Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro)

The iPad mini with A17 Pro is the seventh-generation version of Apple's smallest tablet, announced on 15 October 2024 from Toronto. It keeps the compact 8.3-inch form that made the mini popular with readers, pilots, doctors, students and anyone who wants a tablet that fits in a coat pocket, but replaces the older A15 Bionic with the A17 Pro chip, adds support for Apple Intelligence and the Apple Pencil Pro, and doubles the starting storage to 128GB. This page describes what Apple announced, what the changes mean for everyday use and how the mini fits in the wider iPad range.

Launch, finishes and price

Apple opened pre-orders on 15 October 2024 in 29 countries and regions, including Canada and the United States, and the tablet started arriving to customers and stores on Wednesday 23 October. It comes in four finishes: two new colours, blue and purple, plus starlight and space grey, and in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities. Because the announcement we relied on was Apple's Canadian release, the prices it states are in Canadian dollars: 679 dollars for the Wi-Fi model and 879 dollars for Wi-Fi with cellular, with education pricing starting at 599 dollars. We therefore leave the US dollar price field empty rather than convert. The 128GB starting capacity is double that of the previous generation. If you prefer a larger screen for the same generation of Apple Intelligence support, look at the iPad Air (M3).

A17 Pro performance

The A17 Pro is a chip Apple first used in its iPhones, and it brings a large jump over the A15 Bionic in the previous mini. It has a 6-core CPU with two performance cores and four efficiency cores, which Apple says is 30 percent faster, and a 5-core GPU that is 25 percent faster. The Neural Engine is twice as fast as in the previous mini. The GPU supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which Apple says is four times faster than software ray tracing, as well as Dynamic Caching and mesh shading, so demanding 3D games such as Zenless Zone Zero and creative tools such as Affinity Designer run better on so small a device. Apple positions this chip at users of pro apps: designers, pilots, doctors and others, and for anyone who edits photos or uses immersive augmented-reality apps. For most everyday tasks, such as reading, browsing and video, any recent iPad is fast enough; the extra power matters for games, editing and on-device AI.

Built for Apple Intelligence

The A17 Pro is what makes the mini eligible for Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that arrived in iPadOS 18.1, which Apple says runs on iPads with an A17 Pro or an M1 chip and later. At launch Apple listed Writing Tools for rewriting, proofreading and summarising text in Mail, Notes, Pages and third-party apps; a redesigned Siri with a glowing edge animation, type-to-Siri and the ability to follow a request when you stumble over your words; the Memories feature in Photos that builds movies from a text description; the Clean Up tool to remove distracting objects; Image Wand in the Apple Pencil tool palette that turns a rough sketch into a polished image; and Genmoji, which creates custom emoji from a typed description. ChatGPT is integrated into Siri and Writing Tools as an option, with an obscured IP address and no account needed. Many of the models run entirely on the device, and Private Cloud Compute handles larger requests on Apple silicon servers. The first set of features arrived in US English with iPadOS 18.1.

Display, camera and connectivity

The display is the same 8.3-inch Liquid Retina screen as before. Apple's press release does not list any new display specification, so we do not either. The rear camera is a 12MP wide camera with Smart HDR 4 for more natural photos with increased dynamic range, and it uses the Neural Engine to detect and scan documents automatically, with the new True Tone flash removing shadows from the page. The front camera is a 12MP Ultra Wide unit in portrait orientation with Center Stage, so video calls keep you in frame. Wireless connectivity gains Wi-Fi 6E, which Apple says can double the performance of the previous generation, and cellular models offer 5G with eSIM in more than 190 countries and regions. The USB-C port is up to twice as fast as before, with data transfer speeds up to 10Gb/s, which is useful for importing large photos and videos.

Apple Pencil Pro

The mini now supports Apple Pencil Pro, making it a pocketable sketchbook. The pencil senses a squeeze to bring up a tool palette, uses a haptic engine to confirm actions, rolls for control over shaped pen and brush tools, offers hover to preview a tool before you draw and supports Find My. It pairs, charges and is stored magnetically on the side of the tablet. The Apple Pencil (USB-C) is still supported for note-taking and sketching at a lower price. In Canada Apple listed the Apple Pencil Pro at 169 dollars and the Apple Pencil (USB-C) at 109 dollars.

iPadOS 18

The tablet shipped with iPadOS 18, which adds a Calculator app designed for Apple Pencil with Math Notes that solves handwritten or typed expressions and lets you assign variables and draw graphs. In Notes, Smart Script smooths handwriting in real time and allows you to paste typed text in your own handwriting. Audio recording with transcription syncs the text to the recording so you can search for an exact moment in a lecture. Customisation options include app icons and widgets placed in any open position with a dark or tinted look, a redesigned Control Center with third-party controls and a rebuilt Photos app that helps you browse by themes without albums. Messages adds text effects, redesigned Tapbacks and scheduled sending.

Battery, environment and who it suits

Apple describes the mini as having all-day battery life and does not give a capacity figure. The enclosure is 100 percent recycled aluminium, all magnets use recycled rare earth elements, and the printed circuit boards contain recycled gold plating and tin soldering; the packaging is fibre-based. Because it is so light, the mini suits reading, note-taking, navigation and cockpit or clinic use better than it suits long typing sessions. If you want a larger screen or laptop-style work, compare it with the iPad (10th generation) or step up to the iPad Pro (M4), and use the iPad mini vs iPad Air table to see the trade-offs. You can browse all tablets or read our reviews for hands-on impressions.