I've been considering this for a while, but I want an iPad. I'm tired of the small screen on my phone, because playing strategy games turns into an ordeal( I'm looking at you XCOM) so I was thinking of selling my iPhone and getting an iPad, I would prefer a mini, but I wanted something that would be the same or better than the 5s at running games like XCOM. Also, I've been looking at the shadowrun series and I would like something that would be able to run those games, too. Thank you for your help!
Only iPad better than 5s is iPad Air 2 Air-Mini 2-Mini 3 has the same A7 chip as 5s but push 4x pixels so the perform worse. Air 2 has a A8X which is said to be 2.5 times stronger than A7
So I would be better off getting the air 2? I was looking for portability and convenience. So I'm guessing the performance of the mini 2-3 is pretty subpar concerning games like that?
If that games are the only ones you're gonna play iPad Mini 2 will be fine since they dont take advantage of A8X on Air 2 but there'll be a performance difference for newer games especially ones with metal support
One word: Screensize. Once you played on an Air for a while, you'll never go back. Air or Air2 doesn't matter much, they are both good. I skipped on the Air2, as I don't see any games that really need the extra power yet. The Minis are rather underwhelming in performance, from what I read in various tests and on TA. The Airs are super-light, and no problem at all to carry around.
I agree with the statement about once you go to an air you won't go back. I had the mini 2 and now the air 2. I gave the mini two to my brother and everytime I look at it I think omg this is so tiny, not the screen but the size of the device itself. However, I really do wish they would give the mini and the air the same specs. They keep treating it like a second class citizen. The reason why I went to the air was because of the completely pitiful update the mini 3 got. I have a feeling that Apple will always gimp the mini which is such a shame because it's a fantastic tablet. Thinking about it more I would consider getting a mini in the future if they gave it the same specs because it is ultra portable and a great device. I can try running some metal games and see how it performs since I have both with me here. Any game suggestions? Also the thing that really sold me on the air 2 is that they gave it more memory which I think is going to be used in ios9 for split screen multitasking.
It can run metal but Air 2 will have much better performance not a metal game but if you have Oddworld you can play around with settings to see the difference
iPad has a larger game selection, and the screen is large and vibrant enough for turn based games. Also, I'm not wasting $500 on a bigger iPhone that does less than other phablets.