Apple announces a new iPad Mini with A17 Pro chip at $499

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Apple just announced its latest iteration of the iPad Mini in the most unceremonious way, through a press release, considering it’s the first upgrade to the company’s smallest tablet since 2021. 

The new iPad Mini is available for pre-order. It will cost $499 and go on sale next Wednesday, the 23rd. 

About the new iPad Mini with an A17 Pro chip

The new iPad Mini is mostly a spec bump. The only real design change is the new colors, which aren’t as eye-popping as the iPhone 16’s, but the new Purple and Blue colors look decent. 

The last-generation iPad Mini, however, received a significant overhaul with a new design, a USB-C port, and upgraded hardware. This is reasonable, as it was the first design upgrade since the very first iPad Mini in 2012. 

So, it isn’t really surprising that the new Mini looks like the last one. But the spec bump is real, and it’s meant to accommodate Apple Intelligence. 

The new iPad Mini runs a new A17 Pro chip, and according to the press release, it has a 30 percent faster CPU, 25 percent faster GPU, and a Neural Engine twice as fast as the previous model.

Apple’s new mini tablet can perform hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which would undoubtedly make demanding games look better.

The device also supports the new Apple Pencil Pro and features a faster Wi-Fi 6E chip and USB-C port. Basically, the new iPad Mini is the same as before, but it is a lot faster.  

New iPad Mini: Price and availability 

Apple updated the rest of the iPad lineup this year. The company added the powerful M4 silicon to the iPad Air, redesigned the iPad Pro, and dropped the base model price to $349. 

The iPad Mini was the last remaining piece of the puzzle, and now, it is available in the same avatar with bumped-up hardware at $499. It has 128GB of internal storage, double the previous generation’s storage for the same price.

Pre-orders are open from today, October 15, while deliveries and store availability start from next Wednesday, October 23. 

What do you think about this surprise iPad mini announcement? Did you expect more changes in hardware, or is this a sufficient enough update? Tell us your thoughts in the comments, down below, or head over to our Twitter or Facebook to message us.