The Apple iPad Mini 4 Review

Camera

When it was unveiled, Apple described the iPad Mini 4 as a small iPad Air 2. Although that isn't quite true for the performance, we've seen over the course of the review that it has held true for every other aspect of the device. The camera also follows this trend, as it's the exact same camera sensor and lens arrangement as the iPad Air 2. It's an 8MP 4:3 sensor with 1.1 micron pixels, an F/2.4 aperture, and a 3.3mm focal length. Josh previously took a look at this camera in his review of the Air 2, so I won't be doing a lengthy of commentary as it would be mostly redundant. However, since I end up doing the majority of tablet reviews for AnandTech I felt it was still worth putting it through my standard photo tests so it could be compared to other tablets available on the market that have come out since the iPad Air 2 launched last year.

I do have to apologize up front for having to use both fall and summer comparison shots. Many tablet OEMs don't allow us to keep samples indefinitely which means photos can't be updated as the seasons change. The only other option is to simply remove several devices from the comparison, which isn't a great solution either. As winter rolls around I'll be redoing my comparisons with the best phones and tablets I have on hand.

Ignoring the differences in the photo like the color of the leaves, the level of detail, sharpness, noise reduction, and other processing is essentially the same as what you'll get on the iPad Air 2. This isn't unexpected, as both the ISPs and the camera systems are literally identical in both tablets. The iPad Air 2 still has one of the best tablet cameras around too, so if you do like to use tablets for photography I don't think the Mini 4 will let you down in the daytime.

Night time photo quality on the Mini 4 is also unchanged from the iPad Air 2. In fact, if you look at this photo and the iPad Air 2 one side by side you might think they were taken at different angles on the same device. Only the leaves on the ground give away the fact that the photos were taken at different times, and even then they still look like they could have been taken with the same camera. While I would hardly recommend that you take photos at night with your tablet, if there is ever a case where you need to do that the iPad Mini 4 definitely offers best in class image quality for low light tablet photos.

As for the video quality, it would be quite good if it wasn't for a literally glaring issue. For whatever reason, the Mini 4 has a high degree of lens flare whenever the sun or another light source is aimed at it. As you can see in the video above, any moment where I wasn't in the shade was one where there the video was basically impossible to watch due to the lens flare. It's worth noting that I took this video immediately after the one I took on the Tab S2 for its review, and the Tab S2 had almost no lens flare at all so it's not an issue that occurs on every device with those environmental conditions. Like I've said before, I'm not a tablet photographer, but it's still disappointing that this sort of issue could end up shipping. If you do need to take videos with your iPad Mini 4 just be sure to point it away from the sun.