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iPad Mini 8: Four Major New Features to Expect
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I doubt that I will upgrade to 8 - I have both 6 and 7.
Might wait to 9 - it has to be more to it then a small yearly upgrade for me this time.
We'll see, I'm at least curious about the fold, but not more.
For now I think I wait until Tim is gone, to buy more Apple-stuff, unless something breaks etc.
I concur, the iPad mini is overpriced especially since they haven’t provided any significant upgrades in the last two versions. And as you pointed out it’s priced higher than the base iPad.
My real world experience comparing my old iPad mini 4 vs the iPad mini 7 I replaced it with, was one of sameness. Very little difference and certainly nothing significant.
This is an ideal example of Apple milking their buyers for all they’re worth. They can’t help themselves, it’s all about smoke and mirrors marketing and commanding prices they know buyers will pay if they want the product.
Due to demands of my work, I typically replace my MacBook Pro every couple of years. My current 16” M4 Max MacBook Pro has that dreaded notch. It’s literally the only “feature” that I find repulsive.
The Apple faithful and the apologists are quick to side with Apple and claim they don’t even notice it.
They can use their usual marketing language and claim it’s because of the components within the notch, but it’s quite obvious to long time Apple customers that the major reason is it makes the MacBook instantly recognizable as a Mac.
The same reason the notch was on iPhones and then replaced with the Dynamic Island, it’s all about product recognition.
I concur.
While I have an 11” iPad Pro for specific purposes, my iPad mini 7 gets daily use. It’s by far the most versatile and enjoyable for all around casual tasks and consuming content. It’s even replaced my Kindle for reading.
I do hope they retain the physical size on this next generation.
I have had an unexpected experience since I bought my Z Fold7. Already owning an iPad mini 7 prior to taking delivery of the Fold7 I expected it might replace my mini.
Now that I’ve enjoyed using the Samsung since its release I still find they’re different enough that I often pickup the mini frequently when at home. It’s an interesting phenomenon.
Am I Theon’s Touch ID fan? Great for unlocking while reading in the dark or when holding the device not at arm’s length. And a notch or Dynamic Island would not improve my reading experience.
I don't think it's about product recognition. I honest feel that Apple is purposely slow to release their breakthroughs like a camera or fingerprint reader under the dispay. When I did freelance work for a software development company in 2020/2021 one of the guys there had an Android phone with a fingerprint reader under the screen.
Yet here we are in 2025 and Apple is still hiding behind their arguments for the notch or the dynamic island.
Which brings me to what bothers me most about Apple today: it's the annual real cycles which are - more often than not - an M chip upgrade. I'm not saying that the M chip upgrades are useless or unworthy ... I'm starting to find it an easy way to push their annual upgrades.
It feels like a squeeze to get more money from customers without actually giving them that little extra.
If the 20th ani iPhone comes with a camera under the display then we just know that they've been holding it back for that specific phone. No one will believe that it is a coincidence that Apple could make it work just in time for that specific iPhone, if you know what I mean.
I just got rid of mine after less than a year. Screen wasn't very good, touch ID was a pain, filled up the 512 gb storage and the apple cases were rubbish. The coloured ones would mark and they kept falling over unless on a totally flat surface. Plugged it into my monitor at work, nope, external display not supported. Took a massive loss on that item.
I don't want a bigger one, I want a better one! The size is perfect.
Would LOVE to see Apple combine an iPhone INTO the iPad Mini 8, similar to Huawei's MatePad Mini, plus make it bezelless. A single device for communication and reading.
Promotion/OLED and FaceID would mean this is an instant addition to my lineup. I love the mini but really can’t go back to a device without those three things.
I was with you until "bezelless". While they are thicc, I still accidentally tap/touch the screen when I'm just trying to hold it.
-bdd
Why not just doubling it?
After all “new” technology is increasingly more expensive year after year and we can’t expect companies to eat on their small margins or present a new product with no real updates, isn’t it?
Apple operates on huge margins. They’re the masters of extracting every last dollar from their customers. Premium pricing is their specialty.
That’s weird. I plug my iPad Air or Mini into my TV nearly every night using an Anker dongle. I wonder what demand a monitor makes that my teevee doesn’t? Refresh rate or something?
Question: in what way was the Touch ID a pain? The early version on iPhones was lousy with my dry skin but the sensor on my iPad Air and Mini rarely fails. Better than the one on my M1 MacBook Air.
BTW, I agree that the Apple Mini cases are disappointing. The reason I have a Mini7 is because rough handling caused my Mini6 to detach from its case, ruining its video card.
It 100% needs a faster refresh rate than 60Hz.
I didn’t buy the 7th Gen mainly because of this and got a Lenovo Y700 8” instead (temporary measure). It has a 144Hz screen—which is actually very colorful, sharp, and impressive—12GB RAM, 256GB base storage, and a very high resolution with much thinner bezels.
However, I don’t like Android as much as I like the hardware, so I’m impatiently waiting for the iPad Mini 8th Gen.
Those bezels really need to shrink, they look comically large and dated on such a small device.
OLED would be nice, but honestly, a higher refresh rate is a much bigger priority. If Lenovo can do it so perfectly, why can’t Apple?
I didn’t buy the 7th Gen mainly because of this and got a Lenovo Y700 8” instead (temporary measure). It has a 144Hz screen—which is actually very colorful, sharp, and impressive—12GB RAM, 256GB base storage, and a very high resolution with much thinner bezels.
However, I don’t like Android as much as I like the hardware, so I’m impatiently waiting for the iPad Mini 8th Gen.
Those bezels really need to shrink, they look comically large and dated on such a small device.
OLED would be nice, but honestly, a higher refresh rate is a much bigger priority. If Lenovo can do it so perfectly, why can’t Apple?