ipad min 2 or 4? And best sunscreen hood?

[Dazzauk]

My wifey is getting me ipad mini for my birthday, just cant decide between a mini 2 or 4? The reason for me asking is purely price related, the 4 is bloomin expensive, i want one with cellular, its night and day between the 2 in terms of price, so i need to know if the 4 is WORTH the extra money, or should i just get a 2?

Im frightened if i get a 2 then in a year or so a app update will come out and the 2 wont be fast enough any more etc, im primarily using it just to pilot the drone, and browse the net at home..

 

[GMack]

I'd go with the 4 for the reason you stated. GO is getting too CPU intensive and the mini 2 may soon go on the "Give it up" list. My S6 is on the approved list, but reality is it isn't any more as it breaks up or fails to connect. My Air 2 is beginning to break up now too since GO 4.1.0 so it may be getting old as well as no longer being made.

My "Choice" would be the new iPad Pro 10.5" with the A10x processor + Cellular, but it too may not be enough whenever GO 5 appears which may be by Xmas.

Cry once - or buy twice and cry even more. Been there with the Samy junk.

 

[Dazzauk]

what about the ipad 2 air? Dont know anything about that one? It has a A8X chip, is that fast? Also not sure if its too big to fly with?

 

[GMack]

what about the ipad 2 air? Dont know anything about that one? It has a A8X chip, is that fast? Also not sure if its too big to fly with?

Mentioned it above.

It's what I use now and it works, but it breaks up (Video lag.) maybe 1-2% of the time since GO 4.1.0. I have the HDMI module on the RC and that may account for some of the Air 2 CPU usage too and could be better without it. Some are having worse issues. I expect it to be worse with GO 4.1.4 too as DJI never seems to fully correct the lag issues without creating some other mess like adding more resources which eat up CPU RAM as GO grows. I often think, "Wow! It works now!" only to find out next flight the issue is back. The box of Samy stuff was always a disappointment as once it finally connected (Which is really annoying!), it starts getting laggy and behind where I press a screen button and 10 seconds later it finally responds, or it just crashes and closes and I need to restart it.

Fwiw, the Air 2 is probably on sale now too since the newer iPad came out a couple of months ago with the A9 I think.

 

[Dazzauk]

Mentioned it above.

It's what I use now and it works, but it breaks up (Video lag.) maybe 1-2% of the time since GO 4.1.0. I have the HDMI module on the RC and that may account for some of the Air 2 CPU usage too and could be better without it. Some are having worse issues. I expect it to be worse with GO 4.1.4 too as DJI never seems to fully correct the lag issues without creating some other mess like adding more resources which eat up CPU RAM as GO grows. I often think, "Wow! It works now!" only to find out next flight the issue is back. The box of Samy stuff was always a disappointment as once it finally connected (Which is really annoying!), it starts getting laggy and behind where I press a screen button and 10 seconds later it finally responds, or it just crashes and closes and I need to restart it.

Fwiw, the Air 2 is probably on sale now too since the newer iPad came out a couple of months ago with the A9 I think.

Surprised the air 2 would cause any issues if it's running a similar chip to the 4 mini?

 

[Dazzauk]

Does it make a difference what storage size you buy? If I get a 16gb and I'm only using it for flying and net browsing is that enough?

 

[GMack]

Surprised the air 2 would cause any issues if it's running a similar chip to the 4 mini?

The mini 4 problems I've seen revolve around it getting too hot being smaller than the larger Air 2 which dissipates more heat. More heat evidently slows the processor down to cool it and then the lag issues enter.

As to the AIr 2 with 16GB RAM, that the same as in my Air 2 + Cellular. I use it only for the drone and it shows about 5-6GB in use with maybe 4-5GB free. I doubt if it would do much in editing as it might need more room to do that, but I take all the imaging off the micro-SD card into a desktop and use Resolve 14 or Photoshop, etc. there. The apps for flying in it are Airmap, b4UFly, GO 4, DJI GS Pro, Hover, and Autopilot 4. No songs, photos, videos, or social apps are in it, just the drone apps and what came with it as it is pinched for RAM at 16 GB. I wish it were larger, maybe 32-64GB at least as the micro-SD card is larger in the bird so it couldn't hold it's data if needed.

 

[DroneGuyEd]

Having tried both, I much prefer the mini 4. Its faster, more stable, and the anti reflective coating does make a difference.

 

[John Locke]

I also use iPad Air2 (A8 CPU) with my P4 and P4P and have very few issues, I like it a lot. It could always be brighter, but iPads are pretty descent with some tree shade. I fly my P3P with iPad Mini2 (A7 CPU) running GO and it works good also, but it will overheat in temps above 90F. In those scenarios I fly from inside the car with the air conditioner full blast.

 

[Dazzauk]

Having tried both, I much prefer the mini 4. Its faster, more stable, and the anti reflective coating does make a difference.

Thanks buddy

 

[John Locke]

You can always buy a refurb from Apple. Same warranty, and the units usually look like new. Good savings.

 

[bigshoe83]

I bought a pre-owned mini 2 wifi+cellular 32 gb not long ago for the singular purpose of flying my P4. The only installed app is GO and it does ok, I can see where a faster processor would help occasionally but for the money saved I am happy with it.

 

[Dazzauk]

Got a good deal on a 3 month old mini 4 32gb. So happy days.

Now what's the best sun screen hood for it?

 

[John Locke]

Got a good deal on a 3 month old mini 4 32gb. So happy days.

Now what's the best sun screen hood for it?

I prefer the Hi Aerial hood. It's portable and doesn't flop around.

 

[Photoflash]

Best Buy had the Ipad Mini 4 on sale for $299. Came with 128GB as well. Non Cellular, but the only issue is Google maps doesn't populate unless I use my phones hot spot once set up to fly. Then the mini has access and caches the maps for where I'm at. Works much better and faster than my Samsung S5 Android phone to fly! I bought an Otter Box to protect it, but now worried about it getting hot. I also found someone on here who made a wire bracket to clamp the wider Mini in the otterbox. Works great to secure the thicker Mini to the Remote platform.

 

[WWK888]

I had the iPad mini 2 then upgraded to the 4 due to overheating issues with the 2. Apple was kind enough to let me pay the difference even though it was past the return date.