It's in good shape, but no longer supported, so I do not plan to connect it to the internet. Instead, I was hoping to send PDF files via a cable from from my iMac, and simply use the device as a better PDF reader than my iPhone because of the slightly larger screen. If this is easy to do, and you know how to do it, please tell me. If this is not worth the trouble--as I suspect--then please me know that, too. Also, can I use this Mini to take notes and then transfer them (again via a USB-to-lightning cable) back up to the iMac? Thanks for the help!
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iPad mini Can I use a 1st generation iPad mini as a PDF reader or note-taker?
- Thread starter hjb
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Not worth the trouble. That maxes out as iOS 9 and A5+512GB is super slow even just considering the UI. No Pencil support either.
And honestly, the display is still to small for comfort for letter/A4-size PDFs. Smallest I'd go with is 9.7/10.2".
And honestly, the display is still to small for comfort for letter/A4-size PDFs. Smallest I'd go with is 9.7/10.2".
As @rui no onna has said, it's not worth the trouble... particularly because it is so old that there isn't any good PDF markup software available for it.
Regarding the SIZE of the iPad being an issue for note taking: What size paper notepad do you currently use for taking notes? If you use a full size Letter/A4 notepad, then a 9.7/10.2 iPad would be a good fit. But if you use a padfolio sized (half Letter/half A4) notepad, then the Mini is a good fit.
I remember using GoodReader since iOS 6 or something. Caveat, with just 512MB RAM, it’s likely to crash on more complex PDFs. I’ve had some PDFs that caused my Pro 9.7 (2GB RAM) to go into a crash loop when I open the app.
Yeah, the A5-iOS 9 combo is the worst, probably only second to the A4 and iOS 7. It will be incredibly slow for practically everything. Agree with @rui no onna, it’s not worth the trouble. An iPad that might be good for that is the Air 2, although I dunno exactly how it performs on iPadOS 15. Regardless, the screen size is better for that, and in spite of how much Apple has probably degraded both battery life and performance… (7 iOS versions in!), it is worlds better than the Mini 1 for everything. It should be good for that.
Also @rui no onna, which iOS version is your 9.7-inch iPad Pro in? My PDFs are light, but performance has been half-decent in every regard on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro after Apple forcibly updated it to iOS 12 (from iOS 9). Battery life not so much, but that’s a different conversation (it is abhorrent).
Also @rui no onna, which iOS version is your 9.7-inch iPad Pro in? My PDFs are light, but performance has been half-decent in every regard on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro after Apple forcibly updated it to iOS 12 (from iOS 9). Battery life not so much, but that’s a different conversation (it is abhorrent).
For me, the crashes were occurring even back on iOS 9 and 10.
Right now, my Pro 9.7 is on iPadOS 14 but I wish I’d kept it at iOS 12. Memory management really hit 2GB iPads hard on iPadOS 13+.
Standby battery life has been quite bad beyond iOS 10 though, albeit my onscreen time seems to remain more or less the same (taking into account expected degradation due to age and usage).
I have to disagree with anyone who wants to allure you from using it as s simple PDF reader. It surely suffices unless the PDFs are really complex. And it's not like you have to spend any additional money.
I use our 1st gen iPads (256 MB RAM) for reading weekly released magazines. Each has ~130 pages, +30 MB, lots of images and vector graphics (statistics, maps). Totally fine experience even when zooming heavily into the vector graphics.
I simply import the PDFs from a SMB network share (NAS/server) via WiFi into the local iBooks app (by using Filebrowser). Of course you can use iTunes (or Finder) via USB and directly copy/sync the PDFs onto your iPad.
The old iPads don't have a Retina display, but it's up to you if the resolution is enough for your PDFs or not. Give iBooks a try and then decide for yourself if it works for your PDFs or is actually unusable.
That being said, Retina displays, larger screens and more powerful/recent SOCs definitely improve the experience noticeably, but I always try to make the most out of existing hardware if the cut-backs are moderate.
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Yeah, maybe the PDFs you read were a little too much for the device. I haven’t noticed many memory management issues on iOS 12 when compared to iOS 9, and yeah, I’ve heard others mention the same thing: performance really decreased on older iPads since the introduction of iPadOS, unfortunately. Battery life too, but not as much as iPhones: iOS 13 obliterated the iPhone 6s’ already mediocre battery life (dropping it to like 3-4 hours of screen-on time) only to be reduced further by iOS 15.
My 9.7-inch iPad Pro was almost like-new with 85% health on iOS 9, standing at around 14-14.5 hours of pretty light screen-on time when it was new, and dropping to around 13-13.5 hours with 85% health. Apple forcibly updated it to iOS 12 (The infamous A9 activation bug on iOS 9), and immediately after updating, battery life barely scraped 10 hours, with very light use, and varied, often getting even less. It’s the same today.
This is why I am surprised though: my standby time has been stellar, even if on-screen time has suffered a lot. I haven’t noticed much difference with iOS 9 to be honest, it‘s just that on-screen time is paltry. However, like you said, maybe it’s iPadOS. Like memory management, maybe standby runtime also took a hit. Mine is deliberately stuck on iOS 12 though, so I can’t give any insight on my experience in regards to that.
I was using an ipad mini 2 yesterday. I know, different machine, but it worked. Safari is crap so I don’t use it. But it works fine for Books, reading notes, and watching Netflix via the app. There is life in old devices
can you transfer docs via airdrop?
can you transfer docs via airdrop?
I have an iPad Air 2 that I just gave to my son. It runs somewhat slow, but perfect for reading/ YouTube/ light software programs. No Apple Pencil support, but a stylus can be used if needed.
Thank you for your insight! That’s just how I imagined it was, then. I mentioned this elsewhere, but Apple has been pretty consistent in that iOS updates’ impact on devices have a clear, direct threshold to determine their severity: pre and post 64-bit architecture.
32-bit devices were obliterated in every regard. The A5 is incredibly slow on iOS 9 (I’ve tried it); the A4 is also incredibly slow on iOS 6 (I’ve tried it too! I have two iPod Touch 4G, one on iOS 5 and one on iOS 6 and the difference is astounding. Unusable on iOS 6, even radio apps crash, I think the only consistent app I’ve had with no crashing - albeit with terrible keyboard slowdowns - is notes, which tells you everything you need to know); and while the A6 on iOS 10 is a little better, it’s still painfully slow, if the benchmark is original versions. Battery life is absolutely terrible (the iPhone 4s on iOS 9 absolutely sucks, for example), and I have an iPhone 5c on iOS 10 (after Apple forced it out of iOS 9… again), and while it’s not as bad, it’s still horrible, standing at around 3-4 hours of screen-on time at best.
64-bit devices’ performance is decent (like you said when describing the Air 2’s performance, I’ve also seen it with my 9.7-inch iPad Pro), it’s battery life that suffers (the iPhone 6s, 7, even plus models are terrible by iOS 15), and iPads aren’t spared either (like I mentioned with my 9.7-inch iPad Pro, which is ”only” on iOS 12. I can’t imagine how bad iPadOS 16 is for that device).
IOS 9 and 10, while they destroyed the usability of 32bit devices, have amazing standby time. My mini 2 on IOS 10 can last days, losing only 2-3% per day, while my 2018-2021 iPad pros with much better battery health/life lose 5-10% overnight. My iPad 2 with IOS 9, almost 800 battery cycles and a battery health of 94% (yes battery cycles and battery health can have a much lower correlation than people think) can stay on for weeks without being charged
The Mini 2 is 64-bit though, it has an A7, but yeah, iPads’ standby time has never left much to be desired really, it’s always been excellent, updated or otherwise (my 9.7-inch iPad Pro is just as good on iOS 12 as it was on iOS 9), it’s screen-on time where they are destroyed. It sucks that Apple won’t allow downgrading, it sucks that Apple wI’ll continue to destroy battery life regardless of the chipset’s performance, but at least, the one thing we can be happy bout is that performance remains pleasant enough. It’s not perfect, but it’s more than we had.
The 32bit iPad 2 has even better standby time than the 64 bit mini 2.... I think it's really the OS that makes the difference, not the hardware.
I remember my 10.5 was having outstanding standby time (IOS 9 like) on one of the betas of IOS 15, never seen that before, or after... Otherwise stand-by time on iPadOS has not been amazing, probably still a bit better than on Android, but not by much...
Yeah it sucks that you cannot downgrade. iPadOS 14 destroyed my mini 4. Now it's almost as slow as my mini 2, while it use to be much faster... I don't know if it's just a matter of RAM or if it affects CPU too, but I am leaving my 9.7 pro on iPadOS 13.4. IOS 12 was way too limited compared to 13 (for me desktop Safari, download manager, external drive support, mouse support, sidecar, even just dark mode, made all the difference...)
The iPad 2 and the iPad 4 have the best battery life on an iPad, ever. I’m not surprised by what you said!
You said that standby time on iPadOS hasn’t been amazing, do you mean on older devices? I have a new iPad Air 5 I got (as a companion to my diminished 9.7-inch iPad Pro), and it‘s just been on standby for 8 hours and it dropped 0%. It’s been more than that on standby as well and it dropped 0%. This is my first iPad on iPadOS, so I don’t have an older device I can try on iPadOS in order to determine standby drop.
I’ve been utterly shocked, however, by the standby time of newer iPhones! My main iPhone, an iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 has awful standby time when compared to… my 6-year-old iPhone 6s on iOS 10! The latter barely drops 0-1%, while the former can drop like 5% occasionally. (Oddly, it varies, oftentimes also dropping 0-1%, but it’s a lot worse most of the time. 95% of the time it drops more than 1%).
Yeah, some features can be really cool. The things you mentioned are very nice! I’m not immune to saying “wow. I’d love to have that”. Like I said, I got an iPad Air 5, and for example, I’m fully aware that in spite of the fact that I’d love to try it, I won’t have Stage Manager. But it is what it is. I prefer flawless performance and battery life over anything and everything. There’s nothing Apple can add that will make me update.