In the lead-up to a rumored event focusing on new Mac models, Apple announced a minor update to the iPad mini, the company’s smallest iPad. The seventh-generation iPad mini is essentially a spec bump from the previous model, released in 2021, with the following improvements to bring it up to date:
A17 Pro chip: Apple replaced the A15 Bionic with the A17 Pro, previously used only in the iPhone 15 Pro, which will give the iPad mini access to Apple Intelligence features once those start to ship in a few weeks. It will boost performance across the board, though that may be noticeable primarily to gamers. It’s surprising Apple didn’t switch the iPad mini to the M-series, as it has done with the iPad Air and iPad Pro lines. What will the next base-level iPad use?
Increased Storage: Previously, the iPad mini started at 64 GB. The new model comes with 128 GB; you can upgrade to 256 GB (+$100) or 512 GB (+$300).
10 Gbps USB 3: The new iPad mini doubles the USB 3 performance of its USB-C port from 5 Gbps to 10 Gbps. It’s nice to see an improvement here, especially given the USB 2 speeds (480 Mbps) of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.
Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3: Apple is keeping pace with wireless connectivity improvements, upgrading the iPad mini from Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 to Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. They should improve performance, reliability, and efficiency, though likely not in hugely apparent ways.
eSIM only: The new iPad mini provides only eSIM support, whereas the previous iPad’s Wi-Fi + Cellular models supported both a physical nano SIM and eSIM.
Smart HDR 4: The previous iPad mini’s front and rear supported Smart HDR 3, so photos from this new model are one Smart HDR unit better. Exciting!
The seventh-generation iPad mini is physically unchanged, apart from trading the sixth-generation’s pastel pink color for pastel blue and updating its pastel purple color. Starlight and space gray remain in the palette, and Apple sells matching $59 Smart Folios. The new iPad mini still sports an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina screen, and its camera remains positioned on the portrait edge, unlike other recent iPads that have it on the landscape edge for more natural video calls.
Despite the additional storage, the iPad mini’s price remains unchanged, starting at $499. Cellular connectivity adds $150. You can pre-order now, with availability starting on 23 October 2024.
Overall, there’s nothing wrong with the seventh-generation iPad, and it continues to fill an essential slot in Apple’s iPad lineup for those who prefer a smaller form factor. However, these changes just bring it up to date with the hardware necessary to match Apple’s current Apple Pencil lineup and emphasis on Apple Intelligence, along with minor tweaks to keep pace with the overall tech world. I doubt many iPad mini fans will trade in their older models for a largely tepid update.
Perfect timing! My wife mentioned just the other day that her iPad Mini 5 wasn’t keeping battery charge for very long, and I discovered that her battery is at about 75% maximum capacity, so we’ve been hoping that this update was coming soon because the Mini 6 was already three years old.
As an owner and fan of the prior model, there’s little need to consider this. The mini is the perfect sofa companion and a pretty useful tool to have at meetings. I ended up giving my 12” pro to my animator son who would make more use of it.
As far as I can tell from an Apple page, the new Mini supports only one eSIM. Granted it’s not a phone, but I would have expected it to support two eSIMs.
On a phone, you may want to have two active SIMs at a time, so you can send/receive calls/texts on your primary phone number while traveling. But only one can be used at a time for data - which makes sense, because it would be exceedingly difficult to partition your data over the two SIMs in a way that would be useful and convenient (by app? By web session?)
So when you’re on an iPad, which is a data-only device, it makes perfect sense that only one SIM would be active at a time.
Sure, but on an iPhone if you have dual SIM, you can turn on a setting to switch data to the other automatically based on coverage. (I’ve used this myself; in my experience, it doesn’t always switch all that quickly.)
So I suppose it would be nice to be able to do the same on iPad if you are mobile. It’s likely not a big problem for most people, though.
Just pre-ordered for delivery on the 24th! That will give me a Mini 5, a Mini 6, and a Mini 7. If it wasn’t for one app that can’t run past iPadOS 14.4.2, I would have used the Mini 5 as a trade in.
Hopefully the case I have for the Mini 6 will also work for the Mini 7.
I think you’re channeling your inner iPhone when you say “older models”.
Yes, the 6th gen wasn’t that long ago and isn’t that different to this one. But even that is 3 years old. My 5th generation one is 5.5 years old, and I know people with earlier ones. The 4th generation is 9 years old.
Would you expect owners of iPhone 6, 11, or 13 to update to the 16 line? I just updated from an iPhone 11 Pro to iPhone 16 - a 5 year gap. I’m upgrading my iPad mini 5 to the new one - a 5.5 year gap.
The real driver for me is a better screen and faster CPU. I have some apps on my existing iPad mini that it can’t really handle well at all.
A fair point, though my mother is an iPad mini aficionado, and I was thinking of her in particular. Nothing she does on her sixth-generation iPad mini (I think, though it could be a fifth-generation model) would benefit from the changes: checking the weather, reading books in Libby, browsing the Web, reading a little email.
It just doesn’t feel like Apple Intelligence is a selling point for the iPad mini in particular, and those who already have an iPad mini probably aren’t pining for an Apple Pencil Pro. Either they already have a functional Apple Pencil or they’ll never get one (again, like my mother).
But yes, you’re right that many existing iPad minis are getting long in the tooth, so there are people who will upgrade purely for better battery life or to move past some minor damage.
I’m a great fan of the mini, use it more than any other device. My 6 is 3 years old, still great in terms of battery and overall performance. But I can get a totally new 7 with twice the memory for half the full price with the trade in value of the 6, so for me it’s an easy decision to order it now.
Good timing for me: I’ve been waiting for this upgrade since the other iPads updated months ago.
I have an iPad Mini 4, and the operating system and a few apps won’t update, notably Apple Fitness +. I like the smaller size and lighter weight of the Mini versus any of the larger models.
I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth from the 4. And it looks like Apple will give me a few bucks on a trade-in so that’s nice.
My iPad Mini 7 arrived late last night and I’m transferring my data over from the Mini 6 now - says it’ll take about 3 hours. Anyway once I have the 7 up and running, I’ll see if the Pencil 2 charges, pairs, and works with it.
Edit: OK, it looks like the iPad Mini 7 can’t charge or pair with the Pencil 2. I can attach it (just barely though) but “Apple Pencil” doesn’t pop up at the top of the screen like it does on my Mini 6. Going to Bluetooth in Settings doesn’t do anything even if I turn BT off and then on again while the Pencil is attached. I’ll leave the Pencil attached for a few hours “just in case” it will work later.
Edit 2: OK the Pencil 2 definitely doesn’t work with the iPad Mini 7. However, the Mini 7 DOES fit in the case for the Mini 6.
