Chance Miller does a nice job walking through the differences between the new education iPad and the iPads Pro. I spent a few minutes on Apple’s web site to pull down some specs comparing the low-end 12.9″ iPad Pro and the low-end 9.7″ iPad:
The lowest end 12.9″ iPad Pro:
- A10X Fusion chip
- Retina, ProMotion, True Tone display
- 12MP camera
- 4K video recording
- Smart connector, Bluetooth
- 64GB
- WiFi only
- $799
The lowest end education 9.7″ iPad:
- A10 chip
- Retina display
- 8MP camera
- 1080p video recording
- Bluetooth
- 32GB
- WiFi only
- $329
Interesting to me that the iPad Mini 4 is $399, no Apple Pencil, runs an A8 chip.
The Ipad mini has 4x the storage of the 9.7″ ipad. Sales fell through the floor for the ipad mini, which is why Apple has cancelled all but the highest price, highest capacity mini model.
That one model was still selling well enough – to who, I don’t know (gamers?) – to justify keeping it in production but not enough to justify updating it.
I have a mini 2. I use it to read things (books, news, whatever) and every once in a while I think ‘gee, if this breaks would I just use my 6S Plus as a replacement” and the answer is… I could. But the Mini has a lot more screen than even the 6S Plus which makes reading books and news etc more pleasant. COULD I live without it? Of course. Would I like an updated version if mine breaks? Yes. And I don’t even really care if it has Pencil support personally.
I know someone who just flat out prefers the Mini for reading. She has a Mini 2 and an Air 2. The Mini 2 is the reading device. And if it ever stops working, she will not enjoy reading as much.
I just replaced the battery myself to keep it going.
The current Mini is like the current Mac Pro. Old tech that Apple has no business selling at current prices. If they can justify keeping the highest Mini around for 399, then it should justify a spec bump.
I think it will get updated.