Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsKind of a dud of an update
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2021
I've had an iPad Mini 4, 5 and now 6. I use them in the cockpit of a small plane, which is one thing Apple is now marketing the Mini 6 for. But I also use it for general tablet stuff; web browsing, watching YouTube, listening to music. I upgraded from the 5 to the 6 specifically for Pencil 2 support. The Mini 5 supports the first-gen Pencil, and while that was great as a first step towards going paperless in the cockpit for me, the way the Pencil 1 charges is just really an inconvenience for my use. I'd constantly get in the plane only to realize my Pencil is dead, and I'd have to just go back to paper anyway. I ended up just always carrying paper and a pen on me anyway, which kind of defeats the purpose of having the Pencil. So being able to have the Pencil 2 constantly stuck to the iPad and charging magnetically was enough in itself to get me to upgrade.
You'd normally expect that any upgraded tech device would have all the stuff you liked about the prior model, but just with more power, features and/or a more elegant design. In the case of the Mini 6, though, I feel like it may be one step forward, two steps back. I'm really happy with the Pencil 2 support but not really with anything else. I may actually be returning it; I'll update this review if I do.
First, jelly scroll is real. I'm always skeptical of complaints like this. They often start with one person who's either overly nitpicky or who just got a defective unit, and then they snowball as others with the same defect or a severe case of OCD write internet comments in agreement. But I was honestly shocked when I turned on my Mini 6, went to a random web page in Chrome, scrolled and saw the effect. It was much worse than I expected, and easily noticeable. It is difficult to believe this got past Apple's quality control.
In reading some other articles about this, it seems clear that Apple's not really lying when they say this is "normal LCD behavior", but the problem is that they've mounted the screen controller in the Mini 6 sideways. If you look at the Mini 5, and pretty much any other tablet, you do see some jelly scrolling in landscape orientation, but not in portrait orientation. The Mini 6 is the opposite; it jelly scrolls in portrait but not in landscape. So it is, oddly, a landscape tablet. The weird thing about it, though, is that the controls are not really set up for that orientation, and I sure don't normally use it that way. It's not an efficient way to read web pages; the only thing it's good for is watching videos, where jelly scrolling isn't an issue regardless of how the screen controller's mounted.
The screen is also slightly taller (or you could say "wider" if you consider it a landscape tablet), and that doesn't work well in portrait mode either. My Mini 5 shows 6 icons across and they are nicely spaced. The Mini 6, using the same settings (smaller icons), shows 5 icons across and they are weirdly bunched up in the middle. This could be fixed with an OS update but I'd never buy any product based on the promise of a future update. Also, it again is just a weird design decision from a company that's supposed to be all about design.
I compared the screen brightness of the two tablets as well and while they're close, the Mini 5 is very slightly brighter. Again, I made sure they had the same settings - max brightness, Night Shift off, and True Tone both on and off. The Mini 5 screen always wins by a hair.
Add to all that the removal of the headphone jack and I'd say that if you don't need Pencil 2 support, keep your Mini 5 or buy a refurbished one if you're in the market for your first Mini. Save yourself some money too. This was just not a very good update to the Mini line.
Personally, I just need to decide if the Pencil 2 support is enough to overcome all of the Mini 6's downsides. My only viable alternative if I do want the Pencil 2 is the iPad Air, which is $100 more expensive and bigger/heavier... not necessarily an asset in a small plane carrying two people. The iPad Pro also supports the Pencil 2 but it is larger still and even more expensive. It's a tough call for me, but I'd definitely say that most people should get either a Mini 5 (if you don't need the Pencil 2) or an Air (if you want the Pencil 2 and have the space for a larger tablet).
