officially iPad mini 2 with Retina display) is a tablet computer produced and marketed by Apple Inc. It has a nearly identical design to its predecessor the first-genera ...
, with a A7 processor and a Retina Display, was announced on October 22, 2013 and released on November 12, 2013. The iPad Mini 3 was announced on October 16, 2014 and was released on October 22, 2014 alongside the iPad Air 2; it features the same external hardware as the Mini 2 and the addition of a
Touch ID Touch ID is an electronic fingerprint recognition feature designed and released by Apple Inc. that allows users to unlock devices, make purchases in the various Apple digital media stores (iTunes Store, App Store, and Apple Books Store), and ...
fingerprint sensor compatible with Apple Pay. On September 9, 2015, Apple released the iPad Mini 4; which is a smaller version of the iPad Air 2. On March 18, 2019, Apple released the fifth-generation iPad Mini with support for the Apple Pencil alongside the third-generation iPad Air. The sixth-generation iPad Mini was announced on September 14, 2021 alongside the ninth-generation iPad, with both devices being released on September 24, 2021. Matching the new design language of the current Pro and Air iPads, features included a larger 8.3-inch full-screen display,
USB-C USB-C (properly known as USB Type-C) is a 24-pin USB connector system with a rotationally symmetrical connector. The designation C refers only to the connector's physical configuration or form factor and should not be confused with the conne ...
port (instead of Lightning), top button with
Touch ID Touch ID is an electronic fingerprint recognition feature designed and released by Apple Inc. that allows users to unlock devices, make purchases in the various Apple digital media stores (iTunes Store, App Store, and Apple Books Store), and ...
(with home button removed), and support for the second-generation Apple Pencil.


History

On October 16, 2012, Apple announced plans for a
media event A media event, also known as a pseudo-event, is an event, activity, or experience conducted for the purpose of media publicity. It may also include any event that is covered in the mass media or was hosted largely with the media in mind. In medi ...
on October 23 at the California Theatre in San Jose,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
. The company did not give the subject of the event, but it was widely expected to be the iPad Mini. At the event, Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced a new version of MacBook family and new generations of the MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and the
iMac iMac is a family of all-in-one Mac desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998, and has evolved through seven distinct forms. In i ...
, then unveiled the fourth-generation iPad and the iPad Mini.


Features


Software

The iPad Mini comes with several pre-installed applications, including
Siri Siri ( ) is a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Inc.'s iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and audioOS operating systems. It uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a natural-language user interface to answer ques ...
,
Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
, Mail, Photos, Video, Music, iTunes, App Store, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Game Center, Photo Booth, and Contacts. Like all iOS devices, the iPad can sync content and other data with a Mac or PC using iTunes and to Apple's
iCloud iCloud is a Personal cloud, cloud service from Apple Inc. launched on October 12, 2011 as a successor to MobileMe. , the service had an estimated 850 million users, up from 782 million users in 2016. iCloud enables users to sync their data to t ...
online service. Although the tablet is not designed to make telephone calls over a cellular network, users can use a headset or the built-in speaker and microphone and place phone calls over Wi-Fi or cellular using a
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Interne ...
application, such as
Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, ...
. iPads offer dictation when connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network. Applications from Apple and third-party developers can be downloaded through the App Store, an
application Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...
market for iOS that is maintained and regulated by Apple. The service allows users to browse and purchase applications. Optional apps from Apple that can be purchased through the App Store include GarageBand,
iMovie iMovie (known at times as iMovie HD) is a preinstalled video editing application developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS devices. It was originally released in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-en ...
,
iPhoto iPhoto is a discontinued digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. It was included with every Macintosh personal computer from 2002 to 2015, when it was replaced with Apple's Photos application. Originally s ...
, and the
iWork iWork is an office suite of applications created by Apple Inc. for its macOS and iOS operating systems, and also available cross-platform through the iCloud website. It includes the presentation application Keynote, the word processing and ...
apps ( Pages,
Keynote A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...
, and
Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers ca ...
) are available. The device has an optional iBooks application, which displays books and other
ePub EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for ''electronic publication'' and is sometimes styled ''ePub''. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartphon ...
-format content downloaded from the iBookstore. Several major book publishers including
Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...
,
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...
and Macmillan have committed to publishing books for the device. Despite the iPad being a direct competitor to both the
Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Stor ...
and
Barnes & Noble Nook The Barnes & Noble Nook (styled nook or NOOK) is a brand of e-readers developed by American book retailer Barnes & Noble, based on the Android platform. The original device was announced in the U.S. in October 2009, and was released the next ...
, both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble offer e-reader apps for the iPad. On June 8, 2015, it was announced at the WWDC that all four generations of the iPad Mini would support
iOS 9 iOS 9 is the ninth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 8. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, 2015, and was released on September 16 ...
. However, certain new multitasking features, such as Slide Over and Picture in Picture, will be limited to the second, third, and fourth generation. Split View, another new multitasking feature, is available only on the iPad Mini 4. The current version of iPadOS, iPadOS 15, is supported on iPad Mini 4 and up. The upgrade to this version is available as a free download. The first-generation iPad Mini shipped with iOS 6.0 and the highest supported version is iOS 9.3.6 (for cellular models) or iOS 9.3.5 (for Wi-Fi models).


Hardware

There are four buttons and one switch on the iPad Mini, including a "home" button near the display that returns the user to the home screen, and three aluminum buttons on the right side and top: ''wake/sleep'' and ''volume up'' and ''volume down'', plus a software-controlled switch whose function varies with software updates. The tablet is manufactured either with or without the capability to communicate over a
cellular network A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called "cells", each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically th ...
. All models can connect to a
wireless LAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office building ...
via Wi-Fi. The iPad Mini is available with 16, 32, 64 and 128 GBWhat's the true formatted storage capacity of an iPhone, iPad or iPod?
/ref>) of internal
flash memory Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both u ...
, with no expansion option. Apple sells a "camera connection kit" with an
SD card Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between San ...
reader, but it can be used only to transfer photos and videos. The first-generation iPad Mini features partially the same hardware as the iPad 2. Both screens have resolutions of 1024 × 768, but the iPad Mini has a smaller screen and thus higher pixel density than iPad 2 (163 PPI vs. 132 PPI). Unlike the iPad 2, it has 5 MP and 1.2 MP cameras and the Lightning connector. The system-on-chip is A5, which is the same one found in the later revision of the iPad 2 (32 nm). The audio processor is the same found in iPhone 5 and iPad 4th generation, which allows the iPad Mini to have Siri and voice dictation unlike the iPad 2. The graphics processor (GPU) of the first-generation iPad Mini is the same one found in the iPad 2 (
PowerVR PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies (formerly VideoLogic) that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, associated image processing and DirectX, OpenGL ES, OpenVG, and OpenCL accele ...
SGX543MP2). iPads with a data connection can download data through cellphone networks, but can not make voice calls. They can act as a
hotspot Hotspot, Hot Spot or Hot spot may refer to: Places * Hot Spot, Kentucky, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Hot Spot (comics), a name for the DC Comics character Isaiah Crockett * Hot Spot (Tra ...
, sharing the Internet connection over Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...
, or USB.


Accessories

The
Smart Cover The iPad is an iPadOS-based (previously iOS) line of tablet computers designed and developed by Apple Inc.; it has a wide variety of accessories made by Apple available for it, including a screen cover specifically for the respective models of iP ...
, introduced with the iPad 2, is a screen protector that magnetically attaches to the face of the iPad. A smaller version is now available for iPad Mini. The cover has three folds, which allow it to convert into a stand, held together by magnets. Smart Covers have a
microfiber Microfiber (or microfibre) is synthetic fiber finer than one denier or decitex/thread, having a diameter of less than ten micrometers. A strand of silk is about one denier and about a fifth of the diameter of a human hair. The most common t ...
bottom that cleans the front of the iPad, and wakes up the unit when the cover is removed. It comes in six colors of
polyurethane Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) refers to a class of polymers composed of organic chemistry, organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethan ...
. Apple offers other accessories, including a Bluetooth keyboard, several types of earbuds or headphones and many adapters for the Lightning connector. AppleCare and free
engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an i ...
are also available for the iPad Mini.


Model comparison

The most recent model is the iPad Mini (6th generation). The iPad Mini models are listed in a comparison grid.


Support


Models


Models


Reception

Reviews of the first generation iPad Mini have been positive, with reviewers praising the device's size, design, and availability of applications, while criticizing its use of a proprietary power connector and its lack of expandable storage and Retina Display for the first-generation iPad Mini. The device competes with tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire HD,
Google Nexus 7 Nexus 7 is a series of Android-based mini tablet computers co-developed by Google, and may refer to: * Nexus 7 (2012), the first generation * Nexus 7 (2013) The second-generation Nexus 7, also commonly referred to as the Nexus 7 (2013) ...
, and Barnes & Noble Nook HD. Joshua Topolsky of ''
The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...
'' praised the industrial design of the iPad Mini, however panned its lack of Retina Display and price. The iPad Mini 2 was well received, praising the Retina Display and Apple A7 chip performance, with criticisms on the price increase and the quality of the camera.


Timeline


See also

* List of iOS devices * Comparison of: ** E-book readers **
Tablet computers A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...


Notes


References


External links

* – official site {{Apple
Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
IOS Tablet computers Touchscreen portable media players Tablet computers introduced in 2012 de:Apple iPad#iPad mini (erste Generation)