iPad mini A17 Pro

Officially called the iPad mini (A17 Pro) and widely known as the iPad mini 7, this update reused the 2021 design exactly: the same 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display at 500 nits, the same slim bezels, and four colours of blue, purple, starlight and space grey, with blue taking the place of the 2021 model's pink.

The A17 Pro chip made a difference. Apple quoted a 30 percent jump in processor speed and 25 percent in graphics over the previous mini, but the number that mattered most was the Neural Engine running twice as fast, because that is what allows this mini to run Apple Intelligence when the model before it could not.

The chip also brought hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which calculates realistic light and reflections four times faster than doing the same work in software, a feature that had until then belonged to Apple's larger and pricier devices.

Storage doubled at the entry point, from 64GB to 128GB, with 256GB and 512GB above it, and the price stayed at $499. Connectivity improved as well, with faster Wi-Fi 6E, quicker USB-C transfers and 5G on cellular models.

Support for the Apple Pencil Pro arrived, bringing the squeeze gesture and barrel roll to the smallest iPad for the first time. Reviewers also noted that the jelly scrolling effect that had bothered owners of the 2021 model, where text appeared to lean as the screen refreshed unevenly, was no longer a problem.

Reviews were mixed, largely because the changes were all internal. Announced on 15 October 2024 with no event, just a press release and pre-orders the same day, it reached customers on 23 October 2024.