On October 15, Apple’s official website announced the launch of a new iPad mini. It has been three years since the previous generation iPad mini (sixth generation) was released. Unlike the previous naming of “Xth generation”, the new iPad mini was not named “seventh generation”, but “iPad mini (A17 Pro)
In the model comparison on the official website, it can be found that it is exactly the same as the promotional wallpaper of the sixth-generation iPad mini. The screen continues to use the Liquid Retina display, the size remains 8.3 inches, the weight has not changed, and the camera also continues the 12-megapixel camera of the sixth generation.
Image Source – Apple
From these aspects, perhaps the new iPad mini is more like an upgraded version of the sixth generation.
However, according to the information disclosed by Apple, the new iPad mini still has many changes, including chip upgrades, support for Apple smartphones and Apple Pencil Pro, etc. In terms of color, the new model is available in four colors, including space gray, starlight, and new blue and purple. In terms of capacity, compared with the previous generations of 64GB and 256GB, the new version is available in three specifications: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB.
Specifically, the new iPad mini is equipped with a “downsized version” of the A17 Pro chip. This is because the new iPad mini has only 5 cores on the GPU, while the iPhone 15 Pro series released last year has 6 cores.
However, compared with the A15 used in the previous generation iPad mini, the “reduced version” A17 Pro chip still greatly speeds up the CPU and GPU of the new iPad mini, and the neural network engine is up to twice as fast as the previous generation.
The CPU has 6 cores, including 2 performance cores and 4 energy-efficient cores, which can improve performance by up to 30%. The 5-core GPU can improve graphics performance by up to 25%. The new iPad mini supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which is 4 times faster than software-based ray tracing, and supports dynamic caching and hardware-accelerated mesh shading.
Consistent with the iPhone 16 series released last month, the new iPad mini is also marked “Ready for Apple Intelligence”. Its personalized intelligent system can understand the user’s personal context and provide practical and highly relevant intelligent functions while protecting user privacy and security throughout the process.
Image Source – Apple
With the 16-core neural network engine, the new iPad mini can use AI to automatically identify documents directly in the camera app and use the new True Tone flash to remove shadows in documents. At the same time, iPadOS also provides the Core ML framework, which allows developers to use the neural network engine to implement device-side AI functions.
The new iPad mini continues the tradition of being divided into two versions: “Wi-Fi model” and “Wi-Fi + Cellular model”. However, it should be noted that compared with the sixth generation, the new cellular model has eliminated the physical nano-SIM card and uses eSIM activation instead. However, the introduction page on Apple’s official website also points out that not all operators support eSIM, and you need to contact the operator for more details about its availability.
In addition, the new iPad mini supports the latest Apple Pencil Pro and supports the hover function. The USB-C port data transmission speed is up to 10Gbps, which is up to 2 times faster than the previous model.
Image Source – Apple
According to Apple’s official website, the new iPad mini will be available for pre-order at 9:00 am on October 17 and will be released on October 23. The cheapest 128GB wireless LAN model is priced at 649Usd, and the most expensive 512GB wireless LAN + cellular model is priced at 949 Usd.
