iPad mini (A17 Pro) review: small, (will be) smart – Ultra-Sim

iPad mini 7th gen Intro

The iPad mini 7, or iPad mini (A17 Pro), dropped with little fanfare. Announced in a press release and quickly going up for sale, it’s a refresh of the iPad mini from 2022. Same shape and size, seemingly the same “issues”, new hardware inside.

Why was this update dropped? There are two new things that Apple added. The new iPad mini is not compatible with the new Apple Pencil Pro and the Apple Pencil USB-C, which is technically an Apple Pencil gen 1 with a USB C port for charging, getting rid of the awkward dongles.

So, in a nutshell, the iPad mini 7th gen vs iPad mini 6th gen comparison comes down to — AI and Apple Pencil Pro. Is there more under the hood? We dive in:

Table of Contents:

iPad mini 7 Specs

Mini in body, huge in spirit!

Let’s kick it off with a quick look at the iPad mini 7 specs sheet:

iPad mini 7 Design and Display

Like a mini-fied iPad Air

Tablet in the palm of your hand (Image credit – PhoneArena)

Post-2022 iPads finally looks very similar — there are no more iPads that have home buttons, and other ones that feature the newer “all-screen” design. The lineup is uniform and even if you buy the cheapest one, you still feel like it’s a modern iPad from Apple from the same line the Pros come from.

In other words — the iPad mini looks just like a mini-fied iPad Air. Why the Air, exactly? Mostly because of the fingerprint Touch ID scanner embedded in the power button. Yes, the base iPad 10th gen has that, too, but the iPad mini has another defining charasteristic of the upper class Apple tablets, and that’s the laminated display.

The body is small and thin, and you can easily hold it in one hand and carry it around like an oversized smartphone. It can even fit in some jean pockets, we’ve tried. Don’t sit down with it in your back pocket, though.

Display Measurements:

Even though it’s tiny, the iPad mini offers pro features like a P3 wide color gamut, so artists that want to pick one up for on-the-go sketching and graphic design will appreciate this. The staple color temperature adjustments — True Tone and Night Shift — are, of course, baked into iPadOS and you can toggle them on for more comfortable viewing and reading.

Does the iPad mini 7 still have the jello effect when scrolling up and down rapidly? Yes. We feel like it’s less prominent, but it’s still there. You can get used to it — users of the iPad mini 6 have — but it’s still a bit of a disappointment. But then again, we guess fitting so much tech, plus Apple Pencil Pro support, plus stereo speakers in such a tiny tablet will take its toll somewhere.

Apple made sure to note that the iPad mini supports Bluetooth keyboards. Meaning that no, there’s no Magic Keyboard or Keyboard Folio for it, sadly, but if you really really want to, you can turn it into a type machine if you hunt for the right keyboard.

iPad mini 7 Camera

Hello, is it me you’re looking for?

There’s nothing special here, really, but tablets don’t put a lot of emphasis on cameras, smartly so. You’re not taking this thing out on a hike or at a rock concert to record memorabilia with — we don’t think — but you still have a plenty competent 12 MP camera to capture quick snaps or scan documents with.

The 12 MP selfie camera has the ultra-wide lens, so the iPad mini also offers Center Stage, just like the other iPads. That’s Apple’s software feature, where the camera can intelligently zoom and pan around to follow you, and even zoom out when two faces come in frame. It’s pretty cool, and we like using it, since it doesn’t pin you down to one awkward spot during a long meeting.

iPad mini 7 Performance & Benchmarks

Apple Intelligence is not the most exciting thing about it

Tiny gaming machine!

From what we can speculate, the main reason for this update was to give the iPad mini the A17 Pro processor, so it’s capable of running Apple Intelligence. The tablet itself is considered by Apple to be more on the premium side and less on the “basic iPad” team.

So, yes, obviously, A17 Pro means you will get the Image Playground, the ChatGPT integration, the Clean Up in Photos for generative deleting of objects, and the text assistance, with AI spell-checking, generating replies, or rephrasing your emails.

But the A17 Pro is capable of doing more than that. It’s the base requirement for running the console-grade games on the App Store (currently, Assassin’s Creed, Resident Evil, and Death Stranding franchises, but who knows what the future holds). That is a bonus — we are not going to pretend that, in a world where the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and Nintendo Switch exist, the iPad mini is the best portable gaming machine.

However, it’s certainly a nice bonus. With iPadOS’s 3rd party controller support (no longer locked to MFi), this means that the iPad mini can go from your ebook reader, to your small sketch device, to your portable gaming console, which is pretty huge if you happen to be in the right niche. 

Performance Benchmarks:

You will notice that the iPad mini doesn’t throttle by a whole lot when running the 3DMark stress test, which is very good news. Its battery also lasts for a surprising length of time, but more on that in the Battery section. In general, it’s a surprisingly powerful device for the form factor.

Now for the bad news. Even though the A17 Pro should be able to run Stage Manager, you can’t activate that on the iPad mini 7. Stage Manager is Apple’s take on desktop-like multitasking for tablets. iPads from the Air and up run it wither with an external screen connected, or on the tablet’s display autonomously. It would’ve been nice for the iPad mini to be able to run it when connected to a big screen or external hub, but alas — no.

iPad mini 7 Software

iPads come with iPadOS, which is basically iOS spun up to have some extra features for split-screen viewing and Apple Pencil support. The latest build is iPadOS 18. To be more precise, iPadOS 18.1.

So, the 18th build brought in some customization options that users have been begging for for years. Namely, you can now arrange your homescreen however you want. App icons don’t simply go into rows — you can put them anywhere.

You can also add extra screens and panels to the Control Center, which honestly gets a bit confusing — we assume that most people will stick to the classic Control Center and not dabble with it too much.

And you can have your app icon colors set to a monochrome look to… mixed aesthetic results.

Now, with iPadOS 18.1, we got the first batch of Apple Intelligence features. Most of them have to do with text — like reply generation, change the tone of your email, advanced spellcheck of course. There’s also the Clean Up tool in Photos — basically like Google’s Magic Eraser, you can delete objects and the AI will regenerate a background behind them.

In December, we will get iPadOS 18.2 with more features – ChatGPT integration to the point where you can ask Siri to relay your queries to ChatGPT, as well as Visial Playground, which is Apple’s AI image generator. It will be integrated throughout iPadOS — inside Notes, inside Messages, it will be able to pull context from what’s on screen to make an image, or generate emoji or stickers, too.

PhoneArena Battery and Charging Test Results:

Surprisingly well-rounded! In fact, the iPad mini (A17 Pro) did outstandingly well in our gaming test, which does bring back the point from the gaming section that it can double as your portable gaming device (we still don’t think that should be its primary function).

As far as charging it back up, it’s not a speed champ here. 30 minutes on the wide with a 45 W charger will only get you 22% of battery. So, plan your charging sessions well.

And, since it’s a tablet, no — there’s no wireless charging. There are some 3rd party solutions, like Pitaka cases that have a USB C connector and proprietary charging pins on their backs, so you can slap the tablet on a magnetic stand and have it charge. But that’s all different brand solutions, and not Apple’s plan.

The iPad mini has two speakers on its top and bottom — when turned horizontally, they are stereo speakers left and right. Apple calls it “landscape stereo”. So yes, you can watch movies or YouTube videos with this. The screen is quite tiny, but if you need entertainment on the go, it’s an option. And yes, it works for gaming.

The speakers definitely sound above average. They are not as deep or detailed as on the iPad Air, of course, that has more room. But, without comparing them, we’d say the iPad mini’s speakers sound surprisingly good, no harshness, good detail in the mids, enough bass.

Should you buy it?

The iPad mini is a very niche device for a very specific type of user. It’s not an iPad that has been mini-fied to be cheaper — it’s a premium iPad that has been made smaller for those that desire such a tiny tablet.

In other words, if you are one of the people who would find use for it, you probably have your mind set on it. In fact, you probably own an iPad mini 6th gen. Is this one better and worth going for?

Well, it will definitely work great with Final Cut and Logic for iPad if that’s what you want to do on the small screen. We imagine that most people that use an iPad mini for some kind of productive work are the ones that sketch and write notes with the Apple Pencil on the go. They can also expect some extra value with the AI integrated into Apple Notes and the new Apple Pencil Pro (which you have to buy as well).