The iPad Mini 3 (stylized and marketed as iPad mini 3) is the third-generation

iPad Mini 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 line of tablets, with screen sizes of 7.9 inches and 8.3 inches. The first- ...

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 com ...

designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was announced alongside the iPad Air 2 on October 16, 2014 and released on October 22. It uses primarily the same design and hardware as that of its predecessor, 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 ...

. Its new features are the addition of the Touch ID sensor compatible with

Apple Pay Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. It is supported on these Apple devices: iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. It digitizes and can replace a cred ...

, differing storage sizes and being available in a gold color, as well as the previous colors. On September 9, 2015, the iPad Mini 3 was discontinued and replaced by the

iPad Mini 4 The iPad Mini 4 (stylized and marketed as iPad mini 4) is the fourth-generation iPad Mini tablet computer designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was announced along with the iPad Pro on September 9, 2015, and released the same day. ...

Features

Software

The iPad mini 3 comes with the iOS 8.1 operating system preinstalled. It comes with several built-in applications, which are Camera, Photos, Messages,

FaceTime FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS device with a forward-faci ...

, Mail, Music, Safari, Maps,

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 qu ...

, Calendar,

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 ...

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

, Notes, Contacts, iBooks,

Game Center Game Center is a service by Apple that allows users to play and challenge friends when playing online multiplayer social gaming network games. Games can now share multiplayer functionality between the Mac and iOS versions of the app. Game C ...

, Reminders, Clock, Videos, Newsstand, Photo Booth and Podcasts. The

Apple App Store The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software Devel ...

, a digital application distribution platform for iOS, allows users to browse and download

applications 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 ...

made by various developers from the

. Additional apps made by Apple itself are available for free download, which are iMovie, GarageBand, iTunes U,

Find My iPhone Find My iPhone (known as Find My Mac in macOS) was an app and service provided by Apple Inc. that allowed remote locating of iOS devices, Mac computers, Apple Watch, and AirPods. Find My iPhone was enhanced and merged into the app Find My in iO ...

Find My Friends Find My Friends (called "Find Friends" on the SpringBoard) was a mobile phone tracking app and service for iOS devices developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Both Find My iPhone and Find My Friends were combined into the app Find My in iOS 13 and iPa ...

, Apple Store, Trailers, Remote, 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 Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young mal ...

, Keynote, 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 can ...

). Like all

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

devices, the iPad Mini 3 can also sync content and other data with a Mac or PC using iTunes. 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 Internet t ...

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, deb ...

(if hardware supported). The iPad Mini 3 includes a version of

with the built-in NFC functionality removed. Siri, an

intelligent personal assistant An intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) or intelligent personal assistant (IPA) is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual based on commands or questions. The term "chatbot" is sometimes used to refer to virtual ...

and

knowledge navigator The Knowledge Navigator is a concept described by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley in his 1987 book, ''Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple''. It describes a device that can access a large networked database of hypertext information, and use software ...

, is integrated into the device and it can be activated hands-free. The application uses a

natural language user interface Natural-language user interface (LUI or NLUI) is a type of computer human interface where linguistic phenomena such as verbs, phrases and clauses act as UI controls for creating, selecting and modifying data in software applications. In interface d ...

to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Web services. Apple claims that the software adapts to the user's individual preferences over time and personalizes results. Additionally, Siri can identify songs by using Shazam to listen to any song playing nearby. Siri then stores a list of any songs it has managed to identify on iTunes.

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

come integrated through Apple's native apps. Facebook features can be directly accessed from within native apps such as Calendar which can sync Facebook events, or use Facebook's

like button A like button, like option, or recommend button, is a feature in communication software such as social networking services, Internet forums, news websites and blogs where the user can express that they like, enjoy or support certain content. In ...

from within the

. The iPad Mini 3 also got iOS 9-12. The iPad Mini 3 did not get

iPadOS 13 iPadOS 13 is the first major release of the iPadOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's 2019 Worldwide Developers ...

Design

The iPad Mini 3 uses almost exactly the same design as that of the iPad Mini 2, with the addition of Touch ID. Additionally, with the announcement of iPad Mini 3 and the iPad Air 2, Apple added the gold color option to the existing silver and space gray color choices of iPads.

Hardware

iPad Mini 3 uses nearly the same hardware as the iPad Mini 2, the main exception being the addition of the Touch ID sensor. It has a 7.9" retina display with 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution at 326 ppi. The iPad Mini 3 also uses the A7 chip with 64-bit architecture and the M7 motion coprocessor. It has a 5MP

iSight iSight is a brand name used by Apple Inc. to refer to cameras on various devices. The name was originally used for the external iSight webcam, which retailed for US$149, connected to a computer via a FireWire cable, and came with a set of mou ...

Camera capable of recording 1080p HD video and a 1.2MP FaceTime HD Camera capable of recording 720p HD video. The new Touch ID sensor detects the user's fingerprint and can be used instead of a passcode to unlock the iPad. Touch ID on the iPad Mini 3 is also compatible with Apple Pay and can be used to authorize purchases in online apps only with fingerprint verification, as opposed to entering passwords. The iPad Mini 3 is available with storage options of 16, 64 or 128 GB and has no expansion option. Apple has released 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 SanDis ...

reader, but it can only be used to transfer photos and videos to an iPad.

Reception

The iPad Mini 3 received positive reviews but drew fainter praise than its predecessor, as it was identical to the iPad Mini 2 except for the addition of Touch ID and the availability of the gold color. The iPad Mini 2 was regarded as a better buy, being US$100 cheaper and featuring the same screen and internals. While the Mini 2 and 3 were stuck at the same hardware level of the original iPad Air, the iPad Air 2's new hardware was considerably more powerful. Furthermore, the Air 2 was also redesigned lighter and smaller than the original Air, which nullified some of the advantages of the Mini 2 and 3's compact form factor.Apple iPad Mini 3 Review
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Timeline

References

External links

* – official site {{S-end Products introduced in 2014 Products and services discontinued in 2015

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 ...

iPad Mini (3) Tablet computers Touchscreen portable media players Tablet computers introduced in 2014