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

subjonas said:
The Pencil 2 was replaced by the Pencil Pro (you can think of it essentially as the Pencil 3) quicker than the Pencil 1 was replaced by Pencil 2*, because of the larger iPads’ switch to landscape camera, which everybody clamored for. The new camera location made the iPads incompatible with the Pencil 2 for charging/sync so Apple had to introduce a new flagship Pencil. Apple still sells the Pencil 2 for older/preexisting iPads, just as they still sell the Pencil 1 for the same reason, but in order to move away from the legacy Pencils, Apple has to make all new iPads (except standard iPad which only uses the lower tier USBC Pencil) compatible with Pencil Pro, which because of conflicting hardware means they can’t be compatible with older Pencils. As another user said, this will upset people who have older devices, but not doing this would upset people with newer devices. But this is always what happens during these transitions from legacy tech.
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I completely understand why Apple are adding support for the Pencil Pro, as you clearly explain.
But that does not mean they also have to remove support for the Pencil 2.

Even though it might not be able to charge from the new iPads due to the repositioning of magnets, there is absolutely nothing technically to prevent it from still being able to write on the new iPads. That simply requires the screen/pencil tip and bluetooth.

Pencil 2 users can still charge their pencils on their older devices, so they should still be allowed to use them to WRITE on the new iPads.
 
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pavinder said:
I completely understand why Apple are adding support for the Pencil Pro, as you clearly explain.
But that does not mean they also have to remove support for the Pencil 2.

Even though it might not be able to charge from the new iPads due to the repositioning of magnets, there is absolutely nothing technically to prevent it from still being able to write on the new iPads. That simply requires the screen/pencil tip and bluetooth.

Pencil 2 users can still charge their pencils on their older devices, so they should still be allowed to use them to WRITE on the new iPads.
Click to expand...
This. Also charging cases for the AP2 abound.
 
pavinder said:
I completely understand why Apple are adding support for the Pencil Pro, as you clearly explain.
But that does not mean they also have to remove support for the Pencil 2.

Even though it might not be able to charge from the new iPads due to the repositioning of magnets, there is absolutely nothing technically to prevent it from still being able to write on the new iPads. That simply requires the screen/pencil tip and bluetooth.

Pencil 2 users can still charge their pencils on their older devices, so they should still be allowed to use them to WRITE on the new iPads.
Click to expand...

If you can’t charge the older Apple Pencil, how are you expected to pair with it?
 
I'm really trying here 🤔 but I'm just not seeing any real world (so no AI gimmick) significant update over the mini 6?

And that's leaving aside the bath (or Apple rinsing) I'd take in trading up to the 7. Difference of about 400 euro.

Yeah, no. Sticking with the 6 as in-car multimedia device of choice - passengers only of course.
 
Veinticinco said:
I'm really trying here 🤔 but I'm just not seeing any real world (so no AI gimmick) significant update over the mini 6?

And that's leaving aside the bath (or Apple rinsing) I'd take in trading up to the 7. Difference of about 400 euro.

Yeah, no. Sticking with the 6 as in-car multimedia device of choice - passengers only of course.
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I don't think this update is primarily aimed at existing iPad mini 6 users. But updating a device with 3 year old internals to one with, well, 1 year old internals, got people like me to purchase one. I wanted one for a while now but didn't really see myself spending 80%+ of the original price for a 3 year old device (here in Germany the mini 6 is available for ~110€ less than Apple's mini 7 MSRP).

Everyone who is upgrading from a mini 6 to a mini 7 is a bonus for Apple.
 
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Abazigal said:
If you can’t charge the older Apple Pencil, how are you expected to pair with it?
Click to expand...
You can still charge it on your old device or a charging case - many exist.
And as it's a bluetooth device then there's no reason it cant be paired.
 
pavinder said:
I completely understand why Apple are adding support for the Pencil Pro, as you clearly explain.
But that does not mean they also have to remove support for the Pencil 2.

Even though it might not be able to charge from the new iPads due to the repositioning of magnets, there is absolutely nothing technically to prevent it from still being able to write on the new iPads. That simply requires the screen/pencil tip and bluetooth.

Pencil 2 users can still charge their pencils on their older devices, so they should still be allowed to use them to WRITE on the new iPads.
Click to expand...
I don’t know why but none of the Pencils have ever been able to pair by Bluetooth alone, they’ve all required hardware pairing. But I’m guessing if Apple added Bluetooth pairing for one iPad and one Pencil, they’d have to add it for all iPads and all Pencils (existing and future) so that any combination would work (lest people complain Apple “could have done it”). Maybe that’s a door that Apple just doesn’t want to open. Also maybe certain Pencil features wouldn’t work on certain iPads which would cause customer confusion. And regarding UX, every time you charge the Pencil with the old iPad, it would pair to the old iPad, so then you’d have to re-pair it to the new iPad each time, which isn’t convenient. Apple is very controlling of their UX so it doesn’t sound like something they’d go for.
 
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bondr006 said:
Thought this was an interesting read. Mirrors my thoughts on the iPad Mini 7 for sure...

www.macworld.com

The worst things come to Apple fans who wait

No update is better than a half-baked update. Looking at you, iPad mini.
www.macworld.com www.macworld.com
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Seems like the author just wanted a landscape camera, which to me makes no sense on the Mini, and a new design, which I personally don’t care either way. I also strongly disagree with the author’s opinion that no upgrade would have been better. What about the people who don’t have a Mini and are buying one today? He’d rather have them buy a three year old one than one with these updated specs? Or just go without for the next three years? I think like many tech writers, he’s out of touch.
 
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subjonas said:
Seems like the author just wanted a landscape camera, which to me makes no sense on the Mini, and a new design, which I personally don’t care either way. I also strongly disagree with the author’s opinion that no upgrade would have been better. What about the people who don’t have a Mini and are buying one today? He’d rather have them buy a three year old one than one with these updated specs? Or just go without for the next three years? I think like many tech writers, he’s out of touch.
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Yeah, I don't agree with everything in his article, but I still stand by my original post.:cool:
 
bondr006 said:
Yeah, I don't agree with everything in his article, but I still stand by my original post.:cool:
Click to expand...
bondr006 said:
Absolutely no excitement here.😑 I would like an iPad Mini….but I guess it’s not important enough to put an M chip in it? Even an M2 Pro would have been an outstanding upgrade. WTH Apple? You get AI🙄, but no external screen support or Stage Manager? Also no Face ID? Again, WTH Apple? I’ll be passing on this…
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I’m pretty sure there’s no M chip in the iPad Mini due to the Mini’s size and its thermals and battery limitation. The M chip in the 11” Air probably already isn’t able to be fully utilized due to the 11“ size constraint compared to the 13” and especially compared to MacBooks, and there’s a pretty big jump in size from the 11” Air to the 8” Mini. At a certain point, it just doesn’t make sense to use an M chip, so I’m thinking that’s where the cut off is.
No external screen with Stage Manager is a result of no M chip.
For iPads, only the Pros have Face ID, so Apple would need to make a iPad Mini Pro, or decide to bring Face ID to the iPad Airs as well.
The only realistic complaint I‘m seeing about the Mini 7 is that it uses the one year old A17 Pro chip instead of the current A18 Pro, but funny enough that’s one of the less common complaints.
 
bondr006 said:
Thought this was an interesting read. Mirrors some of my thoughts on the new iPad Mini 7...

www.macworld.com

The worst things come to Apple fans who wait

No update is better than a half-baked update. Looking at you, iPad mini.
www.macworld.com www.macworld.com
Click to expand...
It's a bit too dramatic, no? He writes "No update is better than a half-baked apology for an update, because at least the former allows you to hope for better things to come." which is honestly just...stupid. It's not that emotional for most people, and it's good that if you're in the market for a mini, you can now get one that's slightly better than the mini 6.

bondr006 said:
Absolutely no excitement here.😑 I would like an iPad Mini….but I guess it’s not important enough to put an M chip in it? Even an M2 Pro would have been an outstanding upgrade. WTH Apple? You get AI🙄, but no external screen support or Stage Manager? Also no Face ID? Again, WTH Apple? I’ll be passing on this…
Click to expand...
Also, the M2 Pro would get cooked inside the mini. The M2 Pro draws around 30 watts under sustained workloads in the devices it's in, it would thermal throttle like crazy in any iPad, let alone the mini. And the A17 Pro is actually better in some regards compared to the regular M2, like NPU TOPS and single core performance. Oh and it has AV1 decode as well. And hardware RT, whatever that may do for your use case.

People seem to think that an M chip is a completely different beast than an A chip, but it's usually just more P cores (4 vs. 2) and a bigger GPU. There are some other bits exclusive to the M chips like more I/O capabilities, but that's mostly irrelevant to iPads.
 
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bondr006 said:
Thought this was an interesting read. Mirrors some of my thoughts on the new iPad Mini 7...

www.macworld.com

The worst things come to Apple fans who wait

No update is better than a half-baked update. Looking at you, iPad mini.
www.macworld.com www.macworld.com
Click to expand...
Reference
The main difference between the new iPad mini and the one released in 2021 is its inclusion of an A17 Pro processor instead of an A15. That’s a solid upgrade in power, and more importantly (as far as Apple’s concerned, at any rate) means the new device is capable of running Apple Intelligence. But it won’t significantly alter your day-to-day experience, because the A15 is still a serviceable chip and the iPad mini is overwhelmingly used for media consumption, emailing, web surfing, and light gaming. Apple Intelligence needs the A17, but you probably don’t.
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Sometimes David Price writes stuff without any research, like it's his first thoughts based on preconceived expectations. The update is a lot more than just about fantasizing on a better display (OLED, or 120Hz), however much we want that, the main thing is did Apple fix the jelly motion issue with mini 6 with the mini 7?

The rest of the modernization isn't just concerning AI, it's how the Mini 5 and more recently Mini 6 didn't have any updates to storage and RAM for the price like the recent iPhone lines were seeing. There's also the fact that we are ignoring what going to the A17 Pro brings not just based on speed. Sticking a M2 chip in it for stage manger would be stuck in the past like the current Airs, that lack what M3/M4 performance improvements for graphics and caching. Also the M2 Air lacks AV1 hardware decoding also. It's just another incremental performance improvement over the previous M1 Air. So yeah the Air might have had a M1 first and then a M2 this year but is that exciting, not really. It should have had a M3, and now likely you have to wait, while the A17 Pro does provide the ray tracing. So which do you really think is more disappointing against technology improvements, the 2024 A17 Pro iPad mini 7 or the 2024 M2 11 or 13" Air?

Then there is always that other thought, even though both examples discussed are not the M4 iPads with OLED screens, they sure are a lot cheaper for people that just like using iPads with the usual displays. ;)
 
Moukee said:
People seem to think that an M chip is a completely different beast than an A chip, but it's usually just more P cores (4 vs. 2) and a bigger GPU. There are some other bits exclusive to the M chips like more I/O capabilities, but that's mostly irrelevant to iPads.
Click to expand...
Except for the ability to use Stage Manager. If Samsung can figure out and implement DeX on its tablets and smartphones, I am sure Apple could figure out Stage Manager on iPad Mini, and even iPhones. I have used DeX, and in my opinion, it pretty much runs circles around Stage Manager. The ability to have a desktop type environment in your pocket that you can just plug in to an external monitor, mouse, and keyboard, to me....is priceless. Even the old MS Windows Mobile OS on smart phones had the ability for a desktop type environment. Apple could easily do it....if they wanted to. Apparently that would just screw up Apple's delicately balanced eco-system. I guess there are some things that Apple just can't or won't do, that other companies can and are willing to.🙄
 
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Veinticinco said:
I'm really trying here 🤔 but I'm just not seeing any real world (so no AI gimmick) significant update over the mini 6?

And that's leaving aside the bath (or Apple rinsing) I'd take in trading up to the 7. Difference of about 400 euro.

Yeah, no. Sticking with the 6 as in-car multimedia device of choice - passengers only of course.
Click to expand...
The changes up one version often are not significant enough to warrant upgrading. In this case the biggest spec improvements of the 7 over the 6 are
• the speed of a newer chip
• more RAM; likely to present as apps start upgrading to take advantage of more RAM available, and with AI
• WiFi 6E is quite a useful improvement if one is in certain situations or for those like me with a 6E modem serving home and office.
 
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mattoruu said:
Did you ask her why she preferred the bigger screen? Maybe she was just REALLY hoping that someone would get her new prescription eyeglasses for Christmas. Sadly, no one picked-up on the obvious hint. Please keep that in mind for this upcoming holiday season.

Does LensCrafters have a Black Friday sale?
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It's not obvious? People respond to bigger screens on phones, TVs, and yes, tablets as well. Most folks don't go pixel peeping or looking for 90+ MHz refresh rates. That's why as much as a small group might love an 8.3-inch iPad Pro mini, it's not a product that would move the needle for Apple. They know what sells.
 
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mlayer said:
It's not obvious? People respond to bigger screens on phones, TVs, and yes, tablets as well. Most folks don't go pixel peeping or looking for 90+ MHz refresh rates. That's why as much as a small group might love an 8.3-inch iPad Pro mini, it's not a product that would move the needle for Apple. They know what sells.
Click to expand...
Oh, I’m sorry. I thought my joke reply was easily understood as a joke reply. I even asked “Does LensCrafters have a Black Friday sale?” (Because of course LensCrafters doesn’t have a Black Friday sale.)

But I just realized that Black Friday DOES have a Black Friday sale. Because of course they do. Nobody can let their employees just simply enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. They need to have employees in the store to sell prescription eyewear to people looking to get an a fake-deal at the stroke of midnight. 😂

Anyway, anyway. I was just making a joke.
 
Biro said:
The new Mini won’t thrill many people. But calling it a “nothing’ update is unfair. To wit:

1) Upgrade from A15 to A17 chip. Despite both chips being binned, the A17 still brings a substantial boost in performance.

2) A doubling of RAM from 4GB to 8GB. Probably more important than the chip upgrade. And it brings access to AI if you want it.

3) A doubling of storage from 64GB to 128GB.

4) Wifi 6E.

Again, I’m not sure what unrealistic specs you are looking for but the above specs add up to a much better device. It’s not nothing.
Click to expand...
Also:

Double USBC speed (10Gbps vs 5)

Updated Bluetooth 5.3

And compatibility with Pencil Pro which is a big deal for many artists and the like.

All this brings pretty much all the Mini’s specs up to date with the Air, except an M chip which very likely isn’t practical in the Mini’s small package. I guess people expected a Mini Pro for some reason, or for the Mini to leap frog the Air in specs, neither of which will probably happen due to the Mini’s probably smaller market. All foreseeable future Mini updates will probably be like this, just bringing it up to date with the Air, which is probably fine for most of the Mini’s customer base.
 
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Ridiculous price tag. No 120hz screen and 5x more expensive than samsung a9 plus tablet. I'm in love with apple products and I'm fully in their ecosystem but cmon apple. Its enough with these prices. I just want to buy a tablet for my mom with big screen and normal battery life that have iOS as operating system. Why do i have to pay 5x?
 
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