Apple continues the trend of downsizing their device’s batteries without reducing their battery life. Not only the new iPhone model is equipped with smaller batteries than its predecessor, the new iPad Mini 4 also sports a smaller battery than its older counterpart, the iPad Mini 3.
The iPad Mini 4 packs a single-cell battery with a capacity of 5,125mAh, considerably smaller than the 6,472mAh two-cell battery that’s found inside its predecessor. However, just like in the case of the new iPhones, Apple promises equal battery life thanks to their new battery saving A8 chips. Performance-wise, the Apple A8 chip is more powerful than ever before as well, it has been clocked at 1.5GHz and is accompanied by 2GB of RAM memory.
The device promises 10 hours of battery use while Wi-Fi browsing, and nearly 9 hours on mobile networks. So apparently, the new Apple 7.9 inch tablet will pack the same battery life as the previous version, only that it will be thinner than ever before – neat, right?
Specifically, the iPad Mini 4 will be nearly 20% thinner than the iPad Mini 3. The device will be 6.1 mm, but also much lighter than the previous model, at only 0.64 pounds. The display features an anti-reflective screen – the same that is used by Aapple’s iPad Air 2 – again, helping the device to slim down ever more. However, the website iFixit notes that because of the thinner design, the repair costs will also increase considerably, and that there is almost no chance to repair the device all by yourself.
The device’s upgrade to 2GB of Ram was a good idea, meaning that the new iPad Mini 4 will easily support all the multitasking features available with iOS 9. Tim Cook declared that more memory was needed if you want to run two apps at the same time. The RAM upgrade nearly makes the iPad Mini 4 as fast as the new iPad Air 2, but not quite. Recent benchmarks found that the iPad Air’s A8X chip is almost 50% faster than the iPad Mini 4’s A8, mainly due to the fact that the A8X is a tri-core CPU, whilst the A8 is only dual core.
Aside from the new design, change in battery sizes, new CPU and RAM upgrades, the people iFixit did not notice any other crucial differences between the iPad Mini 4 and the iPad Mini 3. Some buttons and speakers were moved around a bit but that is about it.
Photo Credits wikipedia