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iPad mini iPad mini A17 - new vs A15 (gen 6)

mtbdudex

mtbdudex

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 28, 2007
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I’m looking at an iPad mini for easier reading / etc than my iPhone 14 Pro.
I have a 2023 M3 MacBook Pro.

Besides WiFi 6E what real reason to justify the new A17 over the A15 (gen 6) ?

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You’ll get more software updates with the A17 version as well.

I have the Mini 6 (since 2022), but I keep almost buying the Mini 7 that’s $100 off.

I have the Apple Pencil Pro, so that would be nice to use that on the Mini 7, and even though the specs of the Mini 6 are decent and perfectly usable right now, there’s no telling how long it’ll be before a Mini 8 releases. I’d hate for the Mini 6 to start to become slow and dated before the Mini 8 releases.

But in reality, if you can get a good deal on the Mini 6 right now, there’s nothing wrong with it.

Mine still works great, but I’m sure the battery health is waning. Speaking of battery, you can set the 80% charging limit on the Mini 7. There’s a lot of tiny differences between the two Minis, but the biggest difference is probably having double the RAM (if that matters to you).
 
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Crow_Servo said:
You’ll get more software updates with the A17 version as well.

I have the Mini 6 (since 2022), but I keep almost buying the Mini 7 that’s $100 off.

I have the Apple Pencil Pro, so that would be nice to use that on the Mini 7, and even though the specs of the Mini 6 are decent and perfectly usable right now, there’s no telling how long it’ll be before a Mini 8 releases. I’d hate for the Mini 6 to start to become slow and dated before the Mini 8 releases.

But in reality, if you can get a good deal on the Mini 6 right now, there’s nothing wrong with it.

Mine still works great, but I’m sure the battery health is waning. Speaking of battery, you can set the 80% charging limit on the Mini 7. There’s a lot of tiny differences between the two Minis, but the biggest difference is probably having double the RAM (if that matters to you).
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What you say is all true, but I think it’s worth mentioning the additional RAM. In the future more and more apps are going to take advantage of this, and I can’t help but wonder whether the extra memory is going to make older devices obsolete sooner. I think it’s something to keep in mind while deciding between the mini 6 and mini 7.
 
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elmoss said:
Is the mini 7 good in portrait with apps, also safari?
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Yes it is, in my opinion. The onscreen keyboards aren’t the best, but that’s because of the form factor. I use a Bluetooth keyboard when writing at length.

Some screen elements can be a bit small for tapping if you have big hands. When this bugs me I use my Pencil Pro.
 
mtbdudex said:
Thx for feeding, mini 7 it will be, off to shopping now

Just ordered
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I think you’ve made the right choice getting the 7, I had the mini 6 and while it was perfectly fine doing 1 or 2 things at once, it was very quick to dump apps from memory if you went beyond that.

Say I was sat listening to music on it, reading a webpage. If I responded to an email or a text sometimes the browser would have to reload etc.
 
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If you're reading things in portrait then by golly, don't buy the 6th gen model. The Jelly Scroll, which I originally thought was just the usual internet overreaction is very real, and so bad I returned mine. Its a lot better on the 7th gen model.
 
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Well, interesting. I called the Apple one 800 number spoke AI chat bot, I got shipping information tracking information sent to me.
When I ask about getting a rebate refund for the hundred dollars difference of Amazon and Best Buy AI said, “transferring me to a live Apple agent”, then I’m told via recoding “open 9 AM pacific time” and it hung up, I was expecting a option to have a call back. so I’ll have to recall later this morning, I’m in eastern time zone.

I’d like my cake and eat it here, in other words via the Apple Store actually got engraving done on my iPad mini, so I’d like the engraving and $100 back, as I didn’t see option for engraving on either Amazon or Best Buy I’m guessing that’s an Apple Store exclusive
 
Just bought Mini 7 base configuration today. After 2 years of Mini 6 and 1.5 years of Air 5 M1, back to Mini 7 :). I am planning to keep Air M1 though as with keyboard it is quite a good work machine (OS aside). Mini is for trips, news, reading and occasional games. Love the form factor!
 
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I spent eight minutes going through the Apple phone system and then speaking to Daisy, a very polite lady. Let her know about the hundred dollars cheaper on Amazon and Best Buy. She said they can’t match that but they could do 10% which was $63 and I also got the free engraving that the others didn’t offer so I took it and I’m gonna have it tomorrow. Thanks for the tip & saving me some money.

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