While Apple kept revamping the iPad Pro and iPad Air consecutively, the iPad Mini kept the same appearance for years on end. Thankfully, in their latest event, Apple unveiled their completely modernized iPad Mini next to the brand-new iPhone 13.
With an all-screen design, A15 Bionic chip, and lots of clear-cut upgrades, the iPad mini is turning up more like the iPad Air but in a smaller form factor. This, very likely, will give a hard time to people who are thinking about purchasing or upgrading to a newer iPad.
In this article, we are going to discuss both of these devices from a comparative perspective and figure out whether you should settle for the iPad Mini or the iPad Air.
Starting with the processor, we have Apple’s latest A15 Bionic Chip on the iPad Mini that, according to Apple, is 40 percent faster in processing and 80 percent faster in terms of graphical improvement than the previous iPad Mini.
While the A14 chip on the iPad Air is still a very capable mobile chip, it still lags behind what the A15 chip has in store for us. According to Nanoreview.net’s GeekBench 5 testing, A15 is 10% faster in single-core and 18% faster in multi-core performance.
Needless to say, a faster processor simply means better optimization, improved machine learning, and an overall satisfying user experience.
With that being said, let’s talk about their cameras. Although both are rocking a 12 Megapixel wide lens camera, some of the most recent features of Apple are lacking on the iPad Air. These differences are beautifully illustrated in a chart done by 9to5mac.com.
According to the chart, iPad Mini brings along remarkable features such as Extended Dynamic Range, Rear Camera Flash, and Zoom capabilities on the front camera that are missing in the iPad Air. You also get the Center Stage feature on the latest iPad Mini that indeed is a useful perk while Facetiming.
The only two aspects where the iPad Air goes bigger than the iPad Mini are dimensions and battery. With the 4th Generation iPad Air, you are getting a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina screen with an 81.3% screen-to-body ratio. The iPad Mini, however, has a slightly smaller 8.3-inch screen with a 77.4% screen-to-body ratio.
The iPad Air is powered by a 28.93 Watt Hour Battery while the iPad Mini integrates a 19.3 Watt Hour one. Though the marketed battery life for multimedia use remains the same at up to 10 hours which might be due to processor optimization.
It is quite clear that the latest iPad Mini does more than the iPad Air in terms of processing, capturing, and portability while cutting the cost down by 100 dollars. But if a bigger screen is what you are craving for, going for the iPad Air won’t hurt you that much. So that was all about the iPad Mini Vs iPad Air debate.
