iPad Mini 6 vs. iPad Mini 7 Buyer's Guide: 20+ Upgrades Compared

[Saturn007]

Going from 4 to 8 GB of RAM is the biggest deal here.

Yet, from the table:

”8GB memory (unconfirmed, but likely)”​

​

One can hope!

The other confirmed modest upgrades — but more significant depending on your use case — do add up, so that’s good news. But let's hope we learn that the jelly scroll display problem has been fixed!

I liked an earlier Mini when I owned it — a great form factor for book reading and photography, but always wished it had a flash and, later, Night Mode! Will this one?

I'd be tempted to get one if no more jelly scroll and had those camera upgrades.

Ah, it does have a flash! https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/

Can't find anything about Night Mode, though!

Of course, do I really need it, given that I use a digicam for photography, mostly read physical books, and use my iPad 9 for browsing, occasional ebooks, etc.?

Plus, I just saw that it costs $500! Whoa! That may be the same price, but it makes the basic iPad look like a good, even great deal…

 

[Saturn007]

No FaceId, how hard is that?

Glad it doesn't have that. Don't want a device scanning my eyes!

But, as to changes, is the home button a real button or has that ship long sailed? Really not fond of the haptic home “button” on the iPhone SE 2022…

 

[bodonnell202]

Honestly the biggest upgrade and most noticeable will probably end up being the RAM.

Agreed. 8 GB of RAM is double the last gen and will be probably be the most noticeable improvement. As a rule with Apple devices I generally only upgrade when it is coming with a decent RAM upgrade.

 

[Calle68]

Imagine for one second an iPad mini with the chance to be connected to an external monitor, showing a desktop class OS, using it as a small keyboard and pad. It would be my only device.

 

[tobybrut]

2024 and still have those hideous bezels

It’s a tablet. Where do you expect to hold it if it doesn’t have bezels? This one does not spend its entire life cycle in a case and is intended to be held. The bezels are deliberate or else people would be complaining about accidental touches.

 

[tobybrut]

I’ll think about getting one of these once Amazon puts it on sale for $100 off, which they do routinely.

 

[afd]

It should have had same specs as latest iPad Air.

 

[2540497]

Why would they even announce this? Just do it quietly.. embarrassing.

 

[psac]

So many people complaining about "missing" features, and all I care about is that Genshin Impact is going to be extra snappy on this new hardware.

Exactly! The mini is the perfect Genshin Impact game device. Been playing since week 1 (four years!). I'm still on the mini 5, so this should be a really nice bump for me. I was worried I'd hit the day where it became unplayable on my 5 before the 7 came out. Now I don't have to be concerned. I'll wait for release and reviews just in case there's some fatal flaw with the device, but otherwise I'm sure I'll buy it.

 

[Lift Bar]

did apple fire its entire hardware design department or something?

More like:
A History of Coca Cola Can Design
The evolution of the soda can design

 

[turbineseaplane]

Why would they even announce this? Just do it quietly.. embarrassing.

Probably because enough folks who don't pay attention will consider buying it because they see "new!"

 

[Lioness~]

Weak sauce

Good update for iPad mini 5 or older, hardly an update over the mini 6. Find one on sale or wait for this to be on sale. My mini 6 will remain in service.

Ok, I save my money - for what I use my 6 for, it’s not worth to upgrade to 7 at this time.
So,I just trade in my old 5 in a store here, and save the check for when I want something else they sell, no big deal.
I have ditched Apple trade in, they have no professionality or customer service worth the name - in my country at least - anymore.

 

[Rkuda]

They ruined the purple one.

 

[jonnyb098]

Where's the new Entry level iPad?? It hasn't been updated in almost 3 years either and not ready for the beloved Apple Intelligence.

 

[H_D]

The thing is, we all complain about the hyper-incremental steps Apple is taking (with basically ALL devices these days, from iPhone to Studio, the new form factor for the Mini might be the most they dare to do at the moment). This is probably due to the fact that any innovation is risky, remember the Touch Bar, the braun-ashtray-Pro, the nano texture iPad or these days the reactions to the Dynamic Island or Camera Button etc – it's hard to demand daring feats of technological future-thinking from a company that has the most conservative users ever, who greet any change at all with declaring Ragnarok. And we all no, a MiniPro priced at about the level of the 14-inch M4 (if they magically got the heat dissipation solved somehow) would not sell, it's a super slim market.

As a fan of the TB and the CameraButton and all the other crazy stuff Apple came up with over the years, however, I'd really wish for more, for faster evolution of the product. It's so easy to see what could still be done, even in the more or less baked mobile segment, what options the existing hard/software could give Apple, considering the amazing power of their SoC-ecosphere.

These are still fantastic devices, breathtakingly so, and the slow evolution makes it a stable system to invest into, as your machine isn't obsolete within 12 months or something — but sometimes, just sometimes I dream of an APL that is less measured, less conservative and does the crazy, far-out stuff again.

But when they try, like with Vision Pro, we ridicule the attempt, measuring it with a perfection that technically is rather impossible to meet at the moment.

Maybe Apple isn't innovating anymore because of us, because of the consumers.

 

[turbineseaplane]

But when they try, like with Vision Pro, we ridicule the attempt, measuring it with a perfection that technically is rather impossible to meet at the moment.

The AVP has been ridiculed for being wildly overpriced for what it is, can do and offers and for being totally devoid of a coherent content and partnership strategy to drive adoption

Apple didn't really "try" there

 

[Mi_ka]

Wife, holding all our house yada-yada bank transfers and everyday payments through her iphone max banking apps: “No face-id, no sale”, that simple (*yawn*)

 

[Realityck]

Yet, from the table:

”8GB memory (unconfirmed, but likely)”One can hope!

A17 Pro was the transition to 8GB DRAM in the iPhone 15 Pro, it wouldn't be advertised as AI usable by Apple if it only had 4GB DRAM like the A15, or 6GB with A16.

 

[rob2bob]

Given my iPad mini 6 is my daily work-horse I am still going to get this new one. It’s a steal really. Price held the same, 128GB now base spec. RAM likely to be 8GB. More future proof and updates for longer. Battery on old iPad clearly has had many cycles so new will help. Bonus is £190 trade in. Which means my old iPad mini 6 was ‘only’ circa £100 a year over the 3 year time I have had it.

A further bonus… existing folio case fits it. Same form factor.

 

[tonie walker]

still weak battery life?

 

[MrMojo1]

Apple's pricing...
New iPad mini 7
128Gb $499
256Gb $599
512Gb $799

Old iPad mini 6
64Gb $499
256Gb $649

At least Apple is making the price relatively better.
The entry level storage capacity went up while keeping the same price while the next level storage level's price went down a little bit. The higher capacity version is way overpriced and a ripoff.
The screen is a bit of a disappointment as well as the other so-called improvements.

 

[oldtime]

It's a better machine for the same price. Yeah it's not EVERYTHING EVERYONE WANTED but it's a tertiary device and not something Apple is putting a lot of energy into as a result. You get usb-c, (hopefully) no more jelly scroll, more power, more RAM, and -- the whole reason the thing was updated -- Apple AI, which may or may not be something you will really really want once it rolls out. Comparing it to the AirPods Max "update" is a bit silly. If you were expecting some combo of an M chip and face id and 120hz and OLED you were going to spend a helluva lot more for it and then you'd be complaining about that. Why not be happy there are choices at many different price points, and all of them are good in one way or another.

 

[roar08]

I love the mini form factor so much; I was SO excited when the mini 6 launched and I really do love it. I guess I was looking for something more in this release ... minimally much thinner bezels which doesn't seem like a stretch. But truly — this is an incredibly small, incremental update. As someone who updates their devices *very* frequently (yearly iPhone, etc.) I wanted this to be something I wanted but not at all. Maybe if you passed on the 6? Otherwise — and I rarely say this about any Apple release — what's the point?

 

[entropi]

At least Apple is making the price relatively better.

well, there is a hidden upgrade fee if you want to use a pen with the new mini 7 since the old won't work anymore...

 

[Gengar]

I disagree, this isn’t even worthy of being called an upgrade. They should’ve just skipped releasing this altogether.

Faster USB-C, double the RAM, double the base storage, AppleAI, Wi-Fi 6E, broader 5G support for AT&T — seems like a pretty reasonable upgrade compared to what you would be getting if you had just bought the 6th generation model from Apple yesterday.…

They could’ve given it a 90 Hz display though. That would make it almost perfect for a small tablet.