iPad Mini Is Back, and Apple Says It’s Primed for AI

You already person your elephantine iPhones with the iPhone 16 Pro Max covered, but what if you wanted each that juicy AI goodness with a small much screen? Apple debuted its new iPad mini connected Tuesday, showing a 7th variation tiny tablet with the Cupertino, California company’s latest mobile spot portion promising it volition beryllium ready for AI.

The new $500 Mini is packing the A17 Pro, the aforesaid spot recovered successful the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. It’s been 3 years since we had the last iPad mini, but the main changes to the plan are mostly internal. It inactive houses an 8.3-inch “Liquid Retina” LCD, but Apple said the 7th-gen mentation should beryllium overmuch much susceptible with CPU and GPU. The bigger NPU should mean amended inheritance AI processing than the 6th-gen’s hexacore CPU.

No, it won’t beryllium arsenic almighty arsenic the caller iPad Air, particularly not the M4 iPad Pro, but the caller iPad volition beryllium a spot much susceptible with enactment for Apple Pencil Pro, thing that can’t beryllium said for astir pre-2024 iPads. It present supports WiFi 6E compared to WiFi 6 of the erstwhile procreation (not adjacent the latest iPad Pro supports WiFi 7).

This latest merchandise is expected to people different instrumentality susceptible of supporting Apple Intelligence. It’s moving connected iPadOS 18 retired of the box. The tiny iPad should inactive get immoderate of the champion caller OS features, like Math Notes and transcripts successful Audio Recording. It’s inactive packing a 12MP wide camera connected the rear, and it comes successful 4 colors, ranging from the accustomed grey and starlight to a teal-hued bluish and a airy purple.

As for the long-promised AI features, the iPad mini volition enactment Writing Tools for summarizing and rewriting text, positive a fewer Magic Eraser-like pixel replacement tools called Clean Up for removing unwanted elements from photos. Siri volition person a caller look erstwhile activating the assistant, positive it should person a fewer AI capabilities that volition assistance it recognize questions adjacent erstwhile you stumble implicit your words.

The existent Siri upgrade, which volition fto it run connected your telephone betwixt apps, is expected to beryllium available sometime successful 2025. According to Apple, AI representation procreation and ChatGPT integration volition instrumentality a fewer much months.

The iPad Mini starts astatine $500 for 128 GB, which is important since it’s 2 times the starting retention of the erstwhile Mini astatine the aforesaid price. Otherwise, you tin get the 256 GB mentation for $600 oregon opt for 512 GB for $800. Cellular connectivity done eSIM will propulsion that terms adjacent higher. The instrumentality is up for preorder present and is acceptable to vessel on Oct. 23.