Apple Unveils New iPad Mini With A17 Pro Chip and Apple Intelligence

[turbineseaplane]

Revered as he may be, the same Steve had no qualms about selling 12“ iBooks with very very underwhelming display quality - even compared to its contemporary PC counterparts.

That was an entirely different era, and quite frankly most laptop screens pretty much sucked in the early 2000s vs anything we have now

Comparing that particular type of tech from then to now is really inappropriate

It's just not a relevant comparison

We have very different opinions about all this and I think we've run our course debating it, wouldn't you agree?

 

[dannyyankou]

If it had a 120hz display, I would instantly sell my iPad Pro and get a mini.

 

[Realityck]

It doesn’t look like it: https://support.apple.com/en-lamr/105075

It's questionable status for sure, because that doc Published Date: June 20, 2024 so might not be updated yet to that stage manager question. That use to be a 8GB RAM swap limitation, plus necessary storage, and the only SoC's were M1-> M4 series that provided that.

 

[Radeon85]

If they made an iPad Pro Mini I bet that thing would fly off the shelves. I’m still using an iPad Pro 12.9 M1, but a mini pro would be extremely tempting.

Give it Face ID, OLED with 120hz, increase the base storage to 256GB with options to 2TB, give it the ability to use a keyboard you can attach like the big pros and if they can pull it off an M class CPU, even if it’s slightly cut down to reduce power usage or at least the same one as the top end iPhone. All while being a powerful iPad that would be so easy to carry around being so small.

 

[Dianneeraser]

60Hz displays are fine. They have been fine for many years.
And so has media content (movies) at 24 to 30 fps.

This is comparing and boasting about specs by enthusiasts in online forums that few “normal“ people in the real world care about.

The difference in power consumption - and battery life in thin, portable devices - is nonnegligible. Something ordinary people actually care more about.

Doesn’t matter if people in the “real world” care about it. It’s in common usage now and they are standard features in 2024. Your argument is such apple fanboism….”it’s what apple gives us so I’ll happily take it.”

 

[frost_horizon]

They will make that a pro only feature for a decade until pried from their cold dead hands

Just like 8GB minimum on many Macs

I don’t see how mini and Pro are interchangeable. I already have iPad Pro M2, but I would buy mini for other use cases. But I don’t want to buy it because it has 60 Hz.
I would still need iPad Pro for PDFs

 

[dms_91]

A 60hz device at the end of 2024. They are laughing at us.

I see this comment often...get a pro device then...60hz on any Apple device runs smoother than most 120hz other company devices..

 

[Dianneeraser]

I see this comment often...get a pro device then...60hz on any Apple device runs smoother than most 120hz other company devices..

It doesn’t matter ….in 2024 it should and is treated as a standard feature. Only in the Apple Universe is it still considered a ”Magical Pro“ feature.

 

[Crow_Servo]

I guess the rumored non-Pro ProMotion iPhones next year will be when Apple loosens the reigns on ProMotion devices. I was quietly hoping the iPad Mini would surprise us and be the first, so it would definitely fix the “jelly scrolling” issue, but unfortunately no dice.

I’d enjoy the ProMotion more for gaming, which is where I notice it the most on my iPhone Pro and iPad Pro.

Other than that disappointment, I am also surprised they actually went with the A17 Pro, just like rumors suggested. I’m sure it‘ll be a more-than-capable chip for this iPad for several years, along with the doubled RAM, but I figured it was a no-brainer to include A18. Probably no big deal there.

WiFi 6E is welcome, the doubled USB-C data transfer speeds is nice and on a superficial level, the blue color is mildly appealing to me.

It doesn’t knock my socks off, but it’s a pretty acceptable upgrade over the previous Mini. I understand that many won’t feel the need/desire to upgrade from 6 to 7, but I like having the latest specs on my most-used iPad, and wouldn’t mind being able to use the Apple Pencil Pro on both the iPad Pro and iPad Mini.

 

[dannyyankou]

I see this comment often...get a pro device then...60hz on any Apple device runs smoother than most 120hz other company devices..

But the selling point of the iPad Mini is it’s… mini. If you want a 120hz display and a small form factor, there’s no option for you.

 

[Boil]

Since the other thread got locked...

@Ctrlos said:

Set up a 4G Watch, carry the iPad Mini and leave the phone in a drawer. That's the fricking dream.

The real dream is for Apple to add the Phone & Watch apps to iPadOS, allowing us to cut out the middle-man that is the iPhone...

Or, just give us a folding device that is a top-end iPhone when folded and an iPad mini Pro when unfolded...

 

[MAlbi]

Chance of A16 for base ipad increases.

 

[bmark]

$499 for the new iPad Mini? This will sell as well as the Vision Pro.

 

[Marshall73]

APU and base storage upgrade only, no FaceID no ProMotion. High price compared to the Air. Guess I’m skipping the mini again. They could have done a mini pro with FaceID and OLED and I would have snapped one up in a heartbeat.

 

[H_D]

Must say, the only thing I do not care about is FaceID. I use the Mini as a reading device at night and while FaceID on the M4Pro is terrible for this use case, the touch button is just perfect. 120 Hz would be nice, but what I'd mostly love to see: smaller bezel, bigger screen and nano-matte-display (plus better SoC), which makes reading an almost-paper-like-experience.

Someone here posted a cleaned-up product range for iPads, basically two lines (regular and pro) in three sizes. That would expend quite well to the rest of the product line, where we could have Consumer/Pro-devices and would just be neat. The mini, quite frankly, feels like it is Frankensteined from old hardware, which is a shame.

 

[HandsomeDanNZ]

The video - "What's new in 3 minutes".
I am surprised they had enough content.

This is akin to the iPad Mini 2 to iPad Mini 3 "upgrade".

 

[GregoriousMan]

APU and base storage upgrade only, no FaceID no ProMotion. High price compared to the Air. Guess I’m skipping the mini again. They could have done a mini pro with FaceID and OLED and I would have snapped one up in a heartbeat.

I wonder how the battery would fare with OLED though.

 

[AppliedMicro]

That was an entirely different era, and quite frankly most laptop screens pretty much sucked in the early 2000s vs anything we have now

Comparing that particular type of tech from then to now is really inappropriate

But the iBook‘s screen also sucked against display from its era. And much more noticeably than the iPad‘s non-ProMotion display against ProMotion displays.

It‘s admittedly a long bygone era. But it predates Jobs‘ death about as much as it the ProMotion display postdates it (they sold those iBooks through 2005, ProMotion was introduced by Apple 2017, Jobs passed away in the middle between those years, in 2011).

And it shows that Jobs didn’t insist on providing the best display tech Apple could afford. Which is why I believe it!s a fair point with regards to the idea that Steve Jobs would have pushed ProMotion across all devices.

Stores won’t display product until launch day.

True - I went again and it’s indeed 6th gen minis on displays (though I still maintain the colours looked a bit “off” to me in yestersay’s lighting at that store 😌).

 

[ctjack]

On second thought, I might just get my wife the new 7 as she only wants wifi, doesn't need 512GB and doesn't use the pencil. Getting a new 7 for myself would require me to get the new pencil which I don't need, and I would certainly want the 512GB cellular model. Also I've never used eSim so not sure what to make of it. Will it make my life unnecessarily more complicated or less convenient?

I am actually glad for the pen situation. When shopping for 6, the fact it supports pencil 1 and 2 was quite bad given the pros do not support 2 - so one would potentially end up owning 2 100 dollar pencils for mini and for pro (down the road). Buying pencil 2 that can't be used outside of mini didn't sit well with me and my wallet.

I think it disappoints old users but attracts new users.

Admittedly, I'm also quite disappointed that Apple couldn't at least have made the display brighter. I don't think that was an unrealistic expectation.

My Air laptop has 400 nits, MBP 14 has 1600 nits and TV has 1500 - it is not like i used any of them above 50% brightness or 70% tops.

Maybe others will, but you have to understand that I spend all day with my 120hz OLED + macOS

There's no going back for me when the vast majority of my time is at high refresh rates (including when I dual boot over to Windows in the evenings for some gaming)

Those of us who LOVE it are not going to ever be talked out of it

60hz usage feels like wading through mud in comparison, especially after a full day of high refresh rate

It will be hilarious around here, of course, that when Apple one day has "ProMotion" everywhere and suddenly anything non high refresh rate will be denigrated relentlessly ... I'm sure you know what mean about the Apple fans

in all honesty, to me the barrier is 144 hz. I had it on windows laptop and it trumps my mbp 14 in experience just because it is constant 144hz at least feels so, while mbps 120 downgrades to vrr to preserve energy and has ramp up time. I barely feel the difference between air and mbp, while air vs 144 hz windows was quite jarring at first until getting used to it.

In the same vein ipad pros to me smoother than mbp. But 60hz mini is no slouch and you get used to it. Though 60hz iphone feel like relict in comparison.

 

[EvilEvil]

If it had a 120hz display, I would instantly sell my iPad Pro and get a mini.

An OLED screen would be nice as well!

 

[Boil]

APU and base storage upgrade only

The common thought is that the RAM is also upgraded to 8GB, because Apple Intelligence...?

120 Hz would be nice, but what I'd mostly love to see: smaller bezel, bigger screen and nano-matte-display (plus better SoC), which makes reading an almost-paper-like-experience.

Folding 9" 120Hz ProMotion OLED, please; but the fold needs to be imperceptible, because I want to use this as a pocketable sketchpad...

Or, just give us a folding device that is a top-end iPhone when folded and an iPad mini Pro when unfolded...

 

[HiVolt]

Well that was... straight outta left field. No event, no fanfare... just. BOOM. New iPad Mini.
Not the most compelling update but not terrible. Meh, maybe it'll pop up on Slickdeals someday and I'll pick one up.

It's a spec bump. no fanfare needed.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Does it support stage manager and external display? It’d be a shame if it doesn’t.

Per Apple:

• Supports one external display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz

 

[Allen_Wentz]

No details about the UBC-C Port. Speed? A17 Pro supports USB 3 speeds.... and how about display-out resolution? G6 was handicapped. Specs don't say.

Per Apple website:

• USB 3 (up to 10Gb/s)

 

[AriaAmaris]

Sooooooooo disappointing!