iPad Mini 3 review

Every year we're used to Apple's new tablets being significantly better than the previous generation. As a result, the iPad Mini 3 is rather a shock. It's not that it's a bad tablet (it's still, specs-wise, build-wise and OS-wise, great), but it's just that there are no significant changes over the previous model, the iPad Mini 2.

In fact, there are just three things new about the iPad Mini 3: it now comes in gold, it has the TouchID fingerprint reader, and the Wi-Fi+Cellular version now has the Apple SIM. With these changes, the iPad Mini 3 selling for the same price as the old tablet wouldn't be so much of a problem if it wasn't for that fact that the iPad Mini 2 is still available for £80 less.

We can understand why so few changes have been made, as last year's product line up (the iPad Air, iPad Mini 2 and iPhone 5S) all had the same processor, making the range rather samey. This year, it all seems to be about choice, with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus offering something different to smartphone users, and the iPad Air 2 being put back as the fastest, most powerful Apple mobile device; it would seem that the iPad Mini is back to being the smaller, portable and more budget offering.

Unfortunately, it also means that the iPad Mini 3 is a product no better than its predecessor, and we'll have to wait for the iPad Mini 4 to see something new and different. All of this leads us into rather a bizarre review that's largely positive, but with the price casting a negative shadow over it.

iPAD MINI 3 BUILD QUALITY

There’s no denying that the iPad Mini 3 is still one of the best-made tablets out there. Its aluminium body gives it a reassuring level of toughness and quality that you just don’t get with plastic tablets.

It helps that it’s also one of the best-looking tablets as well, with the thin size bezels, full glass front panel and neat curved edges all making it look like a premium product. While the iPad Air 2 may be thinner (6.1mm), the iPad Mini 3 is hardly fat at 7.5mm.

As we said with the iPad Mini and iPad Mini 2, the iPad Mini 3 strikes the perfect balance between screen size (7.9in) and physical size. It fits easily in one hand, letting you hold it like a book or an eReader. If you travel a lot or want a tablet for a commute, the iPad Mini 3’s size is perfect. It’s no wonder that other tablet manufacturers are moving away from 7in 16:9 screens to 8in 4:3 displays, such as with the Nexus 9, as Apple has shown that this is the right size for smaller tablets. 

On the side of the tablet you get the easily-reachable volume buttons, plus a slider switch (now removed from the iPad Air 2), which you can use for mute or the screen rotation lock.

iPAD MINI 3 SCREEN

Last year saw the iPad Mini 2 get a Retina display; this year’s model keeps the same screen, with a resolution of 2,048x1,536; the same resolution as used on the iPad Air 2. With a slightly smaller screen here, the iPad Mini 3 has a higher pixel density (326ppi vs 264ppi).

To be fair, it’s hard to tell the too apart. If you stare hard you get slightly sharper text on the Mini, but it’s a close-run thing and you can’t tell the difference in day-to-day use. Image quality is where it’s important and the iPad Mini 3 is generally very good. Thanks to its IPS panel, viewing angles are excellent, and you can easily see the screen, even from extreme angles.

We used our colour calibrator to measure the screen quality. This showed that the screen’s black point was a dark 0.45CD/m2 and its contrast ratio was an decent 798:1, while brightness was a healthy 365.62cm/m2. Colour reproduction wasn’t so good, with the screen only able to produce 67.1% of the sRGB colour gamut. This final measurement doesn’t quite tell the whole truth, as coverage isn’t the only important thing: it depends which part of the colour spectrum is causing the deficiency, as to how noticeable it is. With that in mind, in day-to-day use the Mini produces rich and vibrant colours and is great for web browsing thanks to its clean and bright whites. That said, this is not the best tablet screen that you can buy, and for detailed photos, the high-quality iPad Air 2 has a much better display.

iPAD MINI 3 PERFORMANCE

Inside is the same 1.3GHz dual-core A7 SoC used in the iPad Mini 2, iPhone 5S and iPad Air. We’d normally expect Apple to use a newer chip in its latest model, with the A8 available; however, that’s not to say that the A7 is particularly slow. When it was introduced last year, this 64bit chip was a long way ahead of the competition; a year-on, it still gives the competition a run for its money.

It completed the SunSpider JavaScript test in 408ms, which still makes the iPad Mini 3 one of the fastest tablets out there for browsing. Game performance should be good, too, with the 3DMark Extreme test returning a score of 14,413 in the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test. Newer tablets return a quicker score, but the Mini 3 is still more than fast enough to run any current game without any slow down. With newer titles starting to use Apple Metal, which lets the developers access the graphics hardware directly, we’re likely to seem games both running faster and looking better than on rival tablets.

One of the great things about buying an Apple tablet is that the operating system and hardware are so closely entwined that performance is excellent in all apps. No matter what you’re doing, the tablet runs smoothly and quickly, with the iPad still a little way ahead of Android in that regard.

Alongside the A7 chip is the M7 co-processor. This low-power chip monitors the accelerometer and gyroscope in the tablet, capturing data from it. With the iPhone 6 and the Health app, this information is really useful, as it lets you know how active you’ve been; on the iPad, there’s no Health app and few apps that use this information, so the M7 isn’t that useful.

iPAD MINI 3 BATTERY LIFE

As with the iPad Mini 2, the Mini 3 has a 6,471mAh battery. In our video playback battery test, it let the tablet last for 11h 4m. That’s still pretty impressive and means that you’ve got a typical day’s worth of heavy use and around a week’s worth of light use in-between charges. We’ve seen small tablets from other manufacturers last a few hours longer, but it’s fair to say that the iPad Mini 3’s battery still lasts long enough.

Charging is still via the Lightning port on the bottom of the tablet. Apple provides a 2.4A USB charger in the box, which you’ll want to use; the 1A charger you get with the iPhone and most other devices will take an age to charge this tablet.

iPAD MINI 3 OPERATING SYSTEM

Apple has installed iOS 8 on the tablet (now at version 8.1), which is the newest and, by far, the best version of the OS so far. While maintaining the much-needed visual improvements that iOS 7 introduced, iOS 8 also includes a raft of new features, designed to make it better for anyone with multiple Apple devices.

For starters, you can now make and answer phone calls on your iPhone from your tablet, so you need never miss a call if, for example, your phone’s sat on charge. Now, you can also receive and send text messages (not just iMessages) on your iPad via your iPhone.

Handoff is another new feature, which lets you take over tasks that you started on another device. For example, you can start writing an email on your Mac before deciding to finish it off on your iPad. It’s these kinds of touches that only Apple can do properly, as it creates both the hardware and software.

Apple has also made the OS more open, so you can install third-party keyboards, other apps can appear in the Notifications menu and one app can even access another app’s features, using a feature called Extensions: you can edit a photo you’ve just taken using Camera+, for example, rather than the built-in Apple tools.

As well as for pure simplicity and ease of use, iOS 8 still enjoys the best selection of tablet-designed apps, and it’s still a good way ahead of Android in this regard. On top of that, when a new version of iOS is released, the iPad Mini 3 will get it on the day of release, not months later, as is common with Android.

iPAD MINI 3 TOUCHID

TouchID is one of the big new features of the iPad Mini 3, bringing the fingerprint sensor to the small tablet. It works brilliantly, with a simple tap of the home screen button registering your finger and unlocking the tablet. Apple’s worked hard on the sensor and the model used here is better than the one originally introduced with the iPhone 5S; we found that it would even recognise a damp finger.

It’s not all about unlocking, as you can also use TouchID to buy music and apps from Apple. With iOS 8, TouchID is even more useful, as Apple has opened up the API to be used by third-party developers, so you can use the reader in other apps, too.  The list of people that support this in the UK isn’t massive at the moment, but it’s only a matter of time before this grows.

When Apple Pay comes to the UK, you’ll also be able to use TouchID to pay for goods online, although not in shops as there’s no NFC chip.

iPAD MINI 3 WIRELESS

Apple has fitted the iPad Mini 3 with the same wireless chips as the iPad Mini 2. That means that you get 802.11n (dual-band), rather than the newer and faster 802.11ac standard. This isn’t too bad a restriction as there are few 802.11ac networks around, and few broadband connections that require this Wi-Fi speed. Even with an 802.11ac router and a fast broadband connection, the only times you’ll really see the speed improvement is when you’re downloading large files.

Opt for the Wi-Fi + Cellular version of the tablet and you’ll be able to hook up the iPad to a 3G or 4G network, too. There’s a slight change here, with this new model now shipping with the Apple SIM, which gives you more flexibility when buying data.

iPAD MINI 3 APPLE SIM

If you buy the Wi-Fi + Cellular version, your iPad ships with the Apple SIM, which is one of the most important changes to the way that we buy data. Rather than having a SIM that only works on one network, the Apple SIM is designed to work on multiple networks, letting you choose which one you want, when you want it, so you can get the best deal for your needs.

At the moment, only EE is supported in the UK, but there’s a good range of plans, starting at £1 for 50MB, lasting for one day, up to £30 for 10GB of data, lasting 30 days. Some US networks are also supported, which could make roaming really cheap, as you could land, pick the best local data deal and avoid roaming charges. As more networks sign up, the Apple SIM is just going to get better and better. It’s a radical new way to buy data and a much needed change.

 iPAD MINI 3 CAMERA

Although the iPad Air 2 got a new camera, upgrading sensor resolution and to a larger aperture lens, the iPad Mini 3 didn’t, sticking with the same 5 megapixel sensor and f/2.4 aperture lens as on its predecessor. This is starting to show its age now, with its shots decidedly low-res. 

Quality isn’t too bad in bright light, with the camera producing well-exposed and detailed shots, although slightly lacking in detail if you zoom in, as you can see from the sample shots below (click to view the full-res images).

In low light, you start getting a lot more noise, while the lack of detail is still an issue. You can see this in the shot below (click to view the full-res photo).

With no new chip or sensor, you don’t get any of the modes that the iPad Air 2 got, such as the fantastic burst mode. Video also lacks the larger tablet’s 120fps Slo-Mo mode, so you can shoot at 30fps 1080p only. It's good to see that the Timelapse mode is available, as you can capture some cool documentary-style footage with ease. Image quality is good enough outside, although the comparatively small sensor starts to struggle with noise in low-light. Overall, the camera’s alright for the odd snap and for shooting video outside, but it’s outclassed by the higher quality model in the iPad Air 2.

On the front is the same 1.2 megapixel FaceTime HD camera, which can shoot video at 720p. Quality is a way behind that produced by the newer camera in the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2, but footage is still sharp and clear enough to have a decent video chat.

iPAD MINI 3 CONCLUSION

As we said at the start, this review is one that’s largely positive, but with the price overshadowing the tablet. This is largely because Apple has left the iPad Mini 2 on sale, which is identical, bar TouchID, the Apple SIM, Gold colour and storage sizes. If you want a 16GB model you can buy the Wi-Fi iPad Mini 2 for £239; the iPad Mini 3 costs £80 more at £319. That’s a lot of money for some fairly minor changes.

Things get a bit more complicated as you go up in model sizes, as the iPad Mini 2 tops out at 32GB for £279, while the iPad Mini 3 has no 32GB model and its 64GB model costs £399, while the 128GB model costs £479. We think that the 32GB iPad Mini 2 strikes the perfect balance between price and storage space.

If you absolutely need more storage space, you’ve got no choice but to buy the new model; if you can make do with 32GB (a reasonable size), you get a much better deal by buying the iPad Mini 2.

Both iPad Mini 2 and Mini 3 cost £100 more per model if you want the Wi-Fi + Cellular version, with the newer model supporting the Apple SIM. However, given that this currently doesn’t have a lot of support, you’ll get a much better deal by buying the older model and using a regular SIM.

To us, it feels like Apple should either have dropped the iPad Mini 2 and/or made the iPad Mini 3 cheaper; as it stands, the new iPad just seems a little expensive for the changes you get. If you want a tablet this size, must have TouchID or need 64GB or 128GB of storage, the iPad Mini 3 is a good choice; for every one else, the iPad Mini 2 is much better value for essentially the same thing.