iPad mini iPad mini 7 doubled the RAM and storage and kept the price the same?

[Kendo]

Did I get this right? And people are complaining? Doesn't this kind of prove that no matter what Apple does, people will complain?

The iPad mini 7 isn't a different product, it is a refresh of an existing one. Typically with refreshes at best you get faster Wi-Fi and a faster CPU. They literally doubled the RAM from 4GB to 8GB and doubled the base model storage from 64GB to 128GB and kept it at the same $499 price. This is besides the usual refresh items like a faster CPU.

I don't understand the complaints? I can understand complaints if they released something like an iPad mini Pro that didn't have OLED or something. But this is the same model, just newer. Why are people complaining?

 

[MrAperture]

Did I get this right? And people are complaining? Doesn't this kind of prove that no matter what Apple does, people will complain?

The iPad mini 7 isn't a different product, it is a refresh of an existing one. Typically with refreshes at best you get faster Wi-Fi and a faster CPU. They literally doubled the RAM from 4GB to 8GB and doubled the base model storage from 64GB to 128GB and kept it at the same $499 price. This is besides the usual refresh items like a faster CPU.

I don't understand the complaints? I can understand complaints if they released something like an iPad mini Pro that didn't have OLED or something. But this is the same model, just newer. Why are people complaining?

You can't defend Apple releasing iPads with 32GB and 64GB of storage in 2021 up until now.

They have gimped RAM/storage on all their base devices for what it seems like, forever.

So of course, this Mini 7 seems like a good upgrade to people like you.

I myself, traded in an iPad 7 towards an iPad Air 11 M2 base 128GB Wifi model upon release. But I only pulled the trigger because of the Education Store pricing + included Back-to-School gift card.

 

[russell_314]

Why are people complaining?

Human nature. If Apple released the base model with 512 GB storage they would complain about the price. My iPad Air has 64 GB storage and is less than half used.

 

[Aka757]

A lot of the frustration I’ve seen is the lack of a better display. The increased storage and memory for the same price is good, but the mini 6’s display is pretty lackluster (and I don’t just mean lack of OLED, it’s also jelly scrolling which to be fair is subjective, it’s the lack of ProMotion, etc).

I guess after 3 years people got their hopes up for a revolutionary update, which it wasn’t. Although there was no evidence and no rumors pointing towards anything of the sort.

 

[ericwn]

I’m not sure but typically one would pick the person who is complaining and ask rather than make a thread spinning assumptions around? As a friend of the iPad mini that upgrade is years late and the screen, its main interface point, still has the quality of a cheap kindle fire. You could argue they ran out of the old chips and this was the cheapest main boards they had available that would at least pass the hurdle for their own AI selling features.

 

[Johnny365]

In all honesty, I feel like this release would have been welcome this time last year, and a lot of people wouldn't have been as harsh, as it would have released around the time of 15 series iPhones.

 

[russell_314]

In all honesty, I feel like this release would have been welcome this time last year, and a lot of people wouldn't have been as harsh, as it would have released around the time of 15 series iPhones.

No people on here would have still complained. Nothing can be perfect. This is why it’s not easy for Apple to decide what features to add because just because someone says something doesn’t mean they’ll pay for it. Just because people talk bad about something on here doesn’t mean the general public won’t buy it and like it.

 

[*~Kim~*]

In all honesty, I feel like this release would have been welcome this time last year, and a lot of people wouldn't have been as harsh, as it would have released around the time of 15 series iPhones.

Absolutely this. Mini can’t have an M Chip, so they need to give the most up to date A chip to avoid users feeling short changed. 128/8 is only as expected, the pleasant surprise being that a storage upgrade is cheaper than on the Mini 6. The cost of storage and cellular upgrades were identical with the 6.

Mini users also know they’re more likely to be kept waiting the longest for the next version.

 

[Johnny365]

So then the question is, what does M series chip have over the A17 Pro? For use cases...Stage Manager...what else though?

 

[macfacts]

Why are people complaining?

It takes zero effort (r&d) to increase ram and storage. Tim wasted all the r&d money on stock buy backs and the apple car.

 

[rui no onna]

So then the question is, what does M series chip have over the A17 Pro? For use cases...Stage Manager...what else though?

More CPU and GPU cores, higher memory bandwidth, etc.

Basically stuff that would just thermal throttle and kill battery life on the Mini.

Would’ve been nice if we got full-fat A18 Pro though instead of binned A17 Pro. Iirc, the iPhone 15 Pro doesn’t handle Resident Evil all that well.

 

[JPack]

Everyone praised Apple when iPad Air got 8GB in early 2022.

Getting 8GB in late 2024 is the bare minimum expected. Of course you’ll hear complaints. If your expectations are low, then don’t complain.

 

[Return Zero]

The sad fact is apple now treats smaller devices as budget models. Many people like myself would happily pay for better specs in a smaller package (iPad or iPhone), but we are a small minority that apparently apple doesn’t see as being worthwhile to cater to.

Personally I think the new mini is a fine value and solid upgrade, and I’ll definitely pick one up… at the first decent sale 😆

 

[ctjack]

The sad fact is apple now treats smaller devices as budget models. Many people like myself would happily pay for better specs in a smaller package (iPad or iPhone), but we are a small minority that apparently apple doesn’t see as being worthwhile to cater to.

Personally I think the new mini is a fine value and solid upgrade, and I’ll definitely pick one up… at the first decent sale 😆

Apple makes a lot of money on memory upsell. I ran some polls here and 50% of users are buying $100 cheaper base storage, even though if you are more or less User then you will find how to fill up ipad with 100GB of data at which point the base storage will slow down heavily.

 

[840quadra]

The sad fact is apple now treats smaller devices as budget models. Many people like myself would happily pay for better specs in a smaller package (iPad or iPhone), but we are a small minority that apparently apple doesn’t see as being worthwhile to cater to.

Personally I think the new mini is a fine value and solid upgrade, and I’ll definitely pick one up… at the first decent sale 😆

Agreed, I would buy an iPad Pro Mini, or an iPhone Pro Mini with feature parity with larger devices.

The original iPhone - iPhone 5s crammed state of the art (for the time) tech in small devices. Here and now, with OLED, and smaller / far more powerful SOC builds, making an uber powerful phone the size of the original iPhone would be relatively trivial. An iPad Mini Pro with Thunderbolt, OLED, 1TB storage, and better multi-tasking would be amazing.

I feel Apple is missing the boat by not providing an iPad (or even an iPhone) capable of running FULL MacOS when attached to a Monitor, keyboard, mouse, but reverting back to iOS (iPad too) when out and about without such attachments.

But I can only dream.

 

[rui no onna]

Apple makes a lot of money on memory upsell. I ran some polls here and 50% of users are buying $100 cheaper base storage, even though if you are more or less User then you will find how to fill up ipad with 100GB of data at which point the base storage will slow down heavily.

This is MacRumors though. I expect the base model sells a lot more in the broader market.

 

[mectojic]

Price actually increased outside of the US. It's quite unfortunate.

 

[snipr125]

Everyone praised Apple when iPad Air got 8GB in early 2022.

Getting 8GB in late 2024 is the bare minimum expected. Of course you’ll hear complaints. If your expectations are low, then don’t complain.

For the very efficient operating systems like iOS/iPad OS, 8GB works very well but its Mac OS in particular where 8GB is just not enough at base level which we all know about and has been discussed to death in other threads.

 

[*~Kim~*]

Price actually increased outside of the US. It's quite unfortunate.

Against the launch price of the 6 it has (£479?) but I believe they were selling the 64GB Mini 6 for the same £499 entry price of the Mini 7 for about 2 years.

 

[geta]

People always find something to complain about, but this is a great update! Now the base model have 128GB storage, with option up to 512GB, plus newer/faster CPU and 8GB memory while keeping TouchID inside the same physical size.

The only minus that they moved to eSIM for the cellular version which was expected.

 

[geta]

Price actually increased outside of the US. It's quite unfortunate.

€50 increase is reasonable for the base model.

 

[mectojic]

€50 increase is reasonable for the base model.

Not when US price remained the same…

 

[Greenmeenie]

As an artist, my iPad Pro is my main content creation & media consumption device, but I love the iPad mini as a digital sketchbook for when I really want to travel light. Been waiting for this update for over 3 years! Would I have liked to see face ID & a 120hz pro motion display? Sure. But I am still excited for this update. It’s got the much faster pro chip, 8 gigs of ram, a twice faster usb-c port and Apple Pencil Pro support. I just ordered the blue wifi/cellular model with 512 gigs. 👍🏼

 

[geta]

Not when US price remained the same…

The prices in the US are always cheaper, but I don't live there so it doesn't matter. 🤷‍♂️

 

[AJB1971]

At least people aren’t lobbying for them to bring back a version with 4GB of RAM. There are going to be a few disappointed people on here when Apple axes the 8GB MacBooks:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ttleneck-in-real-world-tests.2410564/page-104

Yeah, I don’t get it either.