The new iPad mini 7 is now official with the powerful A17 Pro chip and Apple Intelligence features.
2024 iPad mini 7 is Now Official With Faster A17 Pro Chip and Built for Apple Intelligence Features
Looks like Apple isn’t going to wait till the end of the month to announce the iPad mini 7. It’s here, it’s real and it’s official.
In terms of design, nothing has changed at all. It looks the same as the iPad mini 6 or the 2018 iPad Pro or the latest iPad Air, depending on how you look at it, but smaller, obviously.
You get the same 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display as well which was fantastic before and will definitely serve its purpose this time around, too. That 8.3-inch size is what makes the iPad mini so great.
The thing that’s immediately new in the new iPad mini 7 is the faster A17 Pro chip which made its debut with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. With the addition of this chip, you get two things immediately – 8GB of RAM and support for Apple Intelligence. Apple’s marketing for this iPad mini all revolves around the latter.
When compared to the A15 Bionic chip, the new A17 Pro delivers 30% more CPU performance. In terms of graphics, users should be able to see a boost of 25%.
On the gaming end, the A17 Pro delivers hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing which promises to be four-times faster compared to software one. So yes, it’s a huge jump across the board.
When talking about the Neural Engine, the new iPad mini delivers two-times faster performance compared to the iPad mini 6. This is extremely important, especially when you take into account Apple Intelligence.
Here’s a quick break-down of the A17 Pro:
- 6-core CPU with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores.
- 5-core GPU
- 16-core Neural Engine
The camera at the back has been revamped, too. It now takes beautiful 12-megapixel photos with Smart HDR 4. Meanwhile, the tablet can shoot 4K video at up to 60 frames per second when needed.
The front camera supports Center Stage, offering a high resolution of 12-megapixels. You can use it to record 1080p video at up to 60 frames per second.
Here’s something interesting – the front-facing camera is still at the top, not on the longer side of the display bezel, unlike the new iPad Pro, iPad Air and base model iPad.
Apple Pencil support has been improved and downgraded at the same time. I say this because the new iPad mini adds support for the Apple Pencil Pro while it loses support for the second-generation Apple Pencil. Meanwhile, the iPad mini keeps support for the USB-C Apple Pencil.
With support for Apple Pencil Pro you get features like hover, barrel roll and so much more.
Wireless connectivity sees a big improvement, too. Support for Wi-Fi 6E is here for faster connections as well as Bluetooth 5.3. If you are planning to get the cellular model, you will get support for up to 5G networks (sub-6GHz) and 4×4 MIMO on both 5G and LTE bands.
iPad mini 7 is available in 4 colors – Blue, Purple, Starlight and Space Gray.
Last but not the least, the iPad mini starts at 128GB of storage which is twice as much compared to the iPad mini 6, while upgrading to 256GB and 512GB options also available.
The new iPad mini starts at $499 and the price keeps going up as you choose higher storage tiers and cellular options. And, the new iPad mini will be available starting 23rd of October.
In case you’re wondering, the 512GB iPad mini with 5G cellular will set you back $949 before taxes.
