New iPad Mini: Has Anything Changed?

Apple quietly announced the new iPad Mini 7th generation via press release. There are some spec bumps and plenty of "Apple Intelligence" marketing, but are there any big design changes or new features? Any changes to pricing? Will you be queueing up to buy one?

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#apple #ipad #ipadmini #ipadmini7

[ConstantGeekery]

Something I missed is that the A17 Pro in the Mini is binned, so you lose a GPU core compared to the iPhone, so the Mini 7 won't hit the Metal scores shown in Geekbench 6. This does make it look closer to the Mini 6 on graphics performance, if you take the Geekbench score in isolation. In real-world use, the additional memory (8GB vs 4GB) will also play a part in some graphics tasks, so I'd say the Mini 7 is still likely to offer a decent upgrade in this area.

[andyH_England]

I understand that the current trend on YouTube is to criticize anything new from Apple, but I’m going to share my perspective honestly. The price of their latest product is similar to what it was three years ago, which I consider a positive aspect. My view is that Apple is aware of the demand curve and understands that higher prices can lead to diminishing returns. Consequently, their main focus seems to be on maintaining competitive pricing above all else.

If we start from that point of view then we look at what Apple added for the same price despite inflation over the last three years. So we get double the storage, It is about time, as 64GB was very restrictive and has no place in 2024. We also get 8GB of RAM, which is twice as much and pro AI or not, that is still a fantastic upgrade which most of us will benefit from. The A17 Pro is a great chip. It was in $1000+ iPhones up until a month ago, and by using the binned version, they can fit them within that budget. Plenty of other small incremental upgrades as you would expect (USB speeds, Bluetooth, wifi, etc).

For me, those are solid refreshes of a very niche device that has never been a premium iPad, being just ahead of the base iPad. So all these dreams of expensive Tandem OLED display and 120Hz have only ever really been pipe dreams--Apple does not manufacture any IPS 120Hz panels and would definitely not set up a manufacturing line for the mini; they are more likely to kill it than that. So the disappointments in the comment sections are strange. Apple does what it does, and consumers do what they do.

[edmn]

I would love if the iPad Mini could support Stage Manager to an external display. I would love if my iPhone could do that as well!

[brucekennedy]

Not a massive deal if you already have the 6, but I’ve been considering one, so the 7 is a welcome bump for a first timer.

[Regantdarcy]

I’m an artist and my main creation device is an iPad Pro. But I have an iPad mini for when I want to travel light. Been waiting for 3 yrs for this update. Was hoping for face ID & a Pro Motion display… but happy it got Apple Pencil 2 support, a faster usb-c port and a much faster chip that’ll be able to run Apple Intelligence(whenever it comes out). I knew it wasn’t going to get an OLED screen cause rumors strongly report thats not coming until 2026 or later. So I’m not upset about that. All in all, a nice little update. The iPad mini is an indispensable part of my creative workflow.

[savagepro]

Apple: "what we meant was MINI changes"

[Denvermorgan]

My Mini did the jelly scroll thing, but it didn’t really bother me too much, but I do hope they fixed it.

[MicaelKling]

I ordered one iPad mini 7, thank you for an excellent analysis !! Keep on the good work!! I think the RAM was also upgrades from the Mini 6.

[TheTekEffect]

Smaller bezels, and I'll pick one up.

[petethegeek]

Thanks. I think the falling over sensation might be down to Mr Daniels, not the iPad… 😂

[claudiameier]

it should be b ackwards compatible with the older pen

[PhatJoe_]

Pre-ordered 265gb trading in my 64gb. I really like using my iPad mini.

[pug_]

Currently using a 5th Gen (from 2019), so will definitely be upgrading.

Thanks for the content.

[MrPoliarinis]

Shitty screen on Mini 6, and now we have as great opportunity to pay once again for shitty screen. Thanks Apple. You are amazing

[goobfilmcast]

OT: CG, I am looking forward to your reviews on the upcoming M4 offerings. I currently daily drive the OG M1 Mini and it's still game but....I am hoping Apple goes bold with the new M4 Mini by offering a smaller footprint with ALL USB-C. NO Legacy ports...taking full advantage of USB-C's agnostic capabilities... supporting Video, Power-in and general I/O etc regardless (irregardless?) of which ports you populate. Pretty cool, huh?

[walc]

Not exactly correct to say that this new Ipad Mini has the same A17 Pro chip as the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max. The Mini has a 5 core GPU vs 6 in the iPhones.

[BlueEarthVibes]

Only real difference between a Mini 3 and a Mini 4 was A7 to A8 processor. No surprise Apple would do a Minimul upgrade like this. Only hope is that Mini 8 comes out in 1-2 years with actual better features.

[lorensims]

I've been waiting for USB-C instead of Lightning. I was hoping really hard for Apple Pencil Pro support.
I'm delighted with the available half a terabyte of storage. My old mini had half that and I loaded it up with media of all kinds. But my old iPad mini doesn't work anymore because its physical home button broke.
It was an iPad mini with Retina display (iPad mini 2) and I used it for everything, more that I had originally expected.
The size is PERFECT for me. Big enough but never too big. CRAZY portable, it even fits in my jacket pocket.
I'll pick mine up next Wednesday. I can't wait!

[BTeamNerd]

I’m using the Samsung Tab S9 FE for work and I absolutely love it, as it’s so easy to switch between apps and websites as needed. I do have a mini 6 but use it strictly for watching videos and for texts so I don’t have to keep my phone out. I’m halfway tempted to get it since my model has 64 g of storage, but I don’t truly need it for what I use it for. Looking at it, I still have 28 g of storage left and I’ve had it 3 years. I am tempted mainly for the pencil as I love using pencils for notes, but I’m so used to Samsung and I’m not sure if I could go to an Apple one as it seems more suited for drawing than writing.

[marcsequence]

Do we think they fixed or at least rotated orientation on Jelly Scrolling??? 👀

These, these are the questions