With most of the best iPads getting a nice refresh over the past few years, the trusty lil’ iPad Mini from 2021 was starting to look a little long in the tooth — until now. Apple just took the wraps off of its 2024 iPad Mini, which packs a faster processor and those ever-hyped Apple Intelligence features into the company’s smallest tablet.
Apple’s latest $499 ultra-portable slate is up for preorder now ahead of its Oct. 23 release date, which conveniently is just days before Apple Intelligence is unleashed on the world. Wondering if this is the best tablet for you? Let’s dive in.
The Apple Intelligence-ready iPad Mini packs a faster processor, more starting storage and better stylus compatibility into the same ultra-portable design.
Same slick design, now with more speed (and AI)
The iPad Mini 7th-gen looks nearly indistinguishable from the 2021 model, packing the same 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display and USB-C port while coming in a slightly tweaked set of nice colors: blue, purple, Starlight and Space Gray. As with many of these refreshes, the real upgrades are on the inside.
Apple’s latest palm-friendly tablet packs the A17 Pro chip, which is the same speedy processor that gave us delightfully zippy performance on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro phones. According to the company, that means roughly 30% better overall computing performance than last generation, as well as a 25% boost in graphics performance for powering through demanding titles like Resident Evil 4.
This speed increase comes alongside some nice quality of life upgrades, such as twice the starting storage at 128GB, Wi-Fi 6E for faster internet and Apple Pencil Pro support for advanced features like haptic feedback, squeeze controls and Find My compatibility for those times you lose your stylus in the couch cushions.
This will also be the first iPad Mini to support Apple Intelligence, the company’s much-vaunted take on AI that promises a smarter, more conversational Siri while offering tools designed to make everyday tasks a bit easier. Like we’ve seen on just about every major 2024 tech product, Apple Intelligence can do things like rewrite and summarize text, generate whimsical cartoon images based on a prompt and clean up unwanted background objects in photos.
I can personally take or leave a lot of this stuff (I’ll obsessively delete and rewrite that important text message on my own, thank you very much), but certain features — like a more-intuitive Siri that can actually understand my commands — at least sound compelling. Apple Intelligence is currently available in preview and will roll out widely in a software update on Oct. 28; we’ll be spending a lot of time with it upon release to determine whether it’s an actual selling point or just a gimmick.
The takeaway
The 2024 iPad Mini seems about as standard as a hardware refresh gets, taking a super-portable tablet we loved a few years ago and stuffing it with even better specs. And yeah, it’ll support Apple Intelligence, though the jury’s still out on whether Apple’s AI will be a true device-seller or not.
If you’re getting your first iPad Mini or are upgrading from a 5th-gen model or older, you’ll likely be delighted by all of the movie bingeing, mobile gaming and light sketching you can do on this tiny tablet. If you bought a 6th-gen a few years ago? I’m not sure the speed bump alone is worth it. And with phone displays getting bigger and bigger — the iPhone 16 Pro Max comes in at a whopping 6.9 — inches, it’s also worth asking yourself if you need a small tablet. That’s especially true when the excellent 2024 iPad Air, complete with its laptop-grade M2 processor and up to 13 inches of screen size, can often be found for just $50 more than the new iPad Mini during sales.
As always, we’ll be putting the 2024 iPad Mini through its paces to see where it stacks up against competing tablets big and small. Stay tuned for more.
Mike Andronico is CNN Underscored's senior tech editor, overseeing coverage of smartphones, computers, audio and just about anything else you might find in the electronics aisle. You can find him hunting for retro video games, hanging with his French bulldog and playing with his band, Ghost Tour.
