Apple finally announces a new iPad mini and not much is new

After three long years (and one long month) of waiting, Apple has finally unveiled the 7th-gen iPad mini. It did so today in a press release rather than holding a media event, and the reasons for this diffidence become apparent when you see how much, or rather how little, has changed.

The main upgrade is the processor, which has double-jumped from the A15 to the A17 Pro (though with a 5-core GPU instead of the 6-core GPU in the iPhone 15 Pro). Thanks to this hardware bump the new iPad mini supports Apple Intelligence—that presumably also means the RAM will increase from 4GB to 8GB, although Apple doesn’t list the RAM specs for anything other than M-series processors. But still, it leaves the mini a long way behind the iPad Air which used to be its larger-screened equivalent and is now two generations into M-class Mac chips.

Beyond the processor upgrade, you have to look pretty hard to spot changes from the 2021 model:

It supports the newer Apple Pencil Pro (including its hover feature) and drops support for the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil.

It starts at 128GB of storage rather than 64GB.

Smart HDR 3 has been upgraded to Smart HDR 4.

Wi-Fi 6 improves to Wi-Fi 6E.

Bluetooth 5.0 is now Bluetooth 5.3.

It now comes with an eSIM only, and the nano-SIM slot has been removed.

It still comes in space gray, starlight, and purple, but pink has been replaced with blue. And all of the colors are less saturated and vibrant (because who likes vibrant colors, right?)

So to sum up, the physical design is unchanged, which means we still get a portrait-orientation FaceTime camera instead of the far superior landscape design. The cameras are all the same, although Smart HDR 4 may mean they perform slightly better in challenging lighting conditions. It hasn’t joined the premium iPads in getting access to the M chip family, or the option to pay for 1TB of storage. It doesn’t get a Smart Connector or its own Magic Keyboard. Apple even used the same wallpaper in marketing images on its website.

A minor update, then. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait three years for the next model. The new iPad mini is available to pre-order now and will ship on Wednesday, October 23. It starts at $499/£499.