iPad mini (A17 Pro) review: A little faster, a little ‘smarter’

On October 15, Apple announced an upgrade to the iPad mini. Remember the iPad mini? Did you forget about it? Can’t blame you if you did–after all, it seemed like Apple did, because the last iPad mini was released over three years ago.

After waiting all this time, the upgrades Apple made to the iPad mini (A17 Pro)–Apple ditched the generational naming in favor of chip identification, like the other iPads–feel like they don’t amount to much, at least on the surface. What you will find is that the new iPad mini has been modernized with internal upgrades, which should keep it relevant for, say, another three years until the next refresh or redesign.

The iPad mini is still a great tablet, perhaps the best at its size and better than larger, non-Apple tablets. But if you own a 6th-generation iPad mini, you don’t need to rush to upgrade to it, except for one thing: Apple Intelligence.

iPad mini: Performance boost from the A17 Pro

The iPad mini’s major upgrade is with its chip. The A15 Bionic that was in the previous iPad mini has been replaced by the A17 Pro, which was used in the discontinued iPhone 15 Pro. It’s not exactly the same chip, however. It still has six CPU cores (two performance cores and four efficiency cores), but it has five GPU cores instead of the six that were in the iPhone 15 Pro.

We used Geekbench 6 to gauge performance and saw a 23 percent increase in the multi-core performance of the new iPad mini over the old one. In single-core testing, the new iPad mini was 26 percent faster. Those are good numbers, but the boost is marginal. You won’t notice it in everyday, simple tasks but if you do longer, more complex computations, they will be quicker.

The graphics improvement is a bit more impressive. Using the Geekbench Compute benchmark, the test showed a 31 percent improvement over the old iPad mini. If you like to play games, you’ll be able to notice a difference.

iPad mini: Now with Apple Intelligence!

Perhaps more important than the performance improvement that the A17 Pro provides is its support for Apple Intelligence, Apple’s much-hyped set of AI-based features. Apple Intelligence requires Apple silicon with at least 8GB of unified memory and the A17 Pro and M1 chips are the cutoff point–chips older than the A17 Pro have less than 8GB. The 6th-generation iPad mini’s A15 Pro has 4GB of unified memory, so it can’t run Apple Intelligence.

The first set of Apple Intelligence features is now available with the recently released iPadOS 18.1 update, which includes writing tools that can revise your text, summaries for Mail, Notifications, and Safari, and a background cleanup tool in Photos. If that doesn’t sound all that exciting, then perhaps the features coming to iPadOS 18.2 will get your attention: image generation, ChatGPT integration, automatic Mail categorization, and more. The iPadOS 18.2 beta is available now, with a likely official release by the end of the year. Learn more about the Apple Intelligence feature rollout.

iPad mini: What else is new

Apple upgraded several other features of the iPad mini (A17 Pro), but none of them are the types of upgrades that will make you chuck the 6th-generation iPad mini aside and mock it for being such an outdated device. Here’s what else is new.

128GB baseline storage: Apple increased the starting point of the amount of storage, which was previously 64GB. The $499 iPad mini includes a 128GB SSD (which still feels too small); the $599 model has 256GB; the $799 model has 512GB.

Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3: Wireless connectivity improvements are always good. But it’s not the Wi-Fi 7 that Apple has in the iPhone 16 lineup–seems like Apple is going with Wi-Fi 6E for cost considerations, but you likely wouldn’t notice a difference anyway.

USB 3.1 Gen 2: Apple dropped the Lightning port with the previous iPad mini. But now the iPad mini’s port can support data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps.

Smart HDR 4: The latest version of Apple’s camera technology that combines shots taken at different exposures to create a photo with the best combination of highlight and shadow detail. That’s nice, but the iPad mini isn’t being used for its camera like an iPhone, so the tablet has only a single-lens 12MP wide camera with 5x digital zoom. Video recording is capable of 4K at 60 fps. (Seems to me that if the iPad mini had a better camera, it could work well with Final Cut Camera.)

eSim only: If you want a cellular connection, you must use eSIM. The nano-SIM slot is gone.

Apple Pencil Pro support: Released this past spring with the M4 iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil Pro is sold separately for $129. If you already have a USB-C or a 2nd-generation Apple Pencil that worked with the previous iPad mini, you can’t use those with this new one. Sorry.

Color change: Apple has decided on a muted color palette, so the space gray, starlight, and purple color choices aren’t as deep as with the previous iPad mini. Also, pink has been dropped, replaced by blue.

iPad mini: What hasn’t changed

At a glance, the iPad mini (A17 Pro) looks exactly like the 6th-generation iPad mini. The design hasn’t changed; the only physical difference you might notice (besides the color) is that the new iPad mini doesn’t have the nano SIM slot on the side. Here are the major features that have not changed in the iPad mini (A17 Pro) that could influence your buying decision.

8.3-inch Liquid Retina display: It’s a good-looking display, but since it’s not a Pro model, the iPad mini doesn’t support ProMotion, Apple’s technology that dynamically adjusts the screen refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz. The display has a 60Hz refresh rate, which works fine for everyday use, but if you’ve used Apple’s Pro devices with ProMotion, you will notice the difference and may not like it. The iPad mini could use a better display to make it a better e-reader competitor to Amazon Kindles or Kobo devices. But nothing changed here. Also, iPhone Pro users should know that the iPad mini doesn’t have an always-on display–none of the iPads do.

Cameras: Nothing has changed about the specifications for the front and back cameras, except the upgrade to Smart HDR 4, which is software-based. The camera hardware doesn’t appear to have changed from the 6th-generation iPad mini. That is probably not such a big deal to iPad users.

Battery life: Nothing has changed about the 19.3-watt-hour battery, which still offers, “Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi‑Fi or watching video,” according to Apple. I ran a video that was saved to the iPad mini’s SSD on a loop, with the display set to 200 nits, and the battery eventually ran out after 9 hours and 57 minutes, matching Apple’s claim. When using the iPad mini as I typically would–check email, web access, edit photos, and read books–I never had to worry about the battery life.

USB-C charging only: The iPad mini doesn’t have MagSafe (none of the iPads do). It charges through its USB-C port. MagSafe would been nice, but it’ll likely debut on the iPad Pro long before it comes to the mini.

Should you buy the iPad mini (A17 Pro)?

Apple actually included a fair amount of upgrades in the iPad mini–but if you were hoping for Apple to unveil a new approach with the iPad mini, you’ll need to keep hope alive for possibly a few more years. Basically, the new iPad mini is a chip upgrade to support Apple Intelligence and not much more than that.

If you have the 6th-generation iPad mini that works well, and you’re wondering about upgrading, the question to ask yourself is how much you want to use Apple Intelligence. Try it on another device if you can and gauge how much you use it, then you can figure out if you need a new iPad mini. If you don’t care about Apple Intelligence (even after trying it), chances are you won’t care about the new iPad mini, either, unless your 6th-generation iPad mini needs repairs and you’ve been putting them off.

If you have an iPad mini with a Lightning port, you have more of an incentive to upgrade. You’ll get a bigger and better display and improved performance that is very noticeable. If you haven’t had an iPad mini before and don’t care for Apple Intelligence, you might investigate shopping for a 6th-generation iPad mini; its price will be marked down to clear out remaining stock, so you can save some money.

If you don’t have an iPad and you want one to use Apple Intelligence, the iPad mini (A17 Pro) is the cheapest tablet that’s compatible and a great lower-priced alternative to Apple’s higher-priced offerings. However, the 128GB 11-inch iPad Air with its M2 chip is only $100 more and is a better price-per-performance deal. But if you prioritize the smaller profile, pick the iPad mini.