iPad mini (A17 Pro): A little faster, a little 'smarter'

Update brings new chip brings support for Apple’s AI feature set...and not much else.

- BY ROMAN LOYOLA

Last fall, Apple announced (fave.co/3ZNmgB2) an upgrade to the iPad mini (fave.co/3QX8nfd). Remember the iPad mini? Can’t blame you if you don’t—after all, it seemed like Apple forgot about it, because it released the last one over three years ago. After waiting all this time, the upgrades Apple made to the iPad mini (A17 Pro)— Apple ditched the generational naming in favor of chip identification, like the other iPads—feel like they don’t amount to much, at least on the surface. What you will find is that the new iPad mini has been modernized with internal upgrades, which should keep it relevant for, say, another three years until the next refresh or redesign (fave.co/4gjOBpG). The iPad mini is still a great tablet, perhaps the best at its size and better than larger, non-Apple tablets. But if you own a 6th-generation iPad mini, you don't need to rush to upgrade it, except for one thing you'll be missing out on: Apple Intelligence.

PERFORMANCE BOOST FROM THE A17 PRO

The iPad mini's major upgrade is with its chip. The A15 Bionic that was in the previous iPad mini has been replaced by the A17 Pro, which was used in the discontinued iPhone 15 Pro (fave. co/3tRBIW1). It's not exactly the same chip, however. It still has six CPU cores (two performance cores and four efficiency cores), but it has five GPU cores instead of the six that were in the iPhone 15 Pro.

We used Geekbench 6 (