Apple gave the iPad mini a shock refresh with sooner internals and different minor upgrades. The spotlight is Apple Intelligence help, bringing Apple’s AI suite of instruments to its smallest iPad.
So, must you ditch your iPad mini 6 for these upgrades? Or maintain on to it for an additional 12 months or two? Discover out in our iPad mini 7 vs. iPad mini 6 comparability.
iPad mini 7 vs iPad mini 6 comparability
The iPad mini 7 appears to be like identical to the mannequin it’s changing. There are hardly any seen design variations. Internally, although, Apple’s newest iPad mini packs some key upgrades, together with the swap to a sooner and extra environment friendly A17 Professional chip. This new SoC allows Apple Intelligence help, placing the brand new iPad mini in the identical league as Apple’s M-series iPad Air and iPad Professional.
However must you improve to iPad mini 7 only for Apple Intelligence and a sooner chip?
Desk of contents: iPad mini 7 vs. iPad mini 6 comparability
Design and Show
Photograph: Apple
- iPad mini 7: 195.4 x 134.8 x 6.3mm, 293 gms; 8.3-inch Liquid Retina Show, 500 nits SDR brightness, Apple Pencil hover
- iPad mini 6: 195.4 x 134.8 x 6.3mm, 293 gms; 8.3-inch Liquid Retina Show, 500 nits SDR brightness
The iPad mini 7 and mini 6 have the identical dimensions and weight. There’s no distinction right here. So, you get a Contact ID-integrated energy button, a USB-C port on the backside, and landscape-oriented stereo audio system.
Even the show dimension and peak brightness stay unchanged, with Apple utilizing an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina panel on the brand new iPad. There have been rumors that Apple would use a 120Hz ProMotion panel on its subsequent iPad mini, however sadly, that’s not the case.
It’s not confirmed, however presumably Apple is utilizing a newer-gen panel to make sure the iPad mini 7’s show doesn’t undergo from jelly scrolling points like its predecessor. We’ll discover out when the primary opinions are printed.
The one notable show improve is help for Apple Pencil Professional and Apple Pencil hover. This implies you should utilize Apple’s latest Apple Pencil with the iPad mini 7 and revel in all its advantages, together with haptic suggestions. It additionally helps Apple Pencil (USB-C). The iPad mini 6 helps Apple Pencil (2nd gen) and the USB-C variant.
iPad mini 7 processor and storage
Photograph: Apple
- iPad mini 7: A17 Professional (3nm fab), 6-core CPU, 6-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, devoted AV1 decoder, USB-C controller, second-gen Extremely Wideband chip, as much as 1TB storage
- iPad mini 6: A15 Bionic (5nm fab), 6-core CPU, 4-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, as much as 512GB storage
The most important improve on the iPad mini 7 is the brand new and extra environment friendly A17 Professional chip. It’s a notable step up from the iPad mini 6’s A15 Bionic chip. Apple claims the brand new SoC brings a 30% enhance in CPU and a 25% uplift in GPU efficiency. The Neural Engine can also be twice as quick, drastically rushing up AI and machine studying duties.
Due to the sooner chip, the iPad mini 7 helps Apple Intelligence. As soon as iPadOS 18.1 lands, the brand new iPad mini will achieve entry to options like Writing Instruments, pure language photograph search, urged replies to Messages and extra. You possibly can take a look at our hands-on with the primary 10 Apple Intelligence options to know what we take into consideration them.
Moreover the brand new A17 Professional SoC, the brand new iPad mini ships with twice the bottom storage as its predecessor. The entry-level mannequin ships with 128GB, with the opposite two choices being 256GB and 512GB. For comparability, the iPad mini 6 shipped with 64GB base storage, with 256GB being the one different variant.
Not like the iPad Professionals, the iPad mini doesn’t have a devoted AV1, ProRes, or video encode/decode engine for sooner video file processing. However players might be happy that it helps hardware-accelerated ray tracing — which is 4x sooner than software-based ray tracing — in addition to help for Dynamic Caching and hardware-accelerated mesh shading.
Entrance and rear cameras
Photograph: Apple
- iPad mini 7: 12MP Broad digicam, f/1.8 aperture, True Tone flash, Good HDR 4; 4K 60fps video recording, 1080p@240fps gradual movement; 12MP Extremely Broad digicam, f/2.4 aperture, Middle Stage, Good HDR 4
- iPad mini 6: 12MP Broad digicam, f/1.8 aperture, True Tone flash, Good HDR 3; 4K 60fps video recording, 1080p@240fps gradual movement; 12MP Extremely Broad digicam, f/2.4 aperture, Middle Stage, Good HDR 3
Regardless of launching three years later, the iPad mini 7 packs the identical digicam as its predecessor. You get a 12MP shooter on the rear and one other 12MP digicam on the entrance. The one notable improve is Good HDR 4 help, which ought to enhance dynamic vary and assist enhance the general picture high quality.
Connectivity
Photograph: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
- iPad mini 7: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G, Gigabit LTE, eSIM, USB-C
- iPad mini 6: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, 5G, Gigabit LTE, nano-SIM, eSIM, USB-C
The iPad mini 7 brings two vital connectivity upgrades, supporting the sooner Wi-Fi 6E normal and Bluetooth 5.3. In comparison with the iPad mini 6’s Wi-Fi 6, the brand new Wi-Fi normal delivers increased bandwidth and improved throughput. Different iPads in Apple’s lineup additionally help Wi-Fi 6E, with solely the iPhone 16 sequence that includes Wi-Fi 7 compatibility.
One other minor change is that the iPad mini 7 doesn’t have a devoted nanoSIM slot. As an alternative, it solely works with eSIM.
Worth
- iPad mini 7: Begins from $499; $649 for mobile variant
- iPad mini 6: Began from $499; $649 for mobile variant
Even with a sooner processor, twice the bottom storage, and sooner connectivity, the iPad mini 7 retains the identical value as its predecessor. So, Apple’s latest iPad mini supplies much more bang for the buck than the iPad mini 6. Now you can additionally configure the machine with as much as 512GB of storage, which is likely to be helpful when you use the iPad mini as a laptop computer alternative.
iPad mini 7 vs iPad mini 6 conclusion: Not an improve you must make
Barring the above adjustments, the iPad mini 7 is similar to the iPad mini 6. You get the identical array of sensors, coloration choices, panorama stereo audio system, and so on. The improve to a sooner A17 Professional chip is a giant one, particularly because it brings Apple Intelligence help.
However this alone just isn’t a adequate purpose to ditch your iPad mini 6 and improve to the newer mannequin. The adjustments are too minor in any other case to warrant an improve. Except you are feeling Apple Intelligence can considerably enhance your iPad workflow, anticipate the subsequent iPad mini refresh.
Purchase now
iPad mini 7: Apple