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I wouldn’t go that far- if this is a binned chip it seems Apple had more on hand than expected and pushed the update out the door to recoup their costs.

I read that it has one less graphics core which makes me wonder why they didn’t just designate it A17 to reflect the lower performance, similar to what they did with the A18/A18 Pro?
 
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People need to keep in mind Apple has kept the pricing the same after a few years of rocketing inflation. So in real terms, this is actually a price cut for the iPad Mini with doubled RAM, storage, and several other nice improvements.

The iPad Mini inscription on the back is really a welcome change.
True, sadly most people aren't into facts & reality.
 
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iPad mini Pro is long overdue.

I want all the same features as the 11” iPad Pro, but in an 8.3” tablet. Yes, even Magic Keyboard support. I know it would be cramped, but no more cramped than the on-screen keyboard already is.
I've always wanted a pro version of the iPhone Mini 😊
 
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My fevered imagination wants to believe that this lacklustre update was done in order to leave room for an iPad Mini Pro with a slimmer/rounder titanium shell, Pro-Motion (no jelly scroll), quad speakers, one of A18/A18 Pro/M4, a magic keyboard accessory and some nice colour options.

I would more than happily pay the price of an iPad Pro for a Pro Mini.

European Minis still have Nano-SIM.
Sadly no longer the case with this model. Thankfully the iPhones still do.
 
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yawn...not even a semi polite golf clap. Guess I'm getting a my first non apple tablet for Christmas.

Which one?

I'm very much open to non Apple options at this point myself as well

Honestly for a tablet (as a USA user) I think I'd prefer something that would let me run full broswer versions w/ extensions, etc anyhow the more I've been thinking about it.
 
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The A17 Pros fabbed today likely have disabled GPUs cores from the start to increase yields, rather than being rejects for iPhone 15 Pro.

Just because Apple knows the defect rate for A17 GPU doesn't mean it'll match the demand for iPad mini 7. Those will be two very different numbers. You're confusing knowing the defect rate with matching iPad mini demand.

N3B defect rate will continue to improve. Intel is using N3B for Lunar Lake. What then? Apple will stop selling iPad mini if there are not enough defective chips? That's a silly business plan.

The best business plan is to lower the clocks on A17 Pro to match maximize yield, so most chips can be used for iPhone 15 Pro/Max. That was already done in 2023 at launch. This is in contrast to the Hail Mary business plan of hoping and praying defects match demand for iPad mini.
The manufacturing run for the chips for the 15 Pros is done and they know how many chips with a defective GPU were produced. It was likely high since chips for the 15 Pros were produced when the process was brand new and sales volumes of iPhone Pros is at least an order of magnitude higher than it would be for the iPad Mini. Do you think they threw away chips that they had the potential to bin for future use and now that the process is more mature with better yield they are producing binned chips on purpose? Your arguments make no sense.
 
Kind of surprised at the A17 Pro. Which lead to me to believe iPhone SE may actually come with A17 instead of A18.

And even the mini has 10Gbps USB-C while iPhone 16 is stuck with UsB 2.0
 
My fevered imagination wants to believe that this lacklustre update was done in order to leave room for an iPad Mini Pro with a slimmer/rounder titanium shell, Pro-Motion (no jelly scroll), quad speakers, one of A18/A18 Pro/M4, a magic keyboard accessory and some nice colour options.

I would more than happily pay the price of an iPad Pro for a Pro Mini.


Sadly no longer the case with this model. Thankfully the iPhones still do.
I guess I came up with the wrong iPad while searching... You're right and it's not very good what Apple has decided. Then it will probably stay with the WiFi model for me...
 
Let us know how that works out for you. Nothing beats the seamless integration between all your apple devices.

I tend to agree with this general thought, but I will say that since I don’t use Safari or Apple Mail, it’s kind of incredible how cross platform I have become without even thinking about it.

Also, in the past having messaging everywhere used to be a major feature for me, but I have found messages coming in all the time to be such a detriment to productivity and focus that I have really started to restrict that and try to keep it basically on my phone or Mac only

Translation… On the tablet, my usage patterns and preferences are pretty different than my phone and my Mac for whatever reason
 
What about the madenning screen scrolling issue some call jelly-scrolling?

going to have to wait for real reviews, there's no way apple tells the world that this was fixed, as it constitutes openly admitting to the problem and that the new devices are required to resolve it.

probably opens them up for an easy suit obligating them to issue replacement devices or costly screen replacement repairs.

much easier to say "buy a new ipad"
 


Apple today introduced the iPad mini 7 with a faster A17 Pro chip, Apple Intelligence support, and Apple Pencil Pro support. In addition, the device also received a handful of smaller upgrades and changes compared to the previous model, as outlined below.

ipad-mini-7-feature.jpg

The new iPad mini can be ordered starting today, and it launches on Wednesday, October 23.

Here are six of the device's smaller changes.

Faster USB-C Port


Apple says the USB-C port on the iPad mini 7 is capable of data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps, which is double the 5 Gbps limit on the iPad mini 6.

This upgrade allows for faster data transfer over a USB-C cable, for tasks such as exporting photos from the iPad mini to a Mac.

Here are the USB-C and Thunderbolt speeds for all recent iPad models:

DeviceSpecification
iPad Pro (2021 and later)​
Thunderbolt (Up to 40 Gbps)​
iPad Pro (2018 and 2020)​
USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Up to 10 Gbps)​
iPad Air (2022 and later)​
USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Up to 10 Gbps)​
iPad Air (2020)​
USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Up to 5 Gbps)​
iPad mini (2024)​
USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Up to 10 Gbps)​
iPad mini (2021)​
USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Up to 5 Gbps)​
iPad (2022)​
USB 2.0 (Up to 480 Mbps)​


eSIM Only

Following in the footsteps of the iPad Pro and iPad Air, cellular models of the iPad mini no longer have a nano-SIM card slot worldwide. Unlike the iPad mini 6, the iPad mini 7 relies entirely on digital eSIM technology for cellular data plans.

Apple has a support document with helpful information about using an eSIM on an iPad.

Faster Wi-Fi

Like many other recent Apple devices, the iPad mini 7 supports faster Wi-Fi 6E.

Wi-Fi 6E extends the capabilities of the regular Wi-Fi 6 specification to the 6 GHz band, enabling faster wireless speeds and reduced signal interference. In addition to the iPad mini 7, you will need a router with Wi-Fi 6E support.

iPad mini 7 also supports Bluetooth 5.3.

Double the Base Storage

iPad mini 7 starts with 128GB of storage, compared to 64GB for the iPad mini 6. Better yet, the iPad mini continues to start at $499.

Improved HDR Photos

The new iPad mini supports Smart HDR 4, whereas the previous model supports Smart HDR 3.

Apple says Smart HDR 4 makes photos look "even more detailed and vivid."

Here is how Apple previously described Smart HDR 4:
"iPad mini" Inscription

As noted by Parker Ortolani, the iPad mini 7 has an "iPad mini" inscription on the back of device. Previous models of the device merely show "iPad."



Article Link: iPad Mini 7 Has These 6 Smaller Changes, Including a Faster USB-C Port
Man I really want a folding device. Saw the pixel 9 and it’s about the same size as my iPad mini and it’s perfect!!!! The question is when will Apple release one? 2026?
 
going to have to wait for real reviews, there's no way apple tells the world that this was fixed, as it constitutes openly admitting to the problem and that the new devices are required to resolve it.

probably opens them up for an easy suit obligating them to issue replacement devices or costly screen replacement repairs.

much easier to say "buy a new ipad"
Admitting to bad hardware decisions that may have been a result of cost cutting or whatever is definitely something Apple won’t do which would’ve been the case if they highlighted it in the announcement. They prefer to just “surprise” us that they fixed it on a new model.
 
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I suspect the new Mini will be a good choice and accepted well by the much larger general non-geek population. That’s who the product is aimed at. All this speculation and hand wringing about an imagined iPad Mini Pro is silly. It is aimed at general users. The “Pro” features would put it only slightly less than the full,sized Pro model and miss the target market. It is a spec bump and ready for AI at no price increase. The timing is excellent for the holiday market.

Also, a lot of people start out with a Mini and then later add or move up to a larger screen model. The general public could care less about the genius prognostications on little corners of geekdom like this. Apple, Amazo, Best Buy, Costco and the other usual suspects will sell tons of the Mini. And while they enjoy them the trolls will have to be content griping about the foolishness of these know nothing buyers.
 
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I suspect the new Mini will be a good choice and accepted well by the much larger general non-geek population. That’s who the product is aimed at. All this speculation and hand wringing about an imagined iPad Mini Pro is silly. It is aimed at general users. The “Pro” features would put it only slightly less than the full,sized Pro model and miss the target market. It is a spec bump and ready for AI at no price increase. The timing is excellent for the holiday market.

Also, a lot of people start out with a Mini and then later add or move up to a larger screen model. The general public could care less about the genius prognostications on little corners of geekdom like this. Apple, Amazo, Best Buy, Costco and the other usual suspects will sell tons of the Mini. And while they enjoy them the trolls will have to be content griping about the foolishness of these know nothing buyers.

I'm struggling to understand who wants buy an iPad mini Pro. A Pro device is for advanced workflows. Who's doing that on an 8-inch screen?

1729120987302.png

Apple shows these apps running on iPad Pro: Stage Manager, Final Cut Pro for iPad, Procreate Dreams, Octane X, Logic Pro for iPad, Procreate, Freeform, Morpholio Trace, Photos, Shapr3D.
 
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