iPad mini iPad mini 7 on iPadOS 18.5?

[Andy_2341]

I used to own a pink 256 cellular mini 6 and sold it back in June 2025 when it was still on 18.4. Just before Christmas I bought myself a 128 WiFi space gray mini 7 as a present and it was delivered yesterday (Amazon). To my surprise, it was manufactured back in June and was running 18.5 out of the box. I thought for sure I’d get a tablet with OS26 on it.

Just wanted to throw that out there because I found that really surprising. I’m enjoying having 18.7.3 even though all my other devices are on 26. The slide over/splitview makes so much more sense on the mini, especially since I have a MacBook Air for a true windowed environment. The 7 also just seems faster than the 6 ever was and the screen isn’t bad at all. It plays games just like I wanted and handles light productivity easy. Very solid tablet with an extra surprise!

 

[It’s always something]

I used to own a pink 256 cellular mini 6 and sold it back in June 2025 when it was still on 18.4. Just before Christmas I bought myself a 128 WiFi space gray mini 7 as a present and it was delivered yesterday (Amazon). To my surprise, it was manufactured back in June and was running 18.5 out of the box. I thought for sure I’d get a tablet with OS26 on it.

Just wanted to throw that out there because I found that really surprising. I’m enjoying having 18.7.3 even though all my other devices are on 26. The slide over/splitview makes so much more sense on the mini, especially since I have a MacBook Air for a true windowed environment. The 7 also just seems faster than the 6 ever was and the screen isn’t bad at all. It plays games just like I wanted and handles light productivity easy. Very solid tablet with an extra surprise!

For what it’s worth (and not suggesting anything about whether to do it or not): the mini 7 runs iPadOS 26 very well in Full Screen mode at least. But I do miss being able to shift into Split Screen at will on occasion.

 

[Andy_2341]

For what it’s worth (and not suggesting anything about whether to do it or not): the mini 7 runs iPadOS 26 very well in Full Screen mode at least. But I do miss being able to shift into Split Screen at will on occasion.

I’ll probably stick with 18 for the time being. I ran the OS26 betas on my mini 6 before reverting back, selling it, and buying the MacBook. I needed more multitasking and external drive support. 26 didn’t deliver on multitasking like I thought it would and full external drive support(like safe ejecting) is still a Mac thing for now. So full screen is how I mostly use my iPad these days, but for the occasional multitasking I want to keep split screen. Around time for OS27 I may reconsider though. Depends on how my usage evolves, or the lack there of, and how the OS grows from here.

 

[Meedoss]

My M4 iPad Pro I just got was made last June

 

[Andy_2341]

My M4 iPad Pro I just got was made last June

Dang. Lots of old stock left or is that normal? My MacBook was made two months before I got it and my 15 pro was only a mon5 before. Although the Mac came from Apple and the 15 Pro from Verizon while the iPad is from Amazon