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The iPad Mini 2 (formerly marketed as the iPad mini with Retina display, officially iPad mini 2 with Retina display) is a
tablet computer 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 ...
produced and marketed by Apple Inc. It has a nearly identical design to its predecessor the first-generation iPad Mini, but features internal revisions such as the addition of the A7
system-on-a-chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memor ...
and 2,048 x 1,536 resolution Retina Display.Apple iPad Mini gets Retina Display
/ref> Internally, the second-generation iPad Mini has nearly the same hardware as its sibling device, the
iPad Air 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, operating ...
(1st generation). Apple released the second-generation iPad Mini in space gray and silver colors on November 12, 2013.


History

The second-generation iPad Mini was announced during a keynote at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 22, 2013. The theme of the keynote was 'We still have a lot to cover.' The iPad Mini 2 was then released on October 23, 2013 in Silver and Space Grey colors. It was initially released with
IOS 7 iOS 7 is the seventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 6. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, 2013, and was released on September ...
.0.3, but cellular models were initially released with iOS 7.0. Rumours of the iPad mini 2 being released with iOS 6 spanned around the web; however, it was unveiled supporting
iOS 7 iOS 7 is the seventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 6. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, 2013, and was released on September ...
. On March 21, 2017, the iPad mini 2 was discontinued along with the iPad Air 2 with the announcement of the 2017 iPad and was no longer sold through Apple but continued to support major software revisions. iOS 12 is the last major software release supported by the iPad mini 2. Apple has confirmed the A7 SoC used on the iPad mini 2 is not powerful enough to run iPadOS 13 or higher, leaving the only models in the iPad mini line supporting newer iOS versions as of January 18, 2022 being the iPad Mini 4,
IPad Mini (5th generation) The fifth-generation iPad Mini (stylized and marketed as iPad mini and colloquially referred to as iPad Mini 5) is a tablet computer in the iPad Mini line, designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. Announced in a press release along with ...
, and iPad Mini (6th generation). The latest version the iPad mini 2 supports is IOS 12.5.6, released on August 31, 2022.


Features


Software

The second-generation iPad Mini was released with the iOS 7 operating system, which debuted shortly earlier than the iPad, on September 18, 2013. Apple's chief designer, Jony Ive, described the update of iOS 7's new elements as "bringing order to complexity", highlighting features such as refined typography, new icons, translucency, layering, physics, and gyroscope-driven
parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby object ...
ing as some of the major changes to the design. The design of both iOS 7 and
OS X Mavericks OS X Mavericks (version 10.9) is the 10th major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Mavericks was announced on June 10, 2013, at WWDC 2013, and was released on October 22, 2013, ...
(version 10.9) noticeably departed from previous skeuomorphic design elements such as green felt in Game Center, wood in Newsstand, and leather in Calendar, in favor of a flat, colourful design. The iPad mini 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 ...
with some carriers, sharing its Internet connection over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB, and also access the Apple App Store, a digital
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 ...
platform for iOS. The service allows users to browse and download applications from the
iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
that were developed with Xcode and the iOS SDK and were published through Apple. From the App Store, 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 second-generation iPad Mini comes with several pre-installed applications, including Siri,
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, although iOS 5 and later can be managed and backed up without a computer. Although the tablet is not designed to make phone calls over a cellular network, users can use a headset or the built-in speaker and microphone to 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, ...
. The device has a dictation application, using the same voice recognition technology as the iPhone 4S. This enables users to speak and the iPad types what they say on the screen, though the iPad must have an internet connection available (via Wi-Fi or cellular network) due to the feature's reliance on Apple servers to translate the speech. The second-generation iPad Mini 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 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. The iPad mini 2 supported 6 major iOS versions, which go by
iOS 7 iOS 7 is the seventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 6. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, 2013, and was released on September ...
, iOS 8,
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 ...
, iOS 10,
iOS 11 iOS 11 is the eleventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 10. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5, 2017, and released on September 19, 20 ...
, and iOS 12. The iPad mini 2 was the first iPad mini to support 6 major versions, and receive full support for all of them. It is also the first 64-bit iPad mini (the original iPad mini was the last 32-bit iPad). The iPad mini 2 has not been supported past iOS 12 due to the hardware limitations of its A7 chip.


Design

The second-generation iPad Mini largely has the same design as the first iPad Mini. One notable change is the inclusion of a Retina Display, matching the screen resolution of the full-sized Retina iPad models. The slate-colored back panel of the first-generation iPad Mini was discontinued in favor of "space grey", a black color, and the white color still remains.


Hardware

Although the second-generation iPad Mini inherits hardware components from the iPhone 5S, such as its
64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A comp ...
Apple A7 system-on-chip and Apple M7 motion processor, it uses the same home button as its predecessor and therefore does not support the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. It also includes a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.2 MP FaceTime HD front-facing camera, support for 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, and an estimated 10 hours of battery life. As with all previous generations of iPad hardware, there are four buttons and one switch on the second-generation iPad Mini. With the device in its portrait orientation, these are: a "home" button on the face of the device under the display that returns the user to the home screen, a ''wake/sleep'' button on the top edge of the device, and two buttons on the upper right side of the device performing ''volume up/down'' functions, under which is a switch whose function varies according to device settings, functioning either to switch the device into or out of silent mode or to lock/unlock the orientation of the screen. In addition, the WiFi only version weighs 331 grams while the cellular model weighs 341 grams – slightly more than their respective predecessors. The display responds to other sensors: an ambient light sensor to adjust screen brightness and a 3-axis
accelerometer An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is acce ...
to sense orientation and switch between portrait and landscape modes. Unlike the iPhone and
iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...
's built-in applications, which work in three orientations (portrait, landscape-left and landscape-right), the iPad's built-in applications support screen rotation in all four orientations, including upside-down. Consequently, the device has no intrinsic "native" orientation; only the relative position of the home button changes. The audio playback of the second-generation iPad Mini is in stereo with two speakers located on either side of the lightning connector. The second-generation iPad Mini is available with 16, 32, 64 or 128 GB 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 only be used to transfer photos and videos. All second-generation iPad Mini 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 ...
and offer dual band Wi-Fi support. The tablet is also 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 ...
. The second-generation iPad Mini (as well as the iPad Air) cellular model comes in two variants, both of which support nano-SIMs, quad-band GSM, penta-band
UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...
, and dual-band CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and B. Additionally, one variant also supports LTE bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25 and 26 while the other variant supports LTE bands 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 18, 19, 20 and TD-LTE bands 38, 39 and 40. Apple's ability to handle many different bands in one device allowed it to offer, for the first time, a single iPad variant which supports all the cellular bands and technologies deployed by all the major North American wireless providers at the time of the device's introduction.


Timeline


Reception


Critical reception

Writing for
TechRadar ''TechRadar'' is an online publication owned by Future and focused on technology. It has editorial teams in the US, UK and Australia and provides news and reviews of tech products and gadgets. It was launched in 2007 and expanded to the US in ...
, Gareth Beavis awarded the second-generation iPad Mini a rating of 4.5 out of 5. Beavis praises the Retina display and A7 chip's performance, and states that its "design is still the best in the tablet category." However, he does criticize the price increase. On his website,
AnandTech ''AnandTech'' is an online computer hardware magazine owned by Future plc. It was founded in 1997 by then-14-year-old Anand Lal Shimpi, who served as CEO and editor-in-chief until August 30, 2014, with Ryan Smith replacing him as editor-in-chie ...
, Anand Lal Shimpi highly compliments the design and increased speed of the second-generation iPad Mini while lamenting the limited color palette, stating "...it's a shame that this is a tradeoff that exists between the two iPads especially given how good Apple is about sRGB coverage in nearly all of its other displays." Despite some criticisms, such as the quality of the camera, Jeffrey Van Camp of
Digital Trends Digital Trends is a Portland, Oregon-based tech news, lifestyle, and information website that publishes news, reviews, guides, how-to articles, descriptive videos and podcasts about technology and consumer electronics products. With offices in ...
gave the second-generation iPad Mini a score of 4.5 out of 5. He writes: "The iPad Mini 2 is our favorite tablet of 2013. With a powerful 64-bit A7 processor and a high-resolution ‘Retina’ screen, it finishes the job that Apple started with the first iPad Mini."


See also

*Comparison of: ** iOS devices **
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 ...
** E-book readers


Notes


References


External links

* – official site {{S-end Mini 2 iPad Mini (2nd generation) Tablet computers Touchscreen portable media players Tablet computers introduced in 2013 Products and services discontinued in 2019