The 7th generation iPad mini splits the difference between Apple’s smartphones and tablets more than ever before. It won’t fit in your pocket, but it’s the perfect size for a small bag. You won’t be drawing elaborate sketches on the 8.3-inch display, but you’ll be scribbling notes or doing a little photo editing with the latest Apple Pencil. You can spend hundreds of dollars on a more powerful iPad, or you can choose the iPad mini’s smaller screen, which will make it easier to use iPadOS than other larger iPads.
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We’re still finishing benchmarks and battery tests for a full review, but the iPad mini is still worth analyzing, especially in light of Apple Intelligence. The first part is scheduled to debut on October 28th. At my desk, I have a 13-inch iPad Pro M4 in one hand and a 6-inch iPad mini in the other. It is scheduled to be shipped from Wednesday. Which one should I choose? I think the iPad mini fits my life much better than a larger tablet with extra horsepower. While not an overhaul, this is the best version of the mini we’ve had in years. The only question is how much Apple Intelligence will change the way we use our little iPads.
How can you compare the two?One starts at $1,300 in that size. This is Apple’s thinnest, most powerful, and not to mention most expensive iPad yet. In comparison, the humble mini starts at $500. It’s essentially the same Air-like chassis as the 2021 6th generation iPad mini. It now comes with 128 GB of initial storage, along with double the RAM (up to 8 GB) compared to the previous generation’s 64 GB. Same starting price. Judging by its retail price, it’s a better deal because of the updated specs (although it’s still an expensive tablet compared to the competition). Now more than ever, the iPad builds a small tablet case on a giant slab the size of the Rosetta Stone.
iPad Mini 2024 review: Build quality
The iPad mini essentially has the same chassis as the 2021 model. It’s very Air-like, meaning it’s 6.3 mm thin, but with typical wide bezels, which is plenty for most uses. Unlike the Air, it comes in fun colors like light blue and purple. My dark gray iPad review unit, while typical, doesn’t look bad, but I’m jealous of the purple one. In addition to the new chip, additional benefits of this year’s iPad are WiFI 6E connectivity and a USB-C port that supports data transfers of up to 10 GB/s, double that of 6th generation.
The iPad Pro was equipped with the latest Apple silicon, the M4 chip, but the 2024 iPad mini is equipped with the A17 Pro chip, the same processor installed in the iPhone 15 Pro. You already know that this new iPad will be faster than the 2021 version with the A15 Bionic CPU, but it will still offer the same experience. The iPad mini is Apple’s baseline for tablets, but adds compatibility with my favorite stylus, the Apple Pencil Pro.
Unfortunately, like all iPads from 2024 onwards, it’s only compatible with the Pro and Apple Pencil USB. If you have a 2nd generation or newer Apple Pencil, it won’t paste or work on your new iPad. According to Apple, this is because the M4 iPad Pro had to redesign its connection points to fit the new slim form factor.
Unfortunately for Mini, the front camera is still on the portrait side. Probably because the Apple Pencil requires space for a magnetic attachment point. The lack of Pencil compatibility remains a pain for those planning to switch from the previous mini to the 7th generation.
As for the camera, it’s exactly what you’d expect. It has a 12MP rear sensor and a 12MP ultra-wide-angle front camera. It’s useful for snapping family photos in a pinch, but let’s be honest, I wouldn’t buy an iPad for the camera at any price point. The front camera takes center stage and adjusts the zoom level to stay in the frame. I used it during a long video call and it works well enough. However, I noticed that using video calls using the Center Frame feature added to the Microsoft Teams app drained the battery by nearly 20% in 40 minutes.
You’re still just looking at Apple’s Liquid Retinae LCD at standard brightness. We’ve already had a chance to try out Apple’s AI features in the iOS 18.1 beta, but having the same feature set installed on your iPad won’t change the way you use your tablet.
iPad Mini 2024 review: Apple intelligence and iPadOS 18
We’ve had plenty of time to wait for an iPad mini refresh, but the real reason Apple brought this late entry is Apple Intelligence. The company’s latest iPadOS 18.1 release candidate offers the best idea of how users will actually get used to the tech giant’s AI capabilities. These include some added photo editing features such as burning tools, notification summaries, and cleanup.
I started with Clean Up and found it to be a big improvement over the early beta version, but like Google’s Magic Eraser, it doesn’t fix all the mistakes in your photos. Background details are much easier to erase than foreground objects, and traces of objects and shadows may remain. At least it’s a relatively simple interface. Just circle the object with your finger or pencil and Apple will automatically remove it. The only other issue is that within Apple’s Photos app[クリーンアップ]How long does it take to load when you click the button?
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Writing Tools is more complex. Personally, I see no reason to use this feature rewriting tool that makes emails sound more “professional.” The calibration feature is not bad. Rearrange the sentences in your email to correct any incorrect comma connections. Unfortunately, it’s not currently possible to launch the writing tool in Google Docs. Perhaps that will change in the future, but Google is pushing its own AI tools for the Workspace app.
Summaries are useful, but the basic “summary” feature condenses long emails and loses all nuance. I like the “Key Points” feature that bullet points emails. Although you do have to go back to the original text to see the AI in action, it does a great job of making long product summaries full of PR jargon more concise and readable.
The new Siri interface is a nice upgrade. Instead of a giant floating sphere, Siri appears as a wavy, colorful border. With this upgrade, you can also set up to send texts to Siri. This is especially useful if you don’t want people around you asking why you asked your assistant, “How do I record my screen?”
Apple’s upgraded Siri should incorporate all the product knowledge from Apple’s support pages into a large language model. Still, when you ask standard product questions like “How do I scan a document using an iPad?”, “How do I fix a photo if someone is blinking?” ?” We used internet-based results rather than those directly from Apple. This will likely change in the full release, but for now, using Siri is pretty much the same as before.
Apple has improved iPadOS since it last introduced a smaller iPad in 2021, but some of those features are still not available on the smaller-screen iPad. For example, on iPad mini 2024, you can’t use Stage Manager on the 8.3-inch display to improve multitasking. Instead, you are limited to Split View.
Even on the 13-inch iPad, Stage Manager could hardly care less about its lack of macOS-like versatility. Even with split screen, the smaller-screen iPad doesn’t have any better multitasking capabilities than a regular iPhone. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6’s 6.2-inch display allows you to drag multiple windows. Yes, it’s probably not intuitive on such a small display, but I think it’s nice to have that option.
iPad Mini 2024 review: A tablet you’ll want to try out
Along with the Apple Pencil and the standard Apple folio, I didn’t feel like the iPad mini was missing anything despite its size. It’s great to have a device that’s small enough to type with your thumb in landscape mode, yet larger than an iPhone for watching videos and taking notes. It doesn’t need to be anything more than what it is now, but this could be bad news for Apple’s current AI ambitions.
Instead, iPad mini hangs next to your MacBook and acts as a regular companion so you can focus on what’s important. I keep this little guy next to me to get notifications, pull up my calendar, or maybe fire up YouTube when my brain is boiling and about to slip out of my ears.
We are currently completing full benchmark and battery tests and will update this review once those are complete. Right now, the Apple-branded tablet I’m drooling over might be the iPad Pro or even better, the iPad Air, but the mini feels like the iPad I’d actually use on a daily basis.
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